Post by Clovis Merovingian on Sept 13, 2019 6:05:36 GMT
So, what follows is a bunch of thoughts i've been having on American Identity, immigration, historical grievances, culture etc so here goes. There is myth in the United States that the United States is a "nation of immigrants." This myth was invented yesterday. If you were to go back to the time of the founding fathers and tell them that America was a nation of immigrants, they would look at you with a puzzled look. This myth really didn't come into being until the 20th century. This myth holds that Americans except for the "Native Americans" (more on them later) all come from somewhere else, are all immigrants, and thus have no right to ban anyone from coming into our country. Its a stupid little myth used to justify open borders and to deny the American state right to determine who they would count as American citizens.
Every time someone spouts this nation of immigrant nonsense to me, I always ask them where they immigrated from. They will usually answer that their ancestor came from Ireland, Germany, England, Africa, or some other nationality. I then respond, "I didn't ask you where your ancestors immigrated from, I asked where YOU immigrated from." The point here is obviously made. This person who i'm talking too usually speaking with a general American accent, and having been born and living their entire lives in the United States of America is NOT an immigrant. I am not an immigrant. I was born here and so are the vast, VAST majority of people I know. The majority of people I know speak with a perfect American or Lowland Southern American accent and are culturally deep southern American.
Yes, my ancestors did come from many places in Northern Europe, in my case before the United States even existed. Yes, there were people here before them that were conquered and supplanted by my ancestors. So what? The Japanese are not the first people to live in Japan; they conquered and supplanted and outnumbered the Ainu living there before them. Does that make Japan a nation of immigrants? If you were to tell the Japanese that they were a nation of immigrants and thus must open their borders to the entire world they would laugh in your face and they should. The truth is that in most places on this planet some group of people came in and displaced or culturally dominated an earlier group of people and made that land their own.
Native American tribes did this in fact. The Lakota Sioux who often complain about how European Americans stole "their" sacred black hills stole that land from the Cheyenne Indians. Indian tribes warred with, conquered, displaced, enslaved, and stole land from other Indians with a great deal of regularity. That's how things were done back then all over the world. It was a more barbaric time.
The Anglo Saxons conquered England from the Britains and dominated them to the point that they were culturally dominant. Their descendants that live there are now called the English. The Germans arrived from Scandinavia and pushed far south into modern day Germany slaughtering and dominating the tribes that lived there. Their descendants are Germans. Then there is the case of the Japanese, the Turks in Turkey, the Aryans in India (among others), the Arabs in North Africa, and the Indo European peoples of Europe themselves, and for that matter the various Native American tribes, and the Bantu of South Africa. Would anyone dare say that these peoples are not Natives of their current land?
Is anyone going to question that the Japanese, or the English, the Zulu, the Turks, or the Arabs are not Natives? I will say this right now, I as white as I am, I am a NATIVE AMERICAN! This continent, the American continent is my Native land. My ancestors may have come from all over Europe and while I do respect them and cherish that heritage, I am not European. I was born in the United States of America in the Deep South and I am culturally like everyone else in my region.
My point is that The United States is not a nation of immigrants but a nation of AMERICANS just like Japan is a nation of Japanese, England is a nations of English, and Switzerland (perhaps a more comparable example) is a nation of Swiss. The American state is a sovereign state and the American people are a sovereign people and they have the right to deny or accept anyone for immigration to their country for any reason whatsoever. Nobody has a right to come here just because our ancestors came from somewhere else unless you not willing to extend the Japanese the same courtesy.
Now, the American people are not a nation in the classical sense of the word. The USA and for that matter Canada, and Mexico are made up of many regional nations with very distinct cultures and values based on who first settled in a given area. The Puritans, Dutch, Spanish, French, Scots Irish, Quakers, Cavaliers, and Anglo Barbadians are cultural groups that settled different parts of the continent and created very different cultures with values so different that the gulf between their worldviews is far more different than any two European Union member states. But that is a post for another time.
Every time someone spouts this nation of immigrant nonsense to me, I always ask them where they immigrated from. They will usually answer that their ancestor came from Ireland, Germany, England, Africa, or some other nationality. I then respond, "I didn't ask you where your ancestors immigrated from, I asked where YOU immigrated from." The point here is obviously made. This person who i'm talking too usually speaking with a general American accent, and having been born and living their entire lives in the United States of America is NOT an immigrant. I am not an immigrant. I was born here and so are the vast, VAST majority of people I know. The majority of people I know speak with a perfect American or Lowland Southern American accent and are culturally deep southern American.
Yes, my ancestors did come from many places in Northern Europe, in my case before the United States even existed. Yes, there were people here before them that were conquered and supplanted by my ancestors. So what? The Japanese are not the first people to live in Japan; they conquered and supplanted and outnumbered the Ainu living there before them. Does that make Japan a nation of immigrants? If you were to tell the Japanese that they were a nation of immigrants and thus must open their borders to the entire world they would laugh in your face and they should. The truth is that in most places on this planet some group of people came in and displaced or culturally dominated an earlier group of people and made that land their own.
Native American tribes did this in fact. The Lakota Sioux who often complain about how European Americans stole "their" sacred black hills stole that land from the Cheyenne Indians. Indian tribes warred with, conquered, displaced, enslaved, and stole land from other Indians with a great deal of regularity. That's how things were done back then all over the world. It was a more barbaric time.
The Anglo Saxons conquered England from the Britains and dominated them to the point that they were culturally dominant. Their descendants that live there are now called the English. The Germans arrived from Scandinavia and pushed far south into modern day Germany slaughtering and dominating the tribes that lived there. Their descendants are Germans. Then there is the case of the Japanese, the Turks in Turkey, the Aryans in India (among others), the Arabs in North Africa, and the Indo European peoples of Europe themselves, and for that matter the various Native American tribes, and the Bantu of South Africa. Would anyone dare say that these peoples are not Natives of their current land?
Is anyone going to question that the Japanese, or the English, the Zulu, the Turks, or the Arabs are not Natives? I will say this right now, I as white as I am, I am a NATIVE AMERICAN! This continent, the American continent is my Native land. My ancestors may have come from all over Europe and while I do respect them and cherish that heritage, I am not European. I was born in the United States of America in the Deep South and I am culturally like everyone else in my region.
My point is that The United States is not a nation of immigrants but a nation of AMERICANS just like Japan is a nation of Japanese, England is a nations of English, and Switzerland (perhaps a more comparable example) is a nation of Swiss. The American state is a sovereign state and the American people are a sovereign people and they have the right to deny or accept anyone for immigration to their country for any reason whatsoever. Nobody has a right to come here just because our ancestors came from somewhere else unless you not willing to extend the Japanese the same courtesy.
Now, the American people are not a nation in the classical sense of the word. The USA and for that matter Canada, and Mexico are made up of many regional nations with very distinct cultures and values based on who first settled in a given area. The Puritans, Dutch, Spanish, French, Scots Irish, Quakers, Cavaliers, and Anglo Barbadians are cultural groups that settled different parts of the continent and created very different cultures with values so different that the gulf between their worldviews is far more different than any two European Union member states. But that is a post for another time.