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by m_fayer 212 days ago
It’s a neat quote but it’s not a clean fit.

You’d expect the “unreasonable man” of Europe to be behind but stable and decent, whereas these days much of Europe can’t maintain living standards or political stability.

There’s also an argument to be made that China is putting in a very solid performance in a very reasonable manner. See: methodical capture of global EV+energy markets, soft power expansion into the global south, cold-eyed deflation of financial bubbles, 5 year plans, and so on. At this rate, I’m not sure that the freedom and unreason loving “man” that is the US will be able to compete either.
1 comments
ethbr1 212 days ago
> whereas these days much of Europe can’t maintain living standards or political stability

Those are the side effects of Europe trying to offset its fertility rate with immigration, yet failing to explicitly address the enculturation tension.

It's remarkably how people so smart in one area (demographic issues and solutions) can flounder so badly in another (addressing cultural friction with immigrants).

Especially considering history has "a few" examples of exactly this same thing, although possibly Americans have more experience in modernity.

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mmustapic 212 days ago
The cultural friction is not a real issue except for the extreme right. The real issues are the same as everywhere: standard of living is going down for younger people while wealth is being concentrated in fewer individuals. Those wealthy individuals are the ones who benefit from promoting this immigration/cultural friction theory.
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ethbr1 212 days ago
It is a real issue, because it's human nature. Groups don't like outsiders.

Pretending that isn't human nature is why anti-immigrant parties keep attracting surprising support in elections.

And that tension shouldn't be swept under the rug and ignored via the 'it's just the far right' excuse.

It's a thing. It needs to be addressed. Which doesn't necessarily mean implementing anti-immigrant policies, but does at least mean some form of address (e.g. government support for enculturation, advertising benefits of immigration, etc).

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