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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   28733 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 11, 2024

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Anti-immigration activists argued that a Yes vote would result in increased immigration from overseas (I confess I don't quite get the reasoning on this last point,

I think the idea was chain migration? A gets to stay in Ireland because they're an asylum seeker or whatever. A then asks if his wife can come over. Wife then asks if she can get her elderly parents over, after all they're living in the same dangerous circumstances as you said meant A was eligible to receive asylum. Family reunification policies then mean that A brings over B who brings over C who brings over... in a chain, even if you only permitted A to immigrate at the start.

I'm not saying this is a credible version, and both anti-immigration and the far-right groups trying to get a foothold here are using scare tactics, but "durable relationships" is a very nebulous term - how about instead of his wife, it's A's fiancée? or long-term girlfriend?

How about all ten of his wives?

To quote Chesterton from "What I Saw In America" about filling out visa form preparatory to being allowed in:

The inquisitor, in his more than morbid curiosity, had then written down, ‘Are you a polygamist?’

The answer to this is, ‘No such luck’ or ‘Not such a fool,’ according to our experience of the other sex. But perhaps a better answer would be that given to W. T. Stead when he circulated the rhetorical question, ‘Shall I slay my brother Boer?’—the answer that ran, ‘Never interfere in family matters.’

But among many things that amused me almost to the point of treating the form thus disrespectfully, the most amusing was the thought of the ruthless outlaw who should feel compelled to treat it respectfully.

...Or again, ‘Yes, I am a polygamist all right, and my forty-seven wives are accompanying me on the voyage disguised as secretaries.’

There seems to be a certain simplicity of mind about these answers; and it is reassuring to know that anarchists and polygamists are so pure and good that the police have only to ask them questions and they are certain to tell no lies.

That's fair, makes a lot more sense now.

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