I saw someone famous unironically refer to food writing as a "colonialist project." I just think that you can't say stuff like that and then expect people to take colonialism seriously as a historical attrocity, which is an uphill battle as it is!

"Colonialism, to me, is a chef adapting a traditional Mexican recipe to make it more palatable to Americans." - the ghost of an Algerian freedom fighter tortured to death by French paramilitaries

The problem is the sort of person who thinks this is a remotely appropriate comparison tends to feel this is the case VERY strongly and to NOT be interested in any discussion about the matter!

Activist 1: "We already have a TON of trouble getting people to understand how bad colonialism is and what a scar it left. How can we improve this?"

Activist 2: "Let's call all sorts of picayune stuff, some involving chicken tikka masala, 'colonialism.' "