The royal family debacle has dominated news cycles, both British and American, for the better part of a couple weeks now. If you don’t know, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, left the royal family a few years ago — title and all — for their own peace of mind. Hearing that the royal family has essentially bullied and harassed the two is a truly sad story, and there’s been an outpouring of support for Meghan, who has discussed her mental health struggles. This has opened up a conversation about family circumstances, and whether or not we truly owe our family anything even in toxic relationships.

And of course, this has been reflected within social media. A lot of social media users have talked about how awful it is to hear that the royal family has such problems. This doesn’t include the conservative pundits who — in a stunning display of cognitive dissonance — have been defending the monarchy. “The ruling family of England? Racist? Nah, it couldn’t be. Their colonies are very multicultural.” And yes, this is an actual argument being given. On top of that, there have been enough Americans who still see this as a sad display of people they’ve idolized no longer being happy.

Which begs the question: why? Why do we revere this family? Americans will swear all day about how terrible the Kardashian family is and how little they contribute to society, but what do the royal family actually do? The Kardashian family may be cultural colonizers, but the royal family of England are actual colonizers.

The royal family has certainly been around the planet, seeing as they’ve colonized and invaded all but twenty-two countries on this earth. Now, call me crazy, but your country’s biggest export being independence days is pretty awful. The most telling was an article that lauded the queen’s collection of expensive jewels that she invested in. Yeah, “invested.” I’m sure the Indian subcontinent and most of Africa is perfectly fine with the fact that Elizabeth II is wearing their ancestral artifacts as cute accessories.

Look, if you think the royal family is interesting, that’s not something you should be ashamed of. However, we need to realize that the royal family being “bullies” isn’t as bad as being literal colonizers.