World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[Ack]

I'm going to toss the Reddit comment aside for now as I don't really care what some asshat on there says about anything and the quote is full of a lot of right-wing hateful hogwash.

I would like to point out that I don't think that quote from Reddit was right wing at all. In fact it seems more left wing because it argues that the right wing will be the only group to benefit from a reactionary response to these attacks. The actual gist of the comment, from what I read, is more concern about that reactionary response leading to the blaming of all Syrian refugees.

[dsheinem]

I'm going to toss the Reddit comment aside for now as I don't really care what some asshat on there says about anything and the quote is full of a lot of right-wing hateful hogwash.

I would like to point out that I don't think that quote from Reddit was right wing at all. In fact it seems more left wing because it argues that the right wing will be the only group to benefit from a reactionary response to these attacks. The actual gist of the comment, from what I read, is more concern about that reactionary response leading to the blaming of all Syrian refugees.

I think that either is a fair read - I can't always tell where the author is making an argument or where they are trying to characterize another's argument, nor am I sure where those views converge or split.

[Pulsar_t]

It cannot be denied that a large percentage of sexual assaults is attributed to immigrants from mideastern lineage. That's the problem when you don't filter who comes in into your country. Obviously an urban middle-class immigrant family will likely continue to work and contribute to society the same way they did in their original societies, but when you have peasants with poor upbringing/hygiene/etiquette and sexist views towards women (and I'm not talking about the anti-feminist trend, I mean real sexist stuff) you will have European women raped and taken advantage of, a problem made worse thanks to lack of strong men in their lives who put a physical barrier between them and any possible offenders.

Europeans used to complain about Albanians, and I used to tell them at least those people were from the same continent Is there really any other place than North America that isn't ethnically tightly-intertwined together?

The real delusion that we all live is that we can keep the status quo forever. Humans will always intermingle and fight each other and trade and all that homo sapien stuff, and change is inevitable for the perceived better or worse.




Would anyone let me know if at any point had those sanctions imposed by victors of WWII currently presiding over the UNSC ever really punished "rogue" regimes? Castro, Saddam and the Kim Jongs were never personally affected, whereas their people suffered greatly. I see them (sanctions) as a tool to punish people under such regimes more than actual regime reprimands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions ... _sanctions

[BoringSupreez]

...most rape cases go absolutely nowhere, specially when there's no way to know the identity of the perpetrators, much less charge them.

Not that anyone wants to. The regional police has already said that "all was peaceful on New Year's Eve" and the mayor of Cologne, who was elected on a pro-refugee platform, has already said that "young girls and women" should follow a soon to be published "code of conduct" so that "such things don't happen to them".

That code of conduct to be issued by the mayor of Cologne reportedly will include such tips as "keep strangers at an arm's distance", "travel in groups", and "don't act too close to people you don't know well". Of course it's causing a bit of an uproar, and why wouldn't it? The response to these crimes is to clamp down on the behavior of the victims? This is in the exact same vein as "she deserved it, look at how she was dressed." Funny how the left ceases to be concerned about women's rights once the perpetrators are from a pet demographic.

As it turns out, the same thing happened on a somewhat lesser scale on the same night in Frankfurt... and was also not reported on until days later, just like in Cologne. The apparent intent of the media to look the other way on these crimes until public outrage forced their hand has been noticed.

It seems as if there are few people in the center on the issue. On one side you've got people like me, who want these immigrants sent back to the Middle East, and future immigration halted. On the other side, people who think it's our moral obligation to take these people in, who think that this isn't going to cause big problems both now and down the road.

[prfsnl_gmr]

.

Funny how the left ceases to be concerned about women's rights once the perpetrators are from a pet demographic.

Please stop with the left-wing-media-conspiracy BS. It makes you sound crazy.

EDIT: Also, pretty much everything you are writing - from your base assumptions to your reasoning and your conclusions - is completely wrong. There was a time when I would have cared enough to write a lengthy rebuttal, but I just don't have the energy or time to do that anymore...

[Erik_Twice]

It seems as if there are few people in the center on the issue. On one side you've got people like me, who want these immigrants sent back to the Middle East, and future immigration halted. On the other side, people who think it's our moral obligation to take these people in, who think that this isn't going to cause big problems both now and down the road.

The topic is indeed heavily polarized.

Nobody likes a muddy, nuanced discourse. It's a hard sell, it makes you feel bad and is a bigger threat on a cultural or political level than an enemy is. The crisis has made people feel they need to regain control over their own lives, which results in radicalization and nasty in-group/out-group dynamics.

I've talked about this before, but many people I know have suddenly converted to some kind of radical ideology and support communism or sececionist parties or whatever. Telling them that they didn't need to be so radical because there was a better, more moderate option available is the worst thing you can do because you are directly attacking their self-worth. Studies show that the more radical people are radical, not because they believe in what they are saying but because they want to convince themselves.

Nobody wants to talk about creating an European framework to establish what is legal inmigration or accept that giving a job to refugees might be somewhat difficult when there are already four million unemployed persons in the country. And since that conversation is not happening, nothing can be solved.

Really, everyone is deeply entrenched on their opinions and it is impossible to change them no matter what I say or do. And experience shows me that all I end up getting from these debates is a big target painted on my back so yeah.

[Ack]

Well, in other news...

Cote d'Ivoire's Prime Minister Daniel Duncan has resigned to allow newly re-elected President Alassane Ouattara a free hand in reforms.

Japan and South Korea recently reached a new deal on the comfort women issue which includes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologizing in his official capacity as PM. The deal is largely unpopular with South Korean youth and opposition(roughly +60% of the population), though the older voters heavily favor it. Taiwan has announced they will seek a similar deal.

Australian Liberal Party politician Jamie Briggs has resigned his post as federal minister for cities and the built environment over sexual harassment. His resignation follows that of Special Minister of State Mal Brough, who is being investigated by police over releasing diary excerpts which brought down former Speaker Peter Slipper.

In response to North Korea's nuclear tests, South Korea is restarting anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts along the DMZ.

Indonesia is working with China to investigate an Uyghur man arrested in December over suspicion he was planning a suicide bomb attack in Jakarta. The suspect may have ties to a bombing in Bangkok, Thailand, last August.

South Africa and the United States have reached an agreement regarding the US African Growth and Opportunity Act which will allow the export of US beef and poultry to SA.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid has announced a cabinet reshuffle for the Tunisian government.

MTN, Africa's largest telecom provider, has acquired Visafone, Nigeria's largest CDMA operator. This deal is expected to expand broadband access from under 10% of the Nigerian population to over 30% by 2018. There are 97 million internet subscribers in Nigeria and 150 million mobile subscribers.

[marurun]

It cannot be denied that a large percentage of sexual assaults is attributed to immigrants from mideastern lineage.

Until I see some evidence, other than piecemeal news stories, that this is the case, I'm not accepting it as fact. I have found that most people who say things like, "That's just the way it is." in fact have no clue whatsoever.

[nullPointer]

It cannot be denied that a large percentage of sexual assaults is attributed to immigrants from mideastern lineage.

Until I see some evidence, other than piecemeal news stories, that this is the case, I'm not accepting it as fact. I have found that most people who say things like, "That's just the way it is." in fact have no clue whatsoever.

I really and truly do respect this sort of egalitarian attitude, and I don't want to project any sort of racist agenda (which I don't think is the intent here), but there are a lot of studies that have been done on this subject. Unfortunately in many cases immigrant populations in Europe do seem to be over-represented in terms of crime statistics (though I would wager that economics plays a large role in this representation as well). It sucks but it does appear to be the rather harsh reality of the situation.

[MrPopo]

Didn't we see the same thing in the US with crime with immigrant communities across our history?