I don’t usually use ‘evil’ to describe things but I don’t know any other word to describe settler states and their tendency to massacre and torment people they stole their land from and gleefully brag about all the horrific atrocities they’ve committed/want to commit. Never before have I seen a group people that take more joy in the suffering of others than the kinds of people that want to wipe out entire societies and claim their land for their own.
This is the kinda shit where if you write villains that act exactly like this people will slam you for bad or unrealistic writing, but no, it would actually be perfectly in line with reality all things considered.
EDIT: ps I know me not good at writing things. Wish I can write my thoughts on this better, but I can’t really get it into right now
I almost feel like settler colonialism is just an extension of a deeper evil, which of course begs the question of where that evil comes from, but I think settler colonialism is just “we want to take your stuff and live here, and will justify that violence to ourselves in whatever way we can”. And then those justifications have to get more and more dehumanizing the more land you take and the more indigenous people you slaughter, at which point the base steers the superstructure, and then the d i a l e c t i c shifts, and the superstructure starts steering the base. And then there’s the whole issue of the massive discrepancy in military firepower, then with muskets but now with bombers, which means you never have to really be confronted with a proportional response and even start considering peace, you can just keep gunning.
I want to build a house here
that means these people who live here have to be removed
guess I have to use force
but that’s okay because I will make better use of the land than them
plus they are probably subhuman anyway
no wait they’re actually definitely subhuman
otherwise they wouldn’t have attacked us peaceful pilgrims
maybe we got a little too angry and perhaps overreacted when torching their village
but in retrospect they would have killed us if we hadn’t struck decisively first
I bet the neighboring village will have an emotional reaction upon hearing this
barbaric savages that they are
so it’s for the best that we strike swiftly against them too
The one thing I’ll add is that it’s often not “I want to build a house here” but “I’ve been exiled here for (reason) by the colonial power and now I have to build a house here. The power has done this by design.”