The Desire To Protect "Culture"

[PanzerJaeger]

Is the biggest threat to Western Style Democracy

Granted I'm convinced most of you just don't like brown people but most of you are smart enough to wrap up your child like xenophobic fears in enough flowerly prose to deflect such an elementary diagnosis

Get over yourself

Granted this goes both ways

Something to think about

Would you rather live in a Western culture or an Islamic one? Would you rather live in America or Mexico? Culture is worth preserving, especially if the alternative is far worse.

[Subotan]

One wonders what the reaction to this thread would have been if instead of asking whether culture should be defended, the contributions immigrants have made to modern European culture had been celebrated and applauded. I would imagine that the importance of "culture" would have been ridiculed and sneered at, as opposed to the resolute defence it has received in this thread.

Is the biggest threat to Western Style Democracy

I personally think it's Chinese Ultra-Nationalism.

Since we don't need more people the incomers are not welcome if they want to cause social problems as well as stressing our public services

Yes we do, as we're not having enough babies. And I thought us Europeans were meant to be good at sex.

Would you rather live in a Western culture or an Islamic one? Would you rather live in America or Mexico? Culture is worth preserving, especially if the alternative is far worse.

False equivalence, as both of the latter have lower living standards and are less democratic than mine.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I've got nothing against culture. Some of my best friends are cultured men.

Yes we do, as we're not having enough babies.

But why should a population grow for all eternity? Or stay at the exact amount it is now?

I say let Europe lose half its population, or three quarters. This will be far more sustainable. East Asian populations are dropping too. Nobody is contemplating replacing the shrinking population of Japan with New Guineans.

[Andres]

But why should a population grow for all eternity? Or stay at the exact amount it is now?

I say let Europe lose half its population, or three quarters. This will be far more sustainable. East Asian populations are dropping too. Nobody is contemplating replacing the shrinking population of Japan with New Guineans.

Overpopulation and the graying of our population are the real threats for Europe. The fact that previous generations of politicians wasted the tax money of my parents instead of saving some, makes these problems potential disasters. Looking at our current generations of politicians, it has all the looks that these problems will indeed turn out disastrous for us. Legions of uneducated immigrants with no skills won't be the solution; in fact they might become the catalyst to set the disasters in motion.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Yes we do, as we're not having enough babies. And I thought us Europeans were meant to be good at sex.

We are overcrowded and have too many people for too few jobs. The state needs to be restructed and the retirement age needs to rise, we don't need more babies.

Strike should try getting off his high horse.

[Subotan]

But why should a population grow for all eternity? Or stay at the exact amount it is now?

I say let Europe lose half its population, or three quarters. This will be far more sustainable. East Asian populations are dropping too. Nobody is contemplating replacing the shrinking population of Japan with New Guineans.

Well that's because both Japanese and Korean society are rather racist. Besides, there are calls for the Japanese to accept more immigrants, but it's a third rail subject in Japanese politics.

The problem is not that Europe is not hospitable enough, the problem is that we've been way too hospitable for decades and are now feeling the backlash of this.

And yet America has been extremely hospitable to immigrants for decades, including Muslims, and has seen great benefits come from this. The problem with the way Europe treated and treats immigrants is through our treatment of immigrants as Gastarbeiter, expecting them to eventually piss off back to their original country, as opposed to new citizens.

We are overcrowded and have too many people for too few jobs

Overcrowding is such a relative term. What seems crowded today isn't at all by Singaporean standards, and likely won't be either in 50 years or so. I also fail to see how reducing the labour supply is going to create more jobs for our workforce.

The state needs to be restructed and the retirement age needs to rise, we don't need more babies.

But people want to have their cakes and eat them as well. They don't want to retire later, or want to have more babies, and yet they want economic growth and higher living standards. The only way that's going to happen is through an expansion of the labour supply, which needs immigrants.

[Strike For The South]

Would you rather live in a Western culture or an Islamic one? Would you rather live in America or Mexico? Culture is worth preserving, especially if the alternative is far worse.

Becuase these immagrants wont assimalate

Just like the Irish,Germans,Italians, Poles, Jews ECETERA ECETERA

You're also delusional if you think the culture of Mexico and America are seperated by anything but language

[Louis VI the Fat]

You're also delusional if you think the culture of Mexico and America are seperated by anything but language

Left southern Texas much?

Oregon, Ohio, Massachussets - these are not Yucatan.

There is a process of acculturation in the US, notably in the Southwest, where the difference between Hispanics and others is fading. Even outside the contact epicentre this is noticable. Latin America is starting to resemble North America at an even faster pace than the US is becoming hispanicised.

Sometimes I see videos on the web or on the news about some six lane highway, white-coloured SUVs, a large gas station, drive-thru restaurant, and I would've sworn it it was the US, and it turns out to be Colombia, or Brazil. Even the people look similar, and I don't just mean ethnically. Same short hair, same semi-baggy clothes, same body types - those typically American half-fit, half-overweight huge bodies.

I guess the same thing is going on in Europe. I went to Marseille some time ago and I would've sworn I was in Marrakech.

[PanzerJaeger]

Becuase these immagrants wont assimalate

Just like the Irish,Germans,Italians, Poles, Jews ECETERA ECETERA

You've listed several different groups of Europeans migrating into a European-structured country. And the larger groups did indeed change the fabric of the nation, some for the better and some for the worse. Say what you will, but WASP culture turned this backwater into a superpower and delivered to it unheard of levels of wealth and prosperity, and its dissolution has largely underpinned our current failings.

You're also delusional if you think the culture of Mexico and America are seperated by anything but language

I think you're so enamored with your own self righteousness that you've lost touch with reality.

Culture is variable across peoples and nations, and not every culture is equal. Humanity has been so traumatized by the wars and genocides of the 20th century that it has become politically correct to assume equality not only in race, but in every aspect of humanity. While noble on an individual level, when this assumption of equality is then extrapolated to nations and culture, it becomes highly dangerous.

There are reasons why Mexico is different than the United States, just as there are reasons why Spain is different than Germany and Saudi Arabia is different than France. Those reasons are universally underpinned by cultural dimensions.

Have you ever heard of Geert Hofstede?

[Strike For The South]

You've listed several different groups of Europeans migrating into a European-structured country. And the larger groups did indeed change the fabric of the nation, some for the better and some for the worse. Say what you will, but WASP culture turned this backwater into a superpower and delivered to it unheard of levels of wealth and prosperity, and its dissolution has largely underpinned our current failings.

The same WASPS whom spent us into debt and got us into wars of empire, clearly they know what there doing.

I think you're so enamored with your own self righteousness that you've lost touch with reality.

Thank you

Culture is variable across peoples and nations, and not every culture is equal. Humanity has been so traumatized by the wars and genocides of the 20th century that it has become politically correct to assume equality not only in race, but in every aspect of humanity. While noble on an individual level, when this assumption of equality is then extrapolated to nations and culture, it becomes highly dangerous.

There are reasons why Mexico is different than the United States, just as there are reasons why Spain is different than Germany and Saudi Arabia is different than France. Those reasons are universally underpinned by cultural dimensions.

MOst of these differences can be traced back to money, besides I know the sons and daughters of these Mexicans immagrants will become more Americanized, like all the others. Sure they will change us a bit but thats always how these things work

Have you ever heard of Geert Hofstede?

No but a quick wiki search does not impress me, culture shock from Holland to England? Really?

Left southern Texas much?

Oregon, Ohio, Massachussets - these are not Yucatan.

There is a process of acculturation in the US, notably in the Southwest, where the difference between Hispanics and others is fading. Even outside the contact epicentre this is noticable. Latin America is starting to resemble North America at an even faster pace than the US is becoming hispanicised.

Sometimes I see videos on the web or on the news about some six lane highway, white-coloured SUVs, a large gas station, drive-thru restaurant, and I would've sworn it it was the US, and it turns out to be Colombia, or Brazil. Even the people look similar, and I don't just mean ethnically. Same short hair, same semi-baggy clothes, same body types - those typically American half-fit, half-overweight huge bodies.

I guess the same thing is going on in Europe. I went to Marseille some time ago and I would've sworn I was in Marrakech.