Are ethnic minorities insecure about their British identity

Why concentrate on the authoritarian regimes which the West has propped up? Can you not see that there are many, many evil regimes in the past and present that do just fine with no West propping them up? And that the only hope for these people is to emigrate to the West, which is why they do it in droves?

OK fine,yes our freedoms in the West may have been protected, but we in the West are actively propping up authoritarian regimes, if it benefits us. Yes, there would be evil regimes without Western intervention, but there'd be LESS regimes. One thing that I think a LOT of autocratic governments have a point at is that "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" as the Sri Lankan leader said today (or was it yesterday? ie: he was pointing out our hypocrisy ie: we want freedoms, but only if it benefits us.

Well no, the Iranian people are very much the conscious descendants of this tradition and culture actually. The regime is not representative, but it's creation lies as much with Western involvement in Iran as with mistakes the Iranian people have made in the last few decades. I don't agree with your views that the US/UK have aided human freedom. Post 1945 tha argument really does not hold much water and they have really been the anti-thesis to self determination in large swathes of the world.

You're completely missing the point, which is that there would be no free countries if there were no West. So there would not be less authoritarian regimes, there would be more, by virtue of the fact that every regime would be either authoritarian (fascist) or totalitarian (communist). How naive do you have to be to think that if the West played no part in international diplomacy (or not-so-diplomacy), everything would be just fine? You see the West as being at fault simply because the West has global influence. You see, running the world is a dirty business. You are going to make mistakes, and you are going to have to do things which go against your principles. The thing is, if the West had never engaged in any evil activity, it would not exist, and you have to give credit to the West for being the least evil civilisation - ever. If you actually knew what life would be like for you with no Western civilisation, you would agree with me. But you have probably never experienced that kind of life, so instead you resort to the lazy option of bashing the West without actually bothering to examine the evidence. It's like when a child bashes its parents when it doesn't get its own way; the West is an easy target because you won't go to prison for criticising it. Perhaps that is why it receives so much unwarranted criticism.

Ill definitely say that the West today is probably less evil than any other regimes so far, but that doesn't mean that we are these great protectors of freedom. Post WW2, that hasn't always been the case imo

And it's not the "lazy option" of bashing the West. I know that there are many great things the West has done for freedom as well, but ultimately is our goal really "freedom"? If we wanted people to be free, then why don't we do any thing with Robert Mugabe for instance? Why is it only when our own national interests are threatened, that's when we intervene? And then dress it up as we're protecting "freedom"

And honestly, I do partially know what like is without living in the West, but I refuse to believe that I am "free" today, because of say our on going wars with other countries

The lazy option is to say that the West simply makes "mistakes" I'm pretty sure that the well planned overthrowing of the last democratically elected leader was simply a "mistake"

I never said the West can do no wrong, and I never said the West was the only heroic civilisation (and agree with neither statement, just to make things clear).

Listen, you do owe your freedom to the West, whether you like it or not. Everybody does. If it weren't for Britain and America, you would be living under the swastika or under the hammer and sickle, or under Japanese tyranny, or some other totalitarian or authoritarian system. It may be a little difficult to grasp, but freedom was handed down to you - by the West - before you were even born (as it was to me). Freedom is not a default condition of humanity, it is something for which many human lives were sacrificed; it is an idea which is extremely precious because we did not evolve with it, it was thought of and implemented over centuries. Please at least show a little humility and recognise this truth.

Hardly a good example when the World Wars, colonialism and the growth of Communism were propogated by Western powers anyways - so non-Western countries were saved from problems that the West created? I feel so greatful

The "growth of Communism was propagated by Western powers"? What about the Communists themselves? Also, what about all the things that the West did before the world wars (it wasn't just colonialism you know), like the foundations of liberalism, capitalism, the enlightenment, freedom of speech, secularism etc. - I'm not saying it was just the West that played a part in these things, but we definitely have them to thank the most for our sky-high freedom and prosperity today.

What you are pointing out is that we are 'free' in light of colonialism; not we are free because of colonialism. Thus, we unfortunately cannot tell how the world would have turned out if colonialism didn't happen. It is, therefore, I refuse to be grateful to the West for my apparent 'freedom'.

Edit: For all we know, free speech, democracy etc could have existed without the West.

I don't think I ever said or implied that we were free because of colonialism. I said and think that we are free because of Western civilisation (in fact I will make this clear and say that we are free despite ​colonialism, and it is a good thing that it was abolished).

Reply to your edit: well that's just fantasy isn't it. It completely ignores the rather large body of evidence which tells us that almost all other civilisations have not respected human rights and did not provide nearly as good a life for the average person.

How on earth does that work though? How can we be free due to Western civilisation (you might have tried to explain this before but, to me, it really doesn't make sense)?

Colonialism goes from around the 1500's onwards - I find it hard to believe that society was that much better in Britain than say the Indian subcontinent at this time. Human Rights were equally appalling around the world IMO; you could try and prove otherwise...

Lol apparently the West did everything. It's not like the Indians, Persians and Chinese didn't exist.

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In the last few centuries the West has done everything. Obviously that doesn't mean older civilisations aren't to thank too, like the Indians, Persians and Chinese, as you say.

First you say "did not last 500 - 700 years" and then end up concluding "makes it 500 years"

Also, I wouldn't say it's a stretch, and even though there was a decline after the Mongol invasion (though it wasn't only because of this, there's so many factors that played a part, including the Crusader invasion), science continued to thrive as there were still tens of scientists within every discipline. Astronomy in particular continued to do well.

That's not really a good argument, which civilization "sprung out of thin air and created all this stuff"? Which cultures was not built upon advancing the works of other cultures?

The Muslims had extra incentives to preserve knowledge instead of destroying it (like other cultures would, such as the Mongols), that's why they would have a translation culture, because they wanted to take knowledge from wherever they could find it. Translating itself was a very well paid job (read somewhere that it's equivalent to what professional Athletes get paid today)