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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 1, 2025

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Hyundai Raid Rattles a Hot Spot of Growth in Georgia

In the suburb of Pooler, that promise seemed to already be coming true. The population shot up 22% between just 2020 and 2024, according to census estimates, to around 31,000. Demographic data lags behind, but community leaders estimate half of that growth has come from Koreans.

Suddenly, the single Korean restaurant in town had to compete with around half a dozen others. The newly opened Costco, locals said, started carrying Kimchi, dried seaweed and mandu dumplings. New homes sprung up by the dozens, and Korean families moved into planned neighborhoods with streets named Blue Moon Crossing and Harvest Hill.

The raid and its fallout shocked the auto industry, and South Korea. Nowhere is that shock more apparent than in a place like Pooler, where a new Korean community had taken root. Some said they felt betrayed by the raid, especially after Korean companies made such a massive investment in the U.S. Others said they believe that improperly documented workers have brought undue scrutiny upon those who are here legally.

“You can feel the tension,” said 51-year-old Hoseong Kim, an American citizen and local pastor, also known as Robin. Like many Korean immigrants, Kim took on an American name to “fit in better” with American culture.

The result was demographic replacement.

You're going to have to spell that out for me.

Koreans, really? It's demographic replacement by the least fertile demographic in the world?

At any rate, it's not clear to me that addition constitutes replacement.

It's spelled out in the article. Foreign food, foreign languages, and foreign customs are becoming dominant in place of the native white population.

You said in place of. What's your evidence for that? I just distinguished between addition and replacement.

I don't have a Wall Street Journal subscription, so I can't read the article itself, but I would be very shocked if the WSJ was pushing a line about demographic replacement - especially since the portions you've quoted sound sympathetic to the Koreans.

Of course the WSJ is sympathetic to the Koreans; it's a liberal and immigration friendly paper. What does that matter? The article states that foreigners are moving in and the population of the natives is going down. I would characterize this as demographic replacement through immigration.

Is the native population declining? Your quotes didn't say that, and as noted I can't read the article.

I think degree matters as well. If a native population goes down by 1% while at the same time some migrants move in, I wouldn't consider that replacement. I think the word 'replacement' suggests a wholesale removal. Is anything like that going on?

Many people care about their local community and don't want it to change. Whatever the details are regarding the fertility rate of the established white population in the area versus the fertility of the new group is really secondary. The large infusion of new people from a different culture will change things. That is something that many people don't want, and understandably so. They are invested in the way things are, maybe for many generations.

Is the native population declining?

even if they aren't things will change. But white americans don't have very high fertility rates so we can assume that the established white community probably doesn't have such overwhelming fertility rates such that they make the influx of new people irrelevant.

I wouldn't consider that replacement. I think the word 'replacement' suggests a wholesale removal.

Fine. How about dilution? The existing population, and their community, and their culture will be diluted, which is bad enough. Concentration is just as important a variable in community strength as raw numbers are. At the very least, as the original local population is diluted their collective political power is equivalently diluted. So there is an objective reduction in the power they have over their home.

And dilution becomes more threatening due to the fact that white communities in America are generally pretty weak in terms of cultural vitality. Having a large influx of foreigners who might have more vitality and a stronger sense of community means that the new comers can punch above their weight comparatively. As dilution occurs the threat of actual replacement becomes greater, and the ability to resist it is diminished.

You can prefer dilution and cultural change in exchange for increased economic investment, but many don't. It seems like you're being intentionally avoidant about the concern.

If the concern is cultural change, I think that's valid, and I'm open to a discussion about that.

That is, though, I think a different concern to 'demographic replacement'? I take demographic replacement to suggest an agenda of, well, replacement - that is, not just a community changing through migration and integration of people of new cultural backgrounds, but rather the elimination of the existing population, and new people taking its place.

If the concern is cultural change, I think that's valid, and I'm open to a discussion about that.

Well I would say yes, that is one of the concerns. But I didn't meant to imply that only cultural change matters. Demographic change, or more directly, ethnic change, is also part of the concern. Ethnicity is a powerful layer that has major effects on community and culture. Ethnic groups have in group preference and people of a shared ethnicity will almost always seek each other out to cooperate when in a multi ethnic setting.

and I'm open to a discussion about that.

ok then lets proceed with that

I take demographic replacement to suggest an agenda of, well, replacement - that is, not just a community changing through migration and integration of people of new cultural backgrounds,

Yeah, I recognize that. I think you are being a little too literal with your interpretation of that term but I heard you concern. Thats why I offered an alternative, which is dilution. Do you accept that term? If so, can you then respond to all the stuff I said about why dilution could be reasonably considered bad or threatening to many?

I also argued that dilution has the effect of weakening the political power (and other kinds of power) of the established group, thereby making that group more vulnerable to actual replacement in the future. So while you don't accept that whats happening represents active replacement, would you agree that it is a step in that direction? When people are saying demographic replacement they don't usually mean that it is radical and immediate ethnic cleansing. But lets switch to dilution, something else that is threatening, do you agree thats happening? Do you see why that would threatening?

I didn't really say anything about an agenda of replacement, or agenda at all. I think that sometimes is a real thing. I sort of doubt it in this case. But thats not the core concern. The influx of foreigners will dilute the established group and that has negative effects, therefore it is a topic of concern, and we should seek policies that will prevent it - was what was being discussed I think.

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