Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. On ‘James Talarico and the [white] religious left’ (August 10) "Where the “religious right” is always presumed to be acting out of genuine religious conviction, the “religious left” is always presumed to be just a bunch of Democrats fumbling to close the “God gap” in electoral campaigning."

2. ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘Loki’ Directors Say They Rejected HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Due to J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia: ‘Absolutely F—ing Not’ (August 14, via) 

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. More Than 20,000 Unaccompanied Children at Risk of Losing Legal Representation in Immigration Court (August 5) "On Friday, July 31st, the Trump administration ended a critical federal contract with the Acacia Center for Justice providing legal services and representation to children who entered the United States without a parent or guardian. The decision dismantled a network of nearly 100 legal service providers, including Church World Service, and leaves over 20,000 unaccompanied children across the country, many of whom are victims of trafficking or other abuse, without legal representation."

2. El-Sayed blasts Trump over ‘Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s’ post (August 9, via) "'Yeah, he’s right,' El-Sayed said. 'One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things.'"

3. ICE plans to outfit officers with electric shock gloves (August 12) "'My immediate reaction was, why would you give this kind of novel dangerous technology that's hard to train people on to agency personnel who have a track record of abuse and even cruelty?' Shah says."

4. 'What are we going to do?' The mom of a trans teen grapples with Trump's Medicaid move (August 16) "She says the narrative advanced by the Trump administration — that families are being tricked into gender-affirming care by doctors and hospitals driven by greed — is completely off base."

5. They fought for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now they worry about losing their green cards (August 15) "'We are trying to work, study, raise our children and build a normal life in the U.S,' said M., who asked NPR to refer to him by his first initial because he's concerned that speaking to the media could affect his green card. 'But now we are also trying to find lawyers, contact congressional offices and understand what may happen to our green cards. It is very stressful because even immigration lawyers give different opinions.'"

6. Families of USS Lincoln crew say Trump should be 'ashamed' of conditions on board (August 15) "His comments come amid reports of food shortages, plumbing problems and declining mental health among crew members."

7. Suing Stephen Miller (July 20, via) "You shouldn’t be able to order the military to carry out extrajudicial executions of fishermen and/or low-level drug runners that violate both domestic and international law, and then simply return to your job as a weekend cable news host once the other party retakes the White House. You should not be able to lie to the courts about sending immigrants to an overseas torture prison with zero due process and then live out your days with the lifelong job security of a federal judge. You should not be able to write a bullshit, meritless, bad faith legal memo while working at the Office of Legal Counsel that authorizes immigration officers to ignore the Fourth Amendment and batter down the doors of private homes without a warrant, then go on to make millions as partner at a white shoe law firm."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Big and Little Spoons (November 10) From xkcd.

2. Disney stopped being about romance and started being about trauma (November 10) "In short, these days, Disney/Pixar teaches that you become an adult when you come to terms with your shitty parents."

3. You Aren’t In The DSM (October, via) "Like the Danaids’ jars, diagnoses leak relevance and accuracy as they move across contexts. And yet — the task goes on, because clinicians still need a shared language, insurers still need billing codes, governments still need their statistics, and researchers still need clear descriptions of who to enroll in clinical trials."

This is a really good article about the history and purpose of the DSM, and how that's incompatible with the way that average people understand it. It's useful to have standardized definitions of psychological conditions, for sort of big-picture generalizations about what these conditions are and the guidelines that should be used for treatment- but patients are now viewing their mental health situation like they "have" a certain condition, like it's a thing inside them that's causing their symptoms. That's not what it is at all. These diagnoses are just ways of labelling a cluster of symptoms, and the labels can be used as keywords to find other people who have had similar experiences and what helped them- but that's all it is. Just the variations in the range of human experience, and we find it helpful to group them into categories and label them, but the label doesn't describe an actual *thing*.

4. Axios tried to shame Christian U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico—and ended up exposing itself (November 11) "That’s why the threat of a not-weird white Christian who can comfortably speak about his faith without using it as a weapon against the marginalized poses a real challenge to Republicans. They don’t know how to fight someone like him."

5. Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost (November 3, via) "In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s 'Open Library.'"

6. The Chinese College Student Who Took on Annoying Elevator Ads (November 12) !!! I too am annoyed by video screens in elevators playing ads. This is a thing here in Shanghai- is it a thing in other places? In the previous apartment that we lived in, the elevator had a tv screen that was always playing some little jingles and ads. I have, like, a moral objection to this, because you're stuck there in that small space and they want to force these ads on you. I've even been in elevators that have some kind of projector that projects the ads onto the elevator doors after they close. Not cool.

7. Does the news reflect what we die from? (October 6, via) "Heart disease and cancer accounted for 56% of deaths among these 15 causes, but together they received just 7% of the media coverage."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. US supreme court rejects call to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage (November 10, via) Good news.

2. “My Community Is Under Invasion from Our Own Federal Gov’t”: Evanston Mayor Decries ICE Raids in Illinois (November 6, via) "But I feel that our residents have been attacked by a lawless entity, and we can’t just stand by and pretend this is acceptable."

3. ‘A classic authoritarian tactic’: outrage over Trump’s pardons for friends and allies (November 11) "Donald Trump’s unprecedented pardoning spree for political and business friends since returning to the White House has prompted warnings from ex-prosecutors and legal scholars of “corrupt” pay-to-play schemes, conflicts of interest and blatant partisanship."

Trump pardons Giuliani and others accused of plot to overturn 2020 election (November 10)

4. My husband laughed so hard over the fact that the Supreme Court is trying to figure out if tariffs are taxes. He says, in Chinese 'tariff' is 关税 and 'tax' is 税. It's right there in the name. It is obvious to anyone who speaks Chinese. Why do you need the Supreme Court to tell you this.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Oaths aren't about oaths, they're about performative speech acts (November 5) "How do we tell apart fancy official promises people are supposed to keep and fancy official promises people aren’t really supposed to keep?"

2. Playing Tag: Oversized Clothing Labels Aim to Curb Order Returns (November 7) "China’s online fashion retailers are implementing oversized, stiff, and brightly colored clothing tags in an effort to curb the industry’s notoriously high return rate."

Also from Sixth Tone: Minding Nemo: Vlogger Finds Fatal Flaws at China’s Aquariums (November 7) "Many exhibition spaces are still chaotic construction zones the day before the grand opening, with tanks filled with fresh saltwater just hours before the first batch of fish is introduced. These so-called “pioneer fish” — usually cheaper species — often die within a short time."

3. “I Won’t Change My Body to Fit Your Expectations”: Reflections From a Masculine Woman with PCOS (July 14, via) "It soon became very clear to me that my doctor at the time was hoping I’d “fix” what he thought was “wrong” with me. My masculine features were seen as a glaring issue to be solved. My doctor thought he had the solution and suggested I start estrogen to maintain my hormone levels."

4. OpenAI's new web browser has ChatGPT baked in. That's raising some privacy questions (November 7) 

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. “New York City has Fallen”: MAGA erupts after Mamdani’s victory (November 5, via) A roundup of quotes from right-wing people being really racist about Mamdani's victory. In particular I'd like to highlight what Matt Walsh said: "A third world communist just won in New York because New York is a third world city now." WTF? Remember this, in case anyone ever claims that these are people whose opinions should be respected.

2. Foreign aid from the United States saved millions of lives each year (September 29, via) "AIDS programs saved the largest number of lives: over 1.5 million per year. Between a quarter and half a million were saved by vaccines, tuberculosis, malaria, and humanitarian response each."

3. Supreme Court temporarily blocks full SNAP benefits even as they'd started to go out (November 7) "The Supreme Court's decision means states must, for now, revert back to the partial payments the Trump administration had earlier instructed them to distribute."

Trump admin order to 'immediately undo' full SNAP benefits leaves states scrambling (November 9) 

As millions of Americans struggle with SNAP lapses, food banks are swamped with demand (November 7) "'It's painful when someone comes in and we have to say, 'I just don't have anything for you today,' ' says the pantry's client advocate, Juliet Smith. 'We've never had to do that before. Never.'"

All this back-and-forth about SNAP during the government shutdown has made me realize something: I've always thought of SNAP as a "safety net," like just a temporary thing that people should use only a few times in their lifetime, when they happen to be going through a hard time. But now I'm finding out how *real* this is, how people really need it and rely on it- some states have something like 15-20% of their population on SNAP. 42 million Americans. This isn't just some "safety net" which a negligible amount of people will need to use every now and then- this is essential infrastructure. Is it supposed to be essential infrastructure? Well, yeah, we need to have it because that many people really do need it. 

People shouldn't be shamed or judged for getting SNAP benefits. It should be just as neutral a thing as going to the library, or expecting the government to maintain the roads. I grew up among Republicans, and the vibe I always got concerning people who get food stamps is "well, they shouldn't, they should take responsibility and get a job and then they wouldn't need government handouts"- and therefore it's justified to judge them and put all kinds of rules and requirements on them. But, wow, something is *wrong* with society if seriously 42 million Americans aren't able to get jobs that pay well enough that they can afford food. Food! Something is wrong with society, and the government has a responsibility to do something about that. Either by giving them the money for food, or transforming society (specifically the job market?) such that people who do a decent normal amount of work will have a good enough income that they can live on. Hard to say which option is "better." I mean, I know that people would say it's better if everyone can get a job and get a good enough income, and then the government doesn't have to give them SNAP- but I can also imagine a society where people view it like "yeah, the government gives food to people who need it, of course they do, of course our tax dollars go to that, that is a normal thing that a society should do, not something we would want to minimize."

(Caveat: The fact that 42 million people receive SNAP benefits is not the same thing as saying 42 million people are in the situation like the people you see interviewed in these news articles, where they really don't know where they're going to get food if they don't get SNAP this month. Perhaps some significant fraction of these 42 million people have their finances generally under control, and have emergency savings available, and it's very helpful that they get money from SNAP every month but it's not the end of the world if they didn't? ... I think regardless, they really are in need. "People who receive SNAP" and "people who literally can't feed their families without SNAP" might not be the *exact* same group of people, BUT still, they really are in need and I am seeing that this really should be viewed as essential infrastructure.)

4. Judge orders White House to use American Sign Language interpreters at briefings (November 5)

5. SCOTUS Rules Against Trans People's Passport Gender Markers In Shadow Docket Ruling (November 7) "The Government seeks to enforce a questionably legal new policy immediately, but it offers no evidence that it will suffer any harm if it is temporarily enjoined from doing so, while the plaintiffs will be subject to imminent, concrete injury if the policy goes into effect."

6. Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced (November 8) "They were laborers, a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver. Two were low-level career criminals. One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers."

7. Senators take first step toward reopening the government after historic shutdown (November 9) This just in, apparently some of the Senate Dems have caved and there's an agreement to end the government shutdown. Not sure what to make of this yet.

Blogaround

I know I just published a blogaround 2 days ago, but more things keep happening.

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Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Crisis calls among Oklahoma LGBTQ+ youth drop after Ryan Walters quit his job as the state’s schools chief (October 30, via) "Before his exit, nearly two-thirds of Oklahoma callers, 64 percent, identified Walters as a source of distress, according to Rainbow Youth Project."

2. “The Dark Side”: Dick Cheney’s Legacy from Iraq Invasion to U.S. Torture Program (November 4)

3. How megachurches twist the Bible to defend billionaires and wealth inequality (October 21) "'He's not talking about financially poor people, he's talking about spiritually impoverished people,' said the pastor."

Yes, this whole article very much rings true. In my experience in white evangelicalism, the teaching is that it's not *bad* to be a rich person- it would only be bad if you end up putting your trust in your money rather than in God. It's all about your heart, your attitude.

4. AI Isn’t Always Helping Chinese Office Workers Either (November 5) "AI helps generate proposals efficiently, but these things reek of that unmistakable ‘AI smell.’ Finally, I end up reworking them so they read as if a real person had written them."

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Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. White House releases list of donors for Trump’s multi-million-dollar ballroom (October 23) Here's the list- companies and private donors. They all should be ashamed of themselves. Boycott them if you can.

• Altria Group, Inc.
• Amazon
• Apple
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Caterpillar, Inc.
• Coinbase
• Comcast Corporation
• J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
• Hard Rock International
• Google
• HP Inc.
• Lockheed Martin
• Meta Platforms
• Micron Technology
• Microsoft
• NextEra Energy, Inc.
• Palantir Technologies Inc.
• Ripple
• Reynolds American
• T-Mobile
• Tether America
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Adelson Family Foundation
• Stefan E. Brodie
• Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
• Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
• Edward and Shari Glazer
• Harold Hamm
• Benjamin Leon Jr.
• The Lutnick Family
• The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
• Stephen A. Schwarzman
• Konstantin Sokolov
• Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
• Paolo Tiramani
• Cameron Winklevoss
• Tyler Winklevoss

2. Could a Third Term Happen? (November 3) "The main reason to take it somewhat seriously is this: If Trump floated an idea like this and nobody pushed back, before long he’d be doing it."

3. No One Is Safe (November 3) "Seconds after the crash, agents abruptly stopped their vehicle and exited with weapons in hand pointing at Figueroa, a U.S citizen. Agents then forcibly opened her door and pulled her out of the vehicle by her legs without identifying themselves, presenting a warrant or informing her that she was under arrest. As bystanders yelled, “You hit her! We have it on video!” agents ignored the crowd and forced Figueroa into a red minivan and drove away."

4. USDA tells grocery stores: No special discounts for SNAP recipients (November 3) "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) emailed grocery stores prohibiting them from offering discounts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients amid the government shutdown." 

I want to be like "Don't these people claim to be Christians? Aren't they worried about how they're gonna explain this to Jesus when he separates the sheep from the goats?" but, ah, it would be very naive to think that when these MAGAs talk about Christianity, it has any relation at all to the teachings and character of Jesus. Obviously we should all realize by now that it doesn't.

5. Some election results:

Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race, in a historic victory for progressives (November 5)

California voters OK new congressional lines, boosting Democrats ahead of midterms (November 4)

AP Race Call: Colorado voters OK income tax increase to fund free meals for public school students (November 5)

"A Stunning Rebuke Of Anti-Trans Politics"—Dems Win Elections Nationwide Despite Anti-Trans Ads (November 5) "For all the centrist consultants urging Democrats to “moderate” or sacrifice transgender people for political gain, the results suggest the opposite: conviction, not capitulation, is what wins."

Democrats didn’t just rebound. They dominated. (November 5)

6. More American Nazis in the news (November 3) "On Thursday night, the president of the Heritage Foundation — the MAGA right’s leading think tank — welcomed an open Nazi into his political coalition."

7. They’ve Won in Court, But ICE Is Still Detaining and Trying to Deport Them (September 22) "Lawyers and advocates nationwide say the practice of keeping people in detention after they win in court has become much more entrenched in recent months. 'ICE officers are no longer using their discretion, but just applying this blanket policy of, ‘We’re just not going to release you at all unless, basically, a court tells us that we have to,’' Benz says."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Whiteout: Trapped Trekkers Discover Dangers of ‘Hidden Gems’ (October 22) "As hiking and other adventure sports grow in popularity across China, enthusiasts have begun seeking out undeveloped or little-known spots, often promoted among online communities as “hidden gems.” As a result, accidents and disappearances are increasingly common, with trekking-related emergencies reported nationwide during this year’s eight-day National Day break at the beginning of October."

(Note, this is an entirely different incident than the other link I posted recently about hikers who had to get rescued from a mountain in China because of heavy snow.)

2. Shielding Chart (October 22)

Also from xkcd: Emperor Palpatine (October 20)

3. Why TERFs Don't Like Asexuals Either: An Analysis (October 25) "This is very similar to TERF explanations for trans men and transmasculine people.  In fact, as seen above, TERFs believe the same process causes women to identify as both.  It’s not a legitimate identity; it’s a response to misogyny, an attempt to escape misogyny by identifying out of it."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Trump’s Gutting Sex Ed. Here’s Why That Matters (October 22) "More than 90% said that if they had had more education on those topics, their life would be better now: they thought they would have more sexual confidence, a better understanding of their own body, a better understanding of how to be a good partner, healthier relationships, a better understanding of their own sexual health, a better quality of life, or the resources to make more informed decisions."

2. Exclusive: Trump's demolition of the White House East Wing is nearly complete (October 22) Oh my goodness, he's actually destroying the White House.

3. ICE keeps detaining pregnant immigrants — against federal policy (October 20) [content note: miscarriage] "While the agency said in a statement in August that pregnant immigrants are receiving sufficient care in custody, medical professionals say the conditions in these facilities can heighten the risk for complications. Limited food can impact nutrition at a vulnerable time; access to medical appointments is spotty and often not aligned with standards of care; and pregnant, postpartum and nursing detainees also face the stress of arrest and separation from their families."

4. Taylor Swift, The White House Demolition, And Pathways Of Persuasion (October 24) "An astute commenter on BlueSky put it this way: Democratic outrage over the White House demolition was 'not as strong as the [Republican] pushback against the change in the Cracker Barrel corporate logo.'"

5. NYC Public Schools Becomes Latest To Defy Trump Trans Bathroom Ban Demands, Launches Lawsuit (October 18) 

Being Right vs Doing Good

Sign that says "Right" with an arrow pointing in one direction, and "wrong" with an arrow pointing the other direction. Image source.

Which is more important, being right or doing good? Having the correct opinions on every issue, or taking actions which make a positive difference in the world?

In the ideology of conservative Christianity and conservative politics, being right is more important than being good. You can see this in so many different issues. I have examples.

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"Saved by faith, not by works"

I was taught that this is the main message of Christianity: We are not saved by something we did; we are saved by what Jesus did. We can never do enough good deeds to earn our way into heaven- we just need to believe in Jesus, that's how we get to heaven. We are saved by faith, not by works. 

Evangelical Christians say it's totally legit if someone does all kinds of immoral things, and then on their deathbed they repent and convert to Christianity- on that basis, they get into heaven. It doesn't matter what they did. It doesn't matter if they did good things or if they murdered a lot of people. What matters is that, in the end, they had the correct beliefs.

I've seen conservatives speak out against "the social gospel"- ie, the idea that Christianity is about helping people here and now, that Christianity can be good news for the poor (as Jesus said in Luke 4:18), that Christians should fight for justice. Speaking out against "the social gospel" because it would be bad if people were too focused on this idea of doing good and helping people, and that caused them to place less emphasis on making sure everyone believes the right things. Yeah, conservative Christians are very suspicious of anyone preaching that Christians should do good deeds. Doing good deeds should be a secondary concern- we can't ever lose sight of the fact that being right is the most important.

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Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family is a conservative Christian organization which teaches that there is only 1 correct way to have a family. You have to follow all these rules- that's the "correct" way to live. That's God's way. This image of a hetero couple, with children, the husband as the head of the family, and divorce is not allowed.

If anyone is not living according to this model, well, they deserve whatever happens to them. They should be living the right way. See, we need to teach everyone that if you don't live the right way, then the natural result is that bad things will happen to you. That's just the way it is. It's a kindness, to let everyone know about the risks of living the "wrong" way.

One might point out, hey, wouldn't it be better if we do some research on people's actual family situations, and what kind of ideas/policies would actually help them? Ha! Of course not. In conservative ideology, we already know that people will only get the best outcome if they follow our rules. If they're not following our rules, we shouldn't support them in that. 

(See these posts from the Slacktivist: "Pro-Family" means anti-families and To truly be ‘pro-family,’ you have to be pro-worker)

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Is homosexuality worse than other sins?

15ish years ago, when everyone was arguing about marriage equality, sometimes people would point out that it seems like conservative Christians are treating homosexuality like it's worse than any other sin. What's up with that?

Back then, I was evangelical, and my position was that it's *not* worse than other sins, and we should try to have consistent beliefs about sin, treating all sin as significant but also able to be forgiven by Jesus. (And also, I believed it wasn't a sin to have same-sex attraction, but it was a sin to "act on it.")

But also, at the same time, it sort of made sense to me why we always talked about it in a way that gave people the impression that we thought it was the worst sin. Because there was something about it that intersected with this "being right vs doing good" dichotomy, in a way that other sins didn't. The issue wasn't just that "it's a sin to be in a same-sex relationship"- it was "it's a sin to be in a same-sex relationship, but some people are claiming it's not a sin, and they are wrong, and we need to make it very clear that they are wrong on this factual matter." If a Christian leader does something really bad, like abuse kids, or embezzle money, or whatever, they can stand up and make a big speech about "oh I did this sinful thing, but now I have repented and God has forgiven me." Regardless of their actions, they can proclaim that they now have the "correct" beliefs. But if a Christian leader gets outed as gay, well... they're going to continue to be gay. 

In an ideology where your actions don't really matter, as long as you say the right thing, a refusal to accept the required beliefs about homosexuality is basically worse than any actual bad thing you can do.

People might ask "Why are Christians making such a big deal about this? Aren't they supposed to be, like, helping the poor or something?" But see, nobody is debating whether it's good and important to help poor people or not. See, we all already know the "correct" answer on that, so no need to really make a big deal out of it. But this LGBT issue, well, people have the wrong opinions on it- so we need to argue with them all the time.

(Anyway, I'm queer now, and glad to not be in evangelical world any more.)

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Policies that actually lower the abortion rate 

In the "pro-life" movement, the belief that abortion is bad, and that those women who want abortions are evil and must be stopped, is treated as more important than actually creating policies that lower the abortion rate.

Statistically, we know that banning abortion doesn't really lower the abortion rate. You know what does? Giving people good sex education, and access to contraception. Oh, but the "pro-life" movement can't be supporting those things- because, we know the correct lifestyle is to not have sex outside of marriage. If you're following the correct lifestyle, obviously you will never need an abortion. (Fact-check: this is not true.) It's very important to make sure everyone knows the correct way to live, and if they stray from that path, well, no we shouldn't give them any help or support. Just keep telling them what the correct thing to do would have been.

And another thing that lowers the abortion rate: Policies which help women have more control over their lives, enabling them to set up their lives in such a way that they're able to have the number of children they want to have. Policies which protect pregnant people's rights. Paid maternity leave. Ah, but the "pro-life" movement doesn't advocate for these things. Because it's about having the "right" opinion on abortion- not about actually doing things that will decrease the abortion rate.

(See this post from Libby Anne: How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement)

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And every issue is like this

Seriously, most conservative political positions I can think of, they're about how we already know the right way to live and/or structure society, and therefore the most effective thing we can do is to tell people that's what they're supposed to do, and reward people who are already doing it. We can't give any help to people who aren't living the right way, ugh, that would be terrible, that would send the message that it's *okay* to live like that.

Political policies related to economics, for example. People who are college-educated, people who don't have credit card debt or student loans, people who are rich, people who own businesses- they are the ones doing things the "right" way. If someone proposes a new government policy that would financially help people who are not doing things the "right" way, well, obviously it's a bad idea- we should be teaching people what the right way is, and encouraging them toward it. Not rewarding their bad behavior.

Or another example- universal health care. Wow, wouldn't it be great if the US had universal health care? But conservatives oppose it, because the government isn't *supposed* to be doing that. We already know the "right" way to have a society, and it's that people should be responsible for themselves, rather than being dependent on the government.

(Very interesting that this belief about the "right" way to run one's government doesn't seem to take into account all the other countries in the world, and their different government structures and policies and the results they produce. Very interesting.)

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Conservatives would argue that doing things the "right" way *is* what's most beneficial

Now, I'm kind of framing this like conservatives believe they must follow what is "right" at the expense of doing what actually helps people- but this isn't exactly accurate. They would argue that getting everyone to do things the "right" way *is* what's most helpful, in the long run.

They would argue that, if you really had perfect information about the results of polices that promote doing things the "right" way, vs policies which naively help people who appear to need help- if you analyze these results and calculate which way does the most good, you would find that doing things the "right" way *is* what's best, in terms of real-world results. Sure, they believe this on an abstract, theoretical level, but if you point to a specific study that found that sticking to the "right" way was harmful, this is not going to change their minds. Just speaking for myself back then, when I was growing up republican, I would have said the study wasn't measuring the full scope of the results. (Maybe something seems like a good idea now, but in the long run leads to the downfall of society, ever think of that? ... It's very hard to come up with actual evidence to prove or disprove this...)

It's not really about the evidence. We already know the right answers, so there's not really much of a need to actually go out and collect evidence about the real-world effects of these ideas. We already know what the right way is.

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Which is more important, being right or doing good? Conservative Christianity and conservative politics say it's more important to be right. And this explains so much.

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See also, this post from the Slacktivist: Rights for me but not for thee, which discusses the idea "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." 

I personally feel it fits better to say conservatism is about being right (and I said in this post). But you could make the case that this "in-groups and out-groups" thing is kind of saying the same thing. The in-groups are the people who are doing things the right way- of course the government should support them, not put restrictions on them! And the out-groups are people who are not living according to the "correct" rules- well obviously the law should try to push them to live the "right" way- and definitely should not give them any support in their wrongness.

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Follow-up post: Jesus Weighs in on "Being Right vs Doing Good"

Related:

On Washing Machines and Republicans 

How long will you wait for your experience to match up with the bible?

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Snake-in-the-Box Problem (August 6) From xkcd.

2. There are now more than half a billion mobile money accounts in the world, mostly in Africa — here's why this matters (July 7, via) "As the chart below illustrates, the percentage of people in Sub-Saharan Africa with a mobile money account grew rapidly, from 12% in 2014 to 33% by 2021."

Also from Our World in Data: Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water: what does this really mean for them? (June 23) "The vast majority of the two billion — around three-quarters of them — do have access to a piped water source or protected well that is probably safe to drink. But it’s either not located in their home, is not always available, or there’s no guarantee it’s completely contamination-free. That usually means they must travel to get there; whether that round-trip takes less or more than 30 minutes determines whether they fall into the 'basic source' or 'limited source' category."

3. You Can Now Buy Eggs From In-Ovo Sexed Hens! (July 17, via) "Most people are surprised, and often disturbed, to learn the truth: in the United States alone, approximately 350 million male chicks are routinely culled each year, typically by methods such as maceration (being ground up alive)."

4. The Element Song by Tom Lehrer

Posting this because Tom Lehrer, influential musical satirist, dies at 97 (July 27)

5. More than 1,000 rabbis and Jewish leaders denounce starvation in Gaza (August 1) The letter says they agree with Israel fighting this war, but don't agree with using famine as a weapon.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Cynicism Is the Enemy of Action (July 1) "I think back to the phrase climate journalist David Roberts coined a decade ago, the 'doing it wrong brigade,' for those people on the sidelines who tell those who are doing the work that they should be doing it differently, criticizing their tactics, goals, alliances, or some other thing that falls short of perfection since as Hayes and Kaba point out, when you're not doing anything you can set impossible goals and then lounge about figuring out how those doing the work fall short."

2. Federal agents spread out across D.C. streets amid Trump's vow to crack down on crime (August 11) "He offered no explanation for where homeless people would be sent, but in a social media post last week Trump suggested he is considering a federal takeover of policing in Washington."

3. Asylum-seekers thought they were following the rules. Now some are told to start over (August 10) "'You're literally making documented people, again, undocumented, and they're already in here,' said Michelle Marty Rivera, an immigration attorney who has dozens of clients who have received these letters. 'You are canceling employment authorization. You're virtually converting people that are following the normal traditional asylum rules and leaving them without a status and without protection and asking them to show their faces to ICE.'"

So the strategy that the MAGAs are using is to find some minor thing where somebody's asylum-seeking process didn't go exactly according to the "rules" (even if this was the government's fault for not having availability to do interviews) and then saying that means the entire thing is invalid. It comes across as "the government is out to get you" rather than "there should be a system where people with genuine reasons are able to claim asylum."

(I have some thoughts about the similarities between this and conservative Christian ideology about sin and hell. Maybe if I have time I'll write a post on that. See also: ICE and Hell)

Update, I wrote the post: When You Believe God is Out to Get You

4. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn't vote (August 9) Ah, the pastor in question is Doug Wilson. How will I explain Doug Wilson to my children?

5. A family's fishing trip ends with the dad at 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Here's their story (August 9) "Unable to show a driver's license, the couple were arrested and taken to a local jail where they were separated. M. says this was the last time she saw her husband, before he joined the hundreds of detainees at the controversial makeshift detention center, which has been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." She told NPR their story on the condition of anonymity for the entire family, because she fears retaliation from immigration officials."

6. Texas Showdown (August 6) "When people ask, 'But what are Democrats actually doing to save our country from MAGA fascism?' point them to the brave men and women of the Texas state Democratic House caucus. They are risking their political careers and even their personal freedoms, not to preserve their seats and their power, but to preserve our right to a fair and representative system."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. How Star Trek’s Federation Actually Abandons Its Ideals (July 30) 43-minute video from Steve Shives.

2. TobyMac - Made To Love (Live from Alive & Transported) (2009) Christian music from a decade or so ago. I've always liked this song.

3. France, U.K., others plan to recognize a Palestinian state. What does that change? (August 1)

4. Debating Fascists (July 25) "This was a major topic of conversation in the early 2000s amongst scientists, who worried over whether it was worthwhile to debate “the other side” on issues like climate change and evolution."

5. An Amazing Truth About ALL Sudokus That We DIDN'T Know (July 27) 1-hour-23-minute sudoku solve video.

6. An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo (August 2) Cool, I'm happy for them. It's interesting how people's feelings and beliefs about frozen embryos had such a big influence on this whole process, all the paperwork, transporting the embryos, etc. Would have gone completely differently if the people involved had different beliefs about frozen embryos. Anyway, congrats to them~

7. YouTube will identify and restrict minors’ accounts with AI (July 30, via) Uh what? This seems like a terrible idea, because the algorithm is going to get it wrong sometimes. Of course it will get it wrong sometimes. You're never going to get an accuracy rate close enough to 100%.

8. Holocaust Memory in a Time of Genocide (July 31, via) "At this point, the fracture between the “universal” and the “particular-Jewish” components of Holocaust memory became an unbridgeable chasm: the “pro-Jewish” sentiment, which morphed into unconditional support for Israel and its murderous war following October 7, was completely severed from the universal sentiment of human rights."

9. Zootopia 2 | Trailer (July 30) Cool!

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Jon Stewart Reacts to Colbert's Cancellation & Trump's "Bawdy" Epstein Doodles | The Daily Show (July 22) "And if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourselves so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king's radar, A, why will anyone watch you? And you are ****ing wrong."

2. Trump push to ban birthright citizenship unconstitutional, US court rules (July 23, via) "The three-judge ruling panel in the 9th US circuit court of appeals echoed a district court in New Hampshire that blocked the executive order earlier this month."

3. Innocence, identity, and blood libel (part 1) (July 28) and Innocence, identity, and blood libel (part 2) 

4. Federal judge delays expiration of TPS for Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Nepalese (July 31) "It affects about 60,000 immigrants whose temporary protected status was set to expire. The protections for the Nepalese were set to terminate on Aug. 5. The protections for Nicaraguans and Hondurans would have ended Sept. 8. Most of them have been living in the U.S. for more than 20 years." This is just wild to me, that the MAGAs are arguing that people who've been in the US for over 20 years should just leave- like why? Why should they leave? Just because the MAGAs hate immigrants, not any actual reality-based reason.

Blogaround

 Links not related to the antichrist:

1. One Last Time, Discord Is Not A Suitable Replacement For Forums (May 12, via) "Discord, meanwhile, is a river that never stops running. It has some forum-like features, sure, and a search bar, but its conversations are supposed to take place in real time, which is fantastic for people who are around and talking at the same time, but far less useful for anyone coming around later. Like, say, those with tech support issues, which make up a huge percentage of video game community posts."

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Political cartoon which shows Nixon saying "I'm not a crook" and Trump saying "I'm a crook, so what." Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. First of all, if you're American, make sure you contact your senator and tell them to vote against the Republican budget bill. Calling on the phone is best, but if you have phone anxiety you can email them- search for your senator's web site and look for a "contact" page.

2. Here's some good news- a few weeks ago, I linked to an article about how funding for the Women's Health Initiative had been cancelled. I just found out that this decision was reversed: In a reversal, the Trump administration restores funding for women's health study (April 25)

So be loud, protest, tell the government what you think. It does make a difference.

3. Trump’s Lie About Dead “White Farmers” Just Got Even More Grotesque (May 24) "But there’s another ugly irony here that shouldn’t pass unnoticed: The Trump administration has suspended foreign aid to Congo and the resettlement of refugees from that nation, thus abandoning countless victims of the very same real-life humanitarian catastrophe that he’s cherry-picking imagery from to portray an atrocity against whites that isn’t actually happening."

4. Federal judge blocks immigration authorities from revoking international students’ legal status (May 23) "The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland bars the government from arresting, incarcerating or moving students elsewhere based on their legal status until the case is resolved." This is about the international students across the country whose legal status was suddenly terminated for unclear reasons. 

It's a separate issue from what's going on with Harvard. Here's a link about that: Trump again blasts Harvard over international students as judge blocks revocation (May 25) "Trump's latest attack against Harvard comes two days after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from being able to revoke the university's ability to enroll international students."

5. The Greatness Paradox (May 26) "And yet, every day we see Trump tear down the things that have made America great: scientific excellence, the rule of law, trade, alliances, our open society, and the soft power that comes from the attractiveness of our vision. How does that make any sense? Is it just hypocrisy? Is “greatness” just a buzzword to exploit? A false banner for the gullible to flock behind?"

6. When the abuse of power is assumed (May 26) "That’s the weird bit. What does it matter if Trump — the guy who personally and arbitrarily created this problem with his weird and dumb tariff hobby — says mean things about you in late-night posts on his personal social media platform? How could that possibly be meaningful enough to weigh against the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars that would come from “eating” his tariffs and selling a third of your inventory at a loss?"

7. With Tariffs Paused, China’s Holiday Goods Hub Races to Fill Orders (May 27) "To reach U.S. shelves in time for Halloween and Christmas, goods must leave China by July, giving factories just a few weeks to restart production, clear backlogs, and move inventory before tariffs potentially return." An article about what's going on with the tariffs, from the perspective of Chinese retailers.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Doctors urged to treat pain for IUD insertion and other procedures (May 20) Hey, this is great. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is now saying that doctors need to inform patients about the possible pain of procedures like IUD insertion, and give patients options about anesthesia/ pain management. I'm all for that. Informed consent in a medical setting.

2. The Chicago Sun-Times Published an AI-Generated Summer Reading List Full of Fake Books — And This is Just the Beginning (May 20) "Let's connect the dots here. Media company cuts 20% of its staff, including experienced editors. Two months later, AI-generated nonsense makes it into print without anyone catching it. Are we really surprised?"

3. Gatsby’s Secret (April 7, via) "The more Thompson read, the more convinced he became that Gatsby was about a man “passing” for white."

4. Supreme Court sidesteps religious charter school question for now on 4-4 deadlock (May 22) "No religious charter schools. For now."

5. No more pennies: In big change, Treasury will stop minting them (May 22) "The Treasury Department has placed its last order for blank pennies and plans to stop minting the one-cent coins as soon as that's exhausted."

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Political cartoon that shows the White House (with a flag that says "King Donald") with a sign out front that says "Please wipe your feet!" pointing to the Constitution laying on the ground. Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

We've got a lot of links today. If it's too stressful, you don't have to read all of them, but here is an important action item: Contact your senators and tell them to vote no on the Republican budget bill.

1. Supreme Court says Trump can strip protected status for Venezuelans for now (May 19) "'From what we can tell, this is the single largest action in modern American history, stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status,' Ahilan Arulanantham, the co-director for Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA, and one of the lawyers representing the Venezuelans, told reporters Monday."

2. DHS secretary misstates meaning of habeas corpus under Senate scrutiny (May 20) "Responding, Senator Hassan corrected the secretary, stating, 'Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.'"

3. Judge says Trump administration violated court order on third-country deportations (May 21) "'No meaningful opportunity at all was provided to him to express a fear of being sent to South Sudan,' Ryan said."

And an update on that: White House agrees to keep migrants in Djibouti for now, blasts federal judge's ruling (May 22)

In this specific case, the immigrants being deported actually have committed serious crimes. I think people have a tendency to think "well why does it matter if they're sent to some random other country, since they are violent criminals?" No, not cool- if people commit crimes, you sentence them according to what the law says. We have laws for this! The government can't just make up whatever punishment they want.

4. Charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver spark backlash after incident with ICE agents (May 21) "'This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right. I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received and I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court,' she added."

5. U.S. sends 68 migrants back to Honduras and Colombia in first voluntary deportation (May 20) 

6. These students protested the Gaza war. Trump's deportation threat didn't silence them (May 21) "'All of us international students, we had this thought of, 'what if it was me?'' she said of her reaction to the first few students that ICE agents arrested. 'Students that were higher risk, they all started to talk to their lawyers and make arrangements for if that were to happen.'"

7. Alliance Defending Freedom Sues Minnesota To Mandate Trans Discrimination (May 22) "While the immediate impact would be limited to Minnesota, an appeal could escalate the case to higher courts—and if the Supreme Court takes it up, this fringe legal theory could become the basis for mandating anti-trans discrimination in schools nationwide, from bathroom bans to sports bans and more."

8. These Are Not My Thoughts On Banning GAC (May 22) [content note: violence against intersex children] "So when the GOP includes intersex exceptions to genital reconstruction laws that ban gender affirming care for trans kids, This is what they’re preserving. Not care. Not concern. Not empathy. They are preserving the right of parents to rip apart children’s bodies with pliers, and the right of doctors to support them in their demented, evil efforts."

9. Trump administration revokes Harvard's ability to enroll international students (May 22) Holy crap. 

10. Lawsuit challenges USDA demand for food stamp data as some states prepare to comply (May 22) "'If you're trying to design a public benefits program that supports the most vulnerable people and makes sure that nobody in our country goes hungry, this is obviously not the way to do it,' said Ami Fields-Meyer, a senior fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University specializing in the intersection between civil liberties and technology, and a former senior policy adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris. 'But if you're trying to integrate critical assistance into a machinery for hunting immigrants and breaking up families and deporting people without due process — this is exactly how you do it.'"

11. Educators fear their homeless students could become a target for Trump cuts (May 22) "Amid all the moves, one thing has been constant for Dayana: her school. That's because a federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, allows students like her to stay in their school even when their housing takes them far from where they originally enrolled."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. We Need to Remember Problems We Solved (May 14, via) "The pesticide DDT caused birds that eat fish that eat bugs to have thin eggshells, and the birds’ nests failed. It took a lot of science and journalism and public outrage, but we banned DDT and the eagles are back."

2. Famine imminent in Gaza if Israel doesn’t lift blockade, hunger monitor warns (May 12, via) "'Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,' said Cindy McCain, executive director of the WFP."

3. Quigley's Village Preview - Cooperation Yeah this is the song "Build It" from a Christian children's video series I used to watch 30-some years ago and it's very catchy, I like it.

4. Help spread the word about We Hunted the Mammoth! (May 12) The blog "We Hunted the Mammoth" took a break for a few months but now it's back to regular posting.

5. ‘We tried to save those kids’: Texas doctor watched children die of measles. Now it’s back in Texas (May 14) About a doctor's experience in the 1960's in Chile, treating kids who had measles- and it was so bad. The good news is, we have a vaccine for measles now. Everyone, vaccinate your kids.

6. Texas Bans Being Different Around Children (May 13) From the Onion (parody news site)

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Capitol Police arrest 26 as Medicaid activists interrupt committee (May 13) "'I think hopefully everyone understands that these demonstrations, these people feel very strongly because they know they’re losing their health care and the cruelty that comes from the Republican proposal,' Pallone said."

2. Georgetown researcher released from immigration detention on federal judge's order (May 14) "Suri, who was never charged with a crime, was detained at the Texas facility for two months, following his arrest by masked federal agents after he returned to his Virginia home on March 17."

3. RFK Jr. says people shouldn't take his medical advice when asked about vaccines at hearing (May 14) Okay first of all, I agree with all the witty people on the internet who said "wow I agree with RFK Jr on something!"

Second of all, what is the mindset behind "don't take advice from me"? It feels like he's trying to create this atmosphere where everyone can have their own opinion on vaccines and/or whatever kind of pseudo-scientific crap is being promoted, and that's fine, there are no right answers, everyone's opinion is equally valid. Uh, that is very much NOT how reality works. Talking about these real scientific facts with an air of 'well we can't possibly know one way or the other' is really harmful.

4. Trump Asks the Supreme Court for a “Catch Me if You Can” System of Justice (May 16) "'Your argument seems to turn our justice system, in my view at least, into a ‘catch me if you can’ kind of regime from the standpoint of the executive, where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people’s rights,' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told Solicitor General John Sauer. 'I don’t understand how that is remotely consistent with the rule of law.'"

So the Supreme Court is hearing arguments about the birthright citizenship executive order. But the weird thing is, they're not talking about birthright citizenship itself- the felon's executive order is so blatantly unconstitutional that no one is even trying to discuss that. Instead, the felon's lawyers are making this about whether courts can issue universal injunctions to block an executive order from being applied nationwide. Their argument is that the courts can't do that- they can only say the executive order doesn't apply to the people who are part of the specific case before the court. 

So their argument is, the president can issue illegal unconstitutional orders that apply to everyone, but courts (except the Supreme Court) can't put a stop to those orders which applies to everyone.

5. Justice for Kseniia Petrova (May 16) "I say “political prisoners” because that is precisely what they’ve now become. Petrova, Abrego García, and others are being held for purely political reasons, by or at the request of the U.S. government. It’s not because they’ve committed any actual crimes or are in any way deserving of the treatment they are receiving. Rather, it’s because the administration wants to telegraph strength and cruelty, just like any other fascist regime."

6. SCOTUS, in a 7-2 vote, blocks AEA removals from northern Texas during litigation (May 17) "'Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,' the court stated bluntly." Good news.

7. Turning Qatari 747 into Air Force One could cost $1 billion and take years, experts say (May 14) "The Qatari jumbo jet would have to be effectively dismantled, part by part, to ensure there were no listening devices, spyware or other security vulnerabilities that could allow foreign powers to eavesdrop on the president’s plane." Wow this sounds like a terrible idea.

8. The Video of Rumeysa Ozturk Being Detained by ICE Was Publicized By a Community Defense Network (April 30) "The hotline team dispatched “verifiers” in Somerville — people trained to verify hotline calls and social media rumors of ICE’s presence in a given area — who arrived within five minutes. They met with the caller, who was unsure who had taken Ozturk. The volunteers began knocking on doors and talking to neighbors, trying to find out if anyone might have information on what had happened, and also to calm any panic by giving out information about the hotline. A neighbor turned over the video, reportedly captured by a home security camera, that has now been seen by millions."

Also from Teen Vogue: Know Your Rights: Here's How to Defend Immigrants Against the Most Common ICE Tactics and Unconstitutional Actions (March 6) A video series about knowing your rights, and what to do if ICE agents come to your home.

9. Where's Plumpy'Nut? A lifesaving food for malnourished kids is caught up in U.S. cuts (April 25) I heard about "Plumpy'Nut" years ago- I'm glad to find out it's really effective for treating kids with severe malnutrition. Unfortunately, Elon Musk.

"The Case For Open Borders" (book review)

I recently read The Case for Open Borders by John Washington. Here's my review of it.

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My expectations before reading it

I'm an immigrant in China. I'm American; I moved to China because I wanted to. I later found out that other people can't just move to another country because they want to. Furthermore, they can't even move to another country when they need to, when their home country is not safe. I find this mind-boggling, staggeringly unfair. Everyone should be allowed to live in whatever country they want. *I* can live in whatever country I want, because I'm American- yeah there's bureaucracy to deal with, and you should do the work of learning the language, etc- but it's doable. It's hard work, but no government ever stood in my way and said "no, you just can't." I can't get over the fact that for millions of people in this world, they don't have opportunities like that. They just don't. This is so wrong.

Still, I thought, there are practical reasons why countries can't just let everyone in. Sure. My position was always, the US should let in WAY more immigrants, but I wasn't so extreme as to say we should totally open the borders. We should strive toward that, as much as we can, but sure I understand if it's not practical to literally open the borders. (And I don't have an opinion on what other countries should do with their immigration policies- I don't think it's my place to say anything there. I mean, lol, I might have things to say about the aspects of China's immigration bureaucracy that affect me, but beyond that, I don't want to tell other countries what to do.)

So when I heard about this book, "The Case for Open Borders," I was very excited! I always thought, well hey let's be practical, we want to help immigrants but we can't let an unlimited number of immigrants in. But what's this, there's a case to be made that we can???? Oh, I want to hear about that! This is great news!

At the same time, the term "open borders" is a politically-charged scare tactic. You can find lots of conservatives saying things like "Joe Biden totally opened the borders and millions of dangerous migrants streamed into our country" (which is not true). No shortage of people claiming the borders are already open, and that this is a horrible scary thing.

In the current state of US politics, we're not anywhere close to having a movement of people embracing the term "open borders" and advocating for that. But wow, wouldn't it be amazing if there was? I hope a lot of people read this book and start thinking in that direction.

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Borders are made up

The book talks a lot about colonialism- how powerful nations invaded other people's land and just declared that the land belongs to them, and drew lines to say where the borders would be. The way that colonial powers very much did *not* respect indigenous people's claim to their land- and then immediately turned around and drew new borders and acted like it was outrageous to suggest that migrants can cross those borders.

The book talks about cases throughout history where a powerful country moved its border a little bit, for various reasons- like Australia deciding that Christmas Island wasn't *really* Australian territory. You see, if it counted as *really* Australian national territory, then that would mean if migrants stepped foot there, the Australian government would be legally required to consider their asylum claims. If you do some creative stuff with how you define the border, you can just put the migrants in prison indefinitely, instead.

Borders are made up, and they are changed all the time when it suits the people in power to do so. (Look at how the felon makes such a big deal about migrants "invading" the US, but at the same time, he wants to take over Greenland and/or Panama and/or Canada.) So let's not treat this like borders are some kind of *absolute* thing, like crossing them without authorization is objectively wrong to do. No, the rules about borders are made by people in power, for their own reasons, and can be changed just as easily.

To treat someone as a completely different type of person- as an illegal immigrant with no rights- just because of some imaginary line- it's immoral. It's just straight-up immoral. In the southern US, there are literally laws against helping people who have crossed the border illegally. Really. You can get in trouble for giving someone a ride. Because of an imaginary line that someone made up.

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Borders are violent

All over the world, people die because of closed borders. Really. Borders are violent. At the extreme end, you have borders with actual armed guards who shoot anyone who crosses. But borders can kill in other ways too- the book tells the story of an 18-month-old girl, Iman Leila, who got sick because of the cold in a refugee camp for Syrians who were not allowed to cross the border into Turkey- and she died because her parents couldn't get medical care for her. Migrants die crossing the desert in Africa to try to reach the Mediterranean. Migrants drown when trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. In the US, migrants die in the desert near the US-Mexico border. Adding more border security doesn't stop people from attempting to cross, it just makes it more dangerous for them- and more people die.

And yet, people continue to migrate. Because if they stayed in their home countries, they could die. When the situation is that bad in their home countries, there's no way you can stop them from trying. You can only make it more dangerous. More deadly.

Before I read this book, I thought "well it's not practical to literally have open borders" but now I'm thinking... any amount of restriction on crossing the border means people will die. How can you say what's a "practical" level of migrant death? Maybe it's not actually possible to make a case to be "reasonable" and "practical" and only let some limited number of people in.

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Borders are closed for poor people but open for capitalism

Companies do business across borders all the time. Companies outsource their factories, so they can manufacture their products in countries where wages are lower, and then sell them in countries where customers will pay higher prices. Actually, since poor workers are not allowed to get the benefits of crossing the border, big companies are able to exploit people on both sides. 

Why is capital allowed to flow freely across borders, but people are not? (Or, more specifically, rich people are allowed, but poor people are not.)

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Climate change

One of the big factors forcing people to leave their home countries is climate change. Some places in the world are becoming uninhabitable.

Rich countries are polluting the world and causing climate change, and then blocking climate refugees from entering. The book had some statistics about how the US spends so much money on border security- so much more than the amount of money spent on fighting against climate change. Rich countries like the US have a moral obligation to accept refugees from countries which are disproportionately affected by the climate change that we are causing.

Similarly, when the US causes political instability in other countries, and then migrants need to flee those countries, the US has a moral obligation to allow them to enter.

This is all connected. This is our problem.

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The economy

"The Case for Open Borders" has statistics about how immigrants help the economy. Immigration increases GDP and creates more jobs for citizen workers too. It's very common for illegal immigrants to pay taxes but not receive any government benefits (which is really not fair to them- but we bring this up to refute the conservative talking point that illegal immigrants are taking something away from US taxpayers).

Yes, there have been some cases where some subgroups of citizen workers saw their average wages decrease as a result of immigration. I think that we should care about this problem, and give extra help to people who are affected in this way. It doesn't mean we should ban immigrants from coming. Rich people have framed this like it's a zero-sum game, like immigrants and citizens are competing with each other for jobs and wages- when the reality is, the US has enough money to make sure all of them can have a good life. The rich people are to blame- not the immigrants.

(Also, there are a lot of numbers thrown around in this book, for how much GDP would increase if the borders were totally open, but I don't really believe them, because this hasn't been done in the real world in modern times- these are just extrapolations from smaller cases. I don't think we can be sure about how exactly it would scale.)

And also, I know people are afraid of how immigration will change their communities. But you know what else changes communities? When a company closes a factory in a small town, and outsources all the jobs to another country. This is a much worse change, and much faster than the ways that immigration changes a town- and yet nobody's turning it into a big political thing. Hmm.

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I'm a bit skeptical of the book's claim that all countries should just open their borders and everything will be great

"The Case for Open Borders" says that if a country totally opens the border, it's a win all around. The country will no longer have to spend millions of dollars on militarizing the border, so they can use that money for other things which will actually benefit society. And, when immigrants enter, they will help the economy. And, this is great for the immigrants themselves. It's so easy! All this stuff that governments are doing, working so hard to try to keep people out (even though that's impossible)- well, just stop it! And then everything will be wonderful.

I'm not sure about this- are there really no downsides? There must be some downsides. I mean, I agree that overall it would be a good thing, but isn't it a little naive to portray it as such a perfect solution for everyone?

I found myself asking, "Who benefits from restrictions on immigration?" Well, politicians who tell stories about the scary immigrants "invading our country"- getting their voters all scared, and using this to get power. If people decide that open borders are better, then those politicians will lose power. Is that it? Is that the only way that people "benefit" from closed borders? Is this really what's driving all the money spent on border control, and all the violence towards immigrants who are trying to enter- it's solely to benefit politicians who use fear and prejudice to get power? It doesn't benefit society in any actual ways?

... Yeah I can't really think of any.

But another thing... years and years ago, in the US, I didn't like interacting with immigrants because it's awkward and embarrassing when I can't understand what they're saying to me, or when they can't understand what I'm saying to them. I get that that's an uncomfortable situation to be in. If you live in a place where everyone speaks English well and is culturally similar to you, and then you happen to meet someone who is very different and you have trouble understanding each other, I get how that would feel like a bad experience that people would want to avoid. 

The thing is, though, for you in the majority culture, it's something that happens once in a blue moon and you try to avoid it, but for immigrants, it's every single interaction they have. Just going around doing the normal things you need to do to live, every interaction will have misunderstandings and confusion and possibly have people avoiding you because they don't want the embarrassment of that kind of interaction. When you go to buy groceries, when you open a bank account, when you rent an apartment, when you go to a job interview, when you go to the doctor- if you're the immigrant, you'll have those weird misunderstandings all the time, it's unavoidable. 

I say this as a white person who learned Chinese and lives in China. You just have to learn to not take these things too seriously. To laugh at yourself. Obviously learning a new language, you're going to make mistakes, so just laugh at yourself and move on from it when that happens.

And back then, before I became an immigrant myself, I think I was too focused on my own feelings about not understanding people's accents. Fearing that people would think I was doing something wrong, if I misunderstood and said the wrong thing, and being so scared of that, that I didn't want to try at all. But this misses the point. The thing that matters isn't whether the majority-culture person is judged for making mistakes and should feel bad for that. What matters is the immigrant who's going about their day and maybe needs to ask for help with something. Even if you're not able to help because you can't understand what they're saying, you should have enough empathy to at least see that they need help and hope they can get their problem solved, rather than just thinking about how they caused you the embarrassment of not being able to understand their accent.

Not sure if I'm explaining this well. Is this a common thing or my own weird quirk? Just want to talk about it because back then when I was uncomfortable with immigrants, that was the reason. Now I'm an immigrant myself though, so I have totally different feelings on it now.

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What an open border world would actually look like

In the book, Washington says that in some says, a world with open borders would be basically the same as the world now, but in other ways it would be completely different. 

It would be the same because people already do cross borders- it's impossible to stop this- migration is a very human thing. People already cross borders and make a life for themselves in another country, whether it's legal or not. And if there were no restrictions on immigration, it's not like every single person in a poor country is suddenly going to come to the US. It wouldn't be a huge dramatic wave like that. There are all sorts of complicated reasons that people choose to stay in their home country or to migrate.

But also, a world with open borders would be completely different, because it would mean we completely change how we think about these things. It would mean being honest about the effects of colonialism and climate change. It would mean rich countries actually have a responsibility to help the countries which have been affected by the damage we've done to them. It would mean society's priorities would completely change- instead of spending so much money on border control, we would spend that money to actually help the people who need help- wow, what a radical idea.

The book has some practical steps for what we could do to move in the direction of open borders. One idea is to let everyone enter the US, but require them to do some paperwork. And while they're waiting for their paperwork to be processed, they can go about their life in the US, they can find a job, etc. When people tell immigrants they have to "get in line" rather than entering the country illegally, perhaps they are imagining that the current system already works like this. It doesn't! Oh my goodness, it doesn't! For many immigrants, THERE IS NO LINE. 

But hey, if there actually was a line? If it was actually realistic to "get in line" and enter the US that way, that would be great. 

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No More Deaths

The author, John Washington, works with an organization called No More Deaths. This organization helps migrants who have crossed the US-Mexico border and are at risk of dying in the desert.

I'm glad organizations like that exist. If people are in the desert and they need water or medical care, we absolutely should help them. Regardless of whether they are "illegal." No human being is illegal.

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Conclusion

This is a very important book. Borders truly are violent, but most people don't realize that. It feels so straightforward and obvious to say that immigrants shouldn't be allowed to enter a country if they don't have the right documents- but no, it's actually violent to have a system like that. People die. I hope that more Americans see how bad it is, see our moral obligation to help people who need help, and advocate for allowing immigrants to enter.

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Posts with quotes from the book:

"The Case for Open Borders": 911 calls in the desert
"The Case for Open Borders": The birthright lottery 
"The Case for Open Borders": The wall is not impermeable
"The Case for Open Borders": There's nothing you can do to prevent it
"The Case for Open Borders": Remittances
"The Case for Open Borders": Keeping only some people out 
"The Case for Open Borders": Climate Change
"The Case for Open Borders": Disease
"The Case for Open Borders": Stay at home
"The Case for Open Borders": Get in line
"The Case for Open Borders": Not a rush
"The Case for Open Borders": Exploiting workers on both sides
"The Case for Open Borders": Reparations 
"The Case for Open Borders": Racism
"The Case for Open Borders": Family separation

Related:

That's What Radicalized Me (a post about immigration) 

On Immigration and Double Standards