European Refugee Crisis

[LittleHurt05]

While the USA can largely be described as a country of immigrants, a lot of places in Europe are not historically diverse. And what little diversity there has been in many central and northern European countries has not typically included a great deal of Muslims or non-Europeans. It has been a real challenge there, particularly in terms of how many of these peaceful, supposedly highly progressive areas are now looking at themselves and seeing that being a "melting pot" is hard and it takes a lot of support from the citizen to the government for it to work.

 

It's worth mentioning that not all Muslim countries feel obligated to look out for one another. Saudi Arabia is pretty friendly with the USA, after all. Gulf Arabs tend to feel superior to inland Arabs and to some extent the inverse is true as well. They are not all the same.

 

Just follow a little bit of European soccer and you can see how big of a problem diversity is in Europe. American is miles ahead many European countries in terms of race relations.

[cabiness42]

Until about the mid-19th century, the population that wasn't brought over in slavery was overwhelmingly British in origin. Once those uncivilized potato-eating Catholic Irish and Huns started migrating, though, we get the birth of nativist parties like the Know-Nothings.

 

What if they hadn't come over. What would we bet getting as a side with our McDonald's burgers?

[CrimsonWeltall]

What if they hadn't come over. What would we bet getting as a side with our McDonald's burgers?

 

Potatoes started in the new world and went back to Europe!

 

We'd still have our delicious fries mmm mm

[bmags]

Just follow a little bit of European soccer and you can see how big of a problem diversity is in Europe. American is miles ahead many European countries in terms of race relations.

 

Except when you consider the fact that we have an incredibly stable neighbor to the north and we have a presidential candidate proposing creating a wall to prevent them illegally entering country.

[StrangeSox]

Potatoes started in the new world and went back to Europe!

 

We'd still have our delicious fries mmm mm

An Andean staple that helped lift all of those backwater, economically depressed and nearly perpetually famine-suffering northern European countries out of poverty! (hattip: 1493)

[StrangeSox]

Except when you consider the fact that we have an incredibly stable neighbor to the north and we have a presidential candidate proposing creating a wall to prevent them illegally entering country.

Sure but a lot of Europe is shockingly racist and xenophobic, even more so these days due to the global recession. I mean, you've got openly fascist and racist parties getting seats in government in Greece, controlling the government in Hungary, and getting 18% of the vote for President in France.

[bmags]

BTW if we were talking about 1,000,000+ immigrants I do think planning and hesitation is warranted, but we are talkinga bout increasing our input from 10k to 50k.

[StrangeSox]

The US has taken in a little less than 1.5k Syrian refugees since 2011.

[LittleHurt05]

Except when you consider the fact that we have an incredibly stable neighbor to the north and we have a presidential candidate proposing creating a wall to prevent them illegally entering country.

 

At least our black athletes can play without having bananas thrown at them or entire cheering sections chant monkey noises. I've yet to see a college student section unveil a huge banner with Nazi symbolism.

 

I never said America is perfect, but you can't deny it's much better than much of Europe in handling diversity. The main reason is that America has been dealing with it for hundreds of years, so it has improved over time. Most European countries are still very homogeneous, so any change or diversity scares them.

 

[bmags]

Sure but a lot of Europe is shockingly racist and xenophobic, even more so these days due to the global recession. I mean, you've got openly fascist and racist parties getting seats in government in Greece, controlling the government in Hungary, and getting 18% of the vote for President in France.

 

Yes, but to say we are ahead of those countries is only because our own immigration border issues are so much simpler and smaller in scope. If we truly had same constant issues of African + Middle eastern immigration that germany faces i'm pretty sure it would be just as bad.

[bmags]

At least our black athletes can play without having bananas thrown at them or entire cheering sections chant monkey noises. I've yet to see a college student section unveil a huge banner with Nazi symbolism.

 

I never said America is perfect, but you can't deny it's much better than much of Europe in handling diversity. The main reason is that America has been dealing with it for hundreds of years, so it has improved over time. Most European countries are still very homogeneous, so any change or diversity scares them.

 

I'm not saying Europe is a higher standard than US, but I am saying we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back considering the xenophobic themes in our current election in situations much more favorable than certain euro countries. But yes, I agree with all of the above, Europe has a huge problem right now.

[caulfield12]

That Hungarian reporter/camerawoman should be ashamed of herself.

 

Tripping a father running with his young son in his arms?

 

That would make Greg's Top Ten awful list if it happened in the U.S. outside a church.

[greg775]

That Hungarian reporter/camerawoman should be ashamed of herself.

 

Tripping a father running with his young son in his arms?

 

That would make Greg's Top Ten awful list if it happened in the U.S. outside a church.

I actually hadn't heard about it. Just saw the clip. WTF was she doing? Is she against refugees? That dad had no chance but to go sprawling. If I was him I'd be tempted to go back and break her camera at least. WTF?? That's assault. She should be in jail.

[iamshack]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

[greg775]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

Are u crazy? Tons of people responded to scs. Tons of advice was given. Shack, seriously, were you looking at the right thread? Scs got a lot of support/advice. s***, you start a fundraising campaign for him. I'll give something.

[caulfield12]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

 

I think southsider gave advice at least 10-15 times in that thread that seemed on point.

 

Whether the moderators feel that an individual situation warrants a special fundraising drive/collection...I'm not sure that's a direction they would want to go. Someone also mentioned kickstarter, but this type of personal finance situation is a much harder sell than a Zach Braff or Veronica Mars movie.

 

I would hope the uncle would get more involved in making sure the house is properly registered/classified so that his mother doesn't end up losing a home that has been in the family for many years.

[iamshack]

I think southsider gave advice at least 10-15 times in that thread that seemed on point.

 

Whether the moderators feel that an individual situation warrants a special fundraising drive/collection...I'm not sure that's a direction they would want to go. Someone also mentioned kickstarter, but this type of personal finance situation is a much harder sell than a Zach Braff or Veronica Mars movie.

 

I would hope the uncle would get more involved in making sure the house is properly registered/classified so that his mother doesn't end up losing a home that has been in the family for many years.

I'm not referring to ss2k.

[StrangeSox]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

Possibly because people with actually relevant knowledge and expertise stepped up quickly.

 

eta: still could have posted a "sorry to hear about that, let us know if there's any way we can help" though

Edited September 12, 2015 by StrangeSox

[Kyyle23]

Are u crazy? Tons of people responded to scs. Tons of advice was given. Shack, seriously, were you looking at the right thread? Scs got a lot of support/advice. s***, you start a fundraising campaign for him. I'll give something.

 

You completely missed his point

[Balta1701]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

All right I'm chiming back in because this is clearly aimed at least in part at me.

 

I had absolutely zero productive advice to give in that thread because I don't know anything about housing tax law. Anything I came up with would be something I had to Google and frankly there are people better informed than me on financial issues and tax law at this page.

[bmags]

That comment is so absurd and out of bounds no one should have to respond to it.

[pettie4sox]

All I will say is this...for as much as some of you guys like to get on your high horses and lecture the rest of us about how morally deficient we are, we had a thread where one of our own posters was faced with losing his home.

 

Of course, not one of you so much as touched it. Not an offer of advice, not any research, nothing.

 

Now maybe some of you reached out privately to the poster, and if that is the case, well then I take back what I said.

 

But many of the same folks that are telling the rest of us all how we should be living happen to be absent when the rubber hits the road.

 

This is a damned if you do damned if you don't. He wanted advice and didn't ask for money directly if I remember correctly. If you offer something this could be insulting to the poster. If you're not keen on the area, there is not much input you can add to the discussion.

[iamshack]

That comment is so absurd and out of bounds no one should have to respond to it.

This is precisely the answer one would expect from you.

[StrangeSox]

so do you have anything to add to the actual topic or?

[iamshack]

so do you have anything to add to the actual topic or?

Hah.

 

No. To be honest, I have not had any time to keep up with current events recently.