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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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Have you considered staying inside your home country? Americans overwhelmingly voted to lower immigration - Trump’s policies aren’t a "suggestion" or some miscalculation, they’re the people’s choice. It's quite selfish to continue to game the system in the face of this.

I have to ask - do you not feel uncomfortable coming to a country where the people do not want you there? I know I could not make such a move.

Large portions of Trump votes are likely based on illegal immigration or concerns about inflation, his election isn’t itself evidence that any majority of the US is deeply against having an Indian doctor move here.

And not just any Indian doctor. I think it's entirely fair to say that my values, attitudes and beliefs are far closer to American than Indian.

Hell, even the way I talk, I've been asked dozens of times by Brits if I'm an American based on my accent.

But yes, I sincerely doubt that the average American would be against a foreign doctor who had passed all the competency requirements, and had even gone through training in a Western country.

As a pretty average American compared to most of this forum, I'd be okay with you or anyone else living here only if you did most of the following: got married (ideally to an American), had kids, learned to hunt or fish, started going to church or at least showed up and participated in public events hosted by churches, took an interest in local politics, and participated in traditional civil religion ceremonies (e.g. 4th of July cookout), got and kept a stable job, and generally deferred to the local culture, social conventions, and moral code (e.g. no loud ethnic music or fireworks at weird times, no opening abortion or gender transition clinics, no complaining about halal/no vegetarian food).

If you don't want to do those things, I honestly don't really want you in my country at all, no offense personally. If you must come, I hope you stay in the rootless cosmopolitan containment zones (blue cities).

I think this is how many (most?) non urbanite Americans actually feel but as @WhiningCoil points out, even the reddest red state hobbits have been successfully trained by state education to crimestop when thinking these thoughts, so they make mouth noises about "illegal immigration."

Also, just curious, but since you are transhumanist (IIRC) atheist, isn't the social and political climate of the UK much more amenable to your beliefs and political goals? America has a large population of recalcitrant believers in the imago dei, including not a few members of the elite, who completely oppose transhumanism.

Also, speak English [or rather, the country's language whatever it may be] in public spaces. Yes, even when speaking to other people who share a different common tongue.

This may be so self-evident to some as to be not worth mentioning.

Cliques of people speaking a language you don't is demoralizing at best.

Assuming you're American, would you speak Spanish to a fellow American expat in Mexico City? Or Thai to one in Bangkok? I read once that certain Aboriginal Australians would beat to death anyone who uttered so much as a single word of another tribe's tongue on their soil and expected everyone to switch languages even mid-sentence as they were crossing tribal boundaries, but in practice this is an impossible standard to uphold unless you are a hyperpolyglot or simply never visit non-Anglophone countries.

would you speak Spanish to a fellow American expat in Mexico City? Or Thai to one in Bangkok?

If I was emigrating to there, and it was a public space? Absolutely. Admittedly, that is one of my pushes away from emigrating to a country with a different language, as I am terrible enough at my native tongue.

Be aware that immigration != tourism.

Fair enough, I respect that. I just don't know how one would consistently distinguish between tourists and immigrants just from hearing them speak in public. The children and grandchildren of immigrants also lose their ancestral languages so quickly that it doesn't seem like that big of a problem in the long run.

I just don't know how one would consistently distinguish between tourists and immigrants just from hearing them speak in public.

You can have 2000 groups of ten tourists come and speak a foreign language for a week, and that ends up being roughly equivalent to 1 (one) group of ten immigrants who come and speak a foreign language. Exact numbers depend on age of incoming immigrants and such, of course.

The children and grandchildren of immigrants also lose their ancestral languages so quickly that it doesn't seem like that big of a problem in the long run.

This is true for immigrants who assimilate - which is precisely what we aren't talking about here.