#bc the point isnt religion religion is a tool of the imperial project but that isnt the purpose of the project itself

[handweavers]

something I've learned over the past few years is that many instances of imperial conquest get reduced to being about religion when ultimately that is a symptom of a greater issue, which can use religion as a surface-level justification for subjugation or genocide but ultimately it functions to mask the real purpose of imperialism, which is wealth extraction and accumulation.

speaking for something in my personal family's history as an example, the problems in ireland being reduced to "protestant vs catholic" is an oversimplification that makes it appear to be fundamentally a religious issue where if they could just 'agree to disagree' everything would be better. when that isn't the case, because it's not a matter of religious disagreement but imperial conquest and assimilation. many well-known irish revolutionaries who fought against the english were protestants, and further, the catholics of ireland don't have an inherent issue with protestants existing in ireland, the issue is the connection between protestantism and imperialism. the issue is forced assimilation and coercion which was done as a tool of empire, and the relationship between protestantism and the bourgeoisie of ireland, and protestantism being an ethnic signifier as well as a sign of loyalty to the british crown - because being protestant often meant being of scottish or english descent, and being a member of the church of england means that the head of your church is the the reigning english monarch, rather than the pope. it meant loyalty to the imperial project, which was the subjugation of the irish people in order to extract wealth to britain. it comes down to wealth and class, and loyalty or cooperation with the imperial project, and that's what "catholic" and "protestant" represent in ireland. and you can see similarities in this instance with other imperial projects, in which religion is often used to mask the actual purpose of what is going on, ie. wealth extraction, and often the genocide of those who do not cooperate (or cannot cooperate) with the imperial project.

#like re: prev post if it was really all about religion then israel wouldnt target palestinian jewish people as well but they do #bc the point isnt religion religion is a tool of the imperial project but that isnt the purpose of the project itself #the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the americas wasnt simply because they werent christian #the purpose of the crusades even wasnt ultimately religion that was simply the justification they used