What’s so wrong about xenophobia?

[Mihalik]

A better example of xenophobic behaviour would be the wall on the US-Mexican border Trump wanted to build. Now Mexicans are much more different from 'Muricans than Canadians, though they also share fine cultural traits like having shoot-outs in broad daylight.

Load of horseshit.

Mexicans are as Westerners as Canadians are. They read Shakespeare and Homer and Goethe, just as Americans (those who read) read Carlos Fuentes, Unamuno, Lorca and Cervantes. Hispanic culture, its art, music, literature are as important to Western civilization as the Anglo-Saxon or Germanic are.

There's no Western Civilization without Cervantes, Unamuno, Goya, Velazquez, Sorolla, Picasso, Dali, Kahlo.

There's also no America without Spain, no Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, without Mexico. There's no Tex-Mex, no Tacos, no Ranches, no Cowboys (the entire institution was invented in Spain and exported to the Americas via Mexico).

Any claim that there's some BIG CULTURAL DIVIDE with Mexico is based on utter ignorance.

Also as an American living in Europe who extensively traveled and worked some in Mexico. There's a significantly larger cultural divide between any European country and the US than there is between the US and Mexico.

[breadisfunny]

Take a look at all the xenophobic nations, Japan.. etc they all seem to be doing just fine.

stopped reading right there.

[Elim Garak]

Nothing, just like there's nothing wrong with racism and sexism and any other isms.

It's when you discriminate someone because they are foreign, different skin color, opposite sex, etc. <- THAT's bad.

[Theodarzna]

Xenophobia has the large negative that not everything that is alien is necessarily dangerous. The positive though is that the alien could be dangerous. So its a gamble of closing yourself off completely, or finding a tolerable level of openness to danger versus the potentiality of friendly interaction.

But Xenophobia or at least in-group preference is normal to humans. Individualist Libertarianism that is blind to groups and distinctions is basically a suckers game.

[Kujako]

Ew.... xenophobes make my skin crawl.

[Irian]

Because most xenophobia if not all is caused by ignorance. People who don't understand each other seeing the others as dangerous or unpredictable because they're willing to paste that same perspective onto the people they fear or revile. "Well, I don't trust them so they must feel the same way about me." This kind of ignorance very commonly leads to an unearned feeling of contempt or disregard for cultures other than your own and frankly doesn't actually produce any useful emotions unless you simply like being tribalistic.

Ignorance and prejudice shouldn't be lauded. If you can't see the issues with xenophobia then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate how you see other peoples and cultures. You can prefer your own culture, your own skin color, your own national identity all you want without hating or fearing them from other nations.
Don't be willfully ignorant just because it's easier for you.

[Player Twelve]

Nothing wrong with it, it's a perfectly normal response when they're bringing trouble to your country.

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Because most xenophobia if not all is caused by ignorance. People who don't understand each other seeing the others as dangerous or unpredictable because they're willing to paste that same perspective onto the people they fear or revile. "Well, I don't trust them so they must feel the same way about me." This kind of ignorance very commonly leads to an unearned feeling of contempt or disregard for cultures other than your own and frankly doesn't actually produce any useful emotions unless you simply like being tribalistic.

Ignorance and prejudice shouldn't be lauded. If you can't see the issues with xenophobia then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate how you see other peoples and cultures. You can prefer your own culture, your own skin color, your own national identity all you want without hating or fearing them from other nations.
Don't be willfully ignorant just because it's easier for you.

You've got the cause-effect wrong.

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I think the key to making multiculturalism work

No, you wish it could work. It never will.

[Alvito]

Who is to say Canada can’t become independent? We have loads of natural resources, the largest supply of fresh water and one of the most highly educated populations; I’m sure we could make ends meet by ourselves.

At some point you run out of something or fall behind as a result of that. No 1 country is so rich in resources that it makes better sense to shut off the rest of the world. So limiting yourself to only what is within your own borders hinders your countries growth and prosperity. Why settle for briefly making ends meet when you can thrive indefinitely?

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"japan is doing great"

meanwhile they're literally facing a population crisis cos literally nobody wants to have kids anymore.

I think xenophobia is to a degree natural.

but it's still fucking ironic when the biggest melting pot of immigrants is one of the most xenophobic nations in the west.

but i mean, the entire history of USA is about colossal contradictions, so why not add this to that as well.

The US has a very long history of whatever group just moved here trying to close the door on the next.

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Ok if you don’t want japan as an example fine so be it, how about China? They’re very xenophobic and quite far from what I’d call a nation going extinct.

A much larger country geographically so that helps. Extremely large parts of the country live in squalor and extreme poverty too. In far too many cases for such a developed nation worse off then many 3rd world nations. If you are using China as an example of why something works your argument is critically flawed.

[Stelio Kontos]

Notice the folks defending xenophobia are always folks who don't have to suffer it.

It's not very fun to be on the receiving end of it.

I had a professor from India who got chased around by idiots in a pickup truck waving the American flag looking for "A-rabs" to harrass after 9/11.

My mother got told she should go to the back of the line whenever there were American customers while shopping in a department store back in the 80s. All because she had an accent and a customer overheard it.

It's easy to prop up your argument for defending xenophobia when you use terrorism as your strawman. Now try to defend it to explain why the Somali waiter deserves to get beaten for no reason. Or why an American family of Mexican descent can get yelled at for speaking Spanish to each other while eating breakfast at Denny's, or why a Sikh retail employee deserves to get his brains blown out out for wearing a "Muslim" turban.

[Deleted]

Xenophobia, nazis, fascism and other words are thrown around by people who are clueless.

Japanese are not xenophobic. They do not fear foreigners. They fear that if they accept foreigners, their culture would vanish. That's completely different issue and it is rational.

Another misconception is that not accepting foreigners would somehow isolate country. It won't. It doesn't stop trade, it doesn't stop progress. All it does is stops foreigners who don't want to integrate from ruining country's identity.

Wanting to preserve country's legacy has nothing to do with any phobias or hate.

Xenophobia is wrong. Its not redeemable. But using word "xenophobia" to as argument against people who want to preserve their way of life is equally wrong. In many cases people who get labelled as nazis and xenophobes are labeled wrong because people who use those labels are morons.

[infinit]

Most people who spout on about xenophobia have not left the comfort of their own state never mind the country, and when they do travel they go traveler safe tourist destination.

I love watching fake as fuck celebrities drone on about such things as they live in multiple rich, gated and armed neighborhoods that keep on the 99% of the words population out.

[Cthulhu 2020]

People migrating across the world is what has created culture as they are today. America by its very nature is an immigrant nation, and only just very recently got this weird notion of "cultural preservation" even though its culture has always been a melting pot. When I was growing up, it was a point of PRIDE for Americans to say that we accept anyone as a land of freedom. So all of a sudden a huge portion of the country saying they want to suddenly end what was once a point of pride? Um, ok.

But that's also the history of the world. No nation's history or culture has at any point ever been static. Think about your country's culture 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago. It's in constant flux, and in the past it was largely due to immigration, which was NEVER enforceable until very recently in humanity's history.

If people have a genuine concern where they are facing real danger, then sure, it's reasonable. But the vast majority of hysteria about foreigners moving to your country is just that, hysteria. Fear of people you're unfamiliar with. It's irrational, your culture is in constant change, and is constantly being changed by people moving around the world. So getting hysterical about cultural preservation - is in the end incredibly irrational.

Xenophobia refers to the rather irrational fear of outsiders. Not the natural level of caution that most people have. And I believe there should be some level of natural caution. It's just that the reactionaries, the deplorables, the regressives of the world don't have a natural level of caution that is expected of someone just wanting to protect their interests. They take it to extreme levels by inventing tales of brutality, rape, theft, crime, etc. from these "other" people.

[Player Twelve]

People migrating across the world is what has created culture as they are today.

False, when I was growing up in the 90s then seeing someone not european was pretty fucking rare. Nowadays some towns look like they're middle eastern towns rather than swedish towns.

It's in constant flux, and in the past it was largely due to immigration, which was NEVER enforceable until very recently in humanity's history.

False, Sweden has never had any large amount of immigration until recently. Immigrants also do not influence swedish culture to any considerable degree as swedes demand conformism to it or they are outsiders.

[Sky High]

False, when I was growing up in the 90s then seeing someone not european was pretty fucking rare. Nowadays some towns look like they're middle eastern towns rather than swedish towns.


False, Sweden has never had any large amount of immigration until recently. Immigrants also do not influence swedish culture to any considerable degree as swedes demand conformism to it or they are outsiders.

Yeah we get it you think Sweden exists in a vacuum.

[Player Twelve]

Yeah we get it you think Sweden exists in a vacuum.

Immigrants do not get to influence swedish culture just because they're here. They can't make us accept something we won't accept, that's not how any of that works. They are incapable of bringing on changes to the culture that are not accepted.

[kail]

Sort of the reason why you'd fear them, you dont know them - therefore act on the side of caution or be taken by suprise.

we're cowardly creatures afterall.

We don't know 99.9% of the people within 10 miles of us, everyone's a stranger until you know them. Do you fear the general public?

[Player Twelve]

We don't know 99.9% of the people within 10 miles of us, everyone's a stranger until you know them. Do you fear the general public?

I'm certainly cautious around people I don't know instead of being as open and unguarded as I am with my friends.

[Draco-Onis]

False, Sweden has never had any large amount of immigration until recently. Immigrants also do not influence swedish culture to any considerable degree as swedes demand conformism to it or they are outsiders.

Incorrect you received surges before then
1992 - 84K
2009 - 102K
2014 - 81K

more details below

[kail]

By silly you mean totally rational? After All, it's pretty much in our DNA (if you are a evolutionist). Jon Haidt and J Peterson had an interesting conversation around why this was both good and bad.

Yes, I'm sure most rational people greet their new neighbors while armed.

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I'm certainly cautious around people I don't know instead of being as open and unguarded as I am with my friends.

Naturally you are more open with friends and family compared to strangers. Doesn't mean you fear strangers unless you are a shut-in.

[Player Twelve]

Incorrect you received surges before then
1992 - 84K
2009 - 102K
2014 - 81K

more details below

Context anyone? He's talking about people moving across the world, that's not been a thing in Sweden until very recently. People who came here in the past were other europeans, mainly other nordics. The spike in the 60s you see there, that was a shitload of finns coming to work along with some other europeans. Not arabs, not africans. Europeans who live in close proximity to the country, not people who move across the world. Most of those coming in the past were very similar culturally due to being from cultures in close proximity to ours.

The spike in the 90s was refugees from balkan. After that non-european immigration increased.