I feel bad for being born in Britain. Should I ?

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I know this opinion isn't popular these days but - don't think like that, it doesn't help anything.

If you're morally bothered by something you're seeing in the world:

1) Try to understand root fundamentals of the problem - at a 'first principles' level. You'll have an idea of readiness based on how many areas lacking clarity you're able to figure out, vet your answers to, etc..

2) Figure out what you have to offer to either solving the problem directly or helping those solve the problem who you think, after your thorough research, have both the right mindset and a deep / solid knowledge base of the problems.

3) You don't always have to give money or time (that's good if it's possible), sometimes it's just spreading interviews or discussions with politicians, academics, or independent polymaths, or pretty much anyone who hit you has having a uniquely square view of the topics. You can look as well at your research of the topics and becoming incredibly well informed about outcomes (key) and which ideas - implemented in the real world - would survive game theory well enough to still make those solutions function (easiest way to do that is self-interest being built in, like play-to-earn, but it's not always easy to figure out how to do that).

4) If it's deceptive or weaponized enough of a topic, or heavily politicized in general, it'll probably have a reality distortion field - research the major researchers first to figure out who they are and what their angles are before diving too far into their work so you can see the yellow and red flags / cards.


What I mean by the above - I think being solutions focused is perfectly fine as an alternative to self-flaggelation. I get that a lot of people would disagree for their own reasons but, at least in my own life I've had enough problems that self-flaggelating over my own race has never made sense, especially if I know that my bandwidth for that is small enough that it'll negatively impact how I can show up for other people in the world. At the end of the day I can't find a reason why self-flaggelation is of practical use to anyone aside from society's permanent fifth column which knows no race, no gender, no religion, no borders, and similarly know no shame, no guilt, and no pangs over moral issues (good ol dark tetrad trying to keep people immiserated, fighting, and easy to divide and conquer).

Glad to see that everybody here thinks the OP should NOT feel guilty for what the British empire did. I'm with you 100% on that.

I've occasionally read claims by some folks (not here on WP) that "we" have a lot to be ashamed of about "our" atrocities during the empire days. I always wonder, who do they mean by "we"? I guess it boils down to that patriotic sense of belonging and identity with Britain that some people who were born in the UK have. Maybe it's a neurotypical thing. Me, I just see the UK leaders as "them," and I don't feel in the least responsible for what they do or did, because that's completely outside my control. All I can do is vote, and as I live in a safe Labour constituency, even that makes no practical difference. And I can't turn back the clock.

"if you profited from labor shouldn't you reimburse?"

royal family "f**k you that's not how slavery works"

its really hard for some people to admit there wrong

*edited for clarification