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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   7020 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026

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I never said foreign born. I said foreigner.

You did say foreign born:

That's because they don't want to be sent back where they came from. It's all motivated reasoning, all the way down, but the truth is just like last time the foreign born population crested 15%, there's a backlash coming, and this is laying groundwork to salvage some of what will be lost.

Because that's what's measurable and comparable to the backlash I referenced 120+ years ago. Teddy and Woodrow both said something similar, back then, to what I said now.

I will grant that I said foreign born, but it wasn't about these people in particular but rather the state of the nation.

What did Teddy say that agrees with your, uh, limited conception of who is an American?

Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns out people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polygot boarding house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

Tell me, whence the crucible? I'm seeing polyglot voter registration in my home. I see encouraging and celebrating this, and I see it coming from the party that Akhil is supporting in his arguments. I see his arguments as directly undermining Teddy's goal and preventing the forging of an American people.

And if he were alive today, he'd say the same. He'd see ESL classes in public schools, he'd see interpreters in courts, he'd see the foreign flags being waved and American citizen representing hostile powers, and he'd say the same.

In his time, they fixed this by slamming the doors shut for sixty years. We need at least that much now.

I'm totally on board with Teddy here, but (and?) he's obviously staking out a position entirely different from yours. Consider a man who moves here from Mexico, acquires American citizenship, renounces his Mexican citizenship, speaks perfect (and exclusive) English, and flies an American flag in front of his house. Teddy would have no reservations about calling such a man an American, but you would never do so. Your positions are not at all similar.

If that man is anything but a myth, then I'm perfectly happy making him collateral damage in the necessary corrective. But in today's age, I simply do not believe in such men, and I am unwilling to moderate on their behalf. The hour is late. The crucible has broken, the judges have given their opinions about what is allowed, and now nobody leaves their loyalties at the door because they don't have to. Everybody sends remittances.

Teddy might try to spare your hypothetical man, but it would be sparing him from the righteous expulsion of millions of people from the polyglot boarding house.

I don't think Teddy would care more about your one man more than he would about mandatory ESL in public schools or voter information and registration printed in ten languages from four continents. You know, the things he warned about the are widespread, required by law and court opinion, and have resulted in exactly the scenario he warned against.

After the failure of his preferred methods, I think he would be reasonable about the consequences of such a failure.

I have my answer for what to do about the polyglot boarding house. What's yours?

Everybody sends remittances.

This is just false. Forget about the guy who moved from Mexico. If you think the American born kids of every immigrant (who you don't consider Americans either) are sending remittances, I have to wonder how many such kids you've met, because it doesn't match basically any of the second generation immigrants I've met.

mandatory ESL

What do you think ESL is and why is it bad to have it in schools? It seems pretty obvious to me that ESL classes improve assimilation over not having them.

ESL classes are a symptom for how bad the situation has become. Further, if school districts don't want to educate foreigners who can't speak English, they shouldn't have to. Finally, if they want to assimilate, they will learn English whether or not it's in schools. If you're not doing that yourself, then you're not fit for this country in the first place. It's not the government's job to pay to assimilate every foreigner who wants to be here.

Schools need to educate every student in English. If there's math for kids who aren't able to do math, seems to stand to reason that there should be English for kids who aren't able to speak English. The fiscal argument seems nonsensical - kids get English lessons anyway.

Finally, if they want to assimilate, they will learn English whether or not it's in schools.

Making it harder to assimilate may make the situation develop not necessary in your favor.

If you're not doing that yourself, then you're not fit for this country in the first place. It's not the government's job to pay to assimilate every foreigner who wants to be here.

Kids generally don't get a choice about where they grow up and indoctrinating them into American cultural norms (like speaking English) seems pretty good.

Only if by "in his time" you mean "after he was dead".

This letter was literally three days before he died, but he was consistent before then. Just afterwards things went in that direction, too.

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