Summations Only

I find it interesting that every call for restricting immigration in US history seems to have come with a very unhealthy dose of racism.Whether it was Germans in the 1840s, Chinese in the 1880s, Italians and Slavs in the 1920s, Mexicans in the 1980s, or Middle Easterners in the 2000s, calls for restricting immigration always came with fears about American culture becoming polluted by foreign traditions, not to mention the hysteria that foreigners will be bringinging diseases and crime.I suppose there are good, solid reasons to be opposed to open borders, but I really don't feel like sticking my hands into all that racist muck to search for them. Not before I get a tetanus shot, anyway.

I'm also going to guess that they are also protesting the way immigration law is being implemented,Rounding up law abibing people who were brought into this country when they were too young to remember much about their country of origin and deporting them from the only home they really know.Separating non-documented parents from there citizen children.Lying in wait and capturing people in need when they try to make use of essential services like law enforcement, medical care, or education.The inhumane treatment of people once they are in custody.Denial of due process to prevent legitimate claims from being heard.And so forth.

I'm going to guess it's basically the same as the difference between fears of rampant voting fraud and racism.Namely, none.

And if you look at people's comments at the time, people explicitly referred to " Irish" as distinct from the "white races".Racism could be complicated until you realize "race" really just means "people I don't like".

"Stuff I hate."

Just another reminder (not that it does any good):No law in any state requires anyone to serve "gay marriages". The most any state does is forbid denying gay people the same services that are offered to anyone else.Which services a business offers is entirely up to them. If, for example, a business owner has a religious objection to selling graduation cakes to black people, they can still be in compliance with their state's antidiscrimination laws by not selling graduation cakes at all.

Well, I have to admit, despite reading past threads on this topic, I still wasn't expecting the response to be, "requiring businesses to treat all of their customers equally and with respect is fascism."- Requiring a business to obey the state's antidiscrimination laws is the same as sending people to gulags.Yeah, this kind of speaks for itself. I don't think I need to comment on it directly, just point it out.Edited by Chiroptera, : Typo.

To be fair, I think that the rubes feel that anything short of a Berlin-wall-but-facing-the-other-way is an open border.

Well, "the new face of the Democratic Party" can be a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker for all I care, just so long as they advocate for good policies and against bad ones.Edited by Chiroptera, : Got the nursery rhyme wrong.

What's funny about these references to Stalin is that it's not the so-called "socialists" among the Democrats that support packing people in standing room only cages. That one's Republicans.

What's also funny is that my European ancestors came and settled in the United States during the time it was being ethnically cleansed of its indigenous population.So that kind of makes me a descendant of "Conquistadores" as well. No wonder I identify with "the Squad"!

And as far as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar being Muslims goes, what particularly "Muslimy" things are they doing in Congress that are objectional? Most of the policies they advocate for are things I support on secular grounds.

Criticism of Israeli apartheid goes back way before Muslims were at all a significant issue in the US; I've been reading (and agreeing with) denouncements of Israeli policy and US blank check support of Israel since the 1980s. Criticism of Israel includes a lot more than Muslims; in the US critics of Israel include significant numbers of Christians and Jews. So when I ask for something associated with Muslim beliefs, criticism of Israel isn't really one of them.As far as anti-Semitism goes, I've read Omar's actual statements, and I still don't see anything anti- Semitic about them. At any rate, when American Jews are polled about the things that frighten them, it's right wing white nationalist terrorism that tops the lists, not American Muslims.

You seem to apologize a lot. Are you doing anything to fix your short comings?

That was my passive-aggressive way of saying we're getting tired of it.