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Well, Congo Free State wasn't a Belgian possession but rather a possession of King Leopold II of Belgium as his personal playground and he used mercenaries from all over Europe to do it. Of course Belgian stockholders profited from it, but as a working class Belgian I have no history in that nor feel guilt over their lack of morality. It was very ill-managed without scrupules.
In fact the Belgian state was forced to take it as its colony under international pressure which in turn became a paternalistic state. Well Belgium as a state was involved in Patrice Lumumba's assassination though.
Also, I don't identify with Belgium. A common mistake people make is thinking they can trigger me by insulting my absent patriotic pride of a state that historically was Francophile and anti-Dutch.
Thanks to Belgium Brussels turned into almost entirely Francophone from a Dutch-speaking city. From Franco-consumerism to Anglo-consumerism with my people actually.
And yes, I've been spoken to before that I shouldn't identify as Belgian for it's a 'lame ethnicity' to go by. I was born here however and 'Flemish' is equally fake an ethnicity in its pars-pro-toto name, though less so in its definition (Dutch-speaking Belgian). Historically Flemish nationalism was dominated by the narrow-minded Catholicism that meant to keep us dumb and docile sheep, and our ugly symbolism forged in the 19th century reeks of it. Few people take it seriously today with good reason. It does render us more rational with the added handicap of us lacking national pride other Euros have.
Keep in mind, it's not against Christianity or Catholicism, but rather against the institutionalised form of Catholicism as it existed here. Many self-identifying Catholics hate the Belgian Catholic Church the same.
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