The non essay essay about borders, enablers and racists

Recently there have been various comments and essays' discussions of borders and racism on this site.

I didn't like any of them. And I start questioning myself when a non-partisan site like c99p becomes an enabler of those lines of thought.

To me real borders are only the ones nature has created, ie the big ponds of water or the huge massives of mountains one has to cross to go from a to b. Racism is the reaction of people struggling with the difficulties to cross these borders and to lose control of who gets where and intrudes the territory a person believes to be his own, because he made the natural border crossing first.

As we all cross borders in the virtual online world, borders we would not easily be crossing in real life, our minds get confused and we are royally fucked because of it.

It might be a good idea to stay off the grid of the online territory because of it.

What do you think? Can you help me thinking? Because I am out of thoughts that I can think of.

Are you an enabler?

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mimi's picture

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

in what way this site, and the members therein, are enablers of racists before you carelessly throw out that accusation and then delete your own essay again.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
was not carelessly throwing out accusations. I wrote this on purpose and as clearly as I could.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

If the intent of your essay was to have a one sided emotional purge without considered discussion. Mission accomplished. If your intent was to have a thoughtful discussion, you failed miserably.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
may be this was an essay wrapped up in an enigma. Kindly enough this site allows me to have them from time to time. I try not to abuse it too often but occasionally it happens. Lately it happened more often. I will make up for that some day in the future.

I don't discuss things, because I can't do it up to this site's standards. But I am part of the 99 percent of folks lacking certain skills. For me it's good enough if you discuss things and I read them, I don't have to participate in the talk. (but of course I am a woman who has difficulties to shut up).

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mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
Since when can I be 'ordered' to not delete any 'Schwachsinn' I say? If JtC would like to enforce a 'deleting not allowed rule', then he should say so. If he just wished we would not delete any comments or essays, he has to live with the fact that some not always comply with those wishes.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

and then deleting it after people have spent the time reading it and commenting on it, is tedious for those participating in your indecisive mood swings.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

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Pricknick's picture

@mimi
give me an example of what it was about them you didn't like.

Recently there have been various comments and essays' discussions of borders and racism on this site.
I didn't like any of them.

We all have our beliefs about the sanctity and foolishness of physical borders. I have seen very little outright racism and it usually gets ignored. But you have to give us an insight about what comments or essays you disagree with.
That's the beauty of this site.
Nobody bites.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Centaurea's picture

@Pricknick

That's the beauty of this site.
Nobody bites.

However, lately there's been some ad hominem nastiness going on. A few times, it's felt to me like the "running with knives slashing" that I recall from DKos in 2015-16.

I haven't participated in the threads where this happened, but it's been unpleasant enough reading it.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

Pricknick's picture

@Centaurea
There will always be those who stir up a conflict. I'm sure I have riled some feathers.
In general. this site has high energy, low drama conflict.
Who the hell wants jtc to be pissed off?

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

mimi's picture

@Pricknick
ad hominem attacks, which is not allowed to happen on this site. I didn't participate in the threads of the essays I didn't like. That should be enough of an explanation.

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@mimi
Into those essays that aren't there.
For example you were looking for a denunciation of racism that wasn't said.
That doesn't make the writer a racist. It means the writer didn't bother performing a ritual. You don't have to say "I denounce Pol Pot" in every essay just to prove you are against mass murder

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@gjohnsit
Also, I denounce Pol Pot.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd
"I denounce Pol Pot!" became the catch-all response to every call to moral outrage and for denunciation of said outrage.
It was an effective way to mock a pointless ritual (now known as "virtue signaling").

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mimi's picture

@Pricknick
I decided to say something like it now.

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whether you support free expression and free thought or not.

It appears that you would rather exercise thought and expression control and not hear what others think.

So much for 'open borders,' so to speak.

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dfarrah

Alligator Ed's picture

@dfarrah The first amendment is rigorously enforced on this site by the good will and common sense of the participants. Some, like myself, are not known for subtlety, but ad hominem arguments don't do well here. I wrote in favor of closed borders--and I will do so again if needed. I also vote for legal immigration. Does this make me closed-minded or open-minded? Forget the labels. Certain things occur in societies throughout time and on all habitable continents. Please elucidate any territories other than small or medium-sized islands which did not eventually mature into at least one country, let alone the many in Europe or Asia.

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@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed as an allegory for open minds (or minds that will hear others views). Yep, all open-y about borders but not much else. (not in reference to you at all)

Is allegory the right word? Probably not.

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dfarrah

@dfarrah I am just noting that people that are all open-y borders apparently don't want to hear the counterarguments, even though open-y border kind of implies tolerance for all and open-y border types like to think they are more tolerant of everything, unlike the close-y border types.

See, I have to be all hedgy to avoid offending anyone. (the borders are closing in on me!)

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dfarrah

@dfarrah apparently your counter narrative just sounds stupid, and your words sound much like every racist I've ever met. I knew a white racist from South Africa who sounded just like you. Your essays don't provoke deeper thought or action in my view, just a bunch of knee jerk responses based on fear. I think you are an unmoderated troll, and because you are a polite asshole you are not banned from repeating the screeds spewing forth from your Chief of Racism President Trump and his mainstream news hounds, so different.

Every. Single. Day.
duopoly sucks

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@eyo Accusations of racism is the only hand you've got.

IMO, the US is headed toward a civil war. If you don't believe so, then don't believe so.

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dfarrah

Pricknick's picture

@dfarrah
But who am I to define what the author speaks of.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick and it seemed to fit. Analogy, metaphor, symbol? Too tired to think.

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dfarrah

mimi's picture

@dfarrah
Thoughts are always completely free. The expressions of those thoughts are not, even on this site they are not, though JtC gives us the greatest latitude possible.

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@mimi Because you are referring to my essay without stating so directly, essentially inviting more people to slam me. (or am I incorrect about that?? I'm willing to think that I am way off here).

But I have noticed, that while JTC supposedly wants to keep things cool on this site, he allows all manner of passive aggressive insulting attacks, as long as it is not technically 'name calling.'

I don't see how my suggestion of returning to old borders is remotely racist. In fact, one poster even supported the notion, provided a map of the older borders, and got something like 8 thumbs up, while I was being slammed. Explain to me why that poster was not slammed as racist. Bias, pure bias is the only explanation.

As to my post, frankly, I found the collective gulp of concern I'm sure I heard underneath the hostility to be amusing. Obviously, few here would want to live under Mexican rule. So that demonstrates the chauvinism of the open-y borders types and begs the question of what rules would all these open-y borders types want to live under? There would be rules and customs here and there, would there not?

IMO, the romanticism of the notion of open borders has swept aside rational thought.

But keep it up with the passive aggressive stuff since that is what you appear to prefer.

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dfarrah

Big Al's picture

There are a number of factors that should be considered when thinking about the border issue, including but not limited to cost and impact (of society, of taxes, of jobs, relative to the educational system, of and especially about democracy and what real freedom means) and the overall pro's and con's of the spectrum of open to closed borders. People are going to differ on those analysis factors and that's how it goes, it's not all about racism. I'm afraid to give my opinion on this site for fear of retribution from the gods of anti-racism and democratic party identity politics.

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@Big Al
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/07/14/rep_ayanna_pressley_w...

Per Ayanna Pressley, if you aren't like her in thought and action, "we don't need" you.

"because we don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don't want to be a queer voice."

Wow. And she doesn't need me, that's for sure.

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dfarrah

Big Al's picture

@dfarrah Personally, I couldn't be more disgusted. Well, maybe I could.

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mimi's picture

@Big Al @Big Al
interpreted as being a border issue. I tried to say there are different borders, man made borders by nations and their governments' regulation and physical borders made by mother nature. Man made borders by nations can create racist enforcement of their governments to not let cross those borders on the base of race of the people who want to cross them. For frigging sake it happens all the times, especially now in Europe and elsewhere. We just had a courageous woman, Catain Rackete, who wanted to help BLACK, AFRICAN refugees to cross a border into harbors of Italy and was not allowed to do so and even got initially arrested for it.

And for dfarrah, those closed borders of Italy right now, have not impacted the free speech rights of Captain Rackete. She walks her talk.

Of course this has nothing to do with racism and nothing to do with closed borders. Denial you are my middle name, or what?

Sorry, Big Al, I think you know better, or I misunderstood your comment.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

I don't know why my little non essay is interpreted as being a border issue

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
something about those borders. Obviously I failed miserably in doing so. I guess it was my way of self-censorship, believe it or not. And I don't like to piss off JtC. So, there is that.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz
I love me my Conqueero man. I wouldn't do anything to put him in harms way. And my little pissy thingies that come out of my mouth at times, he has proven over and over again that he can stomach lots and lots and more lots of those.

I think it's time to donate something to JtC. Buy myself some slack... HA.

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@Anja Geitz ah had no idea anyone would take mah little essay to mean anything about anything," as Scarlet O'Hara flutters her fan in her face.

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dfarrah

Anja Geitz's picture

@dfarrah

So that we would not have to see comments from certain people, your posts would be at the top of my list.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Big Al's picture

@mimi

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lotlizard's picture

How about the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey)? The British overseas territories that top the list of the world’s tax havens?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/13/british-overseas-territori...

The smaller the entity, the more jealous it is of its prerogative as a recognized sovereign state. None could exist, none would persist for one day more without strict rules strictly enforced about who can enter, let alone who can settle and live there permanently.

Where can Mr. and Ms. Average Person just move and immediately claim all the benefits that native citizens and tax-dodging international elite have?

When was the last time you went to an event anyplace and the venue security allowed you to disregard rules, leave your assigned area, and stroll backstage, just like that?

Of course the 99% are nonplussed or become enraged when the people on top, the politicians, the 0.01% in Beverly Hills or posh sections of Berlin or wherever, tell people on the bottom their citizenship, traditions, ancestral roots, pride in and attachment to home are worth nothing and morally must be given away to anyone anytime for free, all the while the same 0.01% are surrounding themselves non-stop with tokens and barriers of identity, security, luxury, and exclusive sparkle and status.

Afterthought: Having himself risen to the top, John Lennon had a revelation that actually the world should be one and everyone should be able to share in everything — and that is the truth. Yet without a Secret Service detail such as a president would have, it took only one unguarded moment for him to be murdered. So I don’t know what the answer is either.

(Edited to add) Second afterthought: Who is a Tibetan? Can someone who is genetically Han Chinese, who was born in Tibet, and whose grandparents moved to Tibet long ago be a Tibetan, or are they still to be viewed, as some parts of the NGO industrial complex advocate, as an invader and destroyer of Tibetan culture? Analogously, who is a Hawaiian? Nowadays I tend to want to restrict “Hawaiian” to mean “of Kanaka Maoli ancestry or background” only. Is that racist?

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
that natural physical borders of islands help enforce their governing powers, who regulate their political borders, work hand in hand to the advantage and protections of the islands inhabitants. And the enforcement of those regulations make a lot of sense.

Don't bring snakes to Hawaii ... is one of them. Smile

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
of "Kanaka Maoli ancestry or background” are Hawaiians. It's a fact. The rest are freeloaders of the HI's landscape beauty, imo. Such a racist feeling of me, oh my gosh. How could I say that?

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lotlizard's picture

It’s being presented as a conflict between one side who wants to rescue people (captain Carola Rackete, Sea Watch) and another side whose answer is to “let ’em drown.”

That’s dramatically effective in a “Disney princess versus villain” kind of way, but dishonest.

The conflict is actually between
• “Bring people rescued just off the African coast back to the African coast” (= the populist coalition government of Italy’s position) and
• “Bring people rescued just off the African coast hundreds of miles across the Mediterranean to a port in the E.U. and let them legally enter and live in the E.U.”

The hard-liners argue that the latter position amounts to doing the people-smuggling mafias’ work for them and will encourage more migration while allowing said mafias to continue to set people adrift and abandon them in ludicrously unseaworthy craft, knowing that public opinion will blame European governments, not the people-smuggling mafias, for any deaths that ensue.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
the people from everywhere will always try to come and go no matter what.

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Centaurea's picture

@mimi

it's usually not the coming and going that's the problem. It's what they do while they're here. Biggrin

(I'm not referring to immigrants, but people and boundaries in general.)

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

@mimi go into that sophistication. Because it is easier to accuse people of racism.

Apparently, lotlizard hasn't gotten the memo that any disagreement with open borders types is racist.

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dfarrah

mimi's picture

@dfarrah

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Thanks for being yourself mimi, never give up, never give in. LOVE

Everything changes, especially blogs on the internet. The other C99 would still be punching UP about borders, and jobs, and the environment, and shitty trade deals. Racism is popular now, because the economy sucks and politicians are useless puppets of big capital. Maybe the other C99 never existed, except inside my head. oh well

I am never going to enable a capitalist border stopping the free flow of labor, free organizing, free cooperation, free compassion, free love for the planet and each other. Socialism can provide free rent and food too, that is a more civilized society if you ask me. Watching my neighbors die on the street does not seem so civilized.

I am not enjoying the border filled present, all bound up inside tiny identity traps, enablers armed to the teeth, fearing every thing that threatens their precious "way of life", which is hideous overconsumption and explotation of shrinking planetary resources. seig heil USA

PEACE

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mimi's picture

@eyo
as the saying goes here in the Northern parts of Germany, 'we will see us'. Smile

'Alles wird gut' is another one from the folks I worked with in my former life.

So, all is good. That's good. Smile

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@eyo @eyo

thinkers. We don’t fit molds. If we did, we’d be liberals on DailyKos. .

This much I do want to support Mimi on. The tone and name calling in some comments by some people in other essays needs to be self-moderated to be softened, not silenced. Anyone remember the “love it or leave it” anti hippy mantra of the 60’s?

I too am opposed to open open borders. I oppose the demand for PC thoughts and voices from everyone but members of approved groups who get to decide what non-group members can/can’t say/think about them and their group . Pressley’s rant is divisive and offensive. It was AOC, a POC, that hid behind race, stepped on her power, stepped on people power, stepped on loser Pelosi and turned her into hero Pelosi, and started all the name calling. Pelosi demanded unity, another word for loyalty to party above people, and AOC once again caved and met Pelosi’s demands.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich and I stopped caring about kos a long time ago, but people seem to want to keep talking about him and pretending they fit no mold. Watching Chuck Todd Meet the Press is also like watching mold grow, what's the point? cui bono

Pressley’s rant is divisive and offensive. It was AOC, a POC, that hid behind race, stepped on her power, stepped on people power, stepped on loser Pelosi and turned her into hero Pelosi, and started all the name calling. Pelosi demanded unity, another word for loyalty to party above people, and AOC once again caved and met Pelosi’s demands.

My advice about moldy Bernays inspired social media fundraising fights is to scrape them from the bottom of my shoe, if I happen to tread upon one. I don't read twitter except sometimes what snoopydawg curates here, and most of those posts I don't even follow up reading, because they are such brazen donor-fueled crap propaganda, intended to fire off an emotional response to fill the coffers of the DNC or Trump's RNC. No donor goal left unachieved. None of it is newsworthy, Your Moderation May Vary.

Let's not fight each other, enjoy Facebook and Twitter, use PayPal, Uber, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Google, all the bigly tech corporations that make you feel great. See the world before it burns to death. Go for it, just do it. Your grandkids already love you for it, mine don't. That's the system.

PEACE

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@eyo

You mentioned a c99 that even you acknowledged didn’t exist. I agreed. If you think c99 isn’t a spot for eclectic and independent souls, what is? And who do you think we are pretending for?

My comment actually quit addressing you specifically after the first paragraph, but since I failed in making that clear, all my fault, let me respond to what you said anyway.

You can deride social media all you want. I’ll not defend it, but its influence cannot be denied. A combination of all media types, which now come via the Internet, delivers the biggest look at “the news” such as it is. Kos is on Twitter and FB and there are no donuts or bojo buttons at his disposal. Twitter doesn’t like him either.

It is a big world out there. Technology and its creators are now in charge. I am selective in my use of it, but face recognition cameras in the streets make avoiding it impossible.

You sound contrary and sad. I hope I am reading you wrong, or the new day is better.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

magiamma's picture

@eyo
Scrape twitter from your shoe. Yep. Too much money monkey business for me to get involved in. Meme setters blooding the hounds. imho. Peace.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@dkmich your calls for easing off the throttle here, but we part company on AOC, Pelosi and the latest. It was the Donald who forced AOC's hand (and the others in the Gang of Four), made it necessary for her to respond publicly, and Pelosi, as she was cited in Twump's tweet, and as leader of the party also would have felt it necessary to comment. No caving by AOC, just a forceful and necessary response. That took the spotlight away from the public infighting among Dems, but that was unavoidable, as Twump decided to step into the Dem squabble and make the issue about his own racism.

Stupid thing to do to interfere in your opponents' embarrassing public battle, but it's narcissist Donald and he doesn't like it when he isn't the center of attention.

Generally though, I'm still amazed at the amount of AOC criticism here, at this progressive-leaning blog. And the silly conspiracy theories people conjure up about her.

As for borders, a Power to the People shout out to John Lennon and his utopian dream of a world which isn't and won't be probably for many centuries, if ever. I strongly suspect most of us have that tribal nature in our DNA, and we prefer to live around like types. And when I travel, I prefer to see separate, distinct cultures, traditions and customs. However, we do melting pot here, have for most of our history, and that is our tradition, to some extent anyway, but not open borders or massive waves of immigration. And even with the relatively limited immigration, we are barely holding on to the "United" part of United States. (Not United for much longer I suspect.)

Not such a melting pot for most of the rest of the world, and some of the recent-times governmental decisions on allowing massive numbers of immigrants into Europe from very different cultures and traditions I think has been a failure, a poorly thought out social experiment gone bad. Iirc, the woefully misguided Merkel and maybe one other Euro leader have publicly acknowledged this.

And one not entirely unexpected side effect, the backlash against immigration from the Right, is well underway in these EU countries. And who knows how many terrorist types/sleepers snuck in during the inadequately controlled mass immigration and are now ticking time bombs in those countries. I worry about this recent social trend line. The UK, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden in particular are especially at risk for social-political upheaval, and mass immigration over too short a period of time is not an irrelevant factor in this disruption.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

However, borders in the modern sense, especially with regards to the immigration issue, are just lines drawn on paper to divide the spoils of war and imperialism among capitalists. We the Plebs have no say in how things are run no matter what the talking heads tell us.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Centaurea's picture

Being of a mystical bent, I agree with John Lennon about the world "being one" and "living as one".

At the same time, as long as we're inhabiting physical bodies, at least at this point in human evolution, there are going to be some boundaries. I may feel my connection to everyone and everything, often more than I'd like to. But my physical body is covered with skin. That comprises a border between my body ("me") and everything else on the planet. It keeps my internal parts from spilling out and getting mixed up with everyone else's. I think that's a good thing. Of course, we've made up a lot of stories about what that border (the skin) means: it's color, size, shape, etc. That's not necessarily a good thing.

On the psychological level, boundaries are what humans use to maintain our personal integrity as sovereign individual human beings. Boundaries are an "inside job". Boundaries are not about forcing other people to bend to our will, or insisting that someone who isn't just like us is bad and wrong. People who are part of the "hive mind", who are brainwashed by propaganda, whose minds have been captured, have poor boundaries, or none at all.

Here's the thing about the US of A: as a collective entity, it does boundaries really badly.

We've neglected to agree on and implement a policy with regard to our national borders (aka "immigration policy".) At the same time, we've neglected taking care of our own citizenry and our infrastructure. We have failed to maintain our internal integrity. (Yep, the hand of the oligarchy is no doubt behind much of this.)

Now the pendulum has swung far in the other direction. Instead of vague, inconsistent boundaries -- which is basically the same thing as no boundaries -- we're adopting a brutal, angry, punitive stance, constructing "walls" to shut the rest of the world out. But walls are not necessarily the same thing as boundaries.

At the same time, do we respect the boundaries of other countries of the world?

No, we do not. We (collective "we") view the rest of the world as fair game, open for our picking. We routinely disregard the sovereignty of other nations.

The whole world is there just for us, to do with it as we will. We stomp all over everyone and everything else, and insist we have a right to do so. A divine right, because "god shed his grace on thee". If anyone complains or fights back, we throw a self-righteous fit and call them terrorists.

So, yeah. Boundaries.

Once we humans figure out how to do them properly, perhaps we'll evolve to the point where we don't need them anymore. Paradigm shift.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

gulfgal98's picture

@Centaurea my own. First, I want to commend Centaurea on your very well thought comment which reflects much of what I believe. I am going to add a few of my own thoughts below which I hope will not be taken to being contrary to your excellent comment.

Boundaries or borders have existed throughout history of both mankind and animals. They may not have been physical boundaries, such as a wall or fence, but they were known territories.

We all also have boundaries that we impose upon ourselves. These boundaries comprise our moral values and code of ethics. Some of these boundaries are codified into law while others we impose upon ourselves as being a part of a functioning social structure.

The bottom line for me is that we human beings are still animals who need structure and boundaries within our own lives in order to function as a part of the whole of society. While we may want to view the world as being one in which we do not need borders, the practical truth is the opposite. Building a wall to keep people out or to keep people in as was the case of the Berlin Wall is also not practical.

However, the issue with the current influx of refugees from South American is one that our own government created and is still creating. These people are not illegal immigrants, they are refugees and should be accorded that status. If we do not want people fleeing to our borders, we should quit creating conditions in their own countries that make it far too dangerous for them to stay.

Speaking personally, assigning blame or ill intent to any other posters here does not further conversations on this site. Therefore this will be my only comment on this essay.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98

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@gulfgal98 of that, and want to concur about how this country creates refugee crises. About that, notice how all the attention has been about all the immigrants trying to come in while omitting mention of the major factors which caused them to uproot and seek shelter here. In this, the MSM has been complicit with their silence, and it's primarily been some of the few outspoken types, like AOC and that small Group, who have sought to draw attention to the root causes and clarify the immigration issue.

Candidates in the next debate should be bringing up this illegals vs refugees distinction, and calling out the MSM for their lack of coverage of disruptive and harmful US actions abroad.

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@Centaurea good neighbors....

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dfarrah

mimi's picture

@Centaurea
I am out of wit now how to get back to my usual self and comment without biting everything around me. Wink

I have to go and bake a nut cake. Seems a fitting way to distract myself from more nutty talk here.

Thanks for being a good sport. I love this place.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

I love this place

Two days ago, you wrote an essay saying you weren't going to be a part of c99's suicide, as we descend into a place where we allow racists to post essays here.

Then you deleted said essay, when, I'm assuming, you changed your mind.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
it's the way love affairs work. (at least for me) ..and I thought on that day when I wrote the essay I erased that this site was on a suicide mission and I didn't want to be part of the journey and possibly enable it by participating in the discussions and essays I found suicital.

Then when I realized that I didn't like something about it and when I find myself not loving something, I try to hide it and start thinking it's better to love this place, and pretend nothing happened. And so I erased my god-awful disrespectful utterings.

That's a big deal for you? Why? I hurt your fee fees? If so, I am sorry about it. It was not directed at you, at least I don't remember it. I even don't remember exactly what my words were and as I really, really deleted it, it's gone, out of my mind, out of my memory and out of this world. Good riddance. I hope you can forget what bothered you about it.

Good night.

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ggersh's picture

are limitations that mankind imposes upon itself

mankind needs to find a different route

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Jen's picture

Either close all borders for everybody or open them for everybody. Billionaires can go anywhere they please, live anywhere they please, and do whatever they please. I also believe that billionaires pose more of a threat (to everything and everyone) than the rest of us. But yet, they're free to come and go as they please, leaving a trail of jet fuel and destruction in their wake.

To be clear, I'd rather have open borders. But until and unless that happens, the rich should have to stay in their "country of origin" (where they were born) as well.

I have also tried to stay out of essays that feel like there's a rabid rat ready to eat my face off if I don't agree with their POV. I watch it - jumping at shadows, pushing buttons just to see what they do, snarling at the slightest movement that's not in sync with it's own. I decide to stay out of it's way - it's persistent and noisy and almost impossible to ignore. So I watch and I listen.

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Is it great yet?

edg's picture

Being of Polish ancestry on my paternal side and Finnish and Seminole tribe on my maternal side, I have heard many stories of Russia disrespecting the borders of Poland and Finland, and many stories of Germany disrespecting the border of Poland in 1939, and many stories of Europeans in general disrespecting the borders of Native American tribes.

Those stories partially inform my view of illegal immigration.

More importantly, though, my view of illegal immigration is informed by growing up in Detroit and watching black citizens be dispossessed of jobs and self-respect and hope by immigrants and by outsourcing and by the golden handcuffs of Democratic welfare programs.

Is it racist of me to have more concern for black American citizens than for illegal immigrants? If so, I wear the title proudly.

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mimi's picture

@edg
thanks for being so honest and having eyes wide open. Disrespecting borders, the European history and Colonialism is full of it. How could anyone forget? Then the EU supporters tried to work against that, it pretty much seemed to fail and we go back to disrespecting almost everything under the sun.

Good Night.

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lotlizard's picture

of harmony among over two dozen nations who, despite shared roots and traditions, had a long history of deep mutual distrust and rivalry punctuated by war . . . when BAM!

Someone decided, without asking voters or their parliamentary representatives, to add millions of migrants from the Islamic world and from Africa to the mix, completely destabilizing what had already been a precarious balancing act.

Criticism of this fateful decision and its likely effects on Europe’s demographic future tends to be immediately ruled out of bounds, denounced as neo-Nazi and racist. So does any attempt to organize political opposition to the decision as ongoing policy.

It’s like it was in East Germany again. It’s impossible to have an open, civil discussion. People are afraid to say what they really think. Voice the wrong opinion and you can be accused of hate speech or deemed a threat to the constitution, liable to be spied upon, ostracized, fired, jailed.

Under these circumstances I don’t know how democracy can work. Perhaps those in charge never intended democracy to work.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard

add millions of migrants from the Islamic world and from Africa to the mix, completely destabilizing what had already been a precarious balancing act.

Help me out here, I missed that decision.

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