44% of British people are 'proud' of Britain's history of colonialism

"This is quite a good example as it is showing pride in stopping something it had a major part in sustaining for a long time."

Indeed but being the first to say no in a heavily profitable industry which was seen as fine by all other major powers at the time by an Empire built for making money is still pretty morally impressive for the time.

"Achieved in the main part by the USSR, a brutal regime comparable with the Nazis. An impressive result all the same"

Despite the kickback and popular narrative of the USSR doing the heavy work it's not entirely true, given the British Empire fought all three axis powers relatively alone (Except for China with Japan) for a year and a half in and of itself can be said for a key reason the United States or the USSR had any chance to win.

"My point is history is complicated, and i think we agree a lot on these points even if we're expressing them differently. There is little point making judgements on historical actions by great empires and attributing them to todays population who had no action in it. Blame, shame and pride seem very misplaced because they are cherry picking certain actions while ignoring the big picture and context, now I'm aware that I did just that in my first post but that was to redress what the other poster stated. The problem with Pride, blame and shame is that they do have current implications when dealing with the legacies of empire, usually for the worse"

I agree the big picture should not be forgotten, but when people say they are proud of the British Empire it's common sense to know they aren't proud of the bad parts of it but the good and they may not be thinking of the big picture. Most Brits would think of the Industrial Revolution or the defeat of Nazism not the oppression of the Irish and the Bengal famine. Perhaps they should step back and analyse the situation but in all honesty how many can you say you know who do that for every question they are asked. Hell they may not even know much about the British Empire or the bad stuff or good.

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