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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023

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US military offers immigrants fast track to citizenship in effort to boost recruiting

I have some thoughts about this.

First, this looks suspiciously like textbook "How to lose your empire in five easy steps" guide:

  1. Have your citizens grow fat, lazy and unwilling to risk their lives, especially in far away wars that they see no benefit from anyway

  2. Hire strong and hungry barbarians to serve in the imperial military

  3. Have the barbarians realize they are now doing most of the work holding up the empire together, while not getting commensurate benefits, which go to the fat and lazy citizens instead

  4. Have the barbarians take over the reigns of power

  5. The empire suffers bouts of "bad luck"

  6. The historians write "Decline and fall of the $EMPIRE"

(Side note: since we live in the clown world, I feel compelled to add a disclaimer that the word "barbarian" is used in purely descriptive, not pejorative, meaning - as "somebody who is not part of the imperial culture" - and, in fact, for the purposes of this definition, I am a barbarian myself and many of my friends are Barbarian-Americans)

Second, we have been actively sold the notion that DIE efforts in the military are vital if we want to keep the recruiting targets and the strength of the military. I do not see this idea being empirically confirmed, and what is even worse - I am not seeing anybody even interested in empirically confirming or disproving it. I expect that from the left - you don't seek an empirical confirmation of your religion, you already know it's the true faith. But I would expect people on the right - and I mean all those talking heads, think tanks and high-flying politicians - be interested in figuring out whether DIE actually makes the army stronger - and if not, pushing that fact hard. I don't think I am seeing this. For the most of the 20th century, The Right sleep-walked into giving up almost every major societal institution to The Left's takeover, but I'd expect at least they'd put up some fight for the military. Doesn't seem to be the case. Is it that the only thing that can get people really caring nowdays is when a piss water manufacturer offends them? I'd say the military going woke is a bigger deal than piss water going woke, but I don't see the red tribe treating it this way.

As a Hegelian synthesis of the above, the third thought is that the barbarians should be, at least at the start, the least woke part of the society. Thus, them joining the army in large numbers (provided that indeed happens) should constitute at least a temporary impediment to the further assimilation of the military into the woke collective. However, again, I see very little interest - at least where I could observe it, maybe I'm not looking in correct places? - in the red-tribe thought to exploring this opportunity and building some kind of "welcome wagon" track to ensure these people will join the Right Side and vote accordingly once they become citizens. I am not sure how it should look like, but that's what these "think tanks" are for, aren't they? Do the thinking thing and figure it out. Or at least try - I don't see the trying, really. Am I wrong here?

(Side note: since we live in the clown world, I feel compelled to add a disclaimer that the word "barbarian" is used in purely descriptive, not pejorative, meaning - as "somebody who is not part of the imperial culture" - and, in fact, for the purposes of this definition, I am a barbarian myself and many of my friends are Barbarian-Americans)

It has nothing to do with "clown world", you are straight up analogizing the US to older empires that were far more explicitly formulated on a racial or ethnic basis, likewise analogizing illegal immigrants as less-civilized. You are free, of course, to idiosyncratically define "barbarian" as those who don't belong to the culture of the US (insofar as such a thing exists). But let's not pretend that this is some "clown world" shit, and that everyone in a "saner" world would understand that you weren't trying to insult those who are the "barbarians" here. It was an insult long before the advent of the "clown world".

I don’t see how the basis of empire has anything to do with it. The issue is whether or not those making the wheels turn have bought into the Imperial system. You could have an internal coup just as easily (see the fall of Czar Nicholas II) or from immigrants or imperial subjects in the hinterlands.

Increasingly, both at home and abroad, the benefits of supporting the Neoliberal Empire don’t really come to those outside of the elite circles of power. The White working class doesn’t get much of anything from support for the NLE, nor do recent immigrants who get shunted into jobs that don’t pay well. The outer providences don’t see much benefit. And I’d class most of these as barbarians.

Tbf many if these jobs can pay a lot (construction etc). There is a growing middle class of immigrants

Yes, it is possible that what kills the supposed Empire is its lower-class citizens. But the OP is explicitly about the "barbarians", hence why I'm talking about them. It's a common talking point amongst those who don't like immigrants and/or a "loose" immigration standard.

the benefits of supporting the Neoliberal Empire don’t really come to those outside of the elite circles of power

What counts as a benefit? There are many pieces of technology that drastically improve my QoL that I couldn't or wouldn't own if said empire didn't benefit. I'm about as tangential of an elite as you can get. A farmer may very well consider it a benefit to have an automated tractor that can't be made without an empire that doesn't even think about him.

The White working class doesn’t get much of anything from support for the NLE, nor do recent immigrants who get shunted into jobs that don’t pay well.

The latter part isn't true. They wouldn't come to work under an NLE if they didn't think it was worth it.

The outer providences don’t see much benefit. And I’d class most of these as barbarians.

Spoken like a true Blue Tribe heretic! You retain mostly the same definitions of who is or is not a barbarian, you just tweak them a bit!

I’d count a benefit as something you get as a member and supporter of the empire than you cannot get any other way. So like in America being a citizen gets you the rights listed in the constitution, the right, in other countries, to appeal through the embassy to the government of the USA to gain release from prison. As far as economics, the economy of scale allowed by being part of the empire where ports are rarely closed to American or European goods.