The difference between people who supported the British Empire and people who support the US empire is that those who supported the British Empire knew they were supporting an empire.
Someone who supported the British Empire’s acts of mass military slaughter around the world did so because they supported the Crown and wanted His Majesty to civilize the godless savages and turn the whole world into his royal subjects. Someone who supports the US empire’s warmongering thinks they are doing so because Saddam is an evil dictator, because Gaddafi is an evil dictator, because Maduro is an evil dictator, because Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis are terrorists, etc.
Supporters of the British Empire understood that the enemies of the Empire were being killed because they refused to adequately subject themselves to the King and his demands. Supporters of the US empire think the US and its allies are always attacking Evil Bad Guys in the name of spreading Freedom and Democracy, and if this happens to advance pre-existing geostrategic agendas and/or resource interests then it is purely by coincidence.
Supporters of the British Empire understood that they were living under an actual empire: a power umbrella comprised of colonies, protectorates, dominions, mandates and territories which spanned the globe. Supporters of the US empire think it is entirely by coincidence that there is a giant cluster of nations which happens to move in near-perfect unison on all foreign policy agendas and continually wages war upon nations which are not part of that cluster.
The British Empire was entirely open about what it was. It would conquer a place, tell its inhabitants that they are now British subjects, and make them raise the Union Jack on their flag pole. The western empire which is loosely structured around Washington lets its member states keep their own flag and pretend they’re sovereign nations, while behaving in ways that are not significantly different from the subjects of the British Empire.
This is comparing the British Empire of 100-150 years ago to the American empire of today. It would make more sense to compare equal time points.
During the British imperial heyday, American imperialists were absolutely out in the open like the British imperialists were. “White Man’s Burden” was written to help convince Americans to take the Philippines as a colony.
The change from land-holding based open imperialism to more modern economic (and espionage) based covert imperialism happened across the board. There’s a whole bunch of reasons behind it, but aviation, wireless communication, and plastics are a few of the big reasons.
You don’t need to hold the Congo for rubber or Malaysia for gutta-percha when you can just create whatever you need out of fossil fuels.
