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by jefurii 47 days ago
Sorry to break it to you, but computing is totally related to colonialism. Where do you think the materials that go into a modern computer come from? It'd be nice if all that was mined in the good ol' U.S. of A but it's not, and that's where we get connected to colonialism. Not to mention labor.
1 comments

What do you mean by colonialism? If industrial production/mining in lower wage countries is "colonialism" to you, then I strongly disagree, and so would most dictionaries.

Colonialism, to me, implies exerting direct political control over a territory (without allowing it democratic participation) and ressource/value extraction against the will of the local population.

Assembling phones in China/buying silicone in Brasil does neither.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893...

If that's not colonialism, I don't know what is.

Colonialism in Congo would be controlling the local government, administrating/allocating mining workers and extracting raw material against the will of the local population.

"Buying stuff from poor countries" is not colonialism.