4 ms·

My grandfather and his dad were both mechanics in California. It's another sign of America's war against tradespeople, personal economic agency, freedom to tink

My grandfather and his dad were both mechanics in California. It's another sign of America's war against tradespeople, personal economic agency, freedom to tinker, and manual labor. In a related phenomenon, lawmakers don't have qualms with hiring undocumented persons to work for them, their supporters taking out advertisements of wages in foreign newspapers to encourage undocumented migration, or ICE ostensibly "enforcing" documented migration while avoiding enclaves of undocumented persons if they happen to work for large organizations (major meat packers and other large agribusinesses) who pay the correct indirect bribes to the right politicians. Public racist recriminations of people who are victims of Monroe doctrine, American neocolonialism, and America-led climate change seeking a better place for themselves to not starve, or be kidnapped or murdered.. but to certain groups of ignorance and hate, a wall is "needed" to "keep them out."

aksss 4y ago
> ignorance and hate To many, it’s admirable to do what you say and say what you do. If there’s a law, enforce it. If you don’t want to enforce it, change the law. If you can’t change the law by convincing enough people, tough luck - it’s what democracy and rule of law nominally means. Casting everyone opposed to illegal immigration as “hateful and ignorant” makes about as much sense as charging open border advocates as “enemies of the state”. If you have to denigrate your political opposition to understand them, you probably are not really interested in understanding them. Without understanding the steelman opposing view, you become a very poor advocate of your own.
- jonfw 4y ago
  > To many, it’s admirable to do what you say and say what you do. If there’s a law, enforce it. If you don’t want to enforce it, change the law. If you can’t change the law by convincing enough people, tough luck - it’s what democracy and rule of law nominally means. In the US- law enforcement have quite a bit of authority to exercise discretion. Since we say (and courts have supported) that officers have discretion- part of doing what we say is choosing not to enforce laws sometimes. I'm not making any arguments about immigration one way or the other, but the law does not excuse anybody from considering the ethics of their actions
  - aksss 4y ago
    Enforcement and prosecutorial discretion are ideally the exception rather than the rule, I think. Principally because discretionary enforcement is too often abused as selective enforcement. Structurally (systemically?), I don't think it's good to have laws on the books that, with a wink and a nod, nobody "really" believes. But to my original point - none of this critique comes from hate or ignorance.
tdeck 4y ago
> avoiding enclaves of undocumented persons if they happen to work for large organizations (major meat packers and other large agribusinesses) ICE has been useful to these employers in the past. Immigrants at your workplace talking about forming a union? Just give ICE a call and you don't even have to hire your own goons.

aksss 4y ago

> ignorance and hate To many, it’s admirable to do what you say and say what you do. If there’s a law, enforce it. If you don’t want to enforce it, change the law. If you can’t change the law by convincing enough people, tough luck - it’s what democracy and rule of law nominally means. Casting everyone opposed to illegal immigration as “hateful and ignorant” makes about as much sense as charging open border advocates as “enemies of the state”. If you have to denigrate your political opposition to understand them, you probably are not really interested in understanding them. Without understanding the steelman opposing view, you become a very poor advocate of your own.

jonfw 4y ago
> To many, it’s admirable to do what you say and say what you do. If there’s a law, enforce it. If you don’t want to enforce it, change the law. If you can’t change the law by convincing enough people, tough luck - it’s what democracy and rule of law nominally means. In the US- law enforcement have quite a bit of authority to exercise discretion. Since we say (and courts have supported) that officers have discretion- part of doing what we say is choosing not to enforce laws sometimes. I'm not making any arguments about immigration one way or the other, but the law does not excuse anybody from considering the ethics of their actions
- aksss 4y ago
  Enforcement and prosecutorial discretion are ideally the exception rather than the rule, I think. Principally because discretionary enforcement is too often abused as selective enforcement. Structurally (systemically?), I don't think it's good to have laws on the books that, with a wink and a nod, nobody "really" believes. But to my original point - none of this critique comes from hate or ignorance.

tdeck 4y ago

> avoiding enclaves of undocumented persons if they happen to work for large organizations (major meat packers and other large agribusinesses) ICE has been useful to these employers in the past. Immigrants at your workplace talking about forming a union? Just give ICE a call and you don't even have to hire your own goons.