Why We Hate Immigrants

The last two years have witnessed a migration crisis in Europe the likes of which hasn’t been seen in 70 years. Though there have been plenty of migrations of people throughout the world over these decades, we in The West have been blissfully unaware because these migrations usually didn’t affect us (and there wasn’t 24 news coverage). But with Europe seemingly overwhelmed with immigrants, and with Americans and Canadians 1 fearing they’re next, it’s worth wondering what we’re so afraid of.

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  1. If you believe for a second that Canada is a completely immigration-positive country because we accepted a bunch of Syrian refugees, check out the comments on this YouTube channel.

Common Sense

“Common Sense isn’t common.”

We’ve all heard this refrain. I hear it at my work every time someone does something we collectively deem idiotic. I’ve heard this said about people doing inane, silly things and heard this said about people who’ve died. Hell, I’ve said it. When someone does something stupid that we swear we’d never do, we think it even if we don’t say it.

It implies a strong judgment: I’d never do that, I know better, I understand the rules of our society because I belong. But is that really true?

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Rape

Men don’t want to admit that men regularly rape women. To the men who have never raped a woman (as well as to those men who tell themselves that time they had sex with a barely coherent drunk girl wasn’t rape), rape is not a normal thing; it’s abhorrent behaviour that only really fucked up men do. So when accusations of rape outnumber a man’s perception of the number of victims there should be he has to do something to explain that higher number. So he decides the women must be making it up. And, really, don’t all women exaggerate everything?

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Swearing

Why is swearing bad? Why is the act of speaking using “swear” or “curse” words somehow distinct from the act of speaking with other words? Why is it that some words are worse than others?

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Gun Control in the United States of Ameica

To an outsider, it often appears as though there is no middle ground in the gun control debate in the United States: the left want weapons restricted or outright banned and the right wants even fewer restrictions than currently exist. The ferocity of the debate is both completely understandable and enormously perplexing. On one hand gun ownership is enshrined as a civil liberty. On the other, by global standards the United States is very developed economically and has rule of law, which makes fervent gun ownership advocacy seem extreme at worst and unnecessary at best.

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Why White Americans Believe Black Americans Deserve to Be Shot by the Police

This is what White America thinks:
Black Americans deserve to be shot by police officers. Black Americans deserve this because

  • Black Americans are dumb: whether because of genetics or because of a long history of social problems, or both; black Americans do things regular Americans never do, like getting angry with police when the police rightfully stop them or ask them questions, or like reaching into their pockets when they’re being interrogated. I mean, who does that? If a cop has a gun on you, don’t reach for something!
  • Black Americans should know better: black Americans watch the same news I do and yet they keep getting themselves into these positions and making stupid decisions. I mean, why can’t they avoid these situations all together?
  • Black Americans are rightly suspected by the police more than other Americans as they have a long history of causing trouble in the United States; think of all the riots that have occurred throughout the years. How many of those were predominantly black?
  • Black Americans make everything about race when it doesn’t have to be, so they are creating their own circumstances here. If black Americans didn’t make such a big deal about of race, cops wouldn’t be more alert to black Americans. If black Americans didn’t protest, police wouldn’t have to put on riot gear.
  • Black Americans just don’t know how to behave properly: if black Americans had assimilated and became true Americans, this problem wouldn’t exist. It’s because black Americans don’t really know what it’s like to be American that there’s this problem.
  • Black Americans are inferior: I mean, don’t we have centuries of history to prove that?

Black Americans deserve what they get. If they’re going to  behave this way, they should expect to be shot by police. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling the truth.

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Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?

It feels like we’ve reached peak conspiracy, at least online. It appears that people will believe anything. Birthers. Chemtrails. The Illuminati. The flat earth theory is somehow back in vogue for chrissake. Some of this is just the internet: it gives public voices to previously private beliefs and acts as an echo chamber of those beliefs. But it feels as though, in spite of most of us having more access to more information than at any other time in history, people are more credulous than ever. Everywhere there are people claiming they believe in something demonstrably false. And not just a few people. They believe with every ounce in their body. They believe so strongly they denigrate those who do not believe the same things. And they don’t just believe, they evangelize. What the hell?

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