cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19930828
It's interesting, because the fewer immigrants there are, the more alien they seem, so the easier it is to fearmonger about them
This is way better than Reddit
Anyone whose income depends on harming others has an incentive to distract the people they’re harming. Point a finger at any out-group & that job is done. Immigrants are the easiest out group to post a finger at
If illegal immigrants are taking all the jobs, why don’t we blame the people giving them jobs instead of the immigrants who are desperate?
Because the immigrants aren't taking all the jobs, and we're honest. But if they were, we would.
Elon musk is an immigrant.
Mudrock family are immigrants, also were in UK while publishing xenophobia.
Shiity people often abuse the USA's liberties in bad faith and prosper.
But govt people allowed the mergers until the media are mostly owned by them, soon there will be ONE major grocery chain in USA, apparently the Loblaw imbroglio is invisible from Wash DC, and buying and selling personal data is commonplace, not even taxed much less protected.
Those Pogo comics of them going downhill out of control are from the 50s, that pure copper penny still hasn't dropped.
Who got bailed out in 2008? And who bailed them out?
I had a friend that voted for Brexit. When I asked him why, he said that his grandfather was able to buy a house and take care of his family on his salary. His father was able to do the same. He said, these immigrants come in and live two families to a house and are willing to work for far less. He said, I don't want that type of future for myself.
No amount of telling him that -- the people that caused this issue are also benefitting from Brexit -- could convince him.
Was weird because I wasn't an immigrant but my family was and he was cool with me.
They come so close. I understand the anger, broken promises from society at large, but then they do that little twist at the end. It's like they're about to win the race, then decide to just veer off into the stands right before getting to the finish line.
It's because their pain is very real, their struggles are very real, their feelings are very often valid, and they understand the concrete impact that it has had on them and their way of life.
They can't abstract that out and critically think about why that is the case, so they just repeat what an authority told them and is easy for them to understand.
I don't know though if it is simply a lack of education or an inherent human solipsism that is hard to break through.
It is the same the world over, even before TVs when newspapers brought the news, and before that anything written down was true because "priests and scholars definitely wouldn't lie." That is why extremely strict factual news laws have to be brought into effect with anyone caught lying bearing fines based on a percentage of their revenue to combat fascism that is based wholly on fear fabrication. The problem is, of course, policing that correctly as for example an American Trump regime would simply use those laws to say that anything they don't like is not true (they they do anyway now).
Yep, if you listen to guys like Steve Bannon talk, they sound like Marxists in their critiques of the system, up until the point where they have to identify the culprit. Instead of capitalists, they'll go and blame liberal elites, immigrants, etc.
I think the last step of understanding the issue is difficult because it requires admitting that their current belief and way of life is not optimal for themselves.
Everyone or almost everyone thinks highly of their own decision skills or at least that they do their best. They believe they can make good choices and that they can either outsmart or work harder than others. The truth is that, maybe they can, but there's very little choice in how it's rewarded. The believable lie is that work is compensated fairly, and once someone has put half a life into this lie, it's difficult and soul crushing to admit that it's plain wrong. It may cause frustration and anger, which doesn't solve it. A solution isn't evident or maybe it seems out of reach, causing more frustration, causing more anger. It's a lot easier to take out anger on people than fighting a system. And especially in groups, it's easier to point at smaller minority groups, because their own group is stronger or have more votes, so it's actually doable. They get a relief for the frustration by believing that they're doing something about their issue. It won't work though. It's similar to being bullied in school and then thinking it will help to take it out on the younger kids, instead of confronting the older bully.
It takes courage to fight upwards. Having been through unionisation efforts I can assure you that people living from one paycheck to the next are absolutely not courageous.
In regards to news, it's also a lot easier to simply choose the news that keeps presenting their existing belief.
"[the landlord leaves the worker] with the smallest share with which the tenant can content himself without being a loser, and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more." - Adam Smith
Don’t forget the massive property tax increases and home insurance increases. Both have doubled in less than 10 years. At least they have here in FL with our wack job governor.
Yes but that also has a lot to do with insurance companies finally using climate data for their rates.
And the lack of state income tax. The tourist taxes only go so far, they've got to make that money somewhere, property tax is one of the places Florida balances the books.
Tie housing costs to wages.
You wanna raise the rent? Go talk to the bosses and convince them to raise wages.
You wanna cut wages? Go talk to the landlords and get our rent down.
Yes! I've been saying that forever. They say rent/mortgage shouldn't be more than 30% of your income. OK, make it so if you're working full-time, you can afford to live. Doesn't seem like a complicated, or controversial, take.
I don't know a single person who is only spending 30% on housing. It's more like 50% where I live. A lot of landlords have that dumb "rule" where you must make triple the cost of the lease per month after taxes but will look the other way when 4 people split the cost evenly for a 2 bedroom apartment so they can each make ends meet. Not a single one of them comes close to making 3x the rent each month but an over occupied apartment is more likely to remove a squeaky wheel who won't pay their share of the rent on their own without management having to get involved. Saves them the trouble of having to fight a long legal battle to evict a troublesome tenant.
Housing is so beyond fucked right now.
It really is... Me and my gf are two software developers living together, AKA income definitely isn't an issue. And yet almost half of our collective income goes to rent. To be fair we are renting a 3 room flat, and it was our choice to splurge a bit for now. But when I think about the future, starting a family, suddenly a flat like this doesn't seem as outrageous of a desire. To actually meet the 30%, we'd need a much smaller flat, each on our own would only afford a single room. But our incomes are comfortably above average, SO HOW THE FUCK DOES ANYBODY ELSE AFFORD ANYTHING AT ALL?!?
Yeah but my problems are all because I have to see a brown person at work sometimes!
A quote often posted, but still works:
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Ah yes, let's attack our neighbors who try to save their money, and let's ignore the bankers and politicians who created the system that incentivizes this behavior.
This whole argument of peoples pension funds being the largest shareholders in a company is bizarre. https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/insights/public-pensions-survey pensions are owning less and less of the stock markets every year, become less and less relevant. Institutions like blackrock however are growing. Consistently.
Like mate your neighbour Barry isn't calling into the shareholders meeting to criticise the CEO for paying $0.05 an hour over minimum wage the the receptionist.
Pensions have practically vanished in the US. It's all 401k
Consider the incestuous circle of ownership of the big 3 asset managers (BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard) and despair.
That explains why the oligarchs are trying so hard to get Kamala to fire FTC leadership
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