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Truly disgusted

The racism in MAGA is imputed to MAGA by those who are too weak, lazy, or both thinkers to really explain why they oppose MAGA. Calling Trump names or dwelling on his personality won’t cut it. I’m MAGA and have said what that means often.

Here is my challenge to you. Explain why you oppose MAGA without using the words Trump or race.
MAGA = Trump. Until he is a carcass nothing can change that
 
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While I largely agree about the lawlessness part — public sentiment on border security, in particular, has shifted quite a bit and put opponents of it on the defensive — they aren’t mutually exclusive ideas.

In fact, many of the Haitians in Ohio are here legally under TPS. So lawlessness clearly isn’t the issue with them - unless people just mistakenly default to the assumption that most anybody here (from Haiti or otherwise) is here illegally.

I think there is a lot of xenophobia surrounding immigration. I just think it’s to be expected - as it’s long been the historical norm when people migrated.

Weren’t most Native American tribes xenophobic when the European settlers came here? I’d say they were. But, for whatever reason, we don’t tend to indict them for it - probably because their fears of losing their cultural and social autonomy were realized.
The natives has also never seen a white person before. If a green alien lands I think we can agree to be hesitant. But in 2024 we have no excuse to fear Haitians
 
The issue is economics and lack of resources. You either don’t understand or don’t want to understand. So, you revert to the Democrat play book of name calling and dehumanizing poorer Americans.
I’ve never name called or dehumanized a poor American. Not sure where this accusation originates
 
The natives has also never seen a white person before. If a green alien lands I think we can agree to be hesitant. But in 2024 we have no excuse to fear Haitians

The reason you think that is because you’re starting from the flawed premise that the underlying fear and angst is driven primarily by race. It’s not - it’s driven primarily by culture.

It’ll make more sense to you once you come to realize this, if you ever do. But I’m skeptical you will…which is not unusual for people who are insistent that almost everything finds its way back one way or another to racism.
 
The reason you think that is because you’re starting from the flawed premise that the underlying fear and angst is driven primarily by race. It’s not - it’s driven primarily by culture.

It’ll make more sense to you once you come to realize this, if you ever do. But I’m skeptical you will…which is not unusual for people who are insistent that almost everything finds its way back one way or another to racism.

I would also add to this that it’s foolish to expect that humans will ever overcome human nature. I’m quite sure that it’s pretty much etched in stone.
 
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The reason you think that is because you’re starting from the flawed premise that the underlying fear and angst is driven primarily by race. It’s not - it’s driven primarily by culture.

It’ll make more sense to you once you come to realize this, if you ever do. But I’m skeptical you will…which is not unusual for people who are insistent that almost everything finds its way back one way or another to racism.
Definitely not true with me. I’ve generally poo-pood all the whining and race baiting BS through the years, but this “Haitians eating pets” BS by Trump/Vance really bothered me and those who discount it are being very naive. We welcomed the Ukrainians with open arms. Vastly different cultural background but low skin melanin. And we had communities suddenly inundated with Ukrainians. Maybe not 30K but still a lot. But Haitians don’t look like us and they have voodoo dolls of DANC and DBM. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see what the top of the Republican ticket is trying to do with this to manipulate voters. I’m almost 54 but I’m still pretty pliable with my ability to discern
 
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Definitely not true with me. I’ve generally poo-pood all the whining and race baiting BS through the years, but this “Haitians eating pets” BS by Trump/Vance really bothered me and those who discount it are being very naive. We welcomed the Ukrainians with open arms. Vastly different cultural background but low skin melanin. And we had communities suddenly inundated with Ukrainians. Maybe not 30K but still a lot. But Haitians don’t look like us and they have voodoo dolls of DANC and DBM. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see what the top of the Republican ticket is trying to do with this to manipulate voters. I’m almost 54 but I’m still pretty pliable with my ability to discern
The issue was the amount of migrants. You’re once again dehumanizing the Springfield citizens. Why do you hate poor people so much?
 
Part of that, too, is that these cultures assimilated.
A fair point that I considered including.

But I decided not to because (a) the American citizenry of that time wouldn’t have known they would…at least when it first started happening, and (b) so high a percentage of American citizens of that era were themselves only a generation or two removed from parents or grandparents who were immigrants.

But, yes, the concept of assimilation is very important when discussing immigration and culture. It’s OK that people, wherever they live, value their culture and don’t want to see it affected, altered, put in conflict with other ones.

It can be useful to imagine how we’d look at a similar situation with the roles reversed.
 
Part of that, too, is that these cultures assimilated.
It is a fascinating thing to watch. We have the second most Bosnians in the world after Bosnia itself. They’ve been here since the war. And while they’ve assimilated they very much stick together. Live in the same neighborhood. Kids are all friends with each other. Create consolidated economic areas. Even submit their own teams to leagues. It’s our nature to somewhat gravitate to our own. Watch any prison show
 
It is a fascinating thing to watch. We have the second most Bosnians in the world after Bosnia itself. They’ve been here since the war. And while they’ve assimilated they very much stick together. Live in the same neighborhood. Kids are all friends with each other. Create consolidated economic areas. Even submit their own teams to leagues. It’s our nature to somewhat gravitate to our own. Watch any prison show
Very true. And I agree that it’s fascinating.

But some people are just so jaundiced about these issues - and they almost invariably end up ascribing nefarious motives to it. I tend to look at it as being about as predictable as the sunrise.

I’m not saying this, at all, to defend the nonsense about cat-eating Haitians. That messaging campaign was, like many narratives in Trump-world, just callous and bizarre.

But as a general point, it’s very normal for natives to be squeamish about the introductions of foreign cultures…especially when the one thing people know (or think they know) about Haitian culture is the Vodou that most Americans only understand as something of a spooky cultural oddity in New Orleans.

To compare that to the Swedes, for instance, just misses this point entirely.
 
Very true. And I agree that it’s fascinating.

But some people are just so jaundiced about these issues - and they almost invariably end up ascribing nefarious motives to it. I tend to look at it as being about as predictable as the sunrise.

I’m not saying this, at all, to defend the nonsense about cat-eating Haitians. That messaging campaign was, like many narratives in Trump-world, just callous and bizarre.

But as a general point, it’s very normal for natives to be squeamish about the introductions of foreign cultures…especially when the one thing people know (or think they know) about Haitian culture is the Vodou that most Americans only understand as something of a spooky cultural oddity in New Orleans.

To compare that to the Swedes, for instance, just misses this point entirely.
The "other" is scary until a person is directly exposed to the "other" and then that person realizes that "other" is just a human being who share many of the same values as they do.

The thing that sticks out to me is that it's not the locals who have driven this. It's national politicians who see an opportunity to exploit fear. It's effective because, while the people in Springfield who live and work with Haitians mostly are transcending that fear of the other, the people nationally responding to it don't have the interaction to do so and remain scared. The folks in Springfield have and are finding that there is a lot more to Haitians than voodoo.
 
The "other" is scary until a person is directly exposed to the "other" and then that person realizes that "other" is just a human being who share many of the same values as they do.

The thing that sticks out to me is that it's not the locals who have driven this. It's national politicians who see an opportunity to exploit fear. It's effective because, while the people in Springfield who live and work with Haitians mostly are transcending that fear of the other, the people nationally responding to it don't have the interaction to do so and remain scared. The folks in Springfield have and are finding that there is a lot more to Haitians than voodoo.

I agree with this for the most part.

But wake me up the next time we have politicians who don’t exploit fear for political gain. It tends to work and is also about as predictable as the sunrise - which is why it’s notable when one comes along who doesn’t do this.

It’s one of the primary reasons I was so fond of Mitch Daniels. The only thing he’s really ever stoked fear about is our public debt - which I think warrants more fear than it usually elicits.
 
I agree with this for the most part.

But wake me up the next time we have politicians who don’t exploit fear for political gain. It tends to work and is also about as predictable as the sunrise - which is why it’s notable when one comes along who doesn’t do this.

It’s one of the primary reasons I was so fond of Mitch Daniels. The only thing he’s really ever stoked fear about is our public debt - which I think warrants more fear than it usually elicits.
Yeah. Democrats exploit fear a ton and it makes me really frustrated. I've been a fan of the pushes Harris made to put an aspirational face on her campaign. I suppose when you are running against Donald Trump you can try to let him do the negative heavy lift for you.

I disagree with Mitch Daniels politically, but have a ton of respect for him. Totally get why you have been such a big fan.
 
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The "other" is scary until a person is directly exposed to the "other" and then that person realizes that "other" is just a human being who share many of the same values as they do.

The thing that sticks out to me is that it's not the locals who have driven this. It's national politicians who see an opportunity to exploit fear. It's effective because, while the people in Springfield who live and work with Haitians mostly are transcending that fear of the other, the people nationally responding to it don't have the interaction to do so and remain scared. The folks in Springfield have and are finding that there is a lot more to Haitians than voodoo.
I call bullshit on the locals not driving it. If people didn’t care it wouldn’t be a news story. Also, the Democrats are polling terrible with immigration for a reason.
 
And please explain Mr Smart why you feel this is a pure definition of “Trumpism” and furthermore, since it is implied as a negative, what “Trumpism” features, in light of “nativism”, are so wrong?

Nativism, to me, is a positive. I’m proud of where I live and what its values stand for. Maybe now I’m implying, but it seems you don’t hold these same values and look down upon those that do. Or, just maybe you don’t quite understand what those foundational values are?

" I’m proud of where I live and what its values stand for.

Curious what you think those "values" are? I was always told this song epitomized American values...


What if we do understand a culture and therefore dislike it? This idea that "fear" drives everything is wrong headed. It is just a way to devalue an opinion.

ETA: For example, I don't "fear" the culture of a country like Pakistan. I understand the mix of Islam and tribalism and some of the things that culturally impact their cousins in India and I don't like it. Does that mean each individual Pakistani is bad? No. Does that mean that I would take issue with dropping enough unvetted Pakistanis into a small town in the middle of America and just hope things went OK? Absolutely.

Why?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Pakistan#:~:text=Punishment for rape in Pakistan,ten and twenty-five years.
I'm not sure why you used Pakistan, considering all the xenophobia which has accompanied Indians and Pakistanis settling in Britain...It's a simplistic analysys, but maybe if the Brits didn't want people from the Indian subcontinent to settle in England and the French didn't want Algerians and Moroccans to emigrate to France they might have been better off not invading India and North Africe respectively.

And if you are going to "incorporate" the people of those countries into your Empire you can't really be too upset when those former colonists decide they want to move to the Mother country...I mean wasn't being a "citizen" of the Empire a selling point to create loyalty to the Empire in the first place?
 
Come on dumping thousands of Haitians in Springfield OH is causing a lot of problems. Where do these people live? Where do they work? Social services are running out of money. And you call these concerns nativism?
in case you haven’t been paying attention they are working and the employers are thrilled have them
 
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