{"id":1144,"date":"2008-06-04T20:24:57","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T01:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2015-11-30T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T14:50:15","slug":"xenophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/06\/04\/xenophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Xenophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately &#8211; people are becoming more and more xenophobic. If you don&#8217;t believe me, just take a look at all the anti-immigrant sentiments floating around these days. And in case you weren&#8217;t sure, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/xenophobia\">the definition of xenophobic<\/a> is:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>An exaggerated or abnormal fear of strangers or foreigners.<\/li>\n<li>A strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Don&#8217;t think that this describes society today? Think again:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2008\/05\/15\/europe\/italy.php\">Italy cracks down on immigration<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/caroaber.newsvine.com\/_news\/2008\/05\/21\/1504810-anti-immigrant-sentiments-overwhelm-italy-\">Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Overwhelm Italy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nj.com\/statattack\/2007\/11\/the_globalization_of_antiimmig.html\">The Globalization of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope you will notice that this is not confined to just the United States, either.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1146\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1146\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1146\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/06\/04\/xenophobia\/roundupforigners\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"351,241\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Round Up Foreigners\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Things like this should make us all a little concerned.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Roung Up Foreigners&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-1146 size-medium\" style=\"float: right; border: thin solid black;\" title=\"Round Up Foreigners\" src=\"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"Round Up Foreigners\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/roundupforigners.jpg 351w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1146\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Things like this should make us ALL a little concerned.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is more than a little bit troubling.An awful lot of post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff that shows nations with very strong anti-immigration laws &#8211; off the top of my head I can name <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/V_for_Vendetta_%28film%29\">V for Vendetta<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Children_of_Men\">Children of Men<\/a>. I&#8217;m not saying that one necessarily follows the other (correlation does not imply causation, after all) &#8211; but still, it is very&#8230; troubling.<\/p>\n<p>What is perhaps even more troubling is that this is <strong>not new<\/strong>. Anti-immigrant sentiment seems to come and go in cycles &#8211; looking back through history shows periods of very strong anti-immigrant sentiments in just about every country at one point or another in their history, and often multiple times. Here in the United States, even people like Ben Franklin voiced what would today be seen as very vocal anti-immigrant views.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, that was over 200 years ago &#8211; you&#8217;d think we&#8217;d have made some sort of <em>progress<\/em> along the way, right?<\/p>\n<p>Or is this another case of &#8220;those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it&#8221; or something?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever happened to &#8220;<strong>Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free?<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Something to think about before you head to the voting booth this year. (Assuming your vote gets recorded correctly; but that&#8217;s another blog post entirely.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately &#8211; people are becoming more and more xenophobic. If you don&#8217;t believe me, just take a look at all the anti-immigrant sentiments floating around these days. And in case you weren&#8217;t sure, the definition of xenophobic is: An exaggerated or abnormal fear of strangers or foreigners. A strong&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/06\/04\/xenophobia\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Xenophobia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[150,100],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society","tag-immigration","tag-opinion","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-is","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4773,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2015\/11\/30\/just-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":0},"title":"Just People","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It's all too easy in this day and age to give in to a subtle (or not-so-subtle) fear of \"foreigners\" but it is important to remember that these are still just people like you and me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1033,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/25\/stranger-safety-and-public-solitude\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;Stranger Safety&#8221; and &#8220;Public Solitude&#8221;","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I saw an ad for a video called \"Stranger Safety.\" It's supposed to teach your children how to be safe around strangers. Thinking about it afterward, I realized that there is this mentality - driven into our collective mindset over many years - that ALL strangers are not to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;society&quot;","block_context":{"text":"society","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/society\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4952,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2017\/01\/31\/the-march-to-tyranny\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":2},"title":"The March to Tyranny","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How quickly a country can fall...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4943,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2017\/01\/27\/the-statue-of-libertys-poem-in-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":3},"title":"The Statue of Liberty&#8217;s Poem in 2017","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I never thought this'd become real...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1040,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/06\/effects-of-real-id\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":4},"title":"Effects of REAL ID","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"C|NET News has a great writeup on what the effects of REAL ID are going to be to people in different states - depending on whether your state has complied or not. There are some SERIOUS problems here of course - for example, you may not be able to go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1035,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/29\/security-vs-privacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1144,"position":5},"title":"Security vs. Privacy","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As usual, Bruce Schneier puts it more eloquently than I can: ...it's precisely why, when people in their business are in charge of government, it becomes a police state. If privacy and security really were a zero-sum game, we would have seen mass immigration into the former East Germany and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}