Monday, May 15, 2023

Not "Proud" to be an American

Morrissey - America Is Not the World 

This song was written before Obama.

OTOH - vegan donuts!


Immigration is a very difficult topic in the real world.

Philosophically and economically, the question is straightforward. Anyone should be allowed to move where they want. Just because you had the back luck to be born in Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, etc., doesn't mean that should be your fate. 

People born into terrible situations don't deserve that any more than I deserved to be born a straight, white, middle-class male. I did nothing to be an American, so there is nothing for me to be "proud" of. I am simply lucky to be an American. Our neighbors across the street, from Russia and Ukraine, do have every right to be "proud to be an American."

However, the world is not populated by philosophers and economists. As Peter Singer said to Ezra Klein:

Ezra Klein

Is open borders a moral imperative?

Peter Singer

If the public as a whole was more accepting of the idea of mass immigration. But given that concerns about immigration have clearly brought about the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit vote, and the election of right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland, I think that the moral imperative is not to have open borders.

Immigration is an important issue, but it’s not the only issue. I think climate change, for example, is a significantly more important issue, and all of the conservatives who get elected on the anti-immigrant bandwagon have been opposed to taking any serious steps to prevent climate change.

Further, the election of conservatives makes the world worse for everyone in "shithole" countries, as well as for minorities in the United States. And, on average, makes things worse for future people. 

As I emphasize over and over again in Losing My Religions, our top priority has to be winning elections. Our second-through-tenth priority has to be winning elections. 

Every other priority we have - from basic human rights to global poverty and hunger - depends first on winning elections.


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