re: #7 jvic

For most of my adult life I have gotten a sense that the powers that be are flat-out lying about the need for immigration.

Born to refugee parents, I consider myself well-disposed to immigration, but afaic the p.t.b. never give an intellectually honest picture of the tradeoffs. Ditto for too many advocates of legalization or amnesty or guest work or whatever it’s called nowadays.

So then why don’t you tell us what the tradeoffs have been proven to be instead of snarking at us? To be quite honest your #2 felt pretty personal, like you were scolding the LGF members participating in this thread as being incapable of “thinking in any terms but zero-sum short-run partisan advantage.” I didn’t see anything supporting that in the comments here or in the SPLC article.

I haven’t had a lot of interactions with you, but the ones I have had have been pleasant—calmly rational & courteous—which is why I was left *blinking* at your strong response to this subject.

As for my comment about wingnuts boycotting FB, it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek as boycotting seems to be everyone’s standard response nowadays, however I’m sure (as CD pointed out in #3) that it’s unlikely that any large politically active group would stop using FB. FWIW, I quit using it 2+ years ago.

2. re: #6 EiMitch

Arguably Zuckerberg is buying good publicity to cover up the damage he is participating in.

As for racism, there would be less of it if so many white middle-class Americans weren’t feeling vulnerable and scared and dispossessed. Some of their complaints are legitimate. So far there has been no major figure to advocate for them (afaic the likes of Buchanan, Palin and Huckabee lack the gravitas and are too obviously self-interested). If someone like that emerges, especially if they can build bridges to a critical mass of nonwhite voters, the results could be tectonic.

Which of their complaints are legitimate? Who’s feeding the fear & resentment that results in their racism? Who profits from their dispossession? It’s not the poor and working- or middle-class people of color at whom they’re so angry that are screwing them over—even if they wanted to, they don’t have sufficient access to the levers of power necessary to do so.

3. Racism schmacism: Americans have always loathed each other. I’ll worry if interracial marriages fall sharply.

Racism (and religious intolerance) have been with us since the birth of our nation, but that’s not a reason to dismiss it, which is what it feels like you’re doing. Would you also say the following? “Anti-Semitism schmemitism: Americans have always been intolerant of each other’s religions. I’ll worry if interfaith marriages fall sharply.” I hope not—I wouldn’t.

EiMitch has already addressed the rest, so I’ll leave it alone.