When I told people back in South Africa that I was planning to emigrate to the U.S., there were many comments made — “You’ll be increasing the average IQ in both countries, then” was a popular one. But the most perceptive one was actually made by my ex-wife, who said:
“Well, Kim was born an American. He just happened to be in the wrong country at the time.”
Actually, that was very close to the truth. Before I was born, my parents had made plans to emigrate to Canada, and my dad had actually been granted a work permit. Then my mother discovered she was pregnant (with me), and she couldn’t bear to leave her family, so that was the end of it. (So I came thisclose to saying “eh” at the end of my sentences, and pronouncing boat as “boot”. Small mercies.)
Anyway, I ended up here, and while living with Longtime Friend Trevor in Austin in 1986, I was invited to a party of South African expats. I went, and it was a nightmare. Back in South Africa, we used to call Rhodesian immigrants “when-wees” because almost all their sentences began with the words “When we still lived in Bulawayo…” etc.
Well, the South African party in Austin was full of South African when-wees, all bitching and moaning about how much better they had it back in the old Racist Republic. And when I got sick of this shit, and asked of one particular whiner, “If it was so much better back there, why don’t you just fuck off home?”
The atmosphere became distinctly unpleasant after that little comment, and I didn’t stay long at the party. I never went to another one ever again, wherever I lived.
Look, I understand this situation as well as anyone. It’s a hell of a thing to change countries, to leave family and friends behind, and all the comforts of home as well. All the customs and mores are different — and I didn’t have the same language issues as someone from, say, Serbia even. The whole attitude to life is different in a new country, and it can be terribly lonely.
The natural instinct, then, is to gather with other people from the Old Country, so that you can commiserate with like souls, also lonely in this strange new land. I don’t agree with it myself, but I acknowledge that it’s understandable. (I made a conscious effort to fit into my adopted country. I failed miserably in terms of speech — changing my fake-British accent has been physiologically impossible — but in all other aspects, I have been largely successful except for a love of cricket and biltong, which are even more ingrained than my accent.)
What gets up my nose — and I cannot stress this enough — is when someone moves to a new country, and then sets about trying to change things to fit in with their former country’s ethos and their own background.
It would be like me moving here, and then starting a pro-apartheid movement to keep the races segregated, and trying to change the laws of the country accordingly.
And if that sounds ridiculous, then I invite you to consider efforts to create a parallel legal system of Islamic shari’a in Western countries like France, the U.K. and, yes, the United States. But because Islam is a religion and not a loathsome artificial system like apartheid, we are supposed to defer to this effort because of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, or because of a long-time reputation for tolerance (in the case of Western European countries).
The problem is that despite being based upon a set of religious beliefs, shari’a is not just a behavioral discipline, but a socio-political one. Nowhere in Catholicism (at least, anymore) is it written that Catholics should (or even must) wage a holy war against non-Catholics without fear of reprisal at the hands of a Catholic court system.
Yet that is what shari’a not only implies, but demands.
And I’m not interested in hearing about “moderate” Muslims, either. (The old not-so-funny joke about Muslims is that radical Muslims want to murder non-Muslims, while moderate Muslims won’t murder non-Muslims, but won’t mind if radical Muslims do.)
I have no problem whatsoever with immigrants congregating into neighborhoods of like background or ethnicity. Like I said earlier, I understand that (even if I don’t agree with it). What I won’t stand for is when these ghetto-dwellers somehow think that their little enclaves are somehow immune from the laws of the parent country, and are free to impose their own (transplanted) laws and customs on everyone who lives there, or even just passes through.
Think I’m kidding? I invite young American (or British) women to walk through a predominantly-Muslim area wearing a tube top, no bra and a miniskirt, and see how they’re treated. What would get admiring glances or even wolf-whistles in their own community will get a far harsher response in, say, downtown Bradford in England or even parts of Dearborn in Michigan. The same clothing choice, by the way, would get disapproving looks and even a muttered comment in an Orthodox Jewish area in Chicago or New York, but it would be unlikely to result in screamed insults, assault or even worse, attempted rape, as it would in the Muslim areas. (And further: in Islamic countries, a woman claiming to have been raped is more likely to result in the arrest of the woman — for “temptation”.)
And this is my problem with immigrants. (I have mentioned Islamic adherents above because it is simply the most modern manifestation of this, but I see absolutely no difference between Muslims and the Communists who came over from Eastern- and Western Europe, who set about trying to spread their foul ideology into their host country’s body politic. We used to deny Communists entry to the U.S., but are unwilling to do so with Muslims because “religion”.)
It’s all very well to afford comfort and sanctuary to the “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” (an inscription on a statue, by the way, and not official State policy). It is another thing altogether to allow the huddled masses into your country, only for said huddled masses to set about changing all the good things about your country into something not only alien, but repugnant,
And for those who take issue with the word “repugnant”, allow me to offer but two words in rebuttal: honor killings.
When it comes to immigration, I’ve always believed in the FIFO (fit in or fuck off) principle. I’ve lived by that precept ever since I arrived here, and I see no reason why anyone else should refuse to do so — even if by doing so, your “sacred religion” is offended. If your new country is all that offensive to you, fuck off home.
And by the way: I can say things like the above because of the freedom of speech afforded to me by the Constitution of my adopted country, in the shape of its First Amendment. If what I say is that offensive to you and you feel obliged to resort to other ways to demonstrate your disapproval, allow me to remind you of the existence of its Second Amendment. I may have left behind a lot of Africa, but a response of violence to counter violence was not one of them.
Hear, hear!
Nicely stated, and I agree.
I lived in Germany for 3 years and I tried to become German.
It would have never occurred to me to require Germans to become American like me. The very nerve.
“If you want your new place to be identical to your old place than maybe you should take the easy-lazy route and move back to your old place. Or STFU.” –gs, 2099
I was going to bust you for “Islam is a religion,” but you defined it more completely a couple-three graphs later. Along among the major faiths, Islam is a political movement.
…I can say things like the above because of the freedom of speech afforded to me by the Constitution…
For now. I predict bloodshed will determine whether it’ll be preserved or eradicated. Sooner rather than later if the Dems win in November.
Amen my brother from another mother. Sadly, neither you nor I could speak freely on what we see with unclouded vision either in the UK or France at the moment, with Canada and “blue” U.S. fast heading down similar path. Any speech not in accordance with the will of the “ruling class” is punishable by jail (only a hop, skip and jump away from reformatory gulags).
If the horror of a “D” party sweep occurs here in a couple of months, you may well be gaining a new neighbor as Michigan will likely achieve full Stalinist status. If we cannot vote for solutions, we will surely vote with our feet before other means.
“in Islamic countries, a woman claiming to have been raped is more likely to result in the arrest of the woman — for “temptation””
Let’s not forget that there are countries where she will be required by law to marry her rapist as well. — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marry-your-rapist_law
…and, she’ll be lucky if she doesn’t get stoned to death by her own family in an “honor killing”.
Foreigners in our country are either guests, interlopers, or invaders.
A lot of Indians have moved to the city where we live part of the time, and they make no effort whatsoever to assimilate into our culture, but instead colonize in their own neighborhoods .
I have no interest in trying to accommodate their language deficiencies because they live in my country
They are interlopers
The Muzzies seem to fancy themselves as invaders, though, so I accept their chosen characterization
Your comments about how imigrants will try to change things to be more like home is best demonstrated by the Cali migration to anywhere else in the world.
1. They have reached their personal tipping point in the Golden State and can’t stand it anymore.
2. They look around for someplace as different from Cali as they can find, mostly with more allowed freedoms and less taxes.
3. They bring their Cali Rot and Uber Liberal mindset to places like Arizona, Wyoming, Texas, (and to a lesser extent Colorado and New Mexico), and then begin to demand that the citizens of their new home give them “free” this and subsidized that, driving taxes and things like housing costs to levels that “natives” can’t afford.
4. The necrotic rot continues until their new home is just another suburb of the Cali Socialist state.
Was going to say the same thing. Too many times I hear, “We love our new place but its missing X” X being the very fucking thing that blew up in your face in your old place.
you’re right Kim.
Assimilate or go back to WhoCaresIstan. I definitely enjoy the opportunity to try food and music from different areas of the world but that’s about where it ends. Don’t bring your failed politics and such into this country.
Mr. du Toit:
As somebody who was forced to give up his home state to move to another I completely agree. There are basically two kinds of folks who move into a new state or country, refugees and colonizers. Here in TinyTown™ in NW Wyoming I refer to us as “political and economic refugees from the Soviet Socialist State of Minnesota”, which almost always gets a good laugh. It also reassures the local-born that we’re not here to change things; we can here because we like how it is, and want it to stay that way.
With regard to the ever-increasing influx of Islamo-fascists, just look at the area of southwest Minneapolis known as “Little Mogadishu”. It is essentially 100% populated by Somali colonizers, who have been herded off into a Balkanized enclave where there is no chance of assimilation for the young people. It has been an effective “no-go” zone for the Mpls PD for at least 15 years, and has established sharia law and customs from their warlord-run third-world pile of schiess. They’ve done this to other small towns in MN as well; the downtown areas of Faribault and St. Cloud are rapidly becoming majority-Somali, with the result of crime, poverty, and property destruction that you would expect.
Now look at who the Harris cabal has floated as the US Attorney General, the man who has not just allowed this to occur, but aided and abetted in it: Keith Muhammed X Ellison, the MN AG. You don’t have to wonder what he would do as the US AG, all you have to do is look at how he and the others turned Minnesnowta into a third-world shithole.
We’ve been gone for five years now, and I will freely admit to the occasional pang of longing for certain things that I miss. The physical land of MN with water everywhere (forget the 10,000 lakes, it’s the 1,000,000 swamps the cover the state), the three feet of black topsoil where you can grow anything (without irrigation!) that’ll survive a winter, etc. But do I miss the people of that state? No, I infinitely prefer living somewhere I won’t have to take out 3/4’s of my neighbors when the SHTF because they support the onslaught of the barbarians they insist on importing. I hate and despise the collectivists who forced me to leave a life-long home area because they’re intent on destroying civilization.
Here’s the unspoken part of what you said, Kim. Many of these invaders lack the intellectual capability to assimilate. For instance, the average IQ in the Middle East (most Muzzrats) hovers between 85 and 90; in Africa, as we know, it drops down to 70 or even lower. Haiti is also in the 70 range.
So when, for instance, a Haitian starts swiping ducks and geese (and cats) to cook and eat, that’s the very best he can do. There is no assimilation to American norms possible. You were able to assimilate, as were the Italians, Irish, Danish, Scandinavians, etc., before you, because your IQ placed you in the category of those able to adapt to other customs and sustain a First World lifestyle. When a Somalian shits in the street or the yard, he does so because that’s what a 70 IQ person does.
Our problem isn’t just that we’re bringing in immigrants. It’s because we’re bringing them in by the millions from the most Godforsaken shitholes in the world. Those places are shitholes BECAUSE of those who live there (and emigrate here), not in spite of those people. So they get here and they recreate those shitholes because they are genetically and intellectually incapable of doing otherwise.
To use your example of Islam, you can basically plot Islam’s prevalence in terms of average national IQ. Below 90, Islam is the predominant religion (leaving aside the witch-doctors of Africa).
Between 90 and 100, Islam is tolerated (think America and Western Europe).
Above 105, Islam is BANNED (think Japan, Korea, China, and the Pacific Rim).
In other words, the dumber you are, the more Islam appeals. The smarter you are, the more you are repulsed and see it as a danger.
It all goes back to IQ. You can’t beat it and you can’t teach it.
As a Cal ExPat living now in the “wilds” of Central NV in what was before The Great War the largest town (no cities back then) in the State, and is now just another forgotten Boom-Town, I sympathize with our host about “whenwees” (we’ve got a couple of Texans here that we tolerate). The last thing I want to bring here are the things that drove me away from the State I was born and raised in, and always before returned to – but Never Again.
Is everything in NV to my satisfaction? Not a Chance – I’m picky!
But, when I look across that State Line, and see the chaos that was just developing when I left, and is fully formed now, I just shake my head, and count my ammo.
I do ask my new-found friends and neighbors though, do they think we should establish check-points between us and Las Vegas?
I know many immigrants. The ones I care to associate with are Americans born elsewhere, even if they still smell (sometimes literally) of the old country and their old ways. This even includes Vlad’s insane father, whose horseradish vodka is an human atrocity and chemical weapons war crime that should have been confiscated at the border. 😉 These guys *get it*.
Many don’t. They didn’t come to be Americans, they don’t know how, and they aren’t interested in learning.
The qualifications come down to simplicity:
Did they come to be Americans?
Do they know how to be Americans?
Do they have any interest or capacity to learn?