Quote (thundercock @ 9 Jan 2021 00:02)
-I mean, whose fucking fault is that? There WERE conservative plans but the majority of conservatives decided to believe in a lie instead.
-I agree that we haven't felt the full devastation of the COVID crisis yet. I have to imagine that this will be the number 2 or 3 issue in the Biden administration after vaccinating the country and limiting the spread.
-Multiculturalism being a threat? That's a tale as old as time. Both my Irish and Italian ancestors were heavily discriminated against but it goes away with time. America has ALWAYS been a mosaic when it comes to culture.
-I think it's clear that misinformation is the biggest threat to national security at this point. Both parties use it to this advantage to rile people up. Unfortunately, Republicans have weaponized it to a significantly greater degree. A woman fucking DIED storming the Capitol because she believed in QAnon. Trump going away will help a bit because he actively adds fuel to the fire. I don't expect things to be fine necessarily but I don't think we're going to Balkanize or anything like that. We're in uncharted territory right now and the next few months will be very interesting. If you think these people are driven by policy, you're mistaken. These people flip-flop on policy CONSTANTLY.
This is just false. Back in the 19th or early 20th century, multiculturalism was not the ideal of America yet, assimilation was. Those Irish, German, Italian and Eastern European immigrants were expected to integrate into the American mainstream, not demand the American mainstream to accommodate them. You didnt have swaths of people in the media, academia or activist circles telling the mainstream how racist and insensitive it is to expect immigrants to learn English or shit like that. Back then, the ideal was the melting pot. Nowadays, the ideal espoused by liberals and most cultural institutions is that of a salad bowl.
Furthermore, you have to keep in mind two crucial factors when it comes to the eventual successful integration of these groups: from the 1920s until the 1960s, immigration levels to the U.S. were very low. This had the effect of forcing ethnic groups to integrate into the American society (if they hadnt already done so anyway). By contrast, nowadays, you have sustained, skyhigh immigration levels, communities are constantly seeing their ranks bolstered which makes it feasible to insulate themselves in the first place. The second factor is that integration or assimilation have a higher chance of success the smaller the cultural gap between immigrants and host society is. Even though people didnt perceive it that way back then, the cultural difference between Irish or Italians and the Anglo-Saxon mainstream was not all that big. It was definitely smaller than the gap we are seeing today with African, Middle Eastern or South-East Asian immigrants.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jan 8 2021 06:12pm