• RiverRock@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    6 days ago

    Imperialism: The practice of states to expand their influence beyond their sovereign borders.

    So…WW2. The invasion of Normandy by the allied powers. Imperialism?

    • Prunebutt@slrpnk.netBanned from community
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      6 days ago

      They sure as shit weren’t there to free the concentration camps.

        • Prunebutt@slrpnk.netBanned from community
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          6 days ago

          They were done for imperialist reasons, yes.

          What’s your point? I didn’t make a moralist statement about imperialism.

            • Prunebutt@slrpnk.netBanned from community
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              6 days ago

              Not a historian, but from the top of my head: driving back Germany from having too much power in Europe, assisting the British allies and/or preventing the soviets from conquering too much of Germany and turning it “socialist”.

              Do you think the US entered a war, because Hitler was a bad guy? O.o

              • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                edit-2
                6 days ago

                Lol definitely not, Hitler was one of the western allies’ best customers of raw materials. In fact, US bomber pilots were specifically instructed not to hit certain factories in Germany that had business ties with US capitalists. Conscientiousness is not something I would ever expect from the people who would go on to do the Korean genocide ten years later.

                But what I’m getting from this definition is that any military action across a national border for any reason other than, i guess, pure moral altruistim, is imperialism. Is that the conclusion you mean to build to?

                • Prunebutt@slrpnk.netBanned from community
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  7
                  ·
                  6 days ago

                  States don’t do altruism in a world of states that compete against each other.

                  • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    9
                    ·
                    6 days ago

                    Yeah I agree. So does that make all military conflict that crosses a national border imperialism or does it not?

                  • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    6
                    ·
                    6 days ago

                    Just straight up admitting you’ve defined imperialism so broadly as to be meaningless