Against Western values

Let us not be children about our flawed heritage

European colonizer carried in a hammock by four African porters.
(Image credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo)

One increasingly common experience online is being harangued by right-wing racists displaying some Greek or Roman statue as their profile picture. "Why do you support white genocide?" someone called @Tiberius1488 might say. "Don't you know white Europeans built all that is good on this planet?"

As depraved as such sentiments are, they are not wholly divorced from more traditional liberal views about the nobility of Western values. In The Washington Post, Catherine Rampell worries about illiberal trends among millennial voters, arguing that "defenders of the West might want to start working on Plan B."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.