Then why was the comment removed?

That’s certainly one way to look at it, and around here you’ll find a lot of folks are eager to pat you on the back for embracing that kind of lazy, myopic conclusion. There is, however, much more to the story:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/may/28/young-more-anti-immigration-than-old-in-parts-of-europe-polling-shows

https://www.paschal-law.com/blog/the-rise-of-anti-immigrant-sentiment-around-the-world/

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-5050746/rising-anti-immigrant-sentiment-in-germany-causes-concerns-in-the-countrys-business-community

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X22001531

https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2022/12/09/what-is-driving-the-rise-of-anti-immigration-sentiment-in-europe/

Given that the trend we’re seeing is also prevalent in most western democracies, we’re left with two distinct possibilities:

1. Every western democracy is half-full of racist assholes.

2. There’s something going on that’s more nuanced than naked racial animus.

Which seems more likely seems to depend a great deal on direct, lived experience, as well as education and age. It also seems to depend on the health of the broader economy. Unfortunately, pointing those factors out doesn’t tend to elicit as many upvotes as claiming everyone’s a flaming, degenerate racist.

Speak up, laddy. We didn’t hear you the first 8,900 times.

Straight from the article:

Respondents rated the economy as the top issue facing the country, and some 44% said Trump had the better approach on addressing the “cost of living,” compared to 38% who picked Harris. Among a range of economic issues the next president should address, some 70% of respondents said the cost of living would be the most important, with only tiny shares picking the job market, taxes or “leaving me better off financially.” Trump had more support than Harris in each of those areas as well, although voters by a margin of 42% to 35% thought Harris was the better candidate to address the gap between wealthy and average Americans. Trump appeared buoyed by widespread concerns over immigration, currently at its highest level in America in over a century. Some 53% of voters in the poll said they agreed with a statement that “immigrants who are in the country illegally are a danger to public safety,” compared to 41% who disagreed. Voters had been more closely divided on the question in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, when 45% agreed and 46% disagreed.

I have a dream that one day we will be permitted to read and digest one of these articles without you feeling the compulsive need to preempt that to tell us what you think we’re supposed to believe, and to steer us into one of your fever dreams about some other tangentially-related topic. Wouldn’t that be lovely.

I’m certainly not disputing that western governments have more leverage over some countries than others.

In a way, yes:

Almost a year since the terrorist organisation Hamas committed its atrocities, and war broke out in Gaza. The suffering since then has been extreme. Far too many innocent civilians have been killed, abducted or wounded. Far too many people have been forced to flee, and have lost their loved ones and their property.

Schoof’s hard right government has only been in power since June, and though they’ve voiced explicit support for Israel they have called for a ceasefire and urged Bibi to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza. So in that way, yes, they could have chosen not to call for a ceasefire or humanitarian aid at all.

15-day ban for reposting removed comments on multiple occasions and even after a 1-day ban. The next one will be permanent.

This is just a shitty, chopped up rehost of the original WaPo story with zero added analysis. Here are some actual interview responses:

Some said they wanted to beat traffic or had work the next day. Others complained about sound quality. One man wanted to go home to his French bulldog. Another needed to get home to his daughter. A third had a Yorkie with him that started acting out. A fourth man said his phone died.

In Las Vegas, some attendees grew frustrated with Trump’s tardiness and said they had trouble hearing him. A reporter standing by the door counted more than 200 people leaving in the first 20 minutes. One attendee said they still loved Trump but said the former president would have said “You’re fired” if anyone else had been as late as he was.

Chaboya said he arrived about 8:30 a.m. and, like Prescott, was among the last to be let into the venue. He said he was leaving because his daughter, who is home-schooled, called him and said the internet wasn’t working.

This is pure, uncut confirmation bias aimed at salivating Harris voters. The only person who said they left because they were voting for Harris is the only person mentioned by RawStory. The rest had other, less clickbait-y reasons.

The shows, however, have mostly skewed to the worse side of things. Not quite so stilted as the PT, but there is a serious lack of charisma and humanity emanating from them, and it just makes things less fun, and when your dialogue mostly exists to deliver exposition, it leaves us more willing to nitpick details. Andor has a grimmer tone, but there is charisma there. The performances were compelling and I had to watch. You cannot and should not make all Star Wars like Andor, but you could make it all as well-conceived as Andor.

I recently watched a video that went deeply into exactly that criticism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL4IfoQzSSE

The gist is that most of the current content forgets to focus on making characters feel human, and that’s because they’re so relentlessly focused on forcing exposition that needs to get the plot from point A to point B that they forget to focus on the organic way that a character might interact with and react to a situation. Every character turns into a cardboard cutout because they’re archetypes designed to fill a role in a plotline, as opposed to living, breathing individuals with their own priorities, intentions, and often times inner turmoil. Andor and Rogue One are the only two projects that allowed characters to be flawed and emotional, and therefore authentic and relatable. And that’s why we care so much more about those stories, because we can feel what the character is going through. The rest is just hitting us on the head with exposition so that we can follow along, as if we’re all thumb-sucking idiots who can’t think for ourselves.

Who gives a shit?

Indeed. It articulated a lot of what I’ve seen since I graduated high school about 20 years ago, and it helps explain the hypnotic allure of toxic shitheads like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. It also helped me understand a little more about Trumpism and why it’s so weirdly intoxicating to people like my father in law and uncles, who really are just sad, old, ugly, many-times-divorced white men with limited education and very little to offer to the rest of society. They’re fucking angry, and it was hard to figure out what they were so mad about until I started reading stuff like this. They’re completely unmoored and irrelevant, and they’re lashing out in what’s really a cry for help, even if it’s too deep within their subconscious to be actionable.

Anyone curious about this trend should read this:

Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness.

Seems we did.

Touched a nerve, did we?

I’m sure you think you sound like you have integrity, but it sounds like privilege to me.

Thank you.

Public polling is showing that Harris would get a big boost in voter support if she and Biden went for a weapons embargo.

Source?

edit: It’s absolutely amazing to me what y’all will downvote.