"patriotism" vs "nationalism"

I've been seeing a thing going around about how, if you immigrate to America, you'd better speak English and basically change everything about yourself to fit into "our" white, Christian ethnocentric society, because "our" values are being diminished and taken away by immigrants and asylum seekers.

News flash: they aren't.

If you're new here to my page, buckle up, buttercup. Because I'm about to put down some truths that are gonna be difficult to deal with.

This rhetoric was around at least 5 years ago in 2020. I found references to it dated in 2020 on Reddit r/atheism thread. I found more references to it from 2002, in a legal battle involving naturalized citizens who were sent the statement via email from a Co-worker who felt they didn't meet the criteria to be in the US because they had such a thick accent (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/347/955/2421986/).

So, this isn't a "new" idea, and certainly didn't start taking hold of Americans in the past few months. In fact this type of rhetoric has been used for *years* in an attempt to justify someone's ill-disguised racism and bigotry, by painting it as a call to patriotism.

"My ancestors were immigrants..." News flash - unless you're lineage is a direct descent of the local indigenous people who lived in this country prior to white men landing on it, this statement gives you zero credibility. So what. Up until 1906, we had a relatively open border policy, with local state or county government determining citizenship - usually after a set period of time living in the US without legal incident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_and_nationality_law_in_the_United_States

"Muslims who want to live here under Sharia law were told Wednesday to get out of AMERICA "... This is where you trulybegin to lose credibility with this post.  This didn't happen last Wednesday. It didn't happen 5 years ago. It happened in 2002, a year after 9/11. So, you're regurgitating crap that was a direct response to the attack. Since that time, in 2017 a ban on Muslim immigrants was passed by Trump. This ban was immediately taken to court by the ACLU, because the decision behind it had no credible threat attached to it.

"we speak English, not [insert every foreign language there is], so if you wish to become a part of our society, learn the language."... This is a perfect example of ignorance being bliss. Believing that immigrants and asylum seekers are going to be able to learn the language *prior* to arriving (because obviously, they're coming from places who would allow this to happen), or they have access to free classes here once they get here, that will fit into their work schedule.

Many of these people don't know how to read well, if at all. Many of the women have never been to school, because their culture frowned on and/or banned it all together. They came here because they were afraid for their lives, and needed a place where they weren't going to be killed for not believing their government rhetoric, or for not wanting to join a gang. And here you are, self-righteously proclaiming that if they don't walk across the border knowing how to speak English, or don't have the ability to immediately learn it as soon as they arrive, don't come.

"most Americans believe in God"... Well, that is true. However my definition of God isn't the same as *your* definition. So, unpack that for a second here...

"... Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and is clearly documented." You're playing the semantics game here. While correct that the founding fathers may have been practicing Christians, they very specifically had repeated discussions about whether to include any religious rhetoric at all in either the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.

There are full articles in the Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton about it, and I invite you to read them. In the end, they decided that it was important to leave that barrier between church and state intact, because someone might be vot d in and attempt to control our government by way of their religion - which was in direct correlation to a King having their power given to them by divine right, rather than by the vote of the people.

Also, the whole "separation of church and state" thing? That includes federally and state funded schools. You want the 10 commandments posted on the wall? It better be for a private Christian school. Otherwise, I don't think so. 

The remaining portion of this drivvle I won't even bother to copy/paste, because it's dragged almost directly from nazi nationalist magazines in an attempt to yet again play on the idea of patriotism, when it's really saying "if you don't fit into our very narrow scope of being, we don't want you - even if you *are* a US citizen".

So, yeah. I'm gonna call this person out for being a recently de-closeted bigot and racist for posting this. You're right, it's your opinion. It's also narrow-minded and sick, so... congratulations on your recent outing?

I don't need to have this type of person willing to hand me or my son over to the gestapo for being anything but a cis-gendered white heterosexual male.