Monday, November 14, 2022

"Colonialism or whatever" and the justification of evil

On "Last Week Tonight" last night, John Oliver discussed the British monarchy. One sequence took up the response of an Australian broadcaster, Caleb Bond, to what he felt was disrespect by the women's Australian rules football league for the late Queen Elizabeth II during the official mourning period after her death: "You can have your arguments about colonialism or whatever, but the Queen [...] was a force for good." Well, you can have your arguments about the Queen, but Bond's dismissive phrase "colonialism or whatever" exemplifies a mode of argumentation that is never "a force for good" but is always connected to the justification of whatever evil is preceded by "whatever". (Andrew Shields, #111words, 14 November 2022)

 



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