They’re not genetically or intrinsically evil, and I haven’t seen anyone in lemmy (.ml, .hexbear or grad’) thus far suggest the idea if that’s what was meant by socialist spaces (if not, ignore this part)…
Europeans’ “uniquely evil” part are in thanks to their geography and other material conditions, which were largely shaped by wrecking and disfiguring more than half the planet (so basically both, but the latter cyclically enriches the former and neither are compartmentalized if that makes sense).
So naturally, reactions from leftist spaces to this will vary, an overwhelming majority of which are absolutely reasonable. It doesn’t help their case that Europe, with spearheading by the U.S., a settler-colony of their creation that they do not attribute as a settler-colony (settler-colonialism + time = totally legitimate state), continues to deprave and violate the sovereignty of the majority of the Global South via invasions, debt-traps, and genocide today.
On a socio-economic level, Europeans, including European settlers from e. g. the U.S. and the Commonwealth mind you, are also afforded privileges and treats that are just beyond the scope of imagination for many people in the Global South.
Today, Europeans generally can travel almost anywhere in the world (with a red carpet and open arms), they have almost an unlimiting access to healthcare, education, technology, food security, shelter etc… limited only by their states’ dwindling colonial reach, they can pursue whatever interests they may have, they can commit crimes within and outside their borders with punishment ranging from next to nothing to a slap on the wrist compared to crimes commited by non-white people (even when sentencing is given by a Global South country!), they do not have to justify their presence amongst the “others” (if the questions “Why are you here?” and “Why did you come here?” seem familiar, you’ll know what I mean), they do not have the same uphill struggle of having to dispel hundreds of years of actively harmful mischaracterizations and racist depictions of your place of origin/ethnicity (e.g. Orientalism) every time they interact with someone unfamiliar with their background (and there a lot of someones to go through), you get the idea.
There are also two (of the sameish) things that aren’t necessarily unique to Europe, but their variant are absolutely 100x detestable over anything I’ve seen: European denialism and whitewashing. I’m talking about things ranging from softer rose-tintedness like “these aren’t applicable to country X in Europe because it isn’t a Western European country” / “My [European] country doesn’t fit in this description” that we already see in this thread to “[European country] had to save them from their barbarism, actually” are precisely the type of white people that will continue to drive anyone so much as empathetic to anti-colonial struggles nuts.
My point is: Europeans that understand their position, privileges and relation to the Global South and actively seek to dismantle capitalism, centimeter by centimeter, and not just for their own sake, unquestionably exist, which gives no room to the idea of ontological evil.
They’re not genetically or intrinsically evil, and I haven’t seen anyone in lemmy (.ml, .hexbear or grad’) thus far suggest the idea if that’s what was meant by socialist spaces (if not, ignore this part)…
Europeans’ “uniquely evil” part are in thanks to their geography and other material conditions, which were largely shaped by wrecking and disfiguring more than half the planet (so basically both, but the latter cyclically enriches the former and neither are compartmentalized if that makes sense).
So naturally, reactions from leftist spaces to this will vary, an overwhelming majority of which are absolutely reasonable. It doesn’t help their case that Europe, with spearheading by the U.S., a settler-colony of their creation that they do not attribute as a settler-colony (settler-colonialism + time = totally legitimate state), continues to deprave and violate the sovereignty of the majority of the Global South via invasions, debt-traps, and genocide today.
On a socio-economic level, Europeans, including European settlers from e. g. the U.S. and the Commonwealth mind you, are also afforded privileges and treats that are just beyond the scope of imagination for many people in the Global South.
Today, Europeans generally can travel almost anywhere in the world (with a red carpet and open arms), they have almost an unlimiting access to healthcare, education, technology, food security, shelter etc… limited only by their states’ dwindling colonial reach, they can pursue whatever interests they may have, they can commit crimes within and outside their borders with punishment ranging from next to nothing to a slap on the wrist compared to crimes commited by non-white people (even when sentencing is given by a Global South country!), they do not have to justify their presence amongst the “others” (if the questions “Why are you here?” and “Why did you come here?” seem familiar, you’ll know what I mean), they do not have the same uphill struggle of having to dispel hundreds of years of actively harmful mischaracterizations and racist depictions of your place of origin/ethnicity (e.g. Orientalism) every time they interact with someone unfamiliar with their background (and there a lot of someones to go through), you get the idea.
There are also two (of the sameish) things that aren’t necessarily unique to Europe, but their variant are absolutely 100x detestable over anything I’ve seen: European denialism and whitewashing. I’m talking about things ranging from softer rose-tintedness like “these aren’t applicable to country X in Europe because it isn’t a Western European country” / “My [European] country doesn’t fit in this description” that we already see in this thread to “[European country] had to save them from their barbarism, actually” are precisely the type of white people that will continue to drive anyone so much as empathetic to anti-colonial struggles nuts.
My point is: Europeans that understand their position, privileges and relation to the Global South and actively seek to dismantle capitalism, centimeter by centimeter, and not just for their own sake, unquestionably exist, which gives no room to the idea of ontological evil.