Also, fuck France; not for being cowardly or anything else the British roast them for, but for being ruthless imperialists
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2026
332 points (98.5% liked)
196
7026 readers
2649 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why do you feel like they are ruthless imperialists?
Vietnam and Saharan Africa would like a word
As far as I know french troops aren't active there at the time. At least not in an unwelcome fashion.
French troops were just recently thrown out of a lot of Saharan Africa, I’d say within the past 5 years. That has left a power vacuum filled by a mix of Islamic terrorism and Wagner mercenaries from Russia. In my opinion, the French were thrown out at least in part due to their refusal to come to full terms with their colonial past.
That said, I live in a glass house. I live in the US, the epicenter of attempting to ignore your colonial past. Shit, it’s more like a colonial present.
Yes, for they were asked to buy the Russian backed governments who got to power by coups.
Not particularly imperialist to just get up and leave.
Fighting against extreme Dschihadist forces could also be considered good/fine.
It's imperialist to be there in the first place. The Russians were so successful because everybody hated the French that much
Being asked to provide security isn't necessarily imperialist in my mind, e.g. Blue Helmets come to mind. Doesn't mean you should give anyone a free pass, but Africa is particularly vulnerable to exploitation through its natural wealth and colonial past hence present poverty.
The whole "Scramble for Africa" bit
Not particularly current. Or do you mean the current scramble for Africa?
something that ended in the 70s is pretty current imo
And why are we even consenting to this user inserting an arbitrary recency rule? The nation states of today stand atop the atrocities of their past. I don't give my country a pass on indigenous genocide or chattel slavery just because they happened before I was born. Quite the opposite, they're fundamental to the nation state that encloses me today. Nationalism is fucking gross, individuals are distinct from the states that lay claim to them and shouldn't be confusing their own honor for that of the state, a trap I feel this user has fallen into.
That's halve a century ago. No person in any role back then still exists in a similar role. They are retirees at best.
Do you think geopolitical situations get resolved in half a decade or something?
Do you believe in the sins of the father? Do you believe in changing your behavior and being treated by your current self? Do borders of the past define your lawful territory and justify wars and claims?
It's not a blame game. The wealth stolen by the father remains with his children unless they do something to redistribute it. The British, French, and Americans could all massively improve the lives of those they formerly oppressed, including in ways that help them. Increase the opportunities and economic prosperity by limiting capitalist exploitation and unfair resource extraction. Eliminate diseases with well funded vaccination campaigns, reducing the risk of those diseases making it back to your country. Return stolen cultural artifacts, even if it destroys your own museums. Give straight up reparations for all the trouble caused, with no expectation of any repayment. When that happens, then you can rest easy.
Due to public perception the west is largely hands off in terms of exploitation of africa and made space for china and the near elastic as well as the locals to do their thing. Arguably some things have changed for the worse.
Investing in vaccination campaigns isn't as easy as paying for the vaccines but suffers from local corruption. Meddling in the statehood of african nations is also colonial. Returning arts and relics has died down after the Benin bronzes and other treasures have been returned to be stolen by corrupt elites. Those cultural artifacts are lost for good now. This is one of the reasons why experts have gotten silent on the matter. Reparations are controversial when there are no governments that would act for the good of their people. And enforcing a benevolent government of the people is colonialism.
There is a lot that could be done but nothing would be uncontroversial. Even donating clothes and food stuffs has significant adverse effects such as destroying local supply chains. Doing effective development help is difficult in the best of times when people are in favor of colonial policies.
And a lot of African/colonial countries are suffering from domestic corruption and exploitation. Getting rid of that with force is bad. Without it is harder. Dealing with them is propping them up. They are committing atrocities on the regular and care about cementing their rule and lining their pockets.
Of course the shit that works would be controversial; it costs something. The neoliberal world order would never do the most important thing to help developing nations: hold back their own capitalists. They aren't even willing to redistribute wealth or regulate business within their own country, let alone to people abroad.
It'll never happen so long as oligarchs call all the shots, but that doesn't mean it's impossible and that doesn't mean it's a solution we shouldn't even consider. Something being difficult doesn't make it less right. Afterall, easy measures were never gonna cut it.
Western capitalists are holding back in Africa for fear of costly outrage though. And not just capitalists are at fault here, but every self interested party. Neoliberalism isnt everywhere, at least not in the same sense. Compare Denmark, swiss, Norway and USA. They clearly use different systems of economics and governance.
They probably have a few Ruth’s.
Then they wouldn't be ruthless. Also I consider this a somewhat serious accusation. I only recall them being called that over the Mali/Sahel situation which is... Well the africa Corps calling them a neocolonialist bunch while extracting the wealth of Mali and committing enough massacres that al quaeda is hailed as their savors and are notable for upholding the rule of law better does not bode well. But that's probably not the situation Jessica is thinking about and you cannot start with that accusatory tone. Also the context was lost upon me as well when I first heard about that, so it would be a fair assumption, too.
When they wanted Algeria to be part of France mainland and wouldn't take no for an answer. Their involvement in the Rawanda genocide. Their schenanigance in western Africa. Etc.
Are they still doing that or is that a nation that has died and is succeeded by macron's french of today?
France continues to exploit its African colonies (in all but name)
They look at historical data. The terminal downfall of francafrique is about where they stopped. I haven't read it yet though and cannot right now. Sure looks interesting.
Edits:They sure do look reputable, but then stop ten years in the past when major political changes took place and making statements about the presence is weird.
They also seem to not have been published in a journal which does make me Leary
Looking at the author's Wikipedia section (hickel) raises further doubt in the rigor of the study. It seemingly not addressing the disconnect in data and not being published does lead me to conclude that this is a bogus paper, though it is executed nicely and seems to make an effort it does over interpret data. The publishing company does not seem to make enough of an effort to disclose whom they are publishing.
I don't think the sixth French republic has arrived as of yet.
The things you are listing are things of the past and french interests and ambitions have shifted a lot in the last twenty years. Change is coming constantly and we must look forward and judge them based on who they are today, what evils they are committing today, whom they leave unpunished and what are they reasonably doing to right the wrongs of the past.
Oh man, that's a great excuse! I'll use it when the police eventually catch up to me. I'm a different person now, no longer the one who stole from the orphanage and burned it and everyone in it to the ground!
Listen, if you don't own up to your past mistakes and analyse why you did them I promise you you will make those mistakes again. It's less about punishing the mistakes and more about learning from them and becoming better by taking the right lessons from them. And the first step is to accept that you were the one to make them.
Be like Germany and Italy, not Japan.
Difference is that you are very much a different person and the person that did the crime is either out of power, imprisoned or dead. Companies and countries aren't people.
Japan it is!
That's the great thing about consequences. They will happen regardless of what arguments you throw at it. Only two choices, one could be wise about it, or you could be foolish.