Immigration and Ferengi

America sucks, right? George Bush, Mossadegh, Halliburton, Iraq, Guantanamo, Vietnam, Dresden, … I could go on and on.

Seriously, with all the global disdain for America and everything American, (and I must admit that our post-9/11 behavior has created some legitimate cause for complaint) …

Why are we flooded with immigrants and would-be immigrants from all over the world?

Economic opportunity?

So, I am to conclude that all these people want to participate in the Fourth Reich, be a part of the “Worst Thing Evah,” for the sake of mere profit? For money, right? “Oh, yeah, too bad about gassing all those Jews, but I wanted to make a good life for my family there in Berlin.”

So as far as immigration policy goes, I don’t see why we should be admitting such grossly amoral people as those who would want to seek material gain in a country like this. If we are ever to improve ourselves, wouldn’t the admixture of such greedy ones exacerbate our national evilness?

Comments

  1. Davebo wrote:

    Seriously, with all the global disdain for America and everything American

    I’m sorry, but I spend a lot of time abroad and I just don’t see it.

    In France for instance, many are opposed to our current government (like us) but Americas? Not so much. Especially once you get out of Paris (they seem to hate everyone). And they LOVE American pop culture.

    It gets even better in Germany, Holland and Belgium in my experience.

    But I think Europeans are much better than Americans at separating the actions of a government from it’s people.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 11:40 am

  2. BloodSpite wrote:

    So as far as immigration policy goes, I don’t see why we should be admitting such grossly amoral people as those who would want to seek material gain in a country like this.

    Welcome to *my* dark side ;)

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 11:43 am

  3. John the Marine wrote:

    Hhhmmm, your right! They are all just money grubbing savages who have come here to line their pockets. What to do? Build a fence guarded by machine gun nests every 100 yds with interlocking fields of fire. Station agents at every airport and round them up when they try to get in and send out roving bands of rednecks to round up the ones that are here too. Or, we could just nuke Paris… Hell nuke Paris and hunt down all immigrants. Now that’s comprehensive immigration reform. Excuse me I’m off to take my meds.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 12:05 pm

  4. Dreggas wrote:

    ROFLMAO.

    Point for the snarkiness commie but I second Davebo in his comments. Given my lifestyle and such I meet a lot of people from around the world. Most do disdain our government (so do I). However they like Americans and everything we used to stand for and in most cases still do.

    To use a new take on an old phrase “It’s the government stupid”.

    Oh and John…I am not far behind you on the whole wall manned with border agents etc. and I took my meds today.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 12:21 pm

  5. canuckistani wrote:

    Back in the early 80’s, I had a bunch of underemployed friends who were learning Japanese so that if the local economy didn’t pick up, they could head abroad and scoop up some of that sweet Japanese tech money. It wasn’t that they loved Japan, they were going where the money was. Which is what hungry people do. Other friends of mine have moved south because that’s where the research money is, although my bioengineering buddy came back after stem cell cutbacks tanked his job. I’ve pondered heading to the Valley myself, but my wife is a cancer survivor, and the idea of living away from socialized medicine terrifies me.

    Maybe I get a different perspective from my foreign friends because I’m not an American but I think that a lot o the “Americans are not their government” sentiment drained away after Bush was reelected. But we auslanders are polite, and won’t tell you we hold you personally repsonsible to your face :-)

    And of course, some of my best friends are Americans…

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 12:48 pm

  6. Alon Levy wrote:

    To add to what Canuck said, in a lot of cases, the cause of disdain is that they have to emigrate to enjoy a good standard of living. Latin America is full of anti-Americanism but still sends immigrants to the US; rural areas are full of traditionalists who hate urban culture but still send waves of migrant workers to the cities.

    On another note, the people who migrate are not generally the people who are most disdainful. Immigrants to the US tend to view it as a land of opportunity more than native-born Americans do, especially native-born Americans who make as much money as the average immigrant does. It’s those left behind who are most anti-American.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 1:23 pm

  7. BloodSpite wrote:

    “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American… There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

    — Theodore Roosevelt 1907 —

    Funny how far the intellectual have fallen since those by gone days…

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 1:38 pm

  8. Dreggas wrote:

    I agree with TR

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 1:44 pm

  9. John the Marine wrote:

    Yeh, TR has it about right gentlemen. Hey, Dreggas those must be some good meds. I like your style.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 2:54 pm

  10. a former european wrote:

    Way to expose the hypocrisy of world-wide anti-americanism, Commie. As an immigrant myself, I seem to have lots of other foreign/immigrant friends. Perhaps the shared immigrant experience provides a bond of otherwise dissimilar peoples.

    Anyway, I was always sick of those who waxed rhapsodic of the joys and glories of the “old country”, whether it was some postage-stamp sized european nation, some hindustani rajahdom, some Arab sheikhdom, or a benighted african former colony. Push a little harder, and all those immigrants would grudgingly admit that there was no way they would go back to the motherland permanently.

    Human nature, pride, and envy being what they are, no one wants to admit they came from a shithole, or even a second-tier nation. Instead they are full of strut and bombast like Mussolini, or sneering arrogance like the french “intellectual” or ruling classes. I always felt these types of attitudes were nothing more than thinly diguised jeolousy or envy from those abroad, and ingratitude from those of us immigrants here.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 4:25 pm

  11. Alon Levy wrote:

    BloodSpite, Roosevelt’s view of immigration isn’t the way the US has treated most immigrants. In France, the government insists on complete assimilation; as a result, it pretends discrimination doesn’t exist, and then acts surprised that Muslims form an underclass with a 30% unemployment rate. In the US, where the conception of immigration is that you’re free to call yourself whatever you like and the government will neither force you to assimilate nor foist a hyphenated identity on you, Hispanics grow up speaking English and Muslims believe they can get ahead with hard work more than non-Muslims.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 5:11 pm

  12. Dreggas wrote:

    John the Marine wrote:

    Yeh, TR has it about right gentlemen. Hey, Dreggas those must be some good meds. I like your style.

    Heh they keep me from going too crazy…mostly *twitch*

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 5:23 pm

  13. Alon Levy wrote:

    AFE, I haven’t actually met that many people who’re that hypocritical. The foreigners in the US I know either openly say that the US is a better place for them than the old country - I’m one of them, even though I’m hardly the most pro-American person in the world - or can’t wait to go back after they finish a degree or work training. I know people who are exceptions to those two rules, but not many.

    The superciliousness of French intellectuals that you describe is probably related to jealousy but not quite the same. On some website I read, the owner suggested it’s because the US was the world’s first middle-class nation: part of having a broad base of non-impoverished people means that culture is no longer the domain of aristocrats. People who think that if it’s not high-brow it’s not art can’t help but sneer; that’s just a subtle dig at democracy and social progress. Europe has since more than caught up with the US in having a broad middle class, and has just as much popular culture as the US, but that hasn’t stopped the perennial snobs from pretending otherwise.

    Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 5:28 pm

  14. rabit wrote:

    If by “America sucks”, you mean it America sucks people over from all around the world and from all walks of life, then yes, America sucks big time. Unless you meant that in a wholly different contextual sense that I’m having real trouble picturing. :)

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 12:24 am

  15. a former european wrote:

    Excellent point, Alon. I was not saying all the immigrants I knew were like that, I was attempting to express displeasure with respect to those who were.

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 1:26 am

  16. Alon Levy wrote:

    Thanks…

    Incidentally, the person that website is ripping, Baudrillard, isn’t the average snob. Baudrillard’s a real intellectual; most of those snobs are perfectly middlebrow people who used to look down on Ulysses before it became canon just as much as they look down on popular culture.

    Posted 23 Jun 2007 at 2:17 am

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