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Gailbraithe wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Now would be the time to stop with this line of talk and actually try to have some fun with the subject. The thread is about dick washing, not whether or not colonialism is the root cause of female genital mutilation.

Sure, and I'm not interested in getting into another argument about racism. But when someone says something like "African monkey culture," I feel obligated to say something. I don't want to tacitly approve of that kind of hateful rhetoric and thereby give someone (perhaps of African origin) the impression that Dakka Dakka is the kind of place where people think Africans are monkeys. This is not, last time I checked, stormfront.org.

Nope, it's not. It's the OT section of a Wargaming site, in a thread about Taxpayer Funded Genital Washing.

Bring your salt-shaker, folks.

Monster Rain wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Now would be the time to stop with this line of talk and actually try to have some fun with the subject. The thread is about dick washing, not whether or not colonialism is the root cause of female genital mutilation.

Sure, and I'm not interested in getting into another argument about racism. But when someone says something like "African monkey culture," I feel obligated to say something. I don't want to tacitly approve of that kind of hateful rhetoric and thereby give someone (perhaps of African origin) the impression that Dakka Dakka is the kind of place where people think Africans are monkeys. This is not, last time I checked, stormfront.org.

Nope, it's not. It's the OT section of a Wargaming site, in a thread about Taxpayer Funded Genital Washing.

Bring your salt-shaker, folks.

I find the terms shalt shaker and the topicm when in the same statement to be slightly disturbing.

Dish-washer safe.

Gailbraithe wrote:
As to your point, African culture is diverse, multifaceted, and not easily dismissed. There are many problems in Africa, but often these problems do not originate in African culture, they originate in the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe.

I disagree. I think virtually all of Africa's problems originate from the simple fact that society there is still at a tribal level, and pressing Western notions of national identity on them has utterly failed. They still think in 'my tribe vs your tribe' terms, and that's what cripples them. It's like Afghanistan without the religion.

And I should know, I lived there long enough.

Ketara wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:
As to your point, African culture is diverse, multifaceted, and not easily dismissed. There are many problems in Africa, but often these problems do not originate in African culture, they originate in the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe.

I disagree. I think virtually all of Africa's problems originate from the simple fact that society there is still at a tribal level, and pressing Western notions of national identity on them has utterly failed.

That's not really disagreeing though. Because "pressing Western notions of national identity on them" is directly related to "the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe."

That's the point. The problem isn't the tribal cultures. The tribal cultures were working just fine for tens of thousands of years, resulting in generations upon generations of generally happy humans living in relative harmony with the world around them. Which is pretty much the best you can hope for. What screwed Africa up was Europeans showing up and going "You're doing it wrong," when in fact they were mostly doing it differently. And in the process of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and getting totally tripped up by human greed and rapaciousness (and consequently losing sight of any original good intent), Europeans engaged in a lot of "pressing Western notions" on Africa.

And the result is modern, pretty much broken, Africa. Good job, Western Europe! Fixed it good!

Gailbraithe wrote:
That's the point. The problem isn't the tribal cultures. The tribal cultures were working just fine for tens of thousands of years, resulting in generations upon generations of generally happy humans living in relative harmony with the world around them.

What? I'm sorry, what? The Africans spent all their point up until that time butchering one another, raiding each other for cattle, raping each others women, killing each others children, and just generally, acting as primitive as it gets.

Which is pretty much the best you can hope for. What screwed Africa up was Europeans showing up and going "You're doing it wrong," when in fact they were mostly doing it differently.

No, we showed up, and conscripted them into Empire building. It wasn't fair, and apartheid was nasty. That said, the Africans were at the caveman level of technology. They had no real written system of language, and they hadn't yet invented the wheel. The greatest new thing was a cow hide shield. If we'd left them there, and never landed in Africa, they'd be in the same position they are today. That is, one of pure tribalism. The only difference is that they have guns now. Culturally, they've advanced not a jot.

And in the process of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and getting totally tripped up by human greed and rapaciousness (and consequently losing sight of any original good intent), Europeans engaged in a lot of "pressing Western notions" on Africa.

Yup(if you take being primitive as being a perfectly fine state of affairs). Although to be honest, between selling each other to slavers in exchange for weapons, massacring each other, and all the rest, they had a pretty good grasp on the baser things long before we landed. Unfortunately, the slightly more enlightened ideals of the West were passed over in favour of the ones they were more familiar with once the colonial era ended.

And the result is modern, pretty much broken, Africa. Good job, Western Europe! Fixed it good!

Yup! They're in exactly the same state they were in when we first got there, except they have guns now! It's almost as if we didn't land at all!

Well at least we all learned how to walk like an Egyptian. That has to count for something.

This thread went sideways like instantly didn't it.

Almost as if it were done on prepuce.

Frazzled wrote:
This thread went sideways like instantly didn't it.

Don't blame me. I filled my post with dick-jokes and all I got was a warning from the moderators.

Nurglitch wrote:Don't blame me. I filled my post with dick-jokes and all I got was a warning from the moderators.

It was that last line. The first part was keeping the thread in line nicely.

Ketara wrote:What? I'm sorry, what? The Africans spent all their point up until that time butchering one another, raiding each other for cattle, raping each others women, killing each others children, and just generally, acting as human as it gets.

Fixed that for you, unless of course you want to claim that the advanced cultures of Europe would never engage in genocide, war, espionage, theft, perversion, rape, etc.

No, we showed up, and conscripted them into Empire building. It wasn't fair, and apartheid was nasty. That said, the Africans were at the caveman level of technology. They had no real written system of language, and they hadn't yet invented the wheel. The greatest new thing was a cow hide shield. If we'd left them there, and never landed in Africa, they'd be in the same position they are today. That is, one of pure tribalism. The only difference is that...

And that is about the point I stopped giving a rat's ass about what you have to say. Boring racist is boring.

Gailbraithe wrote:

Ketara wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:
As to your point, African culture is diverse, multifaceted, and not easily dismissed. There are many problems in Africa, but often these problems do not originate in African culture, they originate in the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe.

I disagree. I think virtually all of Africa's problems originate from the simple fact that society there is still at a tribal level, and pressing Western notions of national identity on them has utterly failed.

That's not really disagreeing though. Because "pressing Western notions of national identity on them" is directly related to "the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe."

That's the point. The problem isn't the tribal cultures. The tribal cultures were working just fine for tens of thousands of years, resulting in generations upon generations of generally happy humans living in relative harmony with the world around them. Which is pretty much the best you can hope for. What screwed Africa up was Europeans showing up and going "You're doing it wrong," when in fact they were mostly doing it differently. And in the process of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and getting totally tripped up by human greed and rapaciousness (and consequently losing sight of any original good intent), Europeans engaged in a lot of "pressing Western notions" on Africa.

And the result is modern, pretty much broken, Africa. Good job, Western Europe! Fixed it good!

If Europeans are the problem, why is Europe such a nice place when compared to Africa generally speaking?

Frazzled wrote:This thread went sideways like instantly didn't it.

And it had such potential too.

I was even nice to Gailbraithe.

Gailbraithe wrote:And that is about the point I stopped giving a rat's ass about what you have to say. Boring racist is boring.

That was reasonable.

Monster Rain wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:

Ketara wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:
As to your point, African culture is diverse, multifaceted, and not easily dismissed. There are many problems in Africa, but often these problems do not originate in African culture, they originate in the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe.

I disagree. I think virtually all of Africa's problems originate from the simple fact that society there is still at a tribal level, and pressing Western notions of national identity on them has utterly failed.

That's not really disagreeing though. Because "pressing Western notions of national identity on them" is directly related to "the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe."

That's the point. The problem isn't the tribal cultures. The tribal cultures were working just fine for tens of thousands of years, resulting in generations upon generations of generally happy humans living in relative harmony with the world around them. Which is pretty much the best you can hope for. What screwed Africa up was Europeans showing up and going "You're doing it wrong," when in fact they were mostly doing it differently. And in the process of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and getting totally tripped up by human greed and rapaciousness (and consequently losing sight of any original good intent), Europeans engaged in a lot of "pressing Western notions" on Africa.

And the result is modern, pretty much broken, Africa. Good job, Western Europe! Fixed it good!

If Europeans are the problem, why is Europe such a nice place when compared to Africa generally speaking?

Frazzled wrote:This thread went sideways like instantly didn't it.

And it had such potential too.

I was even nice to Gailbraithe.

In Africa's defense, the women shave their armpits. Yes I am looking at you Europe!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Monster Rain wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:

Ketara wrote:

Gailbraithe wrote:
As to your point, African culture is diverse, multifaceted, and not easily dismissed. There are many problems in Africa, but often these problems do not originate in African culture, they originate in the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe.

I disagree. I think virtually all of Africa's problems originate from the simple fact that society there is still at a tribal level, and pressing Western notions of national identity on them has utterly failed.

That's not really disagreeing though. Because "pressing Western notions of national identity on them" is directly related to "the history of colonialism and oppression of Africa by Europe."

That's the point. The problem isn't the tribal cultures. The tribal cultures were working just fine for tens of thousands of years, resulting in generations upon generations of generally happy humans living in relative harmony with the world around them. Which is pretty much the best you can hope for. What screwed Africa up was Europeans showing up and going "You're doing it wrong," when in fact they were mostly doing it differently. And in the process of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and getting totally tripped up by human greed and rapaciousness (and consequently losing sight of any original good intent), Europeans engaged in a lot of "pressing Western notions" on Africa.

And the result is modern, pretty much broken, Africa. Good job, Western Europe! Fixed it good!

If Europeans are the problem, why is Europe such a nice place when compared to Africa generally speaking?

Frazzled wrote:This thread went sideways like instantly didn't it.

And it had such potential too.

I was even nice to Gailbraithe.

Gailbraithe wrote:And that is about the point I stopped giving a rat's ass about what you have to say. Boring racist is boring.

That was reasonable.

Yea I'm shutting this thread down now. I'd say the potential excitement at the beginning was premature.