> It's good to interrogate the wallpaper of colonialism

Complaining of colonialism in the context of WW2 and implying, if I'm reading you right, that the West is the bad guy is quite ironic.

This was a war against arguably the most depraved, murderous colonial empire that's ever existed, or at best second only to their Nazi allies.

> I think Orwell was on the right track to say "never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."

It's an idiom that perfectly encapsulates a specific phenomenon. Compared to many current clichés, I've hardly ever seen it misapplied.