>You say that you went to war with the Germans on behalf of the free world
Who said that? They definitely ruled over a lot of the non-free world at the time. India? East Africa?
A large part of the world supported the Axis simply because at the time, the British Empire was the relevant empire oppressing them, and by default, anyone who hated the British supported the Germans and/or Japanese.
A possibly apocryphal story is that a Brit was trying to explain to an African why it was necessary to fight the Nazis. He said "each country must rule over its own people, the Germans over Germany, the Poles over Poland, the French over France..." and the African said "..."
"After the war ended, the story of the INA and the Indian Legion was seen as so inflammatory that, fearing mass revolts and uprisings across its empire, the British Government forbade the BBC from broadcasting their story."
>But at times I wonder: Was it not that they in a way were outdoing you and you were feeling a bit envious?”
Were they? At the outbreak of WWII, the British controlled "25% of the world's population, and of 30% of its land mass".
The phrase "odd undercurrent of authoritarian" itself is particularly odd, because what's odd about a country that ruled over one of the largest, if not the largest, empires of all time having an authoritarian streak?
I agree with you, but this has nothing to do with the point I made. There was no claim as to any “true” nature of WW2 or British imperialism. What I stated was that a large chunk current Britons perceive themselves as having stood up to Hitler and defended freedom for all. Whether this is true or not does not matter with respect to either my joke or perplexity over the fact that authoritarianism is present in UK society to a larger degree than I am comfortable with. If anything, your response is in support of what I stated.
Who said that? They definitely ruled over a lot of the non-free world at the time. India? East Africa?
A large part of the world supported the Axis simply because at the time, the British Empire was the relevant empire oppressing them, and by default, anyone who hated the British supported the Germans and/or Japanese.
A possibly apocryphal story is that a Brit was trying to explain to an African why it was necessary to fight the Nazis. He said "each country must rule over its own people, the Germans over Germany, the Poles over Poland, the French over France..." and the African said "..."
Gandhi was firmly against fighting the Germans and Japanese, and many Indians equated fighting for the Axis with fighting for independence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Army
"After the war ended, the story of the INA and the Indian Legion was seen as so inflammatory that, fearing mass revolts and uprisings across its empire, the British Government forbade the BBC from broadcasting their story."
>But at times I wonder: Was it not that they in a way were outdoing you and you were feeling a bit envious?”
Were they? At the outbreak of WWII, the British controlled "25% of the world's population, and of 30% of its land mass".
The phrase "odd undercurrent of authoritarian" itself is particularly odd, because what's odd about a country that ruled over one of the largest, if not the largest, empires of all time having an authoritarian streak?