A little context:
The image we see is of a middle class American white family that has benefited from fact that the global economy of recent decades has funneled huge amounts of labor, raw materials and capacity to absorb pollution/environmental damage from other parts of the world to the United States.
The people coming here from other countries have paid the price of us living so large in low wages, degraded environments and depleted resources for which they have received only a small portion of the benefits.
Then there’s the violence we have exported to keep this whole game going.
In their view, coming to the U.S. to get a piece of the action for which they’ve paid the price is very attractive.
Sure, we can ignore the source of much of the wealth and look at it as a simple attempt to keep what is rightfully ours. But this is essentially ignoring our national shadow. Ignoring the shadow comes at a huge price.
I’m not saying just let them all in. I am saying that in coming to a decision about a good course of action we must not ignore our shadow.
Snydeman, it seems to me you’re accusing me and the anonymous author of the satirical poster I posted of promoting stereotypes and falsehoods:
these kinds of stereotypes and falsehoods get us nowhere.An exercise in hypothetical lifeboat ethics sure is a lot more civil than being in a real lifeboat with actual shrinking resources and real suffering and death like we are all now in. I attempted to inject some humor, and therefore some release of tension, with the poster I found On The Line. The poster presents a provocative alternate point of view, I'd say. It might even generate some useful thinking and discussion. For you to accuse me of promoting falsehoods and stereotypes indicates to me more about the rawness of your "nerves" than it does anything about me. Furthermore, it's a freakin' satire in which I don't see stereotypes or falsehoods any way. To perceive falsehoods and stereotypes in that poster (and in me) would seem to me to require at least two assumptions and two leaps of logic, neither of which I harbored or intended. Quercus illuminated some of his assumptions and leaps of logic. And I would say whether something is helpful or funny is very much in the eye of the beholder and not an objective fact of which Quercus is the arbiter. You guys aren't about to call me deplorable and xenophobic are you? I have an idea! Make the me Immigration Czar of the US and give me absolute power and discretion (ie. couldn't be overruled by the Ninth Circuit Court). I would be glad to grant entry into the US for most of the applicants, as long as I matched their numbers with natural born American citizens who are a drag on the rest of the country. For every immigrant I let in, I'd eject one current citizen thereby keeping our population the same size while drastically improving its "quality" at the same time. If not that, why don't we copy the immigration policies of Mexico, or Japan, or China? Lifeboat ethics on a real lifeboat are tough. Let's not make them tougher by how we treat those currently next to us in the lifeboat. "Welcome to the Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor."
Thanks for reframing the issue. I can now see that the provocative and funny image got me thinking about this. My point about the one-sided nature of the immigration issue still stands, but I apologize for and withdraw any judgment about the image’s helpfulness or your intent in posting it.