Note that I'm not singling any one person out for this, simply musing, but over time it has become readily apparent to me that there is a certain level of... disconnect, between the voters. And as someone pretty firmly on one side already, I'd like to go ahead and put all my cards on the table. Being an expansionist empire is not, in of itself, a bad thing. Nations grow, nations need resources, a nation exists to protect and provide for it's citizens, I don't think anyone is going to argue those points. What people are worried about, is Imperialism, which is a specific kind of expansion that seeks to dominate and control, to exploit far-flung territories for the good of the Motherland. That is not what we are trying to do, at all.
Think of it this way, our empire started off fractured into several separate parts. One ruled by merchant princes, one ruled by an heavy-handed warmonger, and one poor nation trapped in the middle of it all. We worked for the benefit of our people, and our people wanted reunification, so we slotted that as a long-term goal, but not one we'd pursue aggressively. So we tried to do things the long way, the nice way, and in exchange aforementioned border nation got pummeled, again. We rose up to defend them, which we did successfully, and slew the bastard behind it all, then we reunited Griffonia. Was this wrong? Should we merely have left these nations to their devices, one of them leaderless and practically penniless, the other brutalized to the point where it'd take decades if not more to recover on their own, if they ever did? The people wanted to be reunited, and people needed our help, so we rebuilt the empire, even after the capitalist oligarchy tried to finagle a better deal.
That choice, more than perhaps any other, is what made our nation what it is today. It's what made us an economic powerhouse, and gave us the strength to resist, and even defeat Sombra. The world in which we remained separate was a far poorer one than the world where we all came together. This is the onus behind our expansionism, united we stand, divided we fall. People we absorb into our empire aren't being used and abused for the concept of a distant, glorious 'Motherland', they become our citizens, and are treated as such. We aren't telling them to "Obey us, or else!", we're asking them to come and stand with us, together. That we benefit from this arrangement is not the end goal, but a happy coincidence.
I've probably said this before, but what good is it to the Crystal Empire if they remain independent? They have a battered and brutalized population which is only barely capable of inhabiting a mere fraction of their former territory, and are absolutely incapable of expanding. Their leadership has been utterly and thoroughly decapitated, and their resources are practically nonexistent. Right to self-determination? They have that. We didn't even take dual-custody of the Crystal Heart despite the Crystal Ponies being explicitly okay with that. What, are people going to argue that because the Crystal Ponies are culturally and racially distinct from us that somehow makes them being a part of our empire 'subversive' or 'wrong', really? Race is categorically unimportant, and culture is, and has always been, fluid. Cultures rarely survive meeting other cultures unaltered, that's just how society works, the only time I would really consider this to be a bad thing is when something of genuine value is lost (which unfortunately happens sometimes, often by accident), or when a nation outright tries to suppress a group's culture in an attempt to homogenize or 'civilize' them. We don't do this, we don't want to do this.
And it's not like people from different cultures can't understand and empathize with each other. There might be some culture clash issues if we didn't let them work out things among themselves, but, again, we do. And if I'm being honest, I'd feel bad for an independent Crystal Empire, because they'd have to contend with Griffonia on their borders swallowing up anything that looks even remotely useful. And the worst part is, we wouldn't even be doing it to hurt them, we'd just be doing that to provide for our people as best we can, like we're supposed to. I want the Crystal Empire to join us because I think we can accomplish more and greater things together than we can apart, because I can see a brighter future for both of us, and I want us to seek out that future together. That said, they have to want it as well, otherwise it doesn't work. You can't force people to be apart of something greater than themselves, lest you one day be forced to watch as everything you've built comes crumbling down around your ears. I don't want to change the Crystal Ponies, force them into some kind of predetermined mold so that they can be good little drones. I want them, all of them, and all that they are, to become apart of us. So that we can mutually reinforce and enrich one another.
So... yeah, that's my two cents on the subject. I've just seen a lot of posters on the thread getting wrapped up in fears of jingoism, imperialism, and even colonialism, and figured I'd tell people my side of the story.
