deweydecimalchickens:

rush-keating:

wodneswynn:

wodneswynn:

So a lot of American xenophobia is informed by the fact that our news over-reports crimes committed by immigrants in Europe to such an extent that if you watch a lot of cable news you’ll deadass get the impression that every major European city is full of gangs of immigrants who just run around killing people all day and the European cops just watch it happen like “Alas, because of political correctness I can do nothing, if we try and stop and bloodbath we’ll be executed for racism.”

Which is of course, like, not true even a little bit, but it’s such a strongly-held belief that I’m not sure how to combat it.

I got into it the other day with a dude who was all like, “Yeah, it’s horrible that ICE is putting babies in baby jail and selling them for money, but isn’t it a necessary step to prevent the streets running red with blood like what’s happening in Europe??”

And you can’t just be all simplistic high-school-debate-team about it and just tell the poor fool that, no, that isn’t happening, because real-world political work is more complicated than that, but I ain’t yet got the hang of it.

California too for non-Californians. News reports California like it’s an apocalyptic wasteland. California also is “minority-majority” and conservatives link the two even if they’re not explicitly linked in the reporting.

It’s like when they claimed Muslims had filled Birmingham with no-go areas. Like, I LIVE HERE. I know that is simply not true. I grew up in a majority-Muslim area of Birmingham. It was fine. I was the only white girl in my primary school. We went to the mosque on a school trip. My parents still live there and I’m only a couple of miles up the road. Until this year the main site of my work was there. AND NOBODY DIED OF THE MUSLIMS. Calm down. Have a Rescue Remedy. 

But it’s really hard to argue with someone who has said something so ridiculous it’s Not Even Wrong. There’s not a great a deal of credibility to be had in just staring at someone with your jaw dropped and finally managing a “but… whuh… what the fuck?” Oh god, I’m actually supposed to debate that like it’s a reasonable proposition? Ah fuck, let me just recalibrate my brain… uh, I don’t think it dials back that far. The bit’s snapped off and now it’s just sparking.