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Lesser? The US is the largest economy in the history of the world. And military. It is responsible for brokering and maintaining the freest, most prosperous tim
by 39896880 2y ago
Lesser? The US is the largest economy in the history of the world. And military. It is responsible for brokering and maintaining the freest, most prosperous time in history — the post WWII globalization.
Oh, here’s where I’ll be a little less, er, academic — as someone who lives in a city shaped by the influx of Irish and Italian immigrants - fuck out of here with “lesser”.
- pcwalton 2y agoYeah, it's probably the worst comment I've ever seen Rayiner write. (This is the nicest way I can word this comment; it'd be impossible for me to say what I really feel about that insult to my heritage without breaking the site guidelines.) Irish people such as my ancestors fought and died for America in WWII. They were among the finest patriots who served the country.
- justin66 2y agoIt was a demented comment. Like the parent commenter, I'm living in a city built in large part by Irish and Italian immigrants (as well as members of a couple of other ethnic groups which people are happy to mock, if they're the kind of people who mock ethnic groups) well before FDR was elected (WTF?) and... I just don't know where to begin...
- rayiner 2y ago[flagged]
- dctoedt 2y ago> The country was supposed to look more like New Hampshire than New York. Really? Where is that written, and by whom? New Hampshire as of 1491?
- rayiner 2y agoThe Federalist Papers.
- pcwalton 2y agoI'm loath to engage more with this weird anti-Irish prejudice, but I should point out that your blaming the Irish (and Italians apparently?) for FDR is ahistorical. FDR won 42 of 48 states and won the popular vote against Hoover by 17%, about 7 million votes. The total number of Irish immigrants who arrived in the US during that time was like 350k [1]. Needless to say, FDR was also not Catholic. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Americans#Mid-19th_century_and_later https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Americans#Mid-19th_centu...
- rayiner 2y agoDoes a big economy and military make a country great? America is in shambles in terms of order, governance, rule of law—the constitution has been shredded—and social trust, which is exactly what you would expect to be affected by social change from immigration. I said “arguably lesser,” because people obviously have different utility functions. I would say an orderly and well governed society like Sweden or Germany is better than a chaotic and disorderly but somewhat richer society like the United States. Obviously people may differ on that. My point is that immigration changed the country fundamentally.
- dctoedt 2y ago> America is in shambles in terms of order, governance, rule of law Or we could try another perspective: America is, beyond peradventure, the most successful continent-wide, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-faith society in the history of the world. Lots of problems, but we're working on them.
- tptacek 2y agoPeradventure is a good word. Do you have to be a lawyer to know it?
- dctoedt 2y ago> Peradventure is a good word. Do you have to be a lawyer to know it? Agreed that it's a good word. I'd never heard or seen it myself until I was a mid-level partner at my then-law firm, and our senior partner used the phrase "beyond peradventure."
- pvg 2y agoThink I learned it from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court where it appears with some frequency: But come—never mind about that; let’s—have you got such a thing as a map of that region about you? Now a good map—” “Is it peradventure that manner of thing which of late the unbelievers have brought from over the great seas, which, being boiled in oil, and an onion and salt added thereto, doth—”