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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   17338 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 23, 2024

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I feel like a certain part of the debate is circling around the conflation of 'high paid' roles, 'productive' roles and 'socially valuable' roles.

Agreed, as @Stellula suggests above there seems to be a semantic bait-and-switch going on. What's being sold is something like Operation Paperclip or the Rockefeller Foundation's Assistance to Refugee Scholars program that brought figures like Werner Von Braun, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Alexander Solzenhitzen to the US. What we're actually getting in practice, is a bunch of minimally competent third-worlders who are, to all appearances, contemptuous of Western norms/values, and more concerned with extracting value than producing it, and who's only observable contribution to the community is diluting the supply and thus lowering the wages of native-born code-monkeys, medical professionals, finance bros, Et Al.

I consider myself reasonably "Based and MAGA-Pilled" and I am totally onboard with the former, while being deeply opposed to the latter.

I'd sooner accept a 100 immigrants from Central America or Sub-Saharan Africa who sincerely love baseball, apple pie, and everything else American over a single immigrant like @BurdensomeCount as even "low human captital" is of greater value than negative human capital.

Just want to endorse the second part of what you said. It’s probably some of my Catholicism leaking through here, but I am explicitly not a white nationalist. I am an “American nationalist”. We’re a Christian country, we like guns and big trucks and big tits and bikinis and apple pie and baseball and chicken wings and bigass rockets and we consider the moon our sovereign territory. We hate the government, are naturally suspicious of authority.

That has all led to the most prosperous, most badass nation on earth and if you want to be an American you can, but when you get here you need to assimilate, and part of that means having a near-contempt for the country you fled. I don’t want to hear you talking about your ex girlfriend old country for 3-4 generations.

Maybe that’s a good analogy. Imagine you meet a girl in an abusive relationship with a loser guy. You fall in love with her and help her move from the slums to a giant mansion on the coast.

Now imagine she refuses to be seen in public with you, goes to her exes house for holidays, and talks to you about having dual citizenship a polyamorous relationship with her ex, who she also keeps sending remittances money to. Now imagine she also wants to talk about your toxic masculinity (which saved her) and the problematic nature of your wealth.

Yeah no thanks. We’re down to marry the super models (Werner Von Braun), but not so much the cheating gold digger.

I get the impression that you and I agree on much and would get along quite well offline. That or we would bicker endlessly like siblings. ;-)

For my part, I have always been partial to Teddy Roosevelt's bit about "Hyphenated Americans".

Maybe we already know each other but are behind seven boxxies alt accounts and won’t ever know it.

I once found out I'd lived in the same house as a motter thanks to his description of the insane landlord. It's more likely than you think with how filtered we are by irl interests.

everything else American over a single immigrant like @BurdensomeCount as even "low human captital" is of greater value than negative human capital.

Sir, I demand satisfaction! Even if you think I am negative value to society (naturally I disagree) at the very least you must grant that the magnitude if not the sign of my contributions is leagues and bounds beyond that your average sub-Saharan African is capable of.

The average human being, even if they try their damnedest, is not capable of making a big impact on society either way, positive or negative (discounting of course banal crap like shooting the person they got minor beef with, but that doesn't count because even here they are merely channeling the destructive power of a far greater force than themselves); true perniciousness is firmly beyond their capabilities.

Even if you think I am a net negative (which is your prerogative) you must admit that the extent of my negativeness is extraordinary- that is, I am not like them in any way at all beyond the superficial.

EDIT: I must also add that the job I am working in at the moment is one that's completely borders agnostic. Functionally I'm already taking a job away from an American if you're the sort of person who thinks in those terms, except that right now the US is getting precisely $0 in taxes from me. Giving me a free green card (not that I'd accept it, US has very onerous tax policies on their worldwide income for permanent residents living anywhere in the world) and welcoming me to the US is basically free money for you with no downside.

Have you considered that people don't like having new neighbors who openly look down their noses at them?

Sir, I demand satisfaction!

Pistols or Swords? If the latter we might actually be able to make that happen. I plan to be at Pennsic 51 (Schedule Permitting), bearing the banner of The Outlands on behalf of Cariadoc. Look for the knight in white, black, and gold with a sausage pierced by a sword on his shield. The Poleaxe/Bill is also an option, as is the Spear.

at the very least you must grant that the magnitude if not the sign of my contributions is leagues and bounds beyond that your average sub-Saharan African is capable of.

No i do not, because little or no gain is still preferable to a "loss" of any magnitude.

To be clear I don't "think" you are "a net negative value to society". I am taking your own statements about your relationship with your host country at face value and drawing what, to me, seem like obvious conclusions.

Finally, if the job you're working is borders agnostic, why immigrate? if the answer, is "superior quality of life" why can't you just shut up and be grateful instead of sneering at your hosts?

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