Here's a thought, which comes out of reversing the frequent description that racists are nostalgic for mythical national pasts. If you express nostalgia - maybe even about anything? - are leftists immediately on alert that you might be racist? Do they get electrified and hypersensitive because of that alone? Because that would explain how any negative comment about immigration, even if one is trying to precisely, sharply define meaning to specify that it is only illegal immigration, or poorly-managed, or ill-advised episodes or policies, gets you instantly branded as racist. So who's on a hair-trigger here? Who is calling every rustle in the brush a bear when it's all squirrel and grouse?
Eric Kaufman (again), a Canadian now doing research while living in London, notes that Donald Trump is much more like the European populists than previous American conservative movements. Equivalents to the Religious Right or neocon spread-of-democracy movements are thin on the ground in Europe, but immigration-limiting, culture-preserving movements are in all the countries, and are all called racists and bigots by their opponents. Some of those are also more free-trading (even while protecting national industries - the difference is in wider nets rather than the EU), though that is not always the case. I don't think this is a deep reframing of how we see ourselves here, but it's a bit different and worth contemplating.
And in the meantime, be careful who you share nostalgia and sighing with. You may not be showing proper enthusiasm for progress, comrade.
3 comments:
We don't know where we're going, or why we're in this handbasket, but we know we're making progress. What else could it be when the progressives lead us?
I'm starting to cheerfully say, "OK, I'm a racist. Your move."
Assistant Village Idiot: If you express nostalgia - maybe even about anything? - are leftists immediately on alert that you might be racist?
Some people have hair-triggers, but not most people. Nearly everyone has experienced nostalgia. The problem is when a rose-colored view of the past is taken as an accurate historical depiction (à la Mayberry).
Assistant Village Idiot: Because that would explain how any negative comment about immigration, even if one is trying to precisely, sharply define meaning to specify that it is only illegal immigration, or poorly-managed, or ill-advised episodes or policies, gets you instantly branded as racist.
The problem is that the most vocal voices in the call for limits on immigration tend towards racist rhetoric. In other words, the public aspect of the limits on immigration movement are racist-adjacent. It shouldn't be that way, and some voices within the movement have spoken out, but others have either remained silent or encouraged it.
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. — Donald Trump, when announcing his run for president.
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