The Best of Reason Magazine: How Did Immigration Politics Get So Toxic?

Changing migration patterns, outdated policy tools, and growing presidential power made it inevitable.

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The Best of Reason Magazine: How Did Immigration Politics Get So Toxic?

This week's featured article is "How Did Immigration Politics Get So Toxic?" by Fiona Harrigan. This article originally appeared in print under the headline, "How Did Border Politics Get So Toxic?"

This audio was generated using AI trained on the voice of Katherine Mangu-Ward.

Music credits: "Deep in Thought" by CTRL S and "Sunsettling" by Man with Roses

Comments

[Don't look at me!]

Oh boy! A re-run.

[Chumby]

Rerun from What’s Happening!!?

[Rob Misek]

The question was, “why has immigration become a toxic subject?”.

The US isn’t a melting pot anymore.

https://nypost.com/2019/01/29/america-isnt-a-melting-pot-anymore/

There are two components to culture, behaviour (physical) and religion (spiritual).

The first is bound by the truth, reality, that we can prove with logic and science and all agree on. We make good laws with justice.

The second isn’t because it deals with what cannot be proven as truth. It remains unknown.

In culture, diversity brings division. This division when carried from the spiritual to the physical can be toxic. For example, when one “god” says make noise all night, while another “god” says sleep. Applied like this, a “salad bowl” doesn’t work in a culture.

There are two solutions to this.

The culture maintains a homogeneous religion, reducing diversity and division within but risking conflict and war with other cultures.

Or

Recognize, accept and separate the physical and spiritual aspects of culture. Agreeing on the rules for behaviour. Acting rightly not wrongly based on the truth, reality, which all rational people must recognize accept and share in peace. Leaving the spiritual for the unknown, to remain where it belongs in our thoughts and imagination. To help guide us to discern new truths with correctly applied logic and science that we can all share in peace.

The first, where belief defines truth, leads to perpetual conflict, war and genocide.

The second, where belief requires nothing more than faith, allows us to get along in peace.

Our spiritual beliefs can be a salad bowl as long as our physical actions are in harmony, a melting pot.

The “toxicity” around immigration, is caused by the fact that we don’t all recognize this logic as truth. Yet.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Maybe it got toxic after you assholes started calling anyone opposed to mass immigration racists?

[Commenter_XY]

LMFAO...How did it get so toxic. Fiona, are you serious?

[WWestmiller]

It got toxic when the Supreme Court said "immigration" is the same as "naturalization", so federal control was constitutional.
Of course, that's nonsense. Immigration laws that didn't violate the migrants rights should have been left to each state.

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

Fiona's trying to find the guy who did this!

[Chumby]

A bit frank.

[Rick James]

Not sure if any of you kids listened to the last one.. I did and with particular interest to the segment on who Reason staffers were voting for. I listened because I thought, "This seems odd to throw into a podcast with no hard list published." Then when I listened I realized it was just a dick-tease. They announced that that they would announce who they were voting for, and then talked about how Reason and maybe Slate were the only two publications that did that etc.

Anyhoo, KMW indicated that one of the Reason staffers would be doing a (and I quote) "write-in for a candidate who's no longer on the ballot"

Now, surprises can happen. We all know what happens when we assume. But I'm considering re-subscribing just so I can cancel if (and when) that turns out to be a write-in for Joe Biden.

In addition, KMW also indicated that the staffers were a "lot more wordy" this election cycle than they were the last one. This leads me to speculate that there are a LOT of convolutions and justifications required for their choices, which leads me to further speculate that my previous prediction is wrong, where I kind of defended the Reason staffers by suggesting that it would probably be a straight Chase Oliver vote all the way down the line-- especially after the tragicomic Biden choices that were made last cycle. I now question that and think that yes... they'll still vote for the Retarded ticket (so they don't look like/appear to be a Republican). Because at some point, even a "pox on both their houses/creating new classes of income tax is exactly as bad as not taxing tip income" might be perceived as "a vote for Trump" and could result in some cocktail party invites being retracted.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Look. This election is the most important election in Eric Boehm's lifetime. And it boils down to two things. Toasters and video game consoles.

[Chumby]

JD Vance is wrong about using a video game console to make toast

[Commenter_XY]

Never let them forget how they voted in 2020

https://reason.com/2020/10/12/how-will-reason-staffers-vote-in-2020/

[Nobartium]

write-in for a candidate who’s no longer on the ballot

I hope it's Haley, nothing would further bury the anti-war fig leaf.

[Don't look at me!]

Joe?

[Social Justice is neither]

Given how far they have fallen my money is on Cenk.

[mad.casual]

Fingers crossed that you get your money’s worth and it’s a convoluted story about dead bears in trunks that ends with a vote for the human-brainworm symbiote known as RFK Jr.

[MasterThief]

That would have been my first guess. If it had come down to the options of Haley, Harris, Oliver, and RFK then I would heavily consider a RFK vote.

[Chumby]

An inanimate carbon rod?

[Chumby]

It is just a few thousand murders, a few thousand rapes more, and just $150B/year. I’m perplexed about this too. Only one apartment building taken. Folks not behind Border Czar Kamala on this are just racist, xenophobic, scapegoaters.

[Rick James]

As Douglas Murray pointed out re: the 2015 European Migration Crisis: You get a new restaurant on the corner, but a few more rapes... it's all swings and roundabouts.

[AT]

Three days.

Three days to determine this is the "best of."

What's the selling point of Raisin+ again?

[MasterThief]

They have to be trolling with these. They consistently highlight articles with the worst premise and the worst logic. Unfortunately, I've heard the editors speak and have seen their writing. This seems to be exactly who they are.

[Michael Ejercito]

We see the rapefugee crisis in Europe, and these mass migration supporters call people racists for opposing rape!

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Fiona, you should move to an apartment complex in aurora Co.

[Social Justice is neither]

How have they gotten toxic you ask? Because of you with your head firmly up poir ass over every cost and detrimental impact and your willful lies over every benefit.

[Peter Kreeft taught me LOGIC, BEWARE !!!!!!!]

Simple, you hard-heartedly call the unaccompanied 2-year old "collateral damage" and cackle then say "well, yes, I have been to the border"