No Matter How Much They Say It’s Not Settler Colonialism, It’s Settler Colonialism

The settler colonial powers’ publication of choice, The Atlantic, recently published an article called “The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False”. Fortunately, they have done me the favor of placing the article behind a paywall so I don’t feel obliged to read it. It is no doubt similar to the article recently published behind the New York Times paywall entitled “Who’s a ‘Colonizer’? How an Old Word Became a New Weapon”.

In case you don’t get it, the articles are intended to convey to readers that bringing up the west’s colonialist history is a dangerous idea. To quote The Atlantic article, “I always wondered about the leftist intellectual…and those aristocratic sympathizers and peace activists who excused Hitler. Today’s Hamas apologists and atrocity-deniers, with their robotic denunciations of ‘settler-colonialism,’ belong to the same tradition but worse…”

You see, bringing up the fact that Westerners have colonized most of the planet and exploited the labor, land, and wealth of every continent is worse than excusing Hitler. Worse. Never mind the fact that Hitler was indeed inspired by the atrocities and ruthlessness of the settler colonialism of the United States. Never mind the fact that what is going on in Gaza right now is shockingly similar to the atrocities of the Third Reich. Mentioning and disparaging a model that inspired Hitler is worse than defending Hitler.