In which our author addresses the ridiculous phrase 'playing by the rules'.

[ursako]

So, so so, due to work-related retardery, I don't get as much political news as I used to. It makes me deeply sad. Every once in a while, I manage to peer over niq's shoulder and catch sight of something interesting regarding, oh, say, my personal demesne, immigration. It's interesting to find so many people acting as if immigration is the new 'crime

Comments

[shoez]

I think it's strong evidence of a big paradigm shift in America for people to denounce the non-citizen's attempt to follow the American dream. It seems kinda funny to me that our country was supposedly built by a bunch of outcasts who greeted the rest of the world(except blacks, native americans, chinese, etc.) with open arms, and yet people are pushing strong to isolate our country from our neighbors. The idea here seems to be "I'm going to take advantage of this great system of opportunity myself, and I've already been helped by my parents' trips through it, but I'll kill myself before I let a dirty wetback try it." Fucking hypocrites.

My take on this is also very uninformed and touchy-feely, so please don't shoot too many holes it, because I really don't care that much. I understand that my way of life can only exist with the exploitation of third worlders and second worlders and even my fellow, less-lucky/capable first worlders. I try not to drive my politics with vague idealistic principles, and I'm not really sure what the practical consequences of any border-policy/immigration changes would be.

[ursako]

The thing is, nativism is no new thing in American politics. The laws passed at the turn of the century to keep out Chinese, Japanese, the laws after World War II to keep out Eastern Europeans; we only ever played at throwing open our gates to the world.
That said, I'm pretty sentimental about the whole thing too. Bleeding-heart liberal and all that.