Fellow American here agreeing 100%.

Everything is falling apart on earth and in my country and I don’t know how to fix it.

Yeah, I operate on this assumption entirely. I’m pretty sure there was a book published about this idea in the 80s and it was widely read among political leadership.

I didn’t realize that Coors, the beer, funded the start of the Heritage Foundation.

The beer is shit, but now I know that the entire company is also shit.

This is incredible!

Who convinced Trump that coal is worth going back to and what false data/logic did they use?

I didn’t even know coal companies made enough money to lobby, anymore.

They’re convinced that these immigrants are in the system because they’re illegally receiving benefits as illegal aliens.

Yeah, and most non-Nazis have long left the platform and deleted their account. The log-in issue is a huge one. It effectively blocks a massive portion of the US from getting important information about money that is theirs.

Definitely. Things politicians say make a lot more sense when you realize that code speak.

It kind of always has been this way. “The people,” “Americans,” “White people,” etc have always been defined arbitrarily, and always in American history have referred to wealthy landowners who adhered to a puritan work ethic and a supposed “Anglo-Saxon” culture.

I’m torn on this. Like I don’t like giving churches special rights, but also, it’s great that many are trying to protect immigrants and I want to keep those safe spaces.

But applications are rising.

Oh definitely. I think they’re being offered a horrible deal. But I can see how some might be inclined to take the shitty deal if their current financial situation is in fact one of desperation. I hope their citizens are in better shape than Americans.

I don’t think “over educated” is the right word. I lean toward “poorly educated regarding history and the other humanities.”

I wish they included “legal” in the headline. Would make a world of difference to centrists.

I work in higher ed. If we’re focusing on “the economy” alone, international students bring SERIOUS MONEY to the communities where they attend college.

Like. They have to have liquid cash to cover a year’s worth of expenses in order to even be accepted to the university. That’s tens of thousands of dollars in foreign money flowing to local landlords, grocery stores, utility services, etc., multiplied by dozens or hundreds of students EVERY YEAR.

Desperate is the right word, and I think they’re intending to make people more desperate in order to exert control.

I’m not saying a $10k gift would be life-changing, but it would pay off a significant amount of my debt, freeing up a lot of my monthly cash flow.

Is there a non-paywall link?

I don’t think that’s true, because non-Western Christians don’t have this problem while atheist white Americans do.

Fair point. I don’t know much about non-Western Christians. But the ones that made it to American shores have definitely seemed to fit.

And the War on Terror definitely contributed to the culture of “foreigners are evil animals.”

Yeah, I don’t think the GDP is a great defining factor of economic emergency, in that words like “recession” have to be declared before the country treats the problem seriously. Assuming that growth is going to happen forever in a finite world is naive. And there are serious problems in the economy happening despite the GDP, like increasing poverty and lack of education or healthcare.

So like, my frustration is that “recession” has to be said before the government freaks out and attempts to fix things, but things are already really bad in ways that matter far more.

One theory that I’m starting to understand through reading social science books on American history is this:

“White” Americans (I use quotes because the definition of whiteness has changed throughout the years) need someone to define themselves against in order to feel “more civilized” and worthy. First it was Natives, then the Irish and German, then the Eastern Europeans and Italians, and throughout all of this it has been Black folk. Then modern times have brought the Hispanic to this purpose. Now I think the latest permutation of this need to feel pure and civilized has included just….all “non Americans,” including any foreigners they don’t consider “proper and civilized.”

It’s like an insecurity of identity so deep that it requires an “othering” in order to feel safe. “I am better than you, you are less than me, therefore I am worthy.” Conservative “white/proper” Christians have always had an identity crisis, so they’ve always felt the need to invade other cultures and lands while subjugating the locals in order to feel superior. I’m starting to think that this is another permutation of that.

Maybe this theory ties into or explains the social media phenomenon of Christians constantly putting down both different Christians and non-Christians. They have to feel superior because…they don’t know how else to define themselves.

Edit: I’m completely going out on a limb, here, but I wonder if that has to do with the fact that Christianity teaches its followers to live for their own death. Like, it provides very little meaning to life because everything you’re living for happens after you die: love God so you can go to heaven, do this so you can go to heaven, follow these arbitrary rules so you can go to heaven. It doesn’t answer the questions “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” beyond like…their death, which is forever away. So if you don’t know why you are alive, if you can’t rely on a meaning or purpose to the 80 years while you’re on earth, then what else do you have to define your culture on? Like the insecure playground bully. “I don’t know who I am or why I’m here, so in order to feel secure, I have to feel stronger and smarter and more superior than everyone around me, even if (or maybe especially) that hurts the other kids.” The violence could be an expression of that frustration and insecurity.

Or maybe not. I don’t know. Of course, I do know “white” people and Christians who don’t behave this way, who are kind and generous and not-xenophobic. It seems to be more of a wider-culture thing. It’s definitely mixed up with settler-colonialism, though.