>>Given current events in the USA, I can't emphasize enough how worried one should be
I've been putting my pants on every morning for the last several years, had breakfast, gone to work, and come home without worrying about any current events in the USA and my life seems no different than 50 years ago except I have modern gadgets.
Social media is not the world. In fact, it's 10% of what the real world is like and how the real world thinks. It's why I ignore social media except for HN and one other but I only scan the headlines and rarely pop into comments like this.
And I'm happy.
EDIT: And the comments below are proof why you, too, should ignore all social media and why you, too, will be happier.
Thousands of people have put their pants on, had breakfast, gone to work, and then been intercepted by militarized federal agents, thrown to the ground, locked up in prison camps, then deported overseas.
Except illegally migrate to the US without applying or engaging in human traffic and smuggling.
You may not like it, but the USA is still a nation of laws. It's also a modern nation. Third world shitholes have lots of problems caused by illegal immigration because they don't do enough to enforce the law and restore order for their citizens.
I'm rather glad that US culture hasn't yet turned into another Afghanistan or Pakistan.
No, including illegal immigration. There are people who have immigrated fully legally within the boundaries of the laws of our nation and still gotten targeted, detained, arrested, and even deported.
There are American citizens getting stopped and harassed for their papers.
It's always hilarious hearing the "America can't become one of those shithole countries!" while advocating for policies and attitudes that are pervasive in said shithole countries.
It's not a crime to be an unauthorized resident of the United States; it's a civil offense. Knowingly hiring an ineligible worker is a crime, however. I'm curious why we aren't going after the employers attracting and hiring undocumented residents.
Besides, people were being deported in significant numbers across multiple presidents in both parties without resorting to the strategy and tactics of the current administration.
They should have thought of that before entering this country illegally. Millions more have an opportunity to avoid this risk right now by leaving voluntarily but they choose not to.
Nobody needs to bet - in a lawful society, the law should protect citizens from government agents shooting them dead. ICE already shot dead two US citizens. What would a bet change here? That is a system that clearly does not work.
WTF are you talking about? Next time you fail to obey a yellow light signal, you'd be rightfully distraught if you were put in prison and someone were to say that you deserved it because you should have thought about stopping at the yellow as the law prescribed.
Were these thousands of people all legal US citizens?
>Glad things are comfy for you though.
Things for my family, my relatives and me are great! When I was in my early 20s I often went hungry. Now I'm worth a lot of money. Couldn't be happier as a normal, decent, everyday US citizen.
As someone completely unaffected by both the protests and deportations, I still feel quite sad about the current situation.
I feel like we should still have empathy, not only for the people who are completely clean legally, but also for the illegal immigrants. Sure, they made a choice which put them at odds with the legal system, and yet I still don't want them beaten up, stripped of any of their rights (as non-citizens), with their families destroyed.
I keep thinking, if I was in their situation, I could've made that same choice, it's certainly possible, if I was just born somewhere else.
Now I don't think illegal immigrants are guilt-free I suppose, some of them are horrible people I'm sure, and they still deserve humane treatment, I have a lot of faith that that's still one of the most important pillars of a good society.
Obviously we can argue about numbers, maybe abuse doesn't even happen often at all, maybe every single person abused has committed a crime. It could be, and even then we should try to be humane, if we can...
I am always happy to hear when people are doing well though! Most of us won't be directly affected, luckily, and I really hope it will stay that way as well. The less people in duress, the better.
And what exactly is that way? Semi-official paramilitary groups harassing americans? Desperate attempts to demonize minorities? Threats to prevent future elections? Trade wars that fuck over the american economy and moronic foreign policy that pisses away decades of power accumulation? That's all the fault of asking people to be humane?
The erosion of accountability and personal responsibility. If there weren't any illegal immigrants there wouldn't be any need to go looking so invasively for them. This is a very strong course correction after many years of neglecting things.
The presence of illegal immigrants does not, in fact, mean we have to go looking for them. It definitely does not mean we have to break the law while doing so.
Also it's weird how the group that used to talk about personal responsibility elected trump, the literal antithesis of taking responsibility for anything ever.
Wrong question. The right question is, "were any of them US citizens or legal residents?" And the answer is yes, some of them were. For some of them the use of past tense is particularly appropriate because they are no more.
Those people were people who previously made the decision to illegally immigrate to the US. Lots of people start their day normally and then get arrested by militarized cops because they are wanted for murder or assault or burglary or cryptocurrency fraud. The fact that the US has a criminal justice system including police that arrest people suspected of crimes, isn't new, isn't obviously worse than competing systems (e.g justice via informal militia/lynch mob), and doesn't have any implications for the use of Discord today that it didn't have a decade ago.
That assumes that e. g. ICE were only involved against people who have broken the law. First and foremost - this is not the case. Second: when you look at the two executions of US citizens, that is also something not touched by your comment. It is not good to try to describe e. g. ICE without also mentioning the negative sides, such as them having shot dead at the least two US citizens already for no justifiable reason.
Did you even read the article? He entered the country on a tourist visa and never left. That is entering the country illegally. Getting married and applying for adjustment of status does not give him legal status. He should rightfully be deported.
Except most US voters disagree with you. Someone married to a US citizen does have residency rights, notwithstanding the paperwork quirk that you're supposed to exit and re-enter, which typically involves flying somewhere going to the US embassy to get a stamp and flying back. So just as most people don't support the death penalty for speeding, most people don't support criminal deportation for someone who has the right to be in the US but for whatever reason (perhaps lack of money or perhaps fear of strip searching and disappearing to the gulag) didn't follow the proper process. Because most voters don't see this situation as a crime and certainly not one requiring deportation, the law doesn't treat this situation as a serious crime, or actually a crime at all.
If you want to aggressively going after folks who have skirted immigration rules perhaps the place to begin is in the east wing (if it still existed).
> Those people were people who previously made the decision to illegally immigrate to the US.
There are no limits here and there many publicly available proofs of people getting harassed and detained regardless of legal status and deported contrary to court rulings that apply to their situation. You don't need to repeat the current ICE/DOJ lies - they can speak for themselves.
You would have to include ALL actions, including ICE troopers shooting dead US citizens too. You can not merely confine it to "this is what they do in theory"; you need to look at what they do in practice.
The legal immigrants have it the worst --- they're the ones who got in legitimately, that already being a struggle as it is, only to be cheated by all the ones who didn't.
I never liked this quote, because it makes help a matter of anticipated reciprocal help rather than simply a good thing to do. Besides, memories are short.
How much "good thing [we] do" is based on anticipated reward has been a topic of debate for roughly as long as we've had language, but I'll take anything that convinces people like that to actually care about people other than themselves.
Are you saying legal US citizens are having a tough time in Minnesota with ICE? My cousins and their families aren't. They're too busy leading their own normal, daily lives.
Yes; my neighbors had trouble going to the grocery store. From appearances, you might think they're on vacation from Mexico. They have been here for generations, and one of their family is a high enough ranking member of the military that I won't say more to avoid the risk of doxxing them.
Have you considered they could maybe just stop interfering with federal law enforcement and let them do their jobs as they have been doing for decades under all sorts of administrations? You'll be hard pressed to find a tear shed for agitators protecting illegal immigrant criminals with deportation orders.
Neither you nor anyone else believes this is how immigration enforcement has been done "for decades under all sorts of administrations."
You can make it appear as if you have a better grasp on reality by just acknowledging that this is a much different enforcement mechanism than we've seen in the past, but you think that's okay.
Anyway there are now several known cases of people being detained or deported without deportation orders. This is another point that you could at least give the appearance of honesty and grasp on reality by acknowledging.
That is not a good analysis because it insinuates that everything stays the same. This is clearly not the case. Besides - no matter whether in a democracy or in a dictatorship, almost everyone puts on pants.
It is also incorrect to confine this "merely" to social media. This is clearly government overreach. They want data from The People.
If your eyes are closed, then things look the same whether you're in the middle of a calm meadow or on a highway about to be run over by a truck.
If you prefer not to look, maybe because you're convinced there's no truck, or you don't think it would help avoid the truck if there is one, fair enough. But the fact that your personal experience is unchanged is meaningless.
I've been putting my pants on every morning for the last several years, had breakfast, gone to work, and come home without worrying about any current events in the USA and my life seems no different than 50 years ago except I have modern gadgets.
Social media is not the world. In fact, it's 10% of what the real world is like and how the real world thinks. It's why I ignore social media except for HN and one other but I only scan the headlines and rarely pop into comments like this.
And I'm happy.
EDIT: And the comments below are proof why you, too, should ignore all social media and why you, too, will be happier.