New from The Atlantic: Tucker Carlson Has Failed to Assimilate

[Mrs. Overall]

While I favor granting citizenship automatically to children born in the United States, I was reminded of birthright citizenship’s biggest downside Tuesday while listening to Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show.

Unlike immigrants, natural-born citizens such as Carlson are neither screened nor forced to pass a citizenship test nor made to swear an oath. And when they stray from the American way, no one thinks to tell them that they’re failing to assimilate.

But isn’t “failure to assimilate” an accurate way to characterize Carlson’s angry identitarianism? Carlson, who broadcasts to millions of viewers on national television, keeps fueling xenophobia and needless social strife by singling out people who weren’t born in America for special ire, then attributing negative qualities to whole groups. He just can’t get with the program of the American experiment.

A case in point was his monologue last night about Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born woman who came to the U.S. as a 10-year-old refugee and is now, at 36, a member of Congress. Carlson purported to characterize her views. “Omar isn’t disappointed in America,” he said. “She’s enraged by it. Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism. This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people.”

Continue reading article at link below:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/tucker-carlson-ilhan-omar/593602/

[Moostache]

1. Carlson is a stooge...but he can be a cautionary tale as easily.

When we look in the mirror, rationale people take stock of what they see and honest people look to understand not only their own impression of what that reflection is, but also try to understand how OTHERS of different experiences see the same reflection...

I am a white male, college-educated, solidly middle-class father of 5. From that description alone, many people will subconsciously pass myriad judgments and have a certain image of me.

"Too many kids...unconcerned with population crisis and environment" might be one.
"Entitled, over-privileged and insufficiently woke" might be another.
A third could even think "can't possibly know financial pressures with that resume".

All are part true, part false and insufficient in an of themselves to fully encompass me or anyone else. And that is where Tucker and his ilk are the cautionary tale we can all learn from...

When we pick any single or limited aspect of a person, and then assign sweeping generalizations to them based on such narrow information (such as race, relative income, citizenship, or any of the many, many labels that divide us) we miss the total reflection. We cannot see the grays and shades of shadow that contour and shape us all. We cannot see the possibilities and potential because we stop looking.

When someone does this to themself, they deprive themselves of a deeper, richer life and rob themselves of relationships and encounters that fundamentally enhance the thing we call "living". It closes off the possibilities of fellowship, friendship, belonging and engagement in favor of isolation, fear, anger and hate.

When we see a mirror - literal or figurative - the best we can do is look deeply, try to gain better understanding and perspective and take each glimpse as an opportunity to keep trying to get better... Carlson and his ilk would rather smash the mirror and claim they are perfect as is and in no need of improvement. Theirs is a life truly not worth living and I feel a sense of pity for them because of it.

[yonder]

2. +1. Excellent.

Consider using this for it's own thread?