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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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Or to put it concisely, they should incur some actual costs so their virtue signalling actually carries some signal and stops being pure noise and posturing.

Either they can suggest that taking in these immigrants is good and thus agree to accept more from southern states, or they can scream about a humanitarian crisis and resources stretched thin, at which point they acknowledge that the Southern states have it way worse.

So where's the evidence of them screaming? NPR reports that they're working on helping those immigrants, but they didn't have the items or capacity on hand.

"Everything from beds to food to clothing to toothbrushes, toothpaste, blankets, sheets — I mean, we had some of it ... but we did not have the numbers that we needed," said Lisa Belcastro, who runs the island's homeless shelter

For that matter, where's the virtue signaling? What proof is there that MV is supportive of illegal immigrants?

The Border Patrol didn't have toothbrushes or toothpaste or blankets or sheets on the border either. You might not have noticed, but they were reduced to herding people into pens under freeway overpasses for lack of places to put them.

What proof is there that MV is supportive of illegal immigrants?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/florida-flies-migrants-to-sanctuary-destination-of-marthas-vineyard

Martha’s Vineyard has styled itself as a “sanctuary destination” that welcomes migrants — a position it took early in former President Donald Trump’s administration.

From back in 2017:

https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2017/04/06/immigration-issue-stirs-heartfelt-response-island

I assume this is sufficient proof.

So where's the evidence of them screaming?

Perhaps 'heated discussion' is the more accurate way to put it.

The apparent official response is they can't stay and will be transported away... which seems to bely the idea of providing a 'sanctuary.'

https://twitter.com/NYCHomoCon/status/1570456702390267905#m

Meanwhile, the residents themselves seem rather torn over the situation, with the ones most angry about Desantis' action turning out to be the least likely to support housing the migrants locally.

https://twitter.com/DoctorTurtleboy/status/1570571488956395521

Which is pretty damned classic NIMBYism if you remove the specific context.

Meanwhile, many southern towns are getting twice this many migrants on something like a daily basis and it causes minimal national headlines for some reason.


Absent any of the above, the 'virtue signalling' part arises from a town declaring itself a sanctuary city whilst, apparently, lacking the infrastructure to actually handle people seeking sanctuary.

As in, signalling support for a cause whilst not actually acting in support nor putting any skin in the game, but only so they can claim to be virtuous.

My bet is they will continue to claim support for illegal immigrants whilst making zero changes to accept such immigrants, and in fact taking measures to prevent this particular type of shenanigans.

And in such case I won't mind seeing red tribe politicians calling their bluff and helping them put their money (or, alternatively, their foot) where their mouth is.

Thanks for the links. You're certainly correct that Martha's Vineyard appears to have pledged itself to not obeying federal immigration laws. I don't like this kind of political action, but I can't deny that MV wasn't walking the walk.

As far as I can tell, they've "helped" them straight onto a bus and far away from them:

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1570786066025836545

With the help of the National Guard (who needed to outnumber them more than 2 to 1, obviously):

https://twitter.com/EmilieIkedaNBC/status/1570775078828388353

I'm sure the illegals were persuaded to pose for a few feel-good photo shoots to project the image of virtue. Certainly the MSM is making hay of it. But when push came to shove they bundled the diversity onto a bus and sent it away.

sounds like they're making room for the next group DeSantos sends there.