At a certain point, people have to make the connections between the colonists, slavers and plunderers of the past and their progeny in the imperial core and its satellites today.
Not because they are the same, or because they share the same level of guilt. But because the legacy lifestyle that those crimes have cultivated are a core aspect of the identity of this cohort. They require it. They can't see life in any other way. And they will defend it, at great cost to everyone but themselves.