You can advocate for free speech while downvoting the content of the speech. That's the whole principle of free speech. It's not just for the content we upvote; it's specifically for the content we downvote.
10A
Oh yeah? Educate me, wise old political agitator.
It’s generally unwise to base your arguments off of anecdotes.
I wholeheartedly disagree. Most of what we know is from our own personal experiences. It's important to be transparent that an anecdote is just an anecdote, but there's nothing unwise about basing an argument off one, provided the anecdotal source is transparent.
There is little difference between the two. Both are human, both are trying to escape danger, etc.
There's a world of difference.
A legal immigrant generally comes to the US because they're a Christian escaping persecution, and they believe "liberty or death" — American values. They are the kind of people who are law-abiding, and patriotic.
Illegals are a different type altogether. They're willing to break the law either because they're hardened criminals or because they come from a society with such lawlessness that they have no real conception of law.
I think many Americans on the Left fail to grasp this difference because they don't own ANY American flags, and they willfully break the law frequently — smoking pot, speeding when they drive, jaywalking, etc. The conservative personality type that's actually a law-abiding Christian is completely foreign to the stereotypical leftist. So if that's your perspective, you don't see a difference because you're not an American at heart.
It’s a misdemeanor, so you are severely exaggerating the severity of the crime.
Anyone willing to break the law is a criminal. Someone willing to break into another country and break the law there, is the bottom of the barrel. I don't care what category of crime it is. If you think some laws are okay to break, you're absolutely wrong. (Edit: I take it back in the case of resisting tyranny.)
[…] because America has destroyed their country […]
Cry me a river. I don't support US military aggression overseas, but at the same time people need to stand up and fight in their own country instead of running away. Cowards have no place in American culture.
That’s very easy for somebody to say who has never experienced what it is like to have your family and loved ones in danger for simply existing in one of the countries they are trying to escape from.
I have some Jewish ancestors who died in the holocaust. If they'd been armed, and fought back, they'd have died respectable deaths, and there'd have been no concentration camps. I find it hard to sympathize with any man who doesn't fight like a man.
Legal immigration takes years and thousands of dollars, per person. How is that a reasonable expectation […]
If I had it my way (and let us both be grateful that American policy is not solely in the hands of any single individual like myself), the US would grant legal immigration to less than ten people per year, maximum. The borders would be completely shut down, and once you leave you can never return. Anyone trying to enter the country (except those ten or fewer legal immigrants) would be deported by means of a catapult.
Just because a law exists doesn’t mean it is moral. Jesus knew that.
I offer you Romans 13:1-2:
Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
Now to be fair, there's also Acts 5:29, which says:
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
But that only applies to scenarios in which God has directly commanded someone to break the law of man. Show me a case of an illegal immigrant claiming God specifically ordered him to do something requiring illegal entry into the US, and I'd advocate for asylum. I've never heard of that particular scenario, but sure there's a non-zero chance it could happen.
Hmm, sounds like you missed my entire point. Nobody objects to any people existing. Some people object to particular behaviors.
I find it interesting that, at the heart of our differences, is a disagreement over the nature of the internet itself — whether it's public or private, more like a town square or more like our own living rooms. If you go back to the '90s, when the Web was nascent, I think technologists would have been surprised to learn that the issue is still so unsettled in 2023. I suppose it's a tough issue to settle. Ultimately, neither of our traditional notions of "public" and "private" fit it well.
We agree that people who want us dead should not be invited into our living rooms. My position is that by surfing kbin we are putting ourselves in the middle of a town square, and opening ourselves up to any and all perspectives, disagreeable as they may be. As an American, my sentiment is "bring it on."
I don't condone murder under any circumstances. But using 56 murders as an excuse to silence anyone online is a disgrace to the principle of free speech.
Yes, because I support free speech, a foundational value of western civilization.
This comment is libel against me. I am not xenophobic, and I do not spread fake news (to the best of my knowledge).
You're confusing that "Voltaire" quote (which wasn't actually said by him) with the American First Amendment.
The American First Amendment is predicated on America's cultural basis in the principle of free speech, which is embodied by the quote. The American First Amendment indeed applies only to government, restricting its overreach. But the principle of free speech is one of the core principles of American culture. It goes far deeper than the First Amendment.
If you don't want to debate with them then don't subscribe to their magazine, and leave them alone.
Do you have evidence to support this?
Just my personal impression from having lived in urban leftist areas. I'm not including anyone who's keyed into politics, just the other 80%.
Democrats just don’t do that.
The Democrat Party is a coalition. Democrats who believe strongly in political ideals, and who believe Republicans are evil (or close to it) would never vote Republican, sure. But I'm not talking about them. Many Democrats vote as they do just because that's what their friends and families do, and they've never been given a reason to question it. Those are the folks I spoke of, and there's a ton of them.
Seems to me that they are more than willing to do what is needed to help those in need. I truly find it bizarre how helping people is seen as a bad thing. And I find it bizarre how dehumanizing them is the norm.
We're talking about illegals here, not normal immigrants. The distinction is crucial.
When somebody's very first act on American soil is to break the law, that person is a criminal with no regard for civility. Compassion is appropriate when they remain in their home countries, fighting against their oppressors. Compassion is inappropriate for criminals who invade our country with the express purpose of breaking our laws.
Legal immigrants, who I hope have been carefully vetted for American values, are welcome to share our blessed home and our Judeo-Christian values and rugged individualism. Illegal immigrants, otoh, are by definition not.
That misunderstanding is why echo chambers grow. Your fear of being perceived as a Nazi only reveals that you're overly concerned what other people think of you, which strongly suggests that you're young and naive. As you grow up, you'll stop caring what others think of you (hopefully you will — no everyone does), and you'll learn to respectfully engage in conversation with people of divergent viewpoints (even if they happen to believe their personal level of melanin justifies their superiority complex).
No. No, that's not what I think.