‘Charismatic villainy’ shapes political opinions.
People throw Hitler/Stalin/Mao accusations around because each was a single, ideologically-intentful human face attached to a lot of death.
Colonialism by contrast was ideologically diffuse with no single face to it.
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There was a lot of death in primitive cultures before colonialism. In many cases, colonisation restrained it. Despite its grievous flaws and abuses, it brought many benefits and is not the villain many want it to be. bit.ly/20yAbob
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Availability bias? So much easier to remember, say, "The Great Famine" in Ireland in the c19th, compared to the (whatever it's called) famine in the c18th when c.40% of the population died. Mediatisation, branding etc. matter!





