Thread by @NateAFischer

I suspect this tweet particularly disturbs establishment-right types because of the uncomfortable questions it raises about immigration and fit in American political culture. 🧵

https://twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen/status/1360101212297699328

Many presume that immigrants—especially refugees, and certainly those who achieve the “American dream”—tend to be model Americans, and base many policies on this idealistic assumption.

Yet when people like Nguyen, who arrived as a refugee and achieved great professional success, express scorn for so much of American culture and values, it publicly throws that presumption into question.

A single example does not prove a pattern. But so much of the “acceptable” immigration discussion requires that such questions not even be raised—that we not even ask about the desirability of the values immigrants might bring.

Even a single prominent case can discredit this.

While leftists appreciate perspectives like Nguyen’s, establishment-right types are the most wedded to idealistic assumptions about immigrants and American values. These questions thus most threaten them, highlighting a sharp divide with their own base on the immigration issue.