Which Christians, though? America formed precisely because of sectarian tensions and differences. The mindset which hunted the former Anglos to North American shores is that of supremacy and domination, and that mindset always seeks to create in-groups and out-groups because that is how its members understand the world and navigate in it, zero-sum games.
My point being that even if America becomes all Christian and all white, then it will simply start to separate its constituents between the right type of Christian, or the right type of white. All of history has evidence precisely of this behavior because the nature which drives that behavior is still present, and it always will be in one form or another. Maybe the packaging or the politics change, but any ideology based on domination, and supremacy of itself over others will always be subject to purity contests, in-groups/out-groups, and suppressing objective analysis or discourse.
That said, America doesn’t need to be multicultural in the sense that it adheres to or incorporates ideology that goes against its core philosophy laid out by the Founding Fathers. The vision of the Founders helped create a powerful machine for regional and global supremacy, and a lot of that was dependent on the healthy function of democratic institutions.
The problem is that a lot of American democratic institutions caved in to pressures to address global challenges, and some of those challenges may have been outside of their purview, or they took an incorrect approach to address the issues. It’s impossible to save people from themselves. It’s impossible to save bad culture from undoing a nation state, unless its regime is propped up by external pressures, in some way or another.
America is currently propped up by its productivity engine from the 90s and mid-augts, which is why other countries are putting up with tariffs to do business here. The myopic vision of the Christian, white nationalist is going to create something smaller and less effective, which is worrisome because America has alienated almost everyone all over the world.
In truth, all a country has are its people, factories and bombs. America doesn’t have factories to any appreciable degree, and if it loses its people, then all the bombs in its arsenal will not reduce the cumulative prowess of other nations. Some serious reflection needs to be done on the fact that this push-pull of Red/Blue has saved this country from its worst impulses up to now. I only wish that the illegal immigration was addressed sooner, and in a more humane manner.
pcpolice_ · 42m ago
Reminder to express the right opinions, avoid WrongThink and deeply concerning points of view.
nobody9999 · 29m ago
While I realize that there are many folks from places other than the US here, it seems reasonable to discuss the historical and current factors influencing the place that drives the technology engine of the planet. For several reasons:
1. Understanding what underpins the fairly radical changes occurring in the US can assist folks trying to add/create value in the tech space in navigating those changes;
2. On a broader plane, frank discussions of what sort of world we aspire to live in can strongly impact important business and technical decisions made. Given the aggregate impact that (some? many?) users of this site have on the tech industry landscape, it seems a good idea to look up at the horizon every so often to see where we're heading, what that means for us as individuals and as a species and what, if any, "course corrections" might be indicated.
In submitting this, I didn't expect to change anyone's mind or encourage folks to metaphorically pound on one another. Rather, I submitted this to spark curious and intelligent discussion of current events that strongly impact the tech community.
Perhaps you'll join in doing so, perhaps even without a throwaway account. I hope so.
My point being that even if America becomes all Christian and all white, then it will simply start to separate its constituents between the right type of Christian, or the right type of white. All of history has evidence precisely of this behavior because the nature which drives that behavior is still present, and it always will be in one form or another. Maybe the packaging or the politics change, but any ideology based on domination, and supremacy of itself over others will always be subject to purity contests, in-groups/out-groups, and suppressing objective analysis or discourse.
That said, America doesn’t need to be multicultural in the sense that it adheres to or incorporates ideology that goes against its core philosophy laid out by the Founding Fathers. The vision of the Founders helped create a powerful machine for regional and global supremacy, and a lot of that was dependent on the healthy function of democratic institutions.
The problem is that a lot of American democratic institutions caved in to pressures to address global challenges, and some of those challenges may have been outside of their purview, or they took an incorrect approach to address the issues. It’s impossible to save people from themselves. It’s impossible to save bad culture from undoing a nation state, unless its regime is propped up by external pressures, in some way or another.
America is currently propped up by its productivity engine from the 90s and mid-augts, which is why other countries are putting up with tariffs to do business here. The myopic vision of the Christian, white nationalist is going to create something smaller and less effective, which is worrisome because America has alienated almost everyone all over the world.
In truth, all a country has are its people, factories and bombs. America doesn’t have factories to any appreciable degree, and if it loses its people, then all the bombs in its arsenal will not reduce the cumulative prowess of other nations. Some serious reflection needs to be done on the fact that this push-pull of Red/Blue has saved this country from its worst impulses up to now. I only wish that the illegal immigration was addressed sooner, and in a more humane manner.
1. Understanding what underpins the fairly radical changes occurring in the US can assist folks trying to add/create value in the tech space in navigating those changes;
2. On a broader plane, frank discussions of what sort of world we aspire to live in can strongly impact important business and technical decisions made. Given the aggregate impact that (some? many?) users of this site have on the tech industry landscape, it seems a good idea to look up at the horizon every so often to see where we're heading, what that means for us as individuals and as a species and what, if any, "course corrections" might be indicated.
In submitting this, I didn't expect to change anyone's mind or encourage folks to metaphorically pound on one another. Rather, I submitted this to spark curious and intelligent discussion of current events that strongly impact the tech community.
Perhaps you'll join in doing so, perhaps even without a throwaway account. I hope so.