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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   26627 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 25, 2024

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I didn't mean to go too off-track either.

What conservatives are advocating for is deviating not just from the default, but from the status quo, by passing additional immigration and trade restrictions for the express purpose of benefiting a favored class. And that's not exactly an expression of self-agency.

Well then I could say that whatever you're doing now would be even more admirable and self-agentic if you were blind or something, so why not just burn your eyes out?

Leaving the borders swinging wide-open is the national equivalent of blinding yourself in my opinion.

And this isn't just my default; it was the default throughout most of American history. The Constitution says nothing about immigration

I believe that it should have.

and indeed the country didn't make any serious attempts at regulating either until well into the 20th Century.

What about the Naturalization Act of 1790?

The law limited naturalization to "free White person(s) ... of good character", thus excluding Native Americans, indentured servants, enslaved people, free Africans, Pacific Islanders, and non-White Asians.

What about the Naturalization Act of 1790?

I said no serious attempts, not no attempts; the Chinese Exclusion Act is actually a better example, since the 1790 act didn't prevent anyone from coming here, just from becoming citizens (and in those days you didn't need to be a citizen to vote).

I believe that it should have

And a lot of people on the left believe that it should have included a lot of things that it didn't that you'd probably find abhorrent and that doesn't change anything. Your preference is your preference, and the default is the default; it's what we started with, and if you want to change it the burden is on you to demonstrate that it's necessary. I'm not saying that your opinion is illegitimate, just that it doesn't have any moral high ground over other opinions that the left holds that are also obvious examples of rent seeking.

Leaving the borders swinging wide-open is the national equivalent of blinding yourself in my opinion.

I hate to do this, but this is almost literally a textbook example of a straw man argument. No one outside a few on the far left is advocating open borders. The current argument about the border is whether to raise numbers up a bit or restrict them further, and whether Biden's current manner of dealing with the border is enough. Border patrol agents are still working. People are still getting deported. The argument boils down to whether Biden should be taking actions that may or may not actually have any effect.

I hate to do this, but this is almost literally a textbook example of a straw man argument. No one outside a few on the far left is advocating open borders. The current argument about the border is whether to raise numbers up a bit or restrict them further, and whether Biden's current manner of dealing with the border is enough. Border patrol agents are still working. People are still getting deported.

The far left doesn't advocate opening borders, the borders are already open. They just attack anybody who wants to do anything about it.

People are still getting deported.

If you deport a thousand people and let in a million, you are still technically 'deporting' people.

The argument boils down to whether Biden should be taking actions that may or may not actually have any effect.

Yes, we get told that arresting gang members would not do anything about crime, until somebody does it and then 'at what cost???'

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