In another thread, Robert posted
Funny Pics '16.
While braggadocio seems accurate to me I'm less inclined to call Trump "racist". The idea of throttling immigration can be considered racist but I don't necessarily disagree with closing borders. If, in the west, we have cultural values that we hold dear then I don't see a contradiction in acting to prevent dilution of those values or allowing an influx of people who don't hold those values.
We can claims that one of our values is tolerance but does that mean that we should tolerate the intolerant or doe that means we should tolerate those who disagree with us on the condition that they also show tolerance to us. Or should we show tolerance only to those that hold tolerance itself to be a value they hold? Surely valuing tolerance does not mean simply tolerating those who hate and act against tolerance.
Because cultures and races historically have formed together and because of how we make associations from our experiences and from hearing the experiences of others we make assumptions about a person's culture based on their apparent race. This is not necessarily mal adaptive.
The problem is that cultural differences ARE an important I pediment to interaction - partly because the form of interaction and the meaning of the form differ from culture to culture. While a smile is understood universally, on the opposite end we have language which is a big communication barrier between cultures and in between we have such things as hand signs and what to bring to another persons house when you visit. On one level the cultural values of a person are more important for the kinds of interactions you will have that morphological differences. Note how poorly a Hillary supporter will generally get along with a Trump supporter even if they are indistinguishable in ski color.
One problem with rapid immigration is that it destructive to the cohesiveness of the local population. A large new population tends to ghettoize and cause friction with the neighbors. I think the ruling classes are not necessarily unaware of this. Naturally, though, it should ultimately blow up in open street warfare and become an ungovernable mess except that anyone who thinks assimilation is an important part of immigration is excoriated as a racist. Valuing your own culture as enlightened is a sin for us, a right that we must extend to others.
As long as people demean such concerns as simple "racism", which is also a thing that exists, then the people with cultural concerns will find their allies among the truly racist with which they are conflated.
If Americans are afraid of Muslims and Mexicans then that is a result of decades of news stories and policies of people like the neo-cons and CIA stirring up unrest in the middle east for their own purposes. If Trump capitalizes on this then all power to him (as the saying, and perhaps the election goes). The political classes prepared this ground - they dug their own grave - I hope.
