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Comment by blackhawkC17 | Hacker News Reader

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I would love to see you argue this to a Hawaiian in person. I suspect a fair few of them very much disagree that their nation being overthrown at the behest of American capitalists who then took most of their land via coercion and deception was in their best interests.

I feel you should read up on the history of Hawaii some more my friend.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1887_Constitution_of_the_Hawai...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_1893_Constitution_of_...

Spoilers - when a constitution written by migrants to your country is called the "Bayonet Constitution" because it was passed under threat of violence, that's colonialism.

To which you might add

In Hawaiʻi, Plantation Tourism Tastes Like Pineapple

https://edgeeffects.net/dole-pineapple-plantation/

    Gradually, the social and cultural imperialism that the missionaries brought to the islands developed into the exploitative commercial power that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

    One such businessman was Sanford B. Dole, grandson of Daniel Dole and cousin of James Dole, who, despite President Grover Cleveland’s declaration of the overthrow an act of war and recommendation that the provisional government step down, was declared the President of the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894.

etc.

The British could have said exactly the same of any of their colonies. Who knows, Hawaii could have been as prosperous as Fiji or even more given the chance.

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