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this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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UK Politics
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Not for the sake of defending the UK government but in all honesty, I can understand the objection to the wording "gravest crime against humanity". It's surely one of the worst but to rank it above all out of all of history seems a bit narrow, I think the response “we must not create a hierarchy of historical atrocities” is probably fair at least based on the information from the linked article.
Trans-atlantic slavery was the ultimate degredation of using humans as cattle on a mass industrialized scale. It was unique and only possible by the extreme power imbalance of guns and the extreme lack of morals of the countries perpetrating it.
Point is: Africa deserves restitution for its stolen wealth (and also the stolen stuff in the "British" museums)
A lot of atrocities were unique in their own ways, I think trying to quantify them in such absolute terms risks ignoring nuances and degrades the others deemed to be "less bad". Instead we should focus on learning from each one in context.
That's separate, you don't need to declare something to be the "gravest crime against humanity" to make the case for restitution.
No this is cope by people who don't want to be inconvenienced by justice.
Couldn't parse that, who doesn't want to be inconvenienced by justice?
I do.
No that wasn't meant to be rhetorical, who are you talking about?
The vast majority of people not wanting to pay reparations for slavery because it costs money.
Right, we're on the same page then. I think we owe reparations, but that has nothing to do with declaring slavery the "gravest crime against humanity", you've made a straw man.
Transatlantic slavery was basically the Holocaust except with more people and it lasted the entire lifetime of the slaves instead of 6 years and that times multiple generations. Maybe that helps paint a picture.