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[–] 42 points 1 month ago (11 children)

I'm American, but my grandma was a 1st generation immigrant. She always threatened to "sell [me] to the gypsies" if I didn't behave. I didn't have any idea what a "gypsy" was! There was no context for a 4 year old in the States. Hell, I didn't even know it was a slur until I was in my twenties. That was pretty gross, Gram. Boomers gonna Boom, though, I guess.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 month ago (10 children)

    I was 30 years old before I learned that word's a slur

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  • [–] 22 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    Same for me, but Germany. I thought, "Zigeuner" (Gypsy) meant that someone had no address because they would live in trailers and would move from place to place. Which sounded very cool and I wished, I could do that, too.

    I did not understand, however, why one should not trust them.

    Turns out, it's just racism.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    I encountered Romani a few times when I was living in Germany. It was not a positive impression. But even then I was well aware of how being historically marginalized breeds poverty and crime.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (5 children)
  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

    I don't know what that is, but it sounds like a slur. I don't have any problem with Romani, only individuals who engage in antisocial behavior, same as anyone else.

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  • [–] 35 points 1 month ago (9 children)

    Europe when muslim immigrants

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    I think that a nation can impose rules on how their culture relates to others. There is nothing wrong in a state that's purpose is to presereve its culture's majority, language and so on. The problem is not immigration itself, but the causes (neocolonialism).

    The problem is that right-wing populists make a career on promising solving problem they caused themselves. The liberal multicultural utopia cant sustain itself, and doesnt have any long-term benefits to the humanity or a particular society.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

    There is nothing wrong in a state that's purpose is to presereve its culture's majority, language and so on.

    I have to disagree with you entirely.

    First off, persistent culture and language are both illusions. Culture of a region changes dramatically due to circumstances and progress even without the influence of immigration. Language not only changes across time but across regions. The American vernacular spoken in Atlanta is distinct from Chicago or Los Angeles, or Seattle.

    Secondly, intrinsic non-mainstream and counter-culture groups are going to be marginalized, and as Dr. King observed there's a pipeline from not worthy to be my neighbor to genocide. And history continuously bears this out. Culture includes the chattelization of women. It includes the criminalization of LGBT+. It includes the persecution of other religions, of other ministries of the same religion. It includes preserving commercial monopolies. Culture includes the preservation of sociopolitical hierarchies and dynastic power.

    Culture is blood and soil.

    In the US today, the culture war is over the genocide of immigrants and LGBT+ and the ultimately exclusion of everyone who is not MAGA and white Christian nationalist. It is about the genocide of everyone not part of the movement in the name of white supremacy. And ultimately MAGA will start cutting into its own. The fascists always do.

    Give me diversity, equity and inclusion. Give me pluralistic liberal democracy that values human rights over property rights, that values rule of law. In that environment, the cultures will sort themselves out, and blend into regional variations unique to the area. We don't need moral guardians trying to tell society what it should be.

    And, then we can have Chicago-style pizza and New-York-style pizza.

    We can have Methodism, Catholicism, Sunni Islam, Hindi, and Atheism in the same city. (And hundreds of other faiths, spiritual dispositions and identity communities.)

    We can allow people to explore sexual and gender identity on their own terms, and find there's even a letter for them in the alphabet.

    We can have an economy that isn't run by only a dozen conglomerate corporations selling us shoddy goods for fixed prices. Rather we can regulate the economy to serve the people, with robust competition and state-sponsored science.

    We can have a society that is shaped by the will of the people, rather than the personal preferences of a handful of oligarchs.

    No, culture has lost the plot, and no culture should be privileged in a society over any other. Whenever we allow it, xenophobia dominates, and genocide follows.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I will structure my answers accordingly to the spaces. If I missed something you can point it out, I'd like to not reduct the discussion to one specific issue , thus making the argument kinda pointless. Also my level of english is kinda bad, so I might make no sense sometimes or repeat some statements.

    First off, persistent culture and language are both illusions. Culture of a region changes dramatically due to circumstances and progress even without the influence of immigration. Language not only changes across time but across regions. The American vernacular spoken in Atlanta is distinct from Chicago or Los Angeles, or Seattle. Secondly, intrinsic non-mainstream and counter-culture groups are going to be marginalized, and as Dr. King observed there's a pipeline from not worthy to be my neighbor to genocide. And history continuously bears this out. Culture includes the chattelization of women. It includes the criminalization of LGBT+. It includes the persecution of other religions, of other ministries of the same religion. It includes preserving commercial monopolies. Culture includes the preservation of sociopolitical hierarchies and dynastic power.

    What I meant is rather that some societies mainly are separated by language, interests and culture. And I did not mean ethnic nationalism, it is absurd thing. And I was not saying local culture should have a legal privilege. Also there is no such thing as presistent culture and language, new languages appear, older disappear. Cultures merge and emerge, but when we are talking about having state without any kinda local dominant culture and societal rules that everyone just grew with, it is unsustainable and unrealistic to happen, because people really often just don't want to live in foreign countries, people really like living among people they some common things like history, language or relatives. I did not mean that immigration being big factor yet you cant ignore it as well, because eventually it does influence the culture a lot. My message was critique of the liberal idea of multi-cultural state, where there is dominance of local culture(s). Why im against of this idea is because it destroys the pluralism of different cultures meaning destroys diversity of mindsets, that is actually a important thing for humanity in terms of progress. Also what you pointed out is the consequence of religious influence on the cultures. Christianity and any other abrahamic religions actually caused lots of censorship, and added useless complexities into many european and southern cultures, including contributing a lot to the gender inequality. Not to say that that's the only reason, the patriarchy started much sooner than the rise of monoteism and abrahamic religions , but lots of thing we see as chattelization, misoginy etc. originates from religious doctrines. Im not against transformation of societies into more tolerant, genderly equal, hierarchless societies(India reference?). It is just that multi-cultural heaven is not happening (if the multi-culture means state without any majority culture(s))

    In the US today, the culture war is over the genocide of immigrants and LGBT+ and the ultimately exclusion of everyone who is not MAGA and white Christian nationalist. It is about the genocide of everyone not part of the movement in the name of white supremacy. And ultimately MAGA will start cutting into its own. The fascists always do.

    I have no idea about US. Im from eastern Europe. I dont even exactly know what culture war is :/ .

    Give me diversity, equity and inclusion. Give me pluralistic liberal democracy that values human rights over property rights, that values rule of law. In that environment, the cultures will sort themselves out, and blend into regional variations unique to the area. We don't need moral guardians trying to tell society what it should be.

    I actually agree with it. but also *direct democracy, and *socialism . But also I think nation can decide itself whether they want to integrate the migrants or give autonomy. For example in Estonia we have lots of russians from USSR , who migrated because there were much better living conditions than in RSFSR, and i used to live in russian neighborhoods and even ghettos. And integrating russian schools into estonian was actually one of the best things in terms of integrating them, and making children learn estonian on a near-native level. This helped decline the segregation and isolation of russians from estonian society. . But at the same time we have a great minority called Võro and Seto, who are endangered languages-cultures. They need absolutely opposite approach, they need more autonomy and deserve state-funding for võro-seto education, translation of books, programs etc. This is kinda thing I mean when I say "a nation can impose rules on how their culture relates to others."

    And, then we can have Chicago-style pizza and New-York-style pizza. We can have Methodism, Catholicism, Sunni Islam, Hindi, and Atheism in the same city. (And hundreds of other faiths, spiritual dispositions and identity communities.) We can allow people to explore sexual and gender identity on their own terms, and find there's even a letter for them in the alphabet. We can have an economy that isn't run by only a dozen conglomerate corporations selling us shoddy goods for fixed prices. Rather we can regulate the economy to serve the people, with robust competition and state-sponsored science. We can have a society that is shaped by the will of the people, rather than the personal preferences of a handful of oligarchs.

    Based? Except im against building new religious building or helping preserve religions, because they harmed humanity a lot. Im not against theistic views though, the theory that there might be some creature that made everything we see, can totally exist. It is not scientifically provable, but it doesn't force people to hate themselves for being humans in a doctrine manner

    No, culture has lost the plot, and no culture should be privileged in a society over any other. Whenever we allow it, xenophobia dominates, and genocide follows. I generally agree with this. You probably just have different US-centered perspective

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    "We can have a society shaped by the will of the people rather than a handful of oligarchs"

    We can(?), but we don't and won't. It's like you and I live in a different world, I don't have any idea where what you describe exists or when it existed.

    Youre describing an American ideal that I've never seen. We've been xenophobic from 1776 onward. It's like you have the generic G-rated version of America down, but not anything resembling the real America that I've lived in.

    MLK for example; he is held to high esteem in USA today, but he accomplished little compared to, say, The Black Panthers, who armed themselves with shotguns and followed police on patrol. THAT is why the civil rights movement progressed. This is the will of the people in action. Every right we've gained has been in spite of our political system since at least the 1950s.

    Any counter examples would be appreciated. But this is the America that I am from, this is what works

    https://www.pushblack.us/news/60s-panthers-policed-police-legacy-continues-today

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    "we've been xenophobic" only if you identify america as the land populated solely by the white male capitalist. Many minorities understand america can be badass if the ethnic majority and then the working class just got their shit together. I'm speaking as one of those minorities. The working class can never earn their fair share as long as the ethnic majority continues to hate minorities.

    I will agree that capitalist white men in america are complacent and apathetic towards the plight of minorities. That part of america keeps the good parts of america from shining.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Youre describing an American ideal that I’ve never seen.

    I'm describing an American ideal that no one has ever seen. The entire developed world has been suckered into neoliberalism, which is government captured by business interests. And this has made all of it ripe for far-right movements which will get plenty of funding and support from the plutocratic class, who likes hierarchic social structure, since they're at the top already.

    But the US (and other nations) have moved toward the ideal of a pluralistic liberal democratic society, without quite getting there or fully debugging it.

    This time we're seeing the patrician class as the existential threat that it is. This time we're seeing the catastrophic risks that our ultra wealthy are facilitating -- or at least are allowing to happen without intervention -- in their desperation for more wealth and more control, and in their astounding collective incompetence.

    This time, we address the threat of wealth disparity, of capture of the political class, of monopolistic powers, or we'll never have the chance again, at least until the survivors crawl out from their shelters once again, centuries from now.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    I assume that in your theoretical city of multiple religions, LGBT people have already been eliminated, right? Otherwise it's not compatible with Islam, Christianity or Judaism at the very least and while the majority of Christians have had their beliefs washed down, Muslims are NOT going to take such bullshit and they WILL demand LGBT people to receive corporeal punishment at the very least, but ideally death penalty.

    And why should they not be allowed? That's part of their faith, their culture. We consider murder and stealing illegal and immoral - they feel about the same way about LGBT, alcohol and pork (in addition to murder and stealing, but of course murder of infidels is usually okay in most religions). Are we not supposed to respect their culture if they live with us?

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    There is nothing wrong

    Says who? Why can there be nothing wrong? Why is 0.000000000000001% wrong too much for you? Why are you so intolerant of any potential moral question about the subject matter? Where do you derive this logic from? Why is it completely free from any amount of criticism? Zero criticism is allowed, according to "there is nothing wrong" logic. "Nothing" is doing a lot of work for that logic, and it demands that any amount of criticism should not be tolerated or entertained. It's a major fallacy, in my opinion.

    My uncle is a completely legal mexican immigrant. My aunt makes killer food. If he were to move to Europe, why is that unsustainable for them? The US was built on mass migration.Every immigration-related moral failure of the US wasn't because it accepted immigrants, but because it rejected them. This is generation after generation here. Why is Europe incapable of solving it?

    Maybe Europe is incapable of solving these issues. But if that's true, then why is that acceptable to Europeans? If the problem is fundamental to the infrastructure of society itself, why should responsibility fall on immigrants to solve it rather than the society that calls itself liberal univeralist? You can't just blame the right wing. It's a societal issue as a whole if it just can't work.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    Every reddit euro sub in a nutshell

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  • [–] 48 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Some screenshots of (auto-translated) Reddit comments from r/Slovakia. I don't know if usernames and profile pictures would count as doxing, so I removed them.
    s
    s

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  • [–] 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Holy shit. Positive karma and everything.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Must be nice to be Slovakian, I got banned from Reddit for hating on Joe Biden. I thought he was senile.

    Meanwhile, he was senile

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    But so is Trump, but the media was afraid to call that out, since they didn't want to lose interview opportunities with him.

    But imagine the potential in "Dementia Don" and caricatures of him asking ChatGPT to generate him a clock during a dementia test.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    European countries aren't all the same

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    When it comes to general opinions of Romani/gypsies I think all European countries are pretty united.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago* (4 children)

    Netherlands may be an outlier but nobody cares about Roma/Sinti/travellers/gypsies. Here people are racist against Maroccans, Turks and Muslims generally

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    cmon man, compare the percentage of gipsies in holland and romania/slovakia/hungary

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    That's actually not really helping your argument, if you compare it to the statistics of anti-immigrant sentiments vs actual percentage of immigrants. In most cases, the areas with the lowest amount of immigrants have the highest amount of anti-immigrant sentiments. For example in Germany, you can literally see it on the east-west divide on the map (as with many things). I wouldn't be surprised if it were similar in the Netherlands, that rural areas are more prone to anti-immigrant stances.

    The issues in the countries you've mentioned, are usually based on historical and socioeconomic issues, that came up over time. And some countries didn't exactly do well to get Roma people to trust them, like e.g. Slovakia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._C._vs._Slovakia

    And that is besides the fact that it's hard to get hard numbers on Roma people, since there are also those who try to hide their origins . You could have a Roma person in your neighbourhood and not even realize.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago

    not sure how did you wash your immigrant bs into this. these folk were here in the last 500 years. they dont count as immigrants anymore. mid and eastern eu failed to integrate, cause there are too many of them (to be honest neither of the parties tried). that is it.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Curiously, the Romani came up when Congress was discussing the scope of the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The argument was if birthright citizenship was universal, we'd have to give it to them.

    At the time, sounder minds prevailed.

    Nobody likes migratory cultures. But it also appears nobody likes cultures too different from their own. And once we start cutting out ones we think are too alien, we rapidly move towards cutting into those who worship on the wrong day.

    If you want a culture to stop migrating, maybe facilitate their access to homes? I've yet to encounter a culture that doesn't like comfort and convenience.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    As an American of non-European descent living in the Netherlands, I'm amused at the blank stares I receive when I ask people about where they think the xenophobic, self-serving, and bigoted attitudes that pervade "White America" came from.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 month ago* (9 children)

    I can't speak to Europe, but contrasting the milquetoast euphemism "American racial tensions" against a picture of Hitler seems to be going really easy on the United States.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    The point is to whitewash America's racism, it's okay because the Europeans also are a bit racist. Don't try to compare how similar or different it is, that would destroy their take.

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Idk, ask a European about Muslims and all of a sudden I'm talking to my grandparents.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    Read the Koran, trust

    or, listen to some Imams from today. Pick any Islamic State Imam and listen to them. It won't take long

    (they even speak English you can find their mosque videos on Youtube, pick one)

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    "A bit" is an understatement. Europe is just as bad.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

    ITT: americans circlejerking and thinking europe is a country and that the gypsy situation in for example portugal is the same as in bulgaria

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  • [–] -4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    We could extend it to Europeans talking about Africans, "Muslims" or anyone else. The picture would still be valid.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    ...okay, and how does that apply to the topic and the comment section about gypsies?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    America has always had racism baked in at the state level (read on the appeasement of slave states, massive fundamental mistake). In modern day this manifests in strong internalized and institutional racism that affects everyone, hence why there's so much discussion about it.

    However, I think the USA is one of the better countries in terms of interpersonal racism. The diversity of the US means that nearly everyone interacts with multiple races/cultures on a daily basis. The country is steadily becoming more diverse (the USA will be flipped to a minority-majority by 2045) so there's just no practical way to avoid it.

    Contrast this with most other countries who don't necessarily have foundational racism but have had a homogeneous identity nearly forever. For some, broad discussion on diversity and demographics is completely novel in the last few decades; there's a hypersensitivity at the individual level that hasn't adapted yet.

    Anecdotally, I've seen some of the most shocking unacknowledged prejudice outside of the US (some EU and strongly in Asia). Like "This waiter is too brown" and "[Turks, Romani, Indians] aren't real people" said in total earnest. I'm sure I could hear similar things in obscure parts of Northern Idaho, but I didn't expect it in major cities in developed countries.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago*

    Americans really mad about euro calling them out huh.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    All you need to know about European racism is that Prince Andrew is the second least popular Royal ahead of the black lady.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    ITT: Europeans screaming into the black mirror.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Murikan talking about their country

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