Immigrants Follow The Money

And money follows the immigrants. This simple truth is getting lost in the ugly discussion going on about what's happening at the U.S.-Mexican border, as well as the whole Brexit debate. Well, facts and money don't care about anybody's feelings, so let's just try to follow the facts.

_{Image by Fibonacci Blue - source: Flickr}

Lately my posts have been very much centered around the polarized lef-right political divide and the subsequent rise of alt-right populism and early signs of fascism. All over the western hemisphere we see foreigners and immigrants taking the blame for the economical decline we're all suffering from. Unless if you're part of the 1%; if you belong to that blessed group of people, the decline passed right by you without you even noticing it, or, if you're at the top 1% of the top 1%, you even got rewarded directly or indirectly by the massive bail-outs of those for-profit institutions deemed "too large to fail." The brevity of the protests against the 1%, the "Occupy Wall Street" and related protests around the world, is testament of this tiny cabal's ability to distract the masses. As was Trump's election and the rise to power of right wing populists like him in many Western European countries.

What's being lost in today's political discourse is the fact that the 1% owns both sides of the political spectrum. The left, of which I'm part, blames the right for being xenophobes, if they're polite, and the right blames the left for being softy douche-bags who feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever they the opportunity to virtue-signal their love of cultural diversity, again, if they're nice. Which they, on both sides, aren't most of the time. In my writings I myself have undoubtedly contributed to this phenomenon by writing about the whole anti-sjw movement from my leftist perspective; I can only hope that all this time it has been clear to you, my dear reader, that you've been listening to a full-blown lefty, and have judged my remarks as such. But just to make sure, I'd like to make a few remarks.

The alt-right is not racist. At least not by judging the people who label themselves as alt-right. The people who label themselves as alt-right are not a homogeneous group of people who all have the same ideas and opinions, just like feminists aren't and Democrats aren't. When Trump was running for president, the Reddit channel "the_donald" became very popular and almost all people there who supported Trump labeled themselves "alt-right", which is short for "alternative right." If there's anything we can learn from that is that the right, as well as the left, was fed up with politics as usual, and not a whole lot more to be honest. The most popular candidate on the left was Bernie Sanders; he was the populist vote on the left who represented their favorite "protest vote" to vent their discontent with the status quo. Bernie got, to keep it short and simple, screwed by the corporate-backed Democrats who, stupidly, saw in Hilary Clinton their sure ticket to the presidency.

It should really come as no surprise that this is what gave Trump the win; since the "protest" part was more important than the "vote" part, for both sides, Trump therefore even got the vote of many people who would have voted for Bernie. The trouble with this alt-right movement is that there is a great overlap with white nationalism, white supremacy and a denial of what has become known as "the patriarchy." But let it be known that someone on the alt-right isn't the same as a racist, or at least they're not necessarily more racist than any of us; we're all tribal creatures and we have to deal with that given fact rationally.

But that's the whole left-right story in a nutshell; what happened in America happened in the U.K., in The Netherlands, in France and so on. To focus on the topic of immigration, it's important to understand that what happens with immigration is decided by the 1% and goes something like this: when industry needs immigrants to come over so they can be payed below minimum wages, an immigrant-friendly government is installed. When they need cover for their economical crimes like evading taxes or plunging the world in an economic recession, an immigrant-unfriendly government is installed so they can use the (their) media to play the blame-game. It's no coincidence that during economical good times there's almost no fighting between immigrants and native workers; the foreigners are welcome to do the jobs the native worker doesn't want to do, and doesn't need to do because there are better jobs available.

Let's keep following the money because that's where truth is found in this neoliberal world economy. Wages keep rising and eventually even some of the immigrants, especially their children, are in the market for those slightly better blue-collar jobs. As an advanced society that enjoyed most of the material abundance provided by the ongoing technological revolutions, we have created laws to protect the environment, which in part motivated the 1% to move their production facilities abroad where a whole new horde of low-wage workers awaited them and where said environmental laws were still absent. Now the native workers had something to complain about; their low-wage jobs were being shipped away and at the same time the immigrants held the even lower wage jobs they were now forced to embrace themselves again. They needed Change. Change we can believe in.

_{The Dishonest Framing of Anti-SJW YouTube}

Enter Obama. Obama was a disaster. Sure, the man is classy, charming, eloquent and all that jazz, but when we just look at what he's actually done, it's not that much. Now, he got to restore the mess the 1% had left him and the country with, but he did so on their terms. If I want to summarize his 8 years on the Oval Office I'd say this: he executed a record number of drone strikes, increased the number of active wars to 7, but still got the Nobel Peace Price. And Obama-care is not a true single-payer healthcare solution. Everything combined, his presidency amounted to no Change at all and a further securing of the status quo. That's why Trump got votes from people who voted for Obama not once, but twice even; and in the media this was treated as some great surprise, even long after the elections were over and done with. Mostly faked surprise I wager, because these media outlets are owned by the 1% as well. Also the Democrats kept blaming everyone but themselves for having lost the election. Intellectuals like Sam Harris even went as far as blaming the American people for being too stupid for not recognizing when to vote strategically, for not having chosen the lesser of two evils. This only boosted Trump's popularity, and understandably so.

So, the manufacturing jobs are gone abroad, the immigrants have whatever's left, and so do the women, let's not forget the women, and we're sick of politics as usual, sick of smooth-talking politicians who promise change but ultimately don't give a damn about the people. And in steps this man who talks straight, isn't politically correct at all, promises to bring manufacturing jobs back home and lets shine through that he's not too fond of immigrants. Keeping our eyes on the money, there's no way Trump will ever succeed in bringing back home the jobs he promised to bring back home. The deal with China and other developing economies is made by the 1%, of which Trump is part; we didn't want the factories anymore, we were going to be a society of consumers and those poor people "over there" were going to produce what we consumed, that was the deal made by the 1% for the 1%.

But that's not where the immigration story ends of course. Now we see in all western countries a switch to "merit based immigration", and let's use Trump again as an example because why not? One key idea behind merit based immigration, he said in a speech from the White House Rose Garden, would be to attract "the best and brightest all around the world" to come to the United States. This kind of immigration will use a point system: "You will get more points for being a younger worker, meaning you will contribute more to our social safety net. You will get more points for having a valuable skill, an offer of employment, an advanced education or a plan to create jobs." In short; if you can contribute to keep alive the status quo that has been so good to the 1%, you're extra welcome.

Immigrants follow the money, that's true in many cases when we set aside those who are fleeing from other horrible circumstances like war or harsh dictatorships; everyone wants to do better and no one wants to be hungry. But money follows the immigrants also: they lobby for politics that treat foreigners in a way the suits them best. Immigration is a function of the economy, and not the other way around. Left and right should be united in the fight against the real enemy here; neoliberalism, the kind of world economy we all suffer under right now, is the socioeconomic model that reduces all human interactions to financial transactions, which is the way the plutocrats like it just fine. For now. Because make no mistake; that points system that's already a reality for China and immigrants will eventually be imposed upon us to, and it's only a wild guess as to which side of the political divide the plutocrats will use to push it through.

I'll leave you with a video of a Reddit user who gives his own personal story about how he got involved with the alt-right, how he felt betrayed by the Democrats and how he decided to not vote for Trump. I don't agree with nearly everything he says, but I subscribe to his observations in broad strokes. This video was uploaded in October 2016, right before almost everyone was taken by surprise by Trump's victory; I found it very enlightening and it confirmed many of my own suspicions. So please watch it, the host identified as an alt-right person but is not a racist. Some of the YouTubers I've been criticizing lately are just smart enough to monetize this whole ugly situation, as illustrated in the above linked video; some of them have been caught on camera admitting just that. I just wanted to remind us all what the stakes are and that we're being played into this online culture-war by those who benefit most from a dysfunctional economy. Let's just get along and focus our anger and discontent where it belongs. Oh, there's some profanity in the video, well more than just some to be honest: steer clear if you're a beta-male soy-boy ;-)

_{Why I Joined The Alt-Right And Why I Quit.}

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