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Moderated Trump announces new concentration camps

just another horror in a world growing accustomed to worse. Saudi Arabia is actively starving Yemen, India is becoming more and more reactionary, Brazil has seen the return of fascism and I suspect this is just the beginning. There is no inevitable march of progress, no moral arc of the universe.
It must make it easier to rationalize bad choices when you can just deny responsibility for them.
 
just another horror in a world growing accustomed to worse. Saudi Arabia is actively starving Yemen, India is becoming more and more reactionary, Brazil has seen the return of fascism and I suspect this is just the beginning. There is no inevitable march of progress, no moral arc of the universe.
And so we should respond to this horror by...?

You really need to work on how to land all of this verbiage in a way that goes somewhere.
 
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just another horror in a world growing accustomed to worse. Saudi Arabia is actively starving Yemen, India is becoming more and more reactionary, Brazil has seen the return of fascism and I suspect this is just the beginning. There is no inevitable march of progress, no moral arc of the universe.
I imagine this is true, as it is true that we'll all die and the universe will flame out someday, and there's plenty of cause for fear and loathing. But I'm not sure how that changes what we might feel we ought to do with our own fleeting lives in our own ephemeral part of the impermanent world. Being no worse than the worst seems a pretty measly aspiration even for us comically self-absorbed little clusters of cosmic dust.
 
"Straw nihilism" is the stupidest excuse for racism.

**** every version of every "It don't matter, the world is **** and nothing we do matters so I'm just gonna be a hateful bigot" argument.
 
"Straw nihilism" is the stupidest excuse for racism.

**** every version of every "It don't matter, the world is **** and nothing we do matters so I'm just gonna be a hateful bigot" argument.

So tell me, in an age where it's Every Man For Himself (USA, Brazil, UK, Italy, India, China, Russia have moved towards this path), what makes you think that some FDR 2.0 is going to emerge that says "Let's Pull Together As One!", or that we are on some ordained path of progress?
 
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I have to say that what I have heard of the conditions the kids are being held in, that makes me so angry, that if I was an American, I'd be organising street protests about the situation. I mean
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You are keeping children in conditions that amount to a crime against humanity! How can any nation considering itself civilised bear something like that?

How is it not a national emergency to get help to these kids YESTERDAY? Get that narcissistic bastard out of office, and intervene to save those kids. :mad:
 
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So tell me, in an age where it's Every Man For Himself (USA, Brazil, UK, Italy, India, China, Russia have moved towards this path), what makes you think that some FDR 2.0 is going to emerge that says "Let's Pull Together As One!", or that we are on some ordained path of progress?

I've been reading some of the accounts from the people who investigated the facilities. Hunger. Filth. Diapers not changed. A premature baby wrapped in a dirty towel. Children infected by lice punished for losing the common "lice comb" by having their bedding confiscated.

Who gives a flying **** what the best word is for the place, or what the rest of the world does? Do you need an "ordained path of progress" to tell you not to crap on the floor?
 
I have to say that what I have heard of the conditions the kids are being held in, that makes me so angry, that if I was an American, I'd be organising street protests about the situation. I mean
Edited by kmortis: 
Removed to comply with Rule 10
You are keeping children in conditions that amount to a crime against humanity! How can any nation considering itself civilised bear something like that?

How is it not a national emergency to get help to these kids YESTERDAY? Get that narcissistic bastard out of office, and intervene to save those kids. :mad:

Except, it has already become normalised in Australia, and has been since the Howard Administration. Italy is already prosecuting crews of ships that rescue refugees, and Europe has so far not seen fit to sanction them, given that they already expose migrants to worse conditions. Civilisation is a mask that people wear, until it goes against their interests.

So tell me, how do you propose to handle the next migration crisis in a way that won't incite an ultranationalist backlash?
 
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Who gives a flying **** what the best word is for the place, or what the rest of the world does? Do you need an "ordained path of progress" to tell you not to crap on the floor?

Sadly it seems more and more that the answer for a lot of people is yes.

The idea that when you walk up to someone punching someone else on the street the right thing to do is to engage both of them in a "civil debate" about whether face punching is wrong is the best, nay only course of action we are allowed to take.

Or, even more often, we're supposed to engage in a "civil debate" with the punching in the face guy and the getting punched in the face guy is supposed to just sit there and take it with good humor until the "civil debate" is finished.
 
Pointing at other places is not an answer to what should be done in the USA. Pretending otherwise is intellectually dishonest.
 
Pointing at other places is not an answer to what should be done in the USA. Pretending otherwise is intellectually dishonest.

Funny I recall "if Europe/australia/Japan can ban guns..." being a common talking point. And it's not whataboutism to point out that trump is not an outlier on immigration policies. And in the "civilised" world I have yet to see "let's welcome every single migrant with open arms!" Take hold, much the opposite.
 
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Except, it has already become normalised in Australia, and has been since the Howard Administration. Italy is already prosecuting crews of ships that rescue refugees, and Europe has so far not seen fit to sanction them, given that they already expose migrants to worse conditions. Civilisation is a mask that people wear, until it goes against their interests.

So tell me, how do you propose to handle the next migration crisis in a way that won't incite an ultranationalist backlash?

You won't get an answer. Just more gaming of the forums auto-censor and temper tantrums.
 
Funny I recall "if Europe/australia/Japan can ban guns..." being a common talking point. And it's not whataboutism to point out that trump is not an outlier on immigration policies. And in the "civilised" world I have yet to see "let's welcome every single migrant with open arms!" Take hold, much the opposite.

What I, and I take it many others, would like to hear is how you carry this Soviet-style whataboutism propaganda to the conclusion you're arguing. Perhaps as an If/Then/Else construction:

IF we can solve the refugee and immigration crisis across the entire globe
THEN we can criticize the Trump administration's inhumane programs and actions
ELSE we might as well put children in cages, eh
 
Except, it has already become normalised in Australia, and has been since the Howard Administration. Italy is already prosecuting crews of ships that rescue refugees, and Europe has so far not seen fit to sanction them, given that they already expose migrants to worse conditions. Civilisation is a mask that people wear, until it goes against their interests.

So tell me, how do you propose to handle the next migration crisis in a way that won't incite an ultranationalist backlash?

We have to allow ultra-nationalist policies because otherwise there will be an ultra-nationalist backlash?

Should we also not pursue murderers because doing so might make them want to murder even more?

Is there some swelling army of people willing to overthrow the government for not locking enough children in cages?
 
When we see someone do something better than we're doing it, it seems germane to ask how they're doing it, and why we can't also do it. That seems different from seeing someone doing something bad and using it as an excuse not to do better.

Seeing those two things as equivalent reminds me of bratty schoolchildren.
 
We have to allow ultra-nationalist policies because otherwise there will be an ultra-nationalist backlash?

Should we also not pursue murderers because doing so might make them want to murder even more?

Is there some swelling army of people willing to overthrow the government for not locking enough children in cages?

So, how does "we should let in every immigrant" stop them? Even in Scandinavia, patience has worn thin, and hoping that the next refugee spike will encourage more goodwill has nor borne out in reality. Because people feel that immigration is not under control, they turn to the ultranationalists. So far, I have yet to see "Let them all in!" be successful at the ballot box.
 
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