If you Live in Freedom, Thank the British Empire

[Forty Two]

What parts do you agree with or disagree with?

At the outset, I think this guy is really stretching it to suggest that World War 1 was fought in defense of freedom. That was a war among colonial empires, none of which were fighting for "freedom." World War 2 was incidentally in defense of freedom, but it was more so a defensive war against a fascist Germany, Japan and Italy bent on world domination.

[laklak]

Nothin' more free than a press gang.

[pErvinalia]

Scot Dutchy isn't going to be happy about this..

[Brian Peacock]

A war against a fascist regime is a war in defence of freedom. WW1 was about oil. WW2 was about existence.

[pErvinalia]

Wasn't WW1 about Franz Ferdinand?

[Brian Peacock]

Where was he when he was shot? Opening a railway station on the line being built between Berlin and Bhagdad. The Americans couldn't let that happen.

[pErvinalia]

They would have been better off shooting the train.

[Brian Peacock]

But then how would have the anarchists have gotten home?

[Rum]

The problem was the interlinked treaties that required allies to pile in and support each other. What utter stupidity.

As the the OP I think the key is the rule of law. England was the first country, as far as I am aware anyway, where even the sovereign was subject to the law and in theory all were equal before it. Much follows from that.

[Animavore]

Eh no. I'll thank the Irish rebels who died to help us break away from the British Empire.

[Seabass]

PragerU...

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dennis_Prager

May as well link to an Infowars video...

[Hermit]

"The British always thought of themselves as liberators, as bringers of freedom. The British believed the final and necessary justification of their empire was a moral one." (1:00-1:12)
Can anyone tell me what planet H.W. Crocker III hails from? Or from what century?

The clip was not a total waste of time, though. I had to laugh when Crocker told the anecdote of the British PM, Lloyd George, lecturing the Irish that there was no word for "republic" in the Celtic language until the English gave it to them. The funny bit was that Crocker forgot to mention that the English never had a word for it either until the Romans told them what "res publica" means. That was almost as funny as the myth of some American president claiming that the French had no word for "entrepreneur".

And yes, this PragerU offering is no better than anything Infowars comes up with.

[Svartalf]

Eh no. I'll thank the Irish rebels who died to help us break away from the British Empire.

Oro Sé do Bheatha'bhaile.
Oro Sé do Bheatha'bhaile
Oro Sé do Bheatha'bhaile
Anois is theacht ant Samhraidh...

or should I start singing the Foggy Dew?

[L'Emmerdeur]

Crocker is a true believer, fitting the mold of PragerU propagandists. While I agree with some of the things that he says and definitely appreciate British culture and history, he paints a ludicrously rosy picture of the British Empire.

The British did not try to nation-build in the way we think of it now.

True enough. Their idea of nation-building was to venture out and take over, most often by force. 'You're subjects of the Queen now, you lucky sods. Don't like it? Want to continue to rule yourselves as an independent nation? Here's a taste of hot British lead and cold British steel.'

They were under no illusions about making Arabs or Afghans or Zulus into Englishmen. They were more than content to leave people alone, to let them be themselves, to govern them with the lightest possible hand.

I think many of those who lived under the Empire would disagree with that 'lightest possible hand' characterization. Instructive contrary examples abound but given Crocker's quoting Gandhi, the Amritsar massacre seems apposite.

The Royal Navy had, as a primary duty, the eradication of the slave-trade—and, in fact, abolishing the slave trade become a major factor driving the expansion of the British Empire.

Much of the expansion of the British Empire took place before the abolition of the British slave trade, and it could be argued that during the expansion that did happen after abolition (mostly during the so-called 'Scramble for Africa'), the British Empire used abolition as a cover story for its colonial conquests, as did other European empires.

[Sean Hayden]

Why does pragerU exist? Where's their competition?