Interview · moment 23 of 28
Religious Fundamentalism, Colonialism, and Not Excusing Every Culture
from Bonus Episode: Abby Martin
4 min
Guest
They debate whether all oppression stems from Western colonialism, with Tim arguing brown-on-brown slavery and religious fundamentalism predate US empire, while agreeing he can only pressure his own government.
- Fundamentalist religion — Christianity, Islam, Judaism — creates a need to enslave people based on doctrine, independent of colonialism or US Empire.
- Tim sees the same dynamic playing out in America now with Christians claiming to represent God and making laws based on that authority.
- Not every evil in the world comes from colonialism or white people — that framing oversimplifies history.
- Brown-on-brown colonialism and slavery existed long before whitey showed up; religious fundamentalism was global.
- As an American citizen, what Tim can actually do is pressure his own government rather than solve every problem worldwide.
- Tim respects people like his guest and Glenn Greenwald because they leave Twitter and actually go talk to the people involved in these conflicts.
- He genuinely wants to understand what's happening because the media lies so much.