dolorosa_12 | (Reply)

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Yes, I agree very strongly with all this. (I think we had a long conversation about precisely this on another post; the Corbynite left and its equivalents in other western countries is particularly bad about this, while framing any criticism of their hypocrisy as supposedly coming from people who oppose social democratic economic policies, or deflecting with whataboutery.) To me, anyone who is incapable of recognising imperialism or atrocities unless they are the work of the United States or western Europe, or who sets themselves up as an expert on colonised people's experiences while ignoring their expressed wishes should not be treated as a moral authority on any issue, and it's made me look with a more critical eye at pretty much everything they have to say when it comes to foreign policy.

I do think the war in Ukraine has also significantly complicated my feelings on Western society and democracy: again, I'm so used to seeing those institutions criticised (and often rightly so), that it was only with the invasion that I really started to see my privilege in living in a free society (and being able to criticise that society!); I think a lot of people who have never lived in actual autocracies struggle to grasp how much worse things could be (which isn't saying, of course, that there isn't a lot that can be done to improve democracies).

Yes, this has very much been my trajectory as well. This doesn't mean that we (in the UK for example) should just sit back and assume that because we have it better than those living in autocracies, we don't need to do anything to maintain this state of affairs or improve things locally, but it does mean to have a sense of proportion, and try to pick your battles, rather than reacting to every single thing. And to be really clear that citizenship of a democracy doesn't just mean coming out of your box every three-five years to make a mark on an election ballot and then go back to sleep again: politics is something you do every day, and being an active citizen is like the rent you pay for the unearned good fortune of living in a democracy.