4 ms·

1. I have a problem with "their country". What makes this any country any more "their" than anybody else's? 2. Does their past and often even current behavi

by lahvak 4y ago

1. I have a problem with "their country". What makes this any country any more "their" than anybody else's? 2. Does their past and often even current behavior towards other immigrants deserve any gratitude?

onetimeusename 4y ago
Is Ecuador a country for Ecuadorians? If millions of white people moved to Ecuador, refused to learn Spanish, and said "this is no more your country than ours" and so forth, would you object to it?
- lahvak 4y ago
  Probably not, as long as they did not terrorize local population and act like they are somehow better.
junofan 4y ago
A country is a nation with a government. The US’s government is specified in the Constitution. The Constitution said only white men had a say. White men decided to change the Constitution to let others participate.
- lahvak 4y ago
  After first writing the constitution to bar other from participating. The constitution did not come from thin air.
weatherlite 4y ago
Did America belong to the Indians at a point in history? What made it "their" land more than anybody else?
rayiner 4y ago
> 1. I have a problem with "their country". What makes this any country any more "their" than anybody else's People who share kinship ties and cultural ties built the physical and political world of the country. My wife’s family fought in the American revolution, and settled the Oregon coast. All the rugged frontier individualism that permeates American culture is her people. By contrast my family came here on a plane I. 1989. My ancestors contributed nothing to this country. This country’s culture, institutions, etc., bear none of their imprint. If they had, this would be a very different country. We have a whole country that they made but it’s not this one.
- lahvak 4y ago
  Many non-white people contributed to American culture and history as well. Why should it be only white peoples' country? My ancestors contributed nothing as well, but I am white. Is it my country or not?
  - rayiner 4y ago
    It’s also black peoples’ country. And in this context, “white” means British Americans (and their subgroups), Germans, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, Irish, and Italians. It doesn’t count white immigrants.
    - lahvak 4y ago
      I am totally confused by your selection of nationalities that are supposedly non-immigrant. What makes Poles or French or Spanish immigrants that does not make Germans or Dutch ones, too?
      - rayiner 4y ago
        Everyone is immigrants (except native Americans). But certain groups came here in large numbers, settled the country in large homogenous groups, and shaped the country from the ground-up. Our legal and political structure is entirely Anglo. The culture of large swaths of the country can be traced directly back to different subgroups from different parts of England: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/albions-seed-david-h-fischer/1100542382 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/albions-seed-david-h-fische.... Germans, Dutch, Norwegians, and Swedes settled the midwest, which was a key to the development of American society and government. They were a backbone of the Republican Party during the Civil War. Iowa, full of recent German immigrants at the time, contributed more soldiers per capita to the union than any other state. To this day, midwestern speech patterns are full of German or Norwegian influences. There's 50 million German Americans--more than half as many as in Germany. Italians and Irish had major impacts on the culture and politics of the nation's largest cities. They changed the course of the 20th century by supporting the Democratic Party by large margins from FDR until Reagan, which took the country in a very different direction from the original vision created by the British founders. There's more Irish people in America than in Ireland. Other European immigrant groups had localized impacts, but never shaped the country the way these other groups did.
FrontierPsych 4y ago
1. What makes any country "their country"? Why does everyone only focus on the Western World? Can I move to Japan, China, Israel, France and just become a citizen without passport, visa, etc? No. 2. Yes.

by lahvak 4y ago

onetimeusename 4y ago

Is Ecuador a country for Ecuadorians? If millions of white people moved to Ecuador, refused to learn Spanish, and said "this is no more your country than ours" and so forth, would you object to it?

lahvak 4y ago
Probably not, as long as they did not terrorize local population and act like they are somehow better.

junofan 4y ago

A country is a nation with a government. The US’s government is specified in the Constitution. The Constitution said only white men had a say. White men decided to change the Constitution to let others participate.

lahvak 4y ago
After first writing the constitution to bar other from participating. The constitution did not come from thin air.

weatherlite 4y ago

Did America belong to the Indians at a point in history? What made it "their" land more than anybody else?

rayiner 4y ago

> 1. I have a problem with "their country". What makes this any country any more "their" than anybody else's People who share kinship ties and cultural ties built the physical and political world of the country. My wife’s family fought in the American revolution, and settled the Oregon coast. All the rugged frontier individualism that permeates American culture is her people. By contrast my family came here on a plane I. 1989. My ancestors contributed nothing to this country. This country’s culture, institutions, etc., bear none of their imprint. If they had, this would be a very different country. We have a whole country that they made but it’s not this one.

lahvak 4y ago
Many non-white people contributed to American culture and history as well. Why should it be only white peoples' country? My ancestors contributed nothing as well, but I am white. Is it my country or not?
- rayiner 4y ago
  It’s also black peoples’ country. And in this context, “white” means British Americans (and their subgroups), Germans, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, Irish, and Italians. It doesn’t count white immigrants.
  - lahvak 4y ago
    I am totally confused by your selection of nationalities that are supposedly non-immigrant. What makes Poles or French or Spanish immigrants that does not make Germans or Dutch ones, too?
    - rayiner 4y ago
      Everyone is immigrants (except native Americans). But certain groups came here in large numbers, settled the country in large homogenous groups, and shaped the country from the ground-up. Our legal and political structure is entirely Anglo. The culture of large swaths of the country can be traced directly back to different subgroups from different parts of England: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/albions-seed-david-h-fischer/1100542382 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/albions-seed-david-h-fische.... Germans, Dutch, Norwegians, and Swedes settled the midwest, which was a key to the development of American society and government. They were a backbone of the Republican Party during the Civil War. Iowa, full of recent German immigrants at the time, contributed more soldiers per capita to the union than any other state. To this day, midwestern speech patterns are full of German or Norwegian influences. There's 50 million German Americans--more than half as many as in Germany. Italians and Irish had major impacts on the culture and politics of the nation's largest cities. They changed the course of the 20th century by supporting the Democratic Party by large margins from FDR until Reagan, which took the country in a very different direction from the original vision created by the British founders. There's more Irish people in America than in Ireland. Other European immigrant groups had localized impacts, but never shaped the country the way these other groups did.

FrontierPsych 4y ago

1. What makes any country "their country"? Why does everyone only focus on the Western World? Can I move to Japan, China, Israel, France and just become a citizen without passport, visa, etc? No. 2. Yes.