So much of this sentiment comes down to ethnic alignments. People see the billionaire as a white, Christian patriarch who shares a set of cultural values and beliefs that overlap with their own. The billionaire advertises on the shows I listen to. The billionaire runs the businesses that I shop at. The billionaire sponsors the entertainment - the sporting events and the TV shows and the local festivals - that I enjoy attending.
Yeah, sure, all that money comes from my surplus labor. And maybe the Six Guns Over Grade School celebration, where eight year olds fire long rifles at biology textbooks while saying the Our Father prayer is a bit off-putting. But by God, that’s our tradition!
Meanwhile, the hispanic migrants who cross the border to pick fruit doesn’t celebrate Six Guns. They don’t watch Border Patrol Bloopers or Rich Kids In The City or Loud Guy Radio. They don’t root for the Fightin’ Oil Spigots or eat Fried Cheese. They don’t even speak American! Every time a new hispanic family moves into town, they make the town a little less homogeneous. And that makes me feel unsafe. If they feel about me the way that I feel about them, how long until they break into my house and murder me?
I have no idea what this Rich Kids In the City is, or Loud Guy Radio, and I am not a sports fan, but I think I’d like to try some of that fried cheese!
I have no idea what this Rich Kids In the City is
Friends
Loud Guy Radio
Rush Limbaugh / Sean Hannity / Tucker Carlson / take your pick
I think I’d like to try some of that fried cheese!
It’s all fun and games until you find out you’re lactose intolerant.
OK so I did watch Rich Kids in the City… and I actually don’t remember much about the show because it didn’t impact me much (blasphemy, I know!). And I am aware of who Alex Jones is and have watched his downfall with much pleasure… and I am not lactose intolerant! So bring on the cheese!
…who encourages illegal workers by emphasizing the bean counter bottom line so heavily that hiring cheap migrants is reinforced in order to pad profits. Then, the billionaires with the media empires and outlets stoke prejudice and fears against migrants.
Michelle Baker is spot on!
And the only thing that stands between the working class and the billionaire class is conservatives. Conservatives are the billionaires’ personal army of mind-washed morons who would rather kill us all than to disappoint their boss.
Loyalists, the irony is something like half almost certainly will scream-tell you how much of a patriot they are.
Let’s say that it actually was illegal immigrants “stealing your job.” Who is actually hiring them in the first place, hm? Even if it was true, the anger shouldn’t be directed at the immigrants.
But the free market ! If we don’t let them do what they want then it’s just like communism !
I don’t think anger should be directed towards illegal immigrants but probably would make sense to go after both those hiring them and making sure there aren’t as much illegal immigrants. Because with illegal immigrants around to be abused and made to work on pennies, that will cause all kinds of hurt. But obviously they should have a hefty penalty for those hiring them as well.
making sure there aren’t as much illegal immigrants.
We can do that by legalizing them.
There already is a legal process for immigrantion isn’t there
It is inadequate.
But, what about the Bentleys? They need someone to buy them. Also, what about the private islands? Who is going to price out the indigenous people? Did you think about that? What about the private planes to visit their friend Jeffy? He’ll get lonely.
I’m not American, but isn’t there an underground adage something like, “The country runs on migrant workers”?
And from what I see from beyond its borders, whenever it breaks—sometimes in such a way it impacts globalisation and foreign economies—its always been the rich.
Kind of, but that’s not even very “nice.” Yeah, there’s a lot of things that migrant workers do, primarily in agriculture and service work, but they’re still taken advantage of. If we’re being honest, the relative comfort of the first world relies on the exploitation of the global poor.
Don’t migrant workers get work visas for picking fruit?
That’s also the key to understanding russian pre-war chauvenism against middle-eastern and asian immigrants. Construction businesses can buy and kill everyone who disagree with them abusing foreign workforce for pennies, and the problem is migrants themselves somehow, them reduced to animals living in stationary train sections and working 12h shifts only to send their income home. That’s to no one’s surprise they aren’t well-integrated into society.
Reminds me of how the poor white small farmers in the pre civil war south, were being destroyed by slave owners and their mega plantations with unpaid slave labor. And instead of getting pissed off at the plantation owners and aristocracy that was hogging all the wealth, they fought and died for those same slave owners who were destroying them. All because they were told that if blacks were equal, that would somehow make white men lesser.
but when the wages are low shareholders earn more!
There’s just no way to know! 🤷
But the billionaires are white, so we can’t get mad at them. /s
I will not forget how Elon forced everyone but work visa immigrants (who didn’t have their Green Cards yet) to stay at Twitter. As an immigrant (and now naturalized citizen) to Canada who also grew up in Dubai (where I was not a citizen either, despite being born there) I felt the pain of the precarious situation that they were. This also made me hate Elon far more than I did already.
The point I’ve made repeatedly is that if you want to stop immigration, it’s much simpler and far cheaper to go after the big companies that hire them. Arrest and throw some American business people in jail and the rest will stop hiring.
For some reason, that doesn’t seem to get a lot of play in GOP circles.
