Colonialism

In a cast in Skypeland about the US, some people from the UK said the US is a colonial power engaged in colonialism. This sort of charge is always astounding, considering the incredibly ugly history of UK colonialism lasting several centuries. However, it is something that people from the UK love to accuse the US of.

We asked them what was colonialism. Someone said it was taking a foreign country's land. The American host challenged the people from the UK to give an example where the US had taken foreign land and kept it. They were unable to, but continued to make obnoxious comments. (Guam, Puerto Rico and Liberia would at least be places that could be discussed, although it is not clear they are colonies particularly.)

The host read a dictionary definition of colonialism. Someone from Ireland kept yelling that this definition was bollocks and disagreeing. We asked him what his definition was, and he would not give one. We asked him to read his dictionary definition. He said he would, but refused to do so, only trying to pick a fight. I said I would be glad to discuss dictionary definitions with them. I pulled up some on the internet, and was starting to read one from the American Heritage Dictionary. The UK people were livid at this, and said any American dictionary was hopelessly biased. I went to the second definition, which was identical to the one the host had given, and from the Oxford Dictionary as I pointed out. They still made obnoxious comments and disputed it, particulary the man from Ireland who continued to refuse to give his own definition. I said I had a list of 50 dictionary definitions and I would be pleased to go through each one with them and discuss them, but they were not anxious to do this. Instead they wanted to make rude comments and catcalls, particularly the man from Ireland. Finally the host realized that this character had no interest in doing more than fighting, so he turned off his microphone...