1/I'm so exasperated by the idea that low immigration produces social and cultural cohesion that I'm going to write a thread about how nuts this idea is.
When was the foreign-born population at an all-time low?
The 1960s and 1970s.
How cohesive were they?
2/In a single 18-month period between 1971 and 1972, there were about FIVE terrorist bombings in America EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN DAY.
10/To this day, conservatives refer to "the 60s", meaning the late 60s, as a shorthand for the fracturing and fragmenting of American culture.
That was precisely when the foreign-born population was at its all-time low point!!
11/Every single person on the right who claims that a high foreign-born population produces social and cultural discord needs to reckon with the fact that our greatest period of discord since the Civil War came at a time when we had record low numbers of immigrants.
12/If someone tells you immigration produces social discord, throw 1967-1972 right in their face.
(end)
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About 8% of students have participated in the protests on one side or the other. That's a substantial number, but less than the 21% who joined BLM protests in May/June 2020 (and the latter were pretty much all on one side of the issue).
The Palestine protesters have created a dream Palestine that is almost entirely disconnected from the real place, in which all of their fantasies of a perfect society are realized.
Most weebs don't actually want to live in Japan. They want to live in a local subculture of their own creation, whose values are based on gentleness and romance -- the ideals that attracted them to Japanese fantasies and made those fantasies resonate.
Comparisons between the Cultural Revolution and the Woke Era get laughed at. The Woke Era didn't use violence, of course. But the *motivation* of people wanting to overturn social hierarchies, especially students wanting to overturn academic hierarchies, is recognizably similar.
In 2010s America, there was a widespread desire to overturn local social hierarchies -- the classroom authority of teachers and professors, the cultural power of entertainment stars, the authority of nonprofit execs and heads of civic organizations.
In 1960s China, overturning local hierarchies happened via physical mob violence. In 2010, it happened through online mobs destroying people's reputations on social media. Obviously, the second is far preferable to the first. This is why economic development is good!
1. They engender material equality more efficiently than any other economic intervention, and
2. They create an equality of respect, through the habit of mutual use.
Although rich people may pay more for a train or a park, when they ride the train or walk in the park, they are equal in social status to everyone else on the train or in the park.
This creates a feeling of equality throughout society.
1/Here's a thread in which the Economist's Mike Bird tries to rebut my recent post about decoupling. I think this thread is useful for understanding why the doubters are making the mistakes that they're making.