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Comment by j_maffe | Hacker News Reader

The description of people migrating from developing countries (that to a large extent are still reeling from the West's previous colonization efforts and current neo-colonialist control) as "colonizing" the foreign country angers me on so many levels I can't even explain it in words.

I hope one day humanity will surpass its empathic barrier of societies. It might be too much to hope for, I suppose.

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That’s exactly what is happening though, regardless of how much it is angering you. Millions of people moving to another country is colonization no matter how you want to spin it.

Not exactly, people moving without trying to take control is just settling, when they try to overtake control instead of assimilating into the culture they immigrated to then I think it can be considered some form of colonisation.

In The Prince, Machiavelli describes the use of settlers to exert indirect control over an area. One benefit of this approach is that the values and attitudes of the settlers will spread to or exert influence over the locals. At the very least, it destabilizes the existing order.

If a group doesn't assimilate, it looks like a ghetto or a "colony". Settling, on the other hand, is inherently about control.

How is settling different from colonization? Seems to be synonyms to me

Settling doesn't imply control, it's just people moving to a place and settling on it; colonisation is the act of taking control of an area, which settling can help to achieve.

They are not synonyms.

What could they possibly be reeling from? By your logic, that wasn't "colonization", but rather White Europeans enriching Africa with our vibrant culture and great food.

So what if the indigenous people are displaced, demoralised, dispossessed, marginalised, denigrated, etc? Nobody seems to give a damn for what indigenous Europeans are currently experiencing.

Please don't ask us to be empathetic to your dislike of a particular term considering the very real danger and harm being imposed on our entire race.

What adjective would you use to refer as the colony of Moroccans that are next to my neighborhood that sit on public spaces threatening everyone (thus preventing people form using them), being the primary source of crime in the area and displaying their hate towards Spain over and over?

Is it because they were colonized by the french and we had a war many decades ago I have to take a punch in the stomach, or how does this work exactly?

as long as inequality exists most people will dehumanize other humans for attempting to achieve equality. And then these same people will cry hoarse about Jeff bezos and Zuckerberg and bill gates etc.

"When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

There is still a silver lining though. EU (and specifically Germany) ruined any optimistic future of theirs by severing energy with Russia and allowing US to bomb the nordstream pipeline.

The effects of de-industrialization due to higher energy costs along with reduced usage of Euro in international usage is not going to paint a pretty picture for EU in the long term future.

This allows third world countries to equalize quickly and hopefully in a generation from now we have less dehumanizing language for people trying to seek a better life for their families.

A discussion of your feelings does not belong on HN.

You're right. As much as I'd like to give a well-thought-out argument to the horribleness of this kind of thinking, I think my time will be more useful for people doing other more productive things than convincing bigots of the meaning of caring for others.

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