As a two-time immigrant, I’m most seriously opposed to this project. I’m not a mental invalid or a child. I made my own decisions and am living with their consequences, both good and bad. Nobody can make me feel anything. You are not my mommy and I’m not your toddler.
And what did I do to merit this daily soul-searching in front of a mirror? Moved? That’s my big, heroic feat? That I packed up my stuff and moved? My decision to move in pursuit of my own private goals places an obligation on people who never asked me to do it? Why is it that this particular personal decision is so privileged over any other? Why don’t we concentrate on how to make life easier for pregnant women, families with 3+ children, the elderly, the veterans?
Even among close friends such behavior would be creepy. Imagine your best friend telling you that she stands in front of a mirror every single day wondering how she can make your life better. You’d think she’s gone mental. You’d tell other people, “poor Lucy, I think she’s not well.” Because we all know that this isn’t a normal way of engaging among adults. Nobody wants to be anybody’s pity project.
I am deeply grateful that first Canada and then America accepted me as an immigrant. I don’t expect anything beyond that. To the contrary, I want to demonstrate that I provide value, that I’m not a drain. It actually feels really good to be able to say, “I put an enormous effort into assimilating, my child is as American as they get, I’m law-abiding, I’m productive, I’m not a drain on welfare resources, I pay a lot in taxes.” I received a big gift by being allowed to come. Now I must reciprocate. At the very least, I should try not to turn my presence into a punishment for the locals.
This Senator thinks he’s being kind but he’s completely counterproductive. This is a perfect example of what they call toxic empathy.
Clarissa's Blog 
Oof. An old overseas acquaintance recently got in touch. Just a kid when I met him: blazing bright. Effectively no real English instruction in his town, but he’d taught himself to speak it pretty well from American movies, mostly. I gave him my dictionaries when I came home. One of those “that kid is going places” personalities. He says meeting us kind of kicked his curiosity about the wider world into high gear, ultimately led to college in Australia.
Anyway, he moved to Canada this year. I have… such mixed feelings! There’s a tremendous anti-immigrant backlash brewing and I don’t want him caught in it. His home country is coming up in the world. I want to be happy for all he’s accomplished, and I also want to tell him to find a way to get back home, before things get too weird in N. America. Then again, I haven’t seen any indications the backlash will involve east asians: nobody complains about them?
None of which is relevant. He’s a seasoned international person these days, college degrees and stuff: not a kid, for all that he’s frozen that way in my memory. I haven’t seen him in… fifteen years? But by golly I *liked* that kid, and I’m anxious for him.
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This is why there’s so much infighting on the right at the moment. This is a very probable version of the GOP post-Trump. Back to the chamber of commerce, infinity immigration, neocon ways of the Bush era. And the majority of the GOP establishment right now wants this to happen.
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I break out in hives when I imagine that possibility. With all his imperfections, at least Trump is not whatever these slimy types are.
Dude, we can’t go back to that. It’s too depressing.
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He’s not, but then I look at what he does and not what he says. He says a lot of things but his actions don’t match his words. I’m beyond being entertained by tweets.
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The disparate impact was cancelled today. That’s good. Obviously, I’d like to see more but this is something.
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On a related note I listened to the piers-fuentes debate and fuentes’s show afterwards. My god, what a beatdown!
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It was very illustrative. The clueless liberal Boomerism that clucks like a scared, outraged hen was on full view.
The biggest generational divide becomes obvious in people’s reaction. Those who think that Morgan did great in that debate are… very old.
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Piers threw the proverbial kitchen sink at him. “Respond to this random weird jew I brought on to scold you about the holocaust!!!” And Fuentes just laughed in his face.
I could’ve prepared better for this debate.
Piers: “Here’s a 20 second clip of you saying something naughty”
**Gets destroyed
“Moving on, here’s another 20 second clip of you saying something naughty”
He had zero rebuttals and appeared to rely solely on the presentation of video clips to carry his argument. Is this how you prepare for a debate?
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Right, whenever Nick would respond and explain his reasoning… Piers would simply move on to a new gotcha. The only thing he got stuck on was that anecdote about Nick’s father which was the most mundane, boring anecdote ever. But clearly to Piers it was very meaningful.
I was observing his wriggling with an entomological interest.
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That was such a scummy move by morgan to spell out his dad’s full name on air. Completely unnecessary and designed to get his dad into trouble. He’s not retired. He’s still out there working for a living.
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And so hypocritical. As if Piers often goes to bad areas of town in his expensive watch and suit. Such a liar he is.
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Same generational divide:
https://x.com/i/status/1998391003934253561
It’s fascinating. These older people are something else.
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Note that both tories and labour have been materially complicit in this heinous transformation of their country, so it is clear that this phenomenon cannot be understood in right vs left terms.
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LOL what makes you think that the tories were right wing or even center for that matter
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“What am I doing specifically today… to make our immigrants feel more welcome?”
Shouldn’t that be “‘What am I doing specifically today… to exert dominance over our cheap labor force and and enforceers of labor discipline?”
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