Representative Steve King of Iowa appears to be following the upcoming elections in the Netherlands quite closely. There’s reason to believe that Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom may come in first place, although that wouldn’t mean that they’d be able to form a government.
Here’s what Wilders sounds like on the campaign trail:
“There is a lot of Moroccan scum in Holland who makes the streets unsafe,” Wilders said at a campaign appearance in the town of Spijkenisse, where he spoke in English to drive home his message to his broad new international audience.
“I have one message to the Dutch people, and that is, if you want to regain your country, if you want to make the Netherlands for the people of the Netherlands,” he said, “then you can only vote for one party.”
Here’s what Rep. Steve King thinks about that rhetoric:
Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. https://t.co/4nxLipafWO
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) March 12, 2017
There’s really nothing legal and proper that you can do with “other people’s babies.” But it’s interesting that Steve King things that babies of any sort can restore civilization.
He must be operating on a variety of assumptions, such as one where you can fix societal problems by having more babies than people of other races and religions. Of course, you can also kill more of their babies than they kill of yours, which would seem to work almost as well. Or, you can deport people before they have babies or, if you act too late to accomplish that, you can deport them and their babies.
All of these strategies are consistent with King’s political philosophy. And his political philosophy is gaining popularity at an alarming rate both here and in Europe.
World War Two’s lessons are being forgotten.
They’re certainly very out in the open about their racism. Been trying to keep tabs on the election in The Netherlands, especially since I’ll be there very briefly in the aftermath. That said, I have not been following the most recent polling. Hoping that Wilders’ party has peaked too soon for their purposes. The more wet blankets that can be thrown on right-wing nationalists the better.
Or at least most of its expressions. (Admitting I do pull for the USA when our men’s and women’s national teams are playing in international football [by which I mean the Real Deal, aka The Beautiful Game] competitions; so the outcomes of the last Olympics and just-completed SheBelieves Cup were disappointing; I’ll get over it, though).
Most nationalism is — like most other “-isms” — humanity’s bane, and likely our eventual means of self-extinction.
Pretty much. The isms with which I am familiar ended up being little more than secular religions. True believers become convinced that anyone not exactly like them are to be shunned…or worse. I’m essentially an ideological agnostic at this juncture. Liberal works as descriptor if needed.
“Culture and demographics?” Doesn’t he mean “blood and soil?” Jeez, Rep. King can’t even Nazi right.
A complex topic that should not be reduced to simple racist tropes.
Is there a problem with cultural nationalism being used to battle cultural imperialism? See the rejectionism of former colonies in Africa, for example.
Is there a problem with cultural nationalism in Israel? In Japan? In China?
Hell, we even have regional cultural differences that don’t look too brotherly. We don’t even intermarry between the political parties as much.
I’ll volunteer unsolicited one you referenced, but didn’t ask: “Is there a problem with cultural imperialism?”
I’ll leave you to guess my answer to that one. Shouldn’t be difficult.
Depends on the situation, generally you want to avoid it but if my culture thinks FGM is a crime and yours practices it then I am going to put my FGM hating boot on your neck.
The Anti: “Much ink has been spilled debating the character of cultural nationalism and its relationship to political nationalism. The most influential author in these debates is Hans Kohn (1960; 1967). Kohn distinguishes between the political forms of nationalism that are ostensibly associated with the United States, France, Britain and the Netherlands, and the cultural nationalisms that he suggests are representative of central and eastern Europe, as well as the former European colonies. Not only has this dichotomy proved incredibly influential in social research, but Kohn’s valuation of the two types of nationalism has also had great impact. While Kohn approvingly characterises political nationalism as marked by Rousseau’s idea that political communities are actively willed into being, he takes the opposite view of cultural nationalism, which he characterises as fatally influenced by Herder’s obsession with a nation’s unique character. For Kohn, it is the latter which planted the seed leading to the growth of totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century.”
The Pro: “Kohn’s dichotomy has been much criticised of late. Critics claim that it should be abandoned on empirical grounds, on the basis that all national movements tend to contain both political and cultural elements (e.g. Kuzio 2002; Shulman 2002; Yack 1996; Zimmer 2003). Others question Kohn’s characterisation of cultural nationalism as an ethnic or anti-enlightenment ideology, arguing, to the contrary, that it is defensible from a liberal perspective (Gans 2000). Indeed, some analysts distinguish cultural nationalism from ethnic and civic nationalism, suggesting that a focus on language and culture is distinct from adherence to citizenship rights as well as a belief in common ancestry (e.g. Nielsen 1996). Several historical sociologists have also taken issue with the view of cultural nationalism as anti-modern (e.g. Chatterjee 1993; Jusdanis 2001; Hutchinson 2013; Smith 1995). Their suggestion is that when cultural nationalists turn to the past, it is to find ways of accommodating their purported national communities with modernity.”
Against the arguments that globalisation and nationalism are inimical, Smith and Hutchinson have mounted an impressive alternative reading. Taking a long-view of globalisation as a process that has been underway for centuries, Hutchinson (2003, 75) suggests that ethnicity and nationalism are actually engendered by globalisation. Indeed, Smith (2010, 149) argues that the recent global era should be considered a period of `internationalising nationalism’. According to Smith, nationalism has a `demonstration effect’, whereby `wave after wave of nationalisms have engulfed successive regions, engendering new claims and making equivalent demands.’ Turning to the realm of culture, Smith (2010, 50) suggests that we are witnessing an increasing role for cultural nationalism; if the criteria for entry into the global community of national states were initially political sovereignty and territorial jurisdiction, they now also include a demonstration of `cultural unity and solidarity, and preferably some degree of cultural “uniqueness”‘.
(A long read.)
State of Cultural Nationalism
I wish you would expand on that a bit.
Have to double post this because I can’t figure out how to make a single comment link.
A lot of the rest of the world thinks globalism’s multiculturalism is just another manifestation of imperialism.
Brand new nations, like in Sub-Saharan Africa, are in the process of rediscovering their cultures.
I have linked a few who have struggled with modernity and cultural resistance. Some had immigration policies that were historically very, very restrictive. Foreign enclaves, not assimilation, was the pattern.
China’s experience with rejecting its own culture…http://www.nbr.org/research/activity.aspx?id=258
The Jewish argument for “the extent to which partiality toward “one’s own” is ethically justifiable…” http://www-personal.umich.edu/~elias/zionism.htm
A region and culture I am most familiar with…”a nation is not only a political entity but something which produces meanings–a system of cultural representation. People are not only legal citizens of a nation,- they participate in the idea of the nation as represented in its national culture.” South America/Mexico
Japan, another with prickly cultural pride…Nihonjinron–the section on the post-war period illustrates the push and pull. Nihonjinron
Thank you for the very interesting links. I’m one of those Jews whose attitude about Israel is something along the lines of “I’m glad the Israeli state exists, but not glad about what it has become.” In that context, your linked item about the many meanings of “Zionism” was especially interesting to me.
Multiculturalism increasingly has the ring for me, these days, of Easier Said Than Done, and Kumbaya.
From my amateur observations of more than 50 years of living on your planet, it would seem multi-C works only to a limited extent, and much depends on which sub-cultures are involved, even in the so-called Melting Pot country.
Too great a gap currently between culture of incoming refugees and culture of new home country. It won’t work and will just create chaos, as we now see. What a mess …
I think we do better with the assimilation part than Europe. The sponsors are usually are scattered among the population, so enclaves are not so common.
And the FOOD!!! Americans fall in love (or at least tolerance) with cuisine. It can establish a positive connection with that subculture, imo. People love to share with others when it is a low stress interaction.
Yes, relative to Euro we do it better, more carefully planned influx. Also: a) US is a much larger country geographically compared to the densely populated Euro countries, so more places to scatter them, b) the incoming here tend to be from a very diverse lot of countries rather than one region/country heavily represented, and c) we have traditionally rather strict numerical limits on influx from each region and do not accept massive refugee numbers in a given year, even with the Syria crisis, partly our doing, creating millions of refugees.
Easy to be fairly relaxed about taking refugees from, say, Syria, when (so far) we’ve only committed to taking, what, 10k/year up to 60k (something like that), while Germany took in 1.1m in just a year or so from that country/region.
Agree about the cuisine. If it were just a matter of rather benign things like that and, say, new colorful music and exotic art, then acceptance by the locals would be easy and assimilation well on its way. Alas, the current situation in Europe is not that simple.
What makes you think there is better integration in the US than Europe, apart from opinion and perception?
Yes, we do better than European countries, because our tradition is immigration.
Almost no countries in Europe have such a tradition, and almost none have a compelling interest in such an approach. There is no Statue of Liberty in France (well, actually there is a miniature SoL on a small island in the Seine, but it does not have the meaning that our statue does). In Europe, immigration has almost always been a product of wars. After WWII, 12,000,000 persons of Germanic/Austrian heritage were expelled from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and CCCP. These were sent to Germany/Austria, and many were in DP camps even in 1957 when my family lived in Germany. This was not voluntary immigration.
Anything not to look in the mirror.
“WWII’s lessons are being forgotten.”
In WWII, the Netherlands were invaded by foreign warriors who did horrible things to the country.
In the current day, the Netherlands are being invaded by foreign warriors who are doing horrible things to the country.
That’s the lesson of WWII. The only ones who have forgotten them are … people like Booman, who doesn’t know shit about WWII.
My girlfriend was just in Amsterdam last November. Pray tell, what horrible and terrible things are going on, aside from the Nazi parties organizing?
OK, a personal observation here. I visited for a few days 3 years ago. My wife has family over there, and I hung out with one of her cousins and got a bike tour of the city. Her cousin– who is very liberal, told me there were lots of problems with Moroccans assaulting gays on the streets. I could tell it gave her pause– she is not racist in the least (is in an interracial relationship) but she was very troubled by the violent hostility towards gays and people in general. I can see how a more moderate Dutch person might say “enough is enough”.
It seems in Europe that a lot of Muslim groups aren’t as assimilated into Western society as they are here. Ironically, there they probably have more of a social safety net, but carry more resentment. I don’t blame the disconnect solely on the native europeans– one would expect immigrants to try to assimilate. If you aren’t at least trying to get along, you end up being just like the American religious right.
I think the key is respecting people, and their right to religion, but not respecting their religion– especially at the expense of individual rights. But if religion is not under control, one could understand how people would want to restrict immigrants of that religion. The ironic thing is the right wing in both places manipulates fear of assaults on freedoms, but would be perfectly happy if those freedoms went away.
I will profess ignorance about Geert Wilders’ background. From what I read on the wiki page about him, he is certainly braver, more intelligent, and ideologically consistent than Donald Trump. He strikes me as being somewhat akin to Bill Maher in his absolute distaste for Islam. What I did not know was that he considers himself agnostic, and was a huge fan of Israel. This part from the wikipedia was interesting:
In his view, Dutch society advocates rule by consensus and cultural relativism, while he believes that this should change so as to “not tolerate the intolerant”
The traitor and the rest of the republicans forget that part. I am not trying to be an apologist for Wilders, but will point out that the level of danger presented by relaxed immigration laws is way different between Europe and here, and the Americans act more fearful in the face of much less risk.
In the Netherlands, they have been trying for 20 years to manage the attitudes of the muslim immigrants, with little success. They force all those who wish to immigrate to watch a video about Dutch life, including some gay stuff. But the muslims in the Netherlands have not integrated.
Of course, in France and Belgium, the main problem with terrorism is not the tidal wave of muslim warriors from 2015 on. The main agents of terrorism have been the children of the immigrants of the 1960s and 1970s, and the main source of terrorist fervor is the muslim slums in Brussels and Paris. In Paris, the muslim slums are amazingly in the suburbs, not the center of the city.
Integration of muslims throughout Europe has substantially been a failure, and this is creating the right wing. The right wing in Europe is a REACTION to leftist/globalist excesses. Just like in the US, when the left goes too far, the right has a surge back. That is what is happening in Sweden, in Poland, in France, in Germany, in Netherlands, in Britain. All the rightwing stuff is a reaction to the globalist/leftist excess.
You are only repeating, very inaccurate, rightwing “facts”
I bet you dont ever hear arguments pointing out the relative differences between immigrant policy, you know, the results of “liberal” versus “conservative” policies.Or you just ignore them, funnily you dont use the “liberal” policies to argue your point, that integration has failed.
I strongly believe the situation in the Netherlands is much better when it comes to the integration of immigrants, compared to belgium, or france, who mostly ignored it.
PVV is likely getting between 15-20% of the vote max. polls are close between the 5 largest parties, and although often “the largest” in polls PVV has not done as well in actual elections. When they did manage to get into the coalition once, they did not do so well, and are seen as the cause of it blowing up fairly quickly. This makes it unlikely that they can find other parties that will form a coalition with them again.
But i can see how you are mistaken, when you uncritically accept rhetoric.
Never forget Sweden.
The Parisian banlieues, or suburbs, are historically working-class neighborhoods. Lots of public housing projects were built in those areas. People who could afford to remain in the city proper stayed there. Nowadays the cost of housing in Paris is absurd, so more and more middle-class / professional people have moved to the suburbs.
In the summer of 2008, my family and I did a vacation house swap with a French family living in the inner ring of Parisian suburbs. We were in a new high-rise apartment building, right across the Seine from St. Denis, which you might remember as the place where some of the terrorists involved in the Parisian massacre were tracked down. Anyway, my casual observation walking around, going to parks etc., is that people of different racial/ethnic groups did mix. And yes, I also saw Muslim men in long robes and people of black African origin/background in ethnic dress. Interestingly, I never saw storefronts with non-French signage. From what I could learn, there’s nothing illegal about non-French signage–what’s going on is that the large majority of immigrants come from former French colonies and arrived speaking French, perhaps learned at school.
His support for Israel is three fold.
With regard to the rest, most of the research I’ve seen on the subject is that even if there have been attempts at “cultural” assimilation, the racism steeped in the society has pushed people into ghettos, with the assist from established state policy. Similar to how AA’s have been treated in the US.
Don’t forget eschatology. A lot of fundamentalist Christians support Israel, and the annexation of the West Bank, because they think the Temple in Jerusalem has to be rebuilt for the Second Coming of Christ. I grew up with a bunch of them.
So you maintain that the typical attitude of Jewish Israelis is hatred of Arabs, Muslims and brown people?
I maintain that Bibi Netanyahu won an election he was in danger of losing by shoring up his right wing base with hatred of Muslims and Arabs, yes.
But this is what happened that last election. Anyone who sees Palestinians as people is called a “leftist”.
Israeli Teenagers: Racist and Proud of It
This view of the election is shared among advisors to Israeli politicians and in elite Democratic circles, which was revealed through Podesta’s leaked emails.
‘Bibi Won Elections Because of Race,’ American Adviser to Israeli Opposition Told Clinton Campaign Chair
Grrr, links broken without http added. Here are fixed links:
‘Bibi Won Elections Because of Race,’ American Adviser to Israeli Opposition Told Clinton Campaign Chair
Israeli Teenagers: Racist and Proud of It
Full email:
Now this was in March 2015, before Trump. So perhaps some correction is in order for that bolded part.
The only thing thats invading us here are loud assholes, screaming like little girls about the impending doom if we “allow” “them” to take over.
The same bullshit everywhere.
It’s actually embarrassing how much I know about World War Two. I spent way too much time on it, frankly, and should have spent more on the first one since it’s more relevant right now.
You’ve been exposing yourself more and more, dataguy, as a person who doesn’t have a political difference of opinion but actual supremacist views. Here you are basically endorsing the worldview of Steve King and Geert Wilders.
And you’re saying that the important lesson from World War Two is not to allow immigration, which is curious since no one I know has ever suggested that immigration was the problem. In fact, it was Hitler’s’ desire to unite cultural Germans under one government that dictated his early moves. That’s kind of the opposite of immigration. It’s more like us invading Canada and annexing everything but Quebec under the theory that white English speakers shouldn’t have to share a government with Slavs French speakers.
You would support this? Yes?
Or no. Maybe you haven’t gotten that radicalized yet. But it’s all on the same moral plane.
It’s not possible for my America to be invaded by immigrants. That’s actually what this country exists for, to provide sanctuary and legal protections to the religiously and politically oppressed, or to those who are suffering from famine or severe economic hardship at home.
We Americans are just the amalgamation of centuries of these kinds of immigrants, plus the natives that were here when you got here and the slaves our descendants brought over in chains.
There is no other America, or Real America, or real Americans vs. fake or phony ones.
Unlike you, Europeans learned the lessons of World War Two, which included that ideologies based on racial or national supremacy are a threat to the continued existence of humanity. Having figured this out, they build a society so nice that they no longer want to immigrate here by the millions.
Too bad for you, and Steve King.
Well, I’m not going to debate who knows more. I’ve been to Mauthausen, and Auschwitz. I’ve been to the cemetaries near Pont d’hoc. My relatives were in the DP camps after WWII. We lived in Germany during the reconstruction from 1957-1962 – even then, Germanic people were in camps in Germany and Austria from the ethnic cleansing after the war which I doubt you know much about.
You seem to believe that your great knowledge of WWII tells you what is good and bad for the people of the Netherlands. I have a better idea – let them vote. It has been a great experiment for the last 20 years in which the globalists have crammed people from one culture into another culture and said, “Suck it up”. But the European tradition is not an integration or immigration tradition. Theirs is a culture in which their national integrity is important. To you, their national integrity is just another word for racism. Now THAT is a contemptuous attitude.
In our country, I am more than happy to have immigrants. I want legal ones. If they are illegal, I call 1-866-DHS-2-ICE and get them deported.
National identity in Europe is important, as it is here.
There is such a thing as Dutch culture just as there is a thing like Midwestern or Southern culture. You can go to war to preserve your Southern culture in amber. But that isn’t the American way. Or, more accurately, that way lost, and cost us over half a million young men.
In truth, immigration and emigration always work on a culture and transform it over time. Dutch culture is more cosmopolitan and international than most because of their seafaring ways.
Even if Wilders’ party gets the most votes, they’re predicting something less than a quarter of the vote. We shall see.
Of course he gets a plurality. That is a parliamentary multi-party system. No one gets a majority. I thought you knew stuff about Europe and parliamentary systems.
Wilders is a popular politician, and has been in office for many years. Therefore, some people in the netherlands agree with him, and there are more every day.
We only see predictions about the election at this point. Electoral predictions are, as Hillary will remind us, not always printed on permanent stock. If he does better than others, then he will be allowed to form a government.
If that happens, it will force a new reality and a realignment. Other parties have stated that they will not work with him. That may be, but if he has ministries to offer leadership in, he may force that realignment.
He is certainly over the top in his hatred of muslims. The forced multiculturalism in Europe is getting to be more and more of a problem. Pretending that it is just racism and stuff, the old leftist trick, simply ignores the real concerns that many have.
As to your comment about integration working over time, I am sure you remember that a large proportion of the French and Belge terrorists in the last 3 years have been 2nd-generation from the slums of Brussels. So much for integration and assimilation, eh?
I noted that the I was only saying what the polls predicted, but they are predicting something less than 25% of the vote. Unless they’re very far off, he probably will not be able to form a government. And, possibly, he may not be able to form a government unless he gets pretty close to an outright majority, because most other parties are pledged not to join his.
Does this I mean I don’t understand parliamentary systems?
In any case, I am concerned that his party is getting any votes at all. It’s not like I’ll breath a lot easier if he doesn’t do as well as expected.
I also didn’t say that integration “works over time.” Or, at least, that wasn’t a point I was trying to argue.
I was arguing that cultures naturally change over time due to the influx and outflow of people and ideas, as well as from the economic changes and pressures that drive the movement of people.
Dutch culture is different today than it was in the 1970’s just as the culture of Minnesota is different than it was in the 1970’s. They’re more diverse as you can see from their soccer and baseball teams or by just visiting their cities and suburbs. This hasn’t destroyed their old cultures, and it would be unnatural for a culture not to evolve constantly.
How did Chicago become a blues town? Why do the Detroit suburbs have a million Coney Island restaurants? Why are there white people in the Black Hills?
I’m not saying there’s nothing to be concerned about, but I am saying that people must be feeling pretty good if they have time to spend worrying about the race and religion of their neighbors.
Finally, Europe is shitty at integrating non-white immigrants, but that’s not an argument for being more like them.
Probably, but “over time”. Here we’re looking at an entirely different beast — too many, too quickly, too different (great gulf between incoming culture/religion and that of receiving country).
And that’s on top of plenty of immigration in recent years in many Euro countries, where immigrant ghettos and enclaves of non-assimilation were already a problem, albeit one which some of these EU countries’ officials continue to carefully underreport.
Obviously, the lessons here are not to play a major role in creating refugees in the first place with our insane neocon-/defense industry-driven US foreign policy of aggressive intervention and regime change, and second when major internal problems in a country occur, work with other nations in a true multinational way to ensure peoples’ safety and keep them inside their borders, preferably helping to stabilize the situation. The backup plan to the latter would be to arrange for some of our allies, countries with cultural/religious traditions more akin to the people in the troubled area, to take them in, at least temporarily.
Instead, here we are, Europe destabilized.
I see a bad moon risin’. I see trouble on the way …
Merkel’s insane decision to throw the doors open was motivated by a number of issues:
But the outcome has been a total disaster. Sweden has Somali gangs which use handgrenades. Germany has had a number of issues. France has roving African gangs which beat each other, and tourists, with sticks. Italy has absorbed 300,000 migrant warriors, which no one will help them with. The German upper house just voted last week to NOT deport failed asylum seekers to the Magrib, as it is too dangerous.
And this is the START of migrant season. There are easily 2,000,000-3,000,000 potential migrants in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria. The Turkish wall against migrants is teetering on a brink, as Erdogan is not in a good place for Europeans, and he was just thrown out of the Netherlands.
In this climate of total failure of the immigration policy, the election completing today should show increases in support for Wilders and PVV. And that is good. Because the GLOBALIST CRAP we have been subject to over the last 20 years is a total pile of shit. The glossy stupidity of “migrants is good, and we sure likes that furrin food” is amazing to me. Those who live in countries who are having a migrant tidal wave are supposed to just suck it up, and say “We love muslims and their misogyny and female genital mutilation and honor killings and THEIR AVOWED HATRED of the west.”
It’s especially annoying that the migrants, who refuse to assimilate, are routinely over-represented in the ranks of those getting the dole. In many countries, the muslim clerics who call for the destruction of the west while living in the west are on the dole.
As spring comes to Germany, and 900,000 men who are 25-28 and have been without women for 1-2 years, you will see an uptick in sex assaults.
When it’s Muslims in Europe it’s invaders coming to rape their women.
When it’s Hispanics in the US it’s criminals coming to steal our jobs.
When it’s BLM it’s racist anti-whites looking to kill cops.
There’s nothing closeted about dataguy.
Simple minds find simple slogans.
Reductio ad absurdam is your stock in trade, and really, you have nothing to contribute beyond that. For you, it’s all simple, because in fact you are simple.
I have nothing to say to you.
Stormfront is that way ->
Yes, the connecting thread between all of these topics is white supremacy. It’s not like it’s a one off thing with immigration and joblessness — which we know is mostly garbage with some truth interwoven, but at least it makes a sort of sense. But then you add it together with the other parts we see, and it should be obvious to any observer what the real thought process is.
Hi, Issues!
The global elites have done a very shitty job of bringing along the general populace on the EU, globalization, and ensuring relative equity in economic growth/ income distribution from Reagan/Thatcher to the present.
In Europe, they run things for the benefit of the technocrats on the political side and for the benefit of the Germans on the economic side. So as stresses naturally occur – related to the EU or not, the common folk are just saying FU after a lot of forebearance regarding the economy/austerity, etc.
In the US, who got bailed out of the mess in 2007/8? Who’s runway got foamed? Where were the prosecutions of robo signers? People have been screwed on equitable income growth = to their productivity growth for 40 years. Their state of mind is not irrational even if their reactive decisions to vote for Trump are.
Sure global trade and integration are good in the long run, but if all the sacrifices are put on the people who never get a slice of the increasing pie, then asking them to be patient or buy into the collective good is rightly seen as just self-serving bullshit.
I don’t know the way out of this global shit storm but I can say the Democrats need some younger more creative leaders than they have now. The 2016 election is now an historical fact and it’s an uphill climb from here. The Democratic message has to be different, it has to free young people from their college debt, and it has to inspire people to see a path forward for themselves and their kids. If America can get on the right path, it will help globally. If America is seen as giving into the dark side as every significant Republican since Nixon has offered to the voters, then the world will take that as license to do whatever bad things they are seduced to support.
If all the sacrifices are put on people who see no gains, is it really the case that global trade and integration are good in the long run?
Also as I often note, human nature that is evolution is on the side of the reactionaries. When we see something or someone different our instinct is to be wary and suspicious. That us what we are fighting against.
Help needed, please! Would someone kindly explain or post a link to how the rating system works for comments here? What is the difference between the x.xx number before the slash and the single-digit number after? At the bottom of the comment, it doesn’t appear to be sufficient to choose a number between None and 4-Excellent–how do you actually apply it? And what does “Rate All” mean? So sorry, but I’m not finding this to be intuitive. Thanks for any enlightenment!
[I guess I should note that I am trying to rate a particular comment as “spot on” — I’m aware that there has been some rating controversy or abuse recently.]
Before the slash is the numerical value (which doesn’t appear until more than one rating has been bestowed; it’s an average of all ratings given, not additive); after the slash is the number of ratings given. Once you’ve selected a rating you must click on the “Rate All” button to complete the process.
Clicking on “Rate All” will complete the process but also reload the entire page. If you’re returning to a thread after reading it previously and looking for the red-marked new posts, you will lose the flags. So it’s better to read the whole thread, select a value for whichever posts you’re rating, but save completing the process till you’ve finished reading. By the way, your rating for LosGatosCA’s post has gone through.
If you click on the ratings parenthetical, then scroll to the bottom of the comment, you will see who has rated the post and what rating they gave. Doing this will also reload the whole page, as will commenting. So again, if you want to do either action on a second, third, whatever visit to a thread, either save it till you’ve finished reading, or right-click the relevant button and do said action in the new tab you’ve opened.
Does that help?
“So it’s better to read the whole thread, select a value for whichever posts you’re rating,”
Ah, this is a bit muddy. I mean for any post you want to rate select the value as you go through the thread but don’t finish the rating process with “Rate All” till you’re done reading the thread.
Oh, also, too, if you happen to change your mind on a particular rating, you can go back and rerate it, at least for some period of time (perhaps before you’ve exited the thread? I dunno.) or just reset to “none”.
Thank you SO much – this is a huge help! It’s totally clear now, but I never would have figured it out on my own.
x is the amount of votes.
xx is the average of those votes.
When you choose from the dropdown menu, nothing happens yet, only after you click “rate all” the rating you gave will be sent.
At first i dont think its possible to rate comments, only after you yourself get a few positive ratings it will be unlocked, if its still the way it was before.
Posted earlier in my diary:
○ Dutch Election Prelude – Political Row with Turkey Escalates
Ehhh … Port city of Rotterdam
Demography of the two largest cities are quite different. Turkish population in Rotterdam the highest, the city of Pim Fortuyn who rode the wave of anti-immigration at the turn into the 21st century. Pim Fortuyn participated in both the national election pf 2002 and for municipal seats in Rotterdam city council. His local party Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) rapidly defeated the majority Labour party (PvdA) and had been a major voice and force in Rotterdam ever since.
From anti-immigration it evolved inti anti-Islam, putting up road blocs for separate Islamic schools, banning the headscarf and attempt to build new mosques. For second and third generation Turks who are Dutch nationals, not a fitting welcome for integration into Dutch society.
The city of Amsterdam is the financial capital with the Schiphol International airport hub as major economic stimulus. Also here the Labour party has seen historic defeats in the last decade. Labour had formes a coalition government with the right-wing Liberal party VVD who sits next to Wilders PVV on the right. PM Mark Rutte was forced to take harsh rhetoric against Erdogan and Turkey in the vein attempt to keep Wilders from becoming the largest party on March 15th.
In Amsterdam, there is a very large Moroccan community living in lower economic conditions, housing and failure to obtain jobs often due to market discrimination. Amsterdam is known from it’s Jewish minority and Dutch football club Ajax with supporters waving the flag of Israel during their home games. Naturally, these reflects on issues between Israel and Palestine and Amsterdam events with its Moroccan community.
The austerity measures of the last five years has cut provisions in health care, the poverty stricken and car for the elderly. Labour party will get the blame and be nearly wiped out in next election, likely losing 26 of their 38 seats in 150 member parliament.
The three largest parties in recent polls have all been to the right in party policy and populist rhetoric. Austerity measures playing in the hands of capital and banking institutions through gains in the far-right political parties. As I have been warning for years about this development, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Not in the States and not in Europe, from Geert Wilders, Le Pen, Brexit and a president called Trump. Am I a Republican … what a bs from my favorite blog site.
○ US/UK Invasion of Iraq – Blowback in Dutch politics by Oui @BooMan on July 17th, 2005!!
Additional reading …
○ Opinion: Red card for Erdogan | Deutsche Welle |
○ [Sultan] Erdogan: A New Hitler Stands Up by Oui @BooMan on Nov. 28, 2015
One of my early professional mentors was a WWII veteran who, as it happened, lost most of an elbow fighting in Belgium in 1944. He went on to college on the GI Bill, and became a High School Physics teacher. I got to know him well in the late 60’s and 70’s. I’m quite sure he did not go to war for this. Sorry Gene.
Data-Guy — You’re A “Dick” — You’re “Hard-Core” — Sophomoric! — You’re NOT Going To Stop People From “Moving” Around Planet Earth In The Year 2017 — It’s Long Past The Time When You’re Going To “Control” Bodily Movement On Human Carbon Life-Forms Migrating Hither + Thither On Planet Earth! — Get Over, It, A-Hole! —-> The “Average Joe” Needs To “Pick Up Their Game” & Get “Jiggy” With It! —> They Bear Part Of The Responsibility —> (Their “Ignorance” – Which Is Self-Induced On Their Part!!!) —> So, DataGuy, The “Waves” Will Keep Comin’, Bro’ —> And You’ll Keep “Kvetching”! —> To ABSOLUTELY No F*g AVAIL!!! —-> You’re A One-Trick Pony With His Head Stuck In The Fence! —-> Neeener-Neeeener-Neeeener —-> BTW, If It Wasn’t “Immigration” — Drumpf/Trump Wouldn’t Have Funds To Stay “Afloat” —> All That Dirty RUSSIAN-MOB Money From Overseas —> To Finance His “Dirty Deals” And Sell Them Damn “Over-Priced” High-Rise Condos In Manhattan & Chicago + Panama City! —> What A Racket —> Built On The “Backs” Of “Them”!!! —-> Do, Data-Guy, “Jam-It”, Bro’!!!
“We can’t restore our civilization…”
Before we get to “other people’s babies.”, there’s this. What does that even mean? This is one of many different variations of the “take our country back” theme. It’s about time someone is asked to explain.
= White Christian men in charge. All others know their subordinate place and don’t get uppity.
We’ve tolerated dog whistles for far too long, and it’s about time they are forced to sell their idea for what it’s worth now that they are out of the closet.
That is, if they have the guts to do it. Which I doubt they do.
Some seem to think that ” make America Great Again” means there is some way back to mid twentieth century. Seems they figure if we deport enough people, build a fence, ban all the Browns and wrong religious people and get back to making more white babies all will be well again. Never mind the ever increasing income inequality, tax cuts for our betters or lack of meaningful improvement in our social and economic well being. Yeah, is this really the way out of this shit storm.
Shakezula of LGM coined the term Lebenswomb for this line of thinking.
If someone had told me that tweet was from a Jewish settler in 2017, I would have believed it.
Babies as bullets is common attitude seen in tribal conflicts in African states, too.
No need to go Godwin with it.
#bothsidesdoit amirite?
Highly Evolved Liberals are able to judge that this is a bad, bad, thing and can selectively condemn it.
Meanwhile, a lot of the rest of the world thinks global multiculturalism is just another manifestation of imperialism.
Their immigration policies have historically been very, very tight. Foreign enclaves, not assimilation, has been the pattern.
China’s experience with rejecting its own culture…http://www.nbr.org/research/activity.aspx?id=258
The Jewish argument for “the extent to which partiality toward “one’s own” is ethically justifiable…” http://www-personal.umich.edu/~elias/zionism.htm
A region and culture I am most familiar with…”a nation is not only a political entity but something which produces meanings–a system of cultural representation. People are not only legal citizens of a nation,- they participate in the idea of the nation as represented in its national culture.” South America/Mexico
Japan, another with very prickly cultural pride…Nihonjinron–the section on the post-war period illustrates the push and pull. Nihonjinron
It seems worthwhile to reflect a bit on the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution and the idea of birthright citizenship in these United States.
The 13th Amendment was passed after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship to freed slaves, who at that juncture–with the importation of slaves having ended decades earlier–were nearly all US born. I kind of doubt the whole “anchor baby” concept entered into the Congressional debate about the 13th Amendment.
There’s no doubt that the Trumpite, neo-nationalist right would like to abolish birthright citizenship. When they start making moves in that direction, the honorable origins of the 13th Amendment ought to be thrown in their faces.
Fourteenth is the amendment which granted birthright citizenship. The 13th abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime.
True. All the more so when it’s too much immigration, and too much of the wrong type (the huge culture/religious gap), in too short a period.
As with the massive influx into Euro in 2015-6.
I knew this was a bad idea when I heard Merkel declare basically an open border into Deutschland. Over a million immigrants in, what, 6 months?
That’s insane.
I understand she did it primarily for political purposes — not wanting pictures around the world of armed German officials turning away all those sympathetic-looking people. Her change in open borders policy last year, given public concerns certainly, suggests she realizes it was a big mistake.
Ditto for Francois Hollande, per his recent book, where he openly admits it was too much too quickly. Though he naively suggests the immigrant of today will become the fully-assimilated Diane symbol of Frenchness in the future.
I’m very skeptical. I think this is all a colossal disaster waiting to happen.
Easy for multiculturalists and progressives to talk the talk, much harder to walk the walk.
After Merkel blew the door open, there were about 900,000 in 2015, of which 80% were men between 20-26. Some proportion were Syrians, but they were not even a majority. Many systematically destroyed their papers to pretend to be Syrians.
Few have been able to be employed.
In 2016, an additional 300,000 came in. The total is now 1,200,000, on a population base of 80,000,000 or so, for about 2% of the population.
Some have been deported.
The costs to the German taxpayer are higher, in the range IIRC of 40,000,000,000 Euros SO FAR. And the Germans are having to bribe the migrant warriors to leave. They take the bribes, and then some go to France. Germany’s dregs are now in the 2nd Arrondissiment, camping outside of Cathedral St Chappelle. Good for tourism.
This summer is going to be even more of a disaster. And the LONG TERM OUTLOOK is MORE disasters, unless Europe make the hard AND TOTALLY NECESSARY decision to CLOSE the doors. There 300,000,000 nigerians who want to go to Europe. Africa is going to see a population explosion, thanks to Jimmie Carter and Bill Gates. The current population of 1.6 billion will by 4 billion in 85 years, and they will all want free money in Germany.
Only US and Canada still offer birthright citizenship to tourists and undocumented.
Not that many countries offer it at all.
It seems King reintroduced his bill to end it before the House.
Birthright Citizenship
That’s a pretty shitty website.
Do you challenge the accuracy of their data? Or just an ad hominem for enforcing discipline?
Supply your own then.
It ain’t the numbers that make the site bullshit. It’s their shitty solutions. And numbers can be twisted to support some pretty noxious ideas.
Babies as bullets is an argument in support of genocide, always.
Not even. It is about non-violent colonization. Though the nation being colonized might start a shooting war at any point. Some do/many don’t.
Indians in East Africa are a significant minority–brought there to build railroads for the English.
Chinese on the Pacific rim–Hawaii and California. Brought there as cheap labor. Now significant minorities. China, as a state policy, has sent her people out as labor for many decades. Now are “colonizing” in Africa using their infrastructure loans as carrots. Seen as preferable alternative to the West by many African leaders, given the history and all…
Texas is another. Mexico invited Anglo settlers to come to Texas, learn the language and culture, and take an oath of allegiance. Too many differences in the culture. Catholic vs Protestant was a bigger thing back then. So was oath-breaking…
It is about non-violent colonization. Though the nation being colonized might start a shooting war at any point. Some do/many don’t.
WOW