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But the left end of the political curve. And since Muslim immigrants tend to vote Democrat, all Muslims have become immune to criticism.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> And since Muslim immigrants tend to vote Democrat Muslims immigrants were, at least up until post-9/11 scapegoating, a fairly reliable Republican voting bloc. If there has been a shift since, it was a reaction to (rather than the cause of) the absence (or at least lesser level) of anti-Muslim rhetoric from the Democrats. But the Left (or Democrats, which aren't the same thing, but it's true either way) have not treated all Muslims as beyond criticism, they've just tended to avoid bigoted, sweeping attacks on Muslims as a group or Islam itself.
- mc32 9y ago
  an observation is the left will look the other way if they can use a group or coopt a group to further a cause --moreso if the group is considered underprivileged in the US --never mind their status in their home country or what they do to others in their home country, or the ideas they espouse at home or in the US, so long as they can be used to a political end. Some republicans do something similar with a couple of countries in the ME who are on the other side of the spectrum. The difference, as I can tell is dems like to play identity politcs a lot, the repubs don't care as long as you share their pro-biz agenda.
  - mercer 9y ago
    A more charitable, and in my opinion more accurate observation is that equality for the underprivileged is in itself an important cause for the left, more so than for the right, but like any movement there are plenty of people who coopt that for personal ends. I'm inclined to feel that the latter is more problematic on the Republican side because a pro-biz agenda is more directly beneficial to opportunists, but honestly I don't think it's very useful to spend much time discussing which side is more evil. At the very least I don't think Democrats are worse than Republicans when it comes to 'coopting'. To be clear, I don't identify as strictly left, although I'm probably more left than right if I had to pick. And I'm also not saying that 'the right' doesn't care about the underprivileged; far from it! Rather it seems to be less part of their core agenda (for reasons that I've become somewhat more sympathetic to over the past years).

dragonwriter 9y ago

> And since Muslim immigrants tend to vote Democrat Muslims immigrants were, at least up until post-9/11 scapegoating, a fairly reliable Republican voting bloc. If there has been a shift since, it was a reaction to (rather than the cause of) the absence (or at least lesser level) of anti-Muslim rhetoric from the Democrats. But the Left (or Democrats, which aren't the same thing, but it's true either way) have not treated all Muslims as beyond criticism, they've just tended to avoid bigoted, sweeping attacks on Muslims as a group or Islam itself.

mc32 9y ago
an observation is the left will look the other way if they can use a group or coopt a group to further a cause --moreso if the group is considered underprivileged in the US --never mind their status in their home country or what they do to others in their home country, or the ideas they espouse at home or in the US, so long as they can be used to a political end. Some republicans do something similar with a couple of countries in the ME who are on the other side of the spectrum. The difference, as I can tell is dems like to play identity politcs a lot, the repubs don't care as long as you share their pro-biz agenda.
- mercer 9y ago
  A more charitable, and in my opinion more accurate observation is that equality for the underprivileged is in itself an important cause for the left, more so than for the right, but like any movement there are plenty of people who coopt that for personal ends. I'm inclined to feel that the latter is more problematic on the Republican side because a pro-biz agenda is more directly beneficial to opportunists, but honestly I don't think it's very useful to spend much time discussing which side is more evil. At the very least I don't think Democrats are worse than Republicans when it comes to 'coopting'. To be clear, I don't identify as strictly left, although I'm probably more left than right if I had to pick. And I'm also not saying that 'the right' doesn't care about the underprivileged; far from it! Rather it seems to be less part of their core agenda (for reasons that I've become somewhat more sympathetic to over the past years).