Why?

[forsyth]

Why is it many of the same people who are the loudest in proclaiming the USA the Greatest and Strongest Country EVAR are also often the same people loudly proclaiming OHNOES! IMMIGRANTS ARE GOING TO DESTROY OUR CULTURE!

Dude. If we're a strong country and culture, we shouldn't have to worry about immigrants who want to come here destroying our culture. So which is it? Is our culture Great, or is it going to be wrecked by immigrants? Or is our greatness a really shallow and fragile and non-confident kind? 'Cause that's not really Great.

I never fail to be amazed by people's abilities to believe two contradictory things at the same time. Myself included.

Comments

[frustratedpilot]

I know I'd be the first man burned at the stake if there ever is an American Cultural Revolution. But let me give you an example as to why it won't happen...

Let's say that there is a movement to ban non-American sports. We limit sports in this Nation to the ones invented here: Baseball, American rules Football, Basketball, Lacrosse, Pro Wrestling, Auto Racing and a few others. Soccer would be banned. So would Tennis.

Golf would take it on the chin. We'd deport Tiger Woods back to Malaysia, and beat all the other golfers to death with their own clubs.

Our President plays golf.

No point in defending our "culture". It isn't worth defending.

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to disagree there. Sure, there's a lot of Stupid Crap in the US, but our culture's definitely worth defending. It's just that immigrants are one of the LAST groups of people we need to defend it against. They WANT to come here. They WANT to be a part of the US. BECAUSE our culture rocks (and we're rich). One of our greatest strengths in our culture is it's good enough to convince people to come here and want to be like us. So when people try to chase other people out, or make them not like us, they're hurting the very culture they claim they're protecting. Which is sort of the whole point of my original post.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Hasn't one of the strengths of America historically been its immigrants?

[kabbalist-mzdm.livejournal.com]

Bingo! One of America's greatest strengths, historically speaking, has been the variety of people who call it home. It's called the "melting pot" for a reason. The thing we need to remember here is that there have almost always been paranoid or insular types griping about immigrants. Sometimes they gripe louder than others, but they're there. The big issue that a lot of people I know have with immigants actually concerns immigrants of the illegal variety.

[kalifla.livejournal.com]

What he said, but moreso! :D

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

I'm not impressed by most of the arguments against illegal immigrants. Mainly because our immigration system need overhaul (to let more people in more easily, so they don't feel the need to sneak in across miles of barbed wire) and because a lot of the same companies that bitch about illegal immigrants then go and hire illegal immigrants because they don't have to pay them minimum wage, or health care, or anything else, and can threaten to report them.

And welcoming people from anywhere is one of our greatest strengths. We get a lot of the best and the brightest who want more opportunities elsewhere, like here. And then they talk to their family and friends and see how good things have been for them here, which makes them like us more. And our culture gets to the young and the smart, who want to be more like Americans, which was a big part of how we won the cold war, with blue jeans and rock and roll.

And also, by having immigrants from everywhere here, and having them like America, we have less to worry about from terrorism, since the people living here won't be inclined to blow shit up because they hate us, and they'll report people who would, and they and their kids can help us deal with other cultures and languages and the important parts of stopping terrorism. As long as we don't start, y'know, calling them all facists or terrorists and threatening them just because of their skin color or religion or because of where their parents were born.

[kalifla.livejournal.com]

I disagree that our culture isn't worth defending.

But we're all immigrants from some point or another. And immigrants and the cultures they brought with are what makes ours so cool.

(I do think they should haveta go through the legal process set up now. You can't just sneak in and get the benefits without doing all the crap that goes with it.)

But other people from other countries is what makes our culture worth saving.