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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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I spent some time in Virginia, Maryland, and South Central PA about 20 years ago.

I can absolutely corroborate the profound weirdness of the crimes that started occurring as the illegal immigrant population increased in a given area.

We always had a lot of bar fights, domestics, and drunk driving arrests, but as the area started getting flooded with migrant labor, the profile of the crimes started changing.

There were not one, not two, but three distinct men who were arrested for stabbing women in the ass in stores. Specifically women, specifically in the ass, and specifically in stores.

We had another rash of complaints about a serial truck bed shitter.

Later, we had a rash of cattle mutilations that turned out to be... I guess you'd call it poaching? Rustling? Either way, it was illegal immigrant orchard workers cutting their own steaks from the local dairy cows.

Don't even get me started on the cock fighting and dog fighting operations.

Believe me when I say that the character of a place does change once the illegal immigrant laborer population reaches a certain critical mass.

I can believe that illegal farm workers are poaching, maybe stealing small stock, but they'd butcher a cow and there wouldn't be a 'carcass' left(Hispanics are actually very fond of animal parts not normally eaten in anglo-american culture; poor unassimilated Hispanics[which farm laborers would be] are actually known for not liking steak very much in comparison). I can believe there were cockfighting and maybe dogfighting rings set up by illegals but the rash of ass stabbin's doesn't sound realistic to me- do you have a news article? Obviously I have no trouble buying a one off floridaman-type serial offender, but you'll forgive me if just this one guy shitting in truck beds doesn't sound like the sort of thing to paint with a broad brush over.

I can believe that illegal farm workers are poaching, maybe stealing small stock, but they'd butcher a cow and there wouldn't be a 'carcass' left(Hispanics are actually very fond of animal parts not normally eaten in anglo-american culture; poor unassimilated Hispanics[which farm laborers would be] are actually known for not liking steak very much in comparison).

Cow heart kebab is the bee's knees, even if it upsets my stomach. I've never cared much for cow lung, but I'll eat it if there's nothing else. Organ meat is good for you; that's where all the nutrients are.

Amusingly, I've slowly assimilated into the American taste for steak. When I was younger I would only eat it well done, because I thought bloody meat was gross, and consequently I did not enjoy steak any more than I did chicken, and I found it distinctly inferior to fatty pork, despite being more expensive. But after years of getting bombarded by the medium rare meme, I broadened my horizons, and now I realize that the gringos were onto something with this whole steak thing.

because I thought bloody meat was gross, and consequently I did not enjoy steak any more than I did chicken

Dunno about that "consequently". I prefer my steak well done, and a nice well-done steak is one of my favorite foods.

It goes both ways- Lengua and Chicharron have developed a following among Gringos. We still mostly think tripa is gross, and menudo is restricted to being a folk cure.

Gringas mostly still think it's all gross.

Also for @Amadan, who asked in another thread.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/fairfax-county-butt-slasher-to-be-sentenced-friday/1924072/

Pimentel was arrested near a shopping mall in Peru, in January 2012. He was extradited to the United States in December.

I live in that general area, and none of this sounds remotely familiar or believable. Are there a lot of illegals, and crime (especially in the Baltimore -DC corridor)? Of course. But all these tall tales about one town after another being "invaded" by mustachioed Mexicans beating up the high school students, roads swarming with drunken gangsters, museums literally being torn up like an SNL sketch of Great Replacement Theory?

Obviously asking for places and news articles would be tantamount to asking someone to dox themselves, so happily, no one will ever be required to prove any of this and people will believe it or not according to what they already believed.

museums literally being torn up like an SNL sketch of Great Replacement Theory

Most of this sounds wild to me too, but I have no difficulty believing that bit. I don't think it's got much to do with immigration - even a connection to wokeness-writ-large seems strained - but memorials to otherwise-non-historically-relevant individuals being lost to renovations because nobody gave a shit is a story I've heard many times. My old college absolutely broke a sweet old nonagenarian's heart when they reorganized which departments got what buildings, and, in the process, failed to carry over the naming of one of the humanities dept.'s main lecture halls after his long-dead wife, who'd been a lecturer there herself. It wasn't anything to do with her being cancelled, it wasn't anything personal at all. There was just no procedure for carrying the tributes over, and no one cared enough to make one even with the old guy protesting to anyone who'd listen.

even a connection to wokeness-writ-large seems strained

No, I think it’s very easy to place the blame squarely on wokism, especially given this detail:

The museum to the accomplishments and hardships of my ancestors had been "renovated". It now celebrated the fictitious diversity my town has always had.

Museum curators are 94% Democratic, and the newer generation seems quite gung-ho on inserting racial diversity everywhere. The New York Tenement Museum made the news a few years ago when it altered its core principles to change its focus from the Italian and Jewish families who actually lived there to celebrate a black Black family who didn’t. The Art Institute of Chicago made headlines around the same time for firing its entire staff of unpaid, highly educated volunteer docents because they were too white and hiring (and paying) a younger, more diverse crowd in their place (something several other museums also did, but without the attendant fanfare). In the city closest to my own hometown, the history museum has started replacing its old displays on the history of the area. With the changes, a first time visitor could be forgiven for thinking that the area’s history went 1) Native Americans, 2) Genocide, 3) Civil Rights, and 4) Immigration (2000–present), without anything of note in between. It’s a deliberate assault on the heritage of the people who actually built the city and made the area what it is today, and it’s entirely due to the wokeness of the museum staff.

I didn't mean that there was no wokeness in museums, just that the "memorials being forgotten about in renovations" thing doesn't necessarily/inherently seem like an effect of it. As per my anecdote, I've seen the same thing happen for no political reason at all, just because the bureaucrats who oversaw some alteration or other to a building or organization didn't care to preserve them in the switchover. (I do not say this to exonerate them. Frankly, all else being equal, the thoughtless lack of respect appalls me more than any deliberate attempt at damnatio memoriae. Actively wanting to destroy the legacy of your enemies is at least an understandable human emotion.)

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design..."

Which is to say there's a pattern here. Sure, sometimes things happen by accident. But when the "accidents" all point in the same direction, and aren't corrected either before the fact or after the fact even when warning or complaint is given, there's good reason to believe they're not accidents.

especially in the Baltimore -DC corridor

That might be a big part of the distinction here.

articles would be tantamount to asking someone to dox themselves,

I'll give some location details anyway. I'm not talking about Chevy Chase and Darnestown. I'm talking about Rocky Ridge and Harney. These were poor, fucked up areas that only got more fucked up. The people living between the beltways just assumed it was rednecks doing redneck shit and never looked any deeper. Given the age of the events and the crap sack quality of the local newspapers, I doubt that I could find anything without going to microfiche at a local library. Since I'd rather set myself on fire than go back there, you can retain your sense of disbelief.

None of these statements sound like believable or normal behavior for poor unassimilated Hispanic migrant workers. Public urination, drunk driving, catcalling getting a bit younger than gringos would go, bar fights, poaching, cockfighting- all sounds like the sort of thing that might happen(and which is just generally a hazard of importing male-skewed unskilled laborers in large numbers). But these stories never confine themselves to the plausible.

But these stories never confine themselves to the plausible.

Neither does reality.

Right, the odd Florida man type story involving an illegal doesn't raise any suspicions, but it also isn't the occasional Florida man type in these stories- it's usually portrayed as some sort of trend. Believable third world behavior is often worth complaining about to people who aren't used to it(FWIW I 100% believe Haitian refugees were poaching ducks in a public park in Ohio, being extremely bad drivers, etc- because that's believable third world behavior).

Serial butt stabber sought in Fairfax County

They did get him, he indeed was an immigrant

I don't know about there being two more.

Sure, I believe an immigrant once went around stabbing people in the butt. I even heard about that one at the time. Because it was quite newsworthy.

This seems like some remarkably bad faith on your part.

First, you claim that nothing like this happens. Then you Darkly Hint that no one will provide examples, because they have a convenient excuse not to do so.

Then two people provide an example, despite your Dark Hinting.

After that, you employ what I can only call a reverse isolated demand for rigor to blow it off as an isolated incident and not useful as any kind of corroboration for lived experience. You and other mods have banned people for that kind of bad faith behavior in the past.

At this point, I'm going to ask you outright. What would you actually require to believe anything that I have said? Because from where I'm standing, it seems like your mind is already made up.

You (and WC) aren't just asking me to believe isolated incidents. You are asking me to believe that everywhere immigrants exist, they are transforming entire cities and turning them into third world hell holes, and hardly anyone is noticing all these horrible crimes and community destruction. It's not that any one story is hard to believe. It's the parade of horribles, more horrible incidents happening one after another than most people see in a lifetime.

I am actually not pro immigration, or at least not pro mass immigration. I believe they generally increase crime, put a burden on social services, and negatively impact society.

But it's kind of like the guy who really hates black people and is constantly telling stories about how everywhere he goes, at work, at the store, in his neighborhood, everywhere, there's always a story about a black person doing something awful. Often something cartoonishly awful.

Do I believe one or two of those stories? Sure, maybe. Do I believe black people often do awful things, and at a disproportionate frequency? Yeah. Do I believe that he is constantly running into black people being nothing but horrible? No. At a certain point you recognize a pattern to the stories. They are more of a vibe than accurate narrative.

Reminds me very much of Scott's misophonia essay.

That is... That is an uncharitable take on what I said.

First of all, I'm not WC. Please do not treat me like I am WC. Please do not put WC's words in my mouth. Please do not assume that my intentions and his are the same. We are not the same person. We have different goals and intentions.

Now that's out of the way, you're reading a much stronger version of what I wrote than what I intended to write. Did I say "hellhole" anywhere? No, I did not. That's your interpretation through the lens of whatever other biases you have. WC might have said it, but I did not. I didn't mention Black Americans either. I'm not even sure why you're bringing it up now.

What I did say is that, in my experience, crimes get weirder as illegal immigrant migrant labor increases in small communities. I provided some examples of that. I did not make inferences about larger civilizational impacts, because once again, I am not WC and I do not share in his motivations.

All I can say is that you can tell me that I'm wrong, but I'm still the one that spent an afternoon hosing human shit out of my cousin's toolbox.

What I did say is that, in my experience, crimes get weirder as illegal immigrant migrant labor increases in small communities

Okay. I believe that. Are you satisfied?

Yes. I am satisfied, mostly because you're not trying to cram me into a WC-shaped hole.

One was in the York/Dover area, and one was around Frederick.

One would have been around 2005, and one would have been around 2008-2009. I had already left the area, so I don't have firsthand information.

Assassins in the ass in stores.

Believe me. After we got over the initial shock, the topic was the butt of our jokes for weeks.