For me the most annoying examples of historical inaccuracy + Horseshoe Theory are when people claim to be against racism but they’re so Western-centric they think imperialism and racism was a European-only enterprise. And so, they go so far around the bend that they romanticise and fetishise powerful and expansionist non-European empires that were no less imperialist than the European empires they rail against.
i’m sure you guys know because i talk about it a lot on my blog- but some of the biggest offenders here include the mind-boggling manner in which the Empire of Japan is championed as an “anti-colonial” force (even though it was an undisguised colonial power that caused a destructive conflict that left 25 million people dead in Asia). or the Ottoman Empire- when people disregard its genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks. we cannot claim to be anti-imperialist if we’re gonna be OK with it or assume it is somehow less serious because the imperialists are not white by Western standards. nor can we claim to be against Western imperialism because perpetuating Western-centric history is itself a manifestation of Western cultural imperialism.
Ignoring the capacity of non-European empires for war, racism and even genocide just to present a photoshopped version of them as somehow being 100% utopian, enlightened examples of “anti-colonial” state-building amounts to actively erasing non-European history. This is not seeing non-Europeans as fully actualised and complex human beings who, like all human cultures, could produce works of art, science and philosophy while also engaging in warfare and violence. The idea that the world was peaceful before the rise of European imperialism suggests the outlines of the world were always the same, that the modern concept of Europe was eternal (see the Roman Empire, which plainly saw Northern Europeans as uncivilised barbarians). It suggests Europeans were perpetually at the nexus of global power. When they were not.
my favorite post so far
Why cant we just ignore it, because it all happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago?
Because knowing what really happened is important.
Its important to know what happened, okay, I agree, but why do we have to attack any culture or country in the first place because of what they did way in the past? Thats more what I meant.
-the two examples i listed happened in the 20th century
-denial of the Armenian Genocide & Japanese war crimes is still an issue today. same with so many other atrocities? like people trying to whitewash slavery, saying the American Civil War wasn’t about slavery… it affects modern racial, religious, political dynamics today and is key to understanding why the world is the way it is? the past isn’t even past, for the most part. the past exists in continuum with the present it helped to create. how do we look at what society we want to create if we have no reference points for what created the various inequities present today or points of comparison as to what direction we want to go in? the universal declaration of human rights, the genocide convention were written by those who witnessed the atrocities inflicted during WW2
-let’s get out of this mentality that just reciting unsavoury but true historical facts is unduly ‘attacking’ a culture or country honestly? the entire crux of my post is: if you want to do non-European history justice, let’s not romanticise or engage in erasure. this applies every bit to all history tbh. like i am comfortable with and celebrate my culture but i will not be making excuses for the ugly parts of chinese history cos they are every bit our history and part of who we are as all the “good” things like inventing paper or spreading tea drinking
This here is exactly why I am so cautious of people who say “I want to remove European [or, sometimes, they only say “English”] colonialism to respect Indigenous peoples.” It’s not that simple. Genocide is a global issue and empires around the world have done atrocious things to various Indigenous populations. Native American genocide might be one of the particularly well documented and top of mind situations, but it’s not the only.
Know your history, and know your global history. If you genuinely want to do right by marginalized groups, understand everyone involved in oppression and imperialism. Not just the English, and/or the French, and/or the Spanish. But the examples mentioned in the post here and many, many, many more.
~ Mod Lesya
