During the 1970s, in an era of airplane hijackings and the 1972 Olympics massacre in Munich, Germany, it was not uncommon to describe the terrorist perpetrators as “monsters of our own creation.” The argument was that the world had pushed such people, particularly Palestinian militants, to take extreme measures because their legitimate grievances were not being addressed.
In America, it cannot be disputed that home-grown terrorists are linked to neo-Nazi, White Power and White Nationalist groups. This does not mean that every member of such groups would actually engage in terrorism, but some will. Some do.
We can point to Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as arguably the most notorious home-grown terrorist act in United States history, and many of us view the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol as the most recent. Whether the latter event qualifies as an insurrection or coup attempt is not universally acknowledged, but it reminded me of Adolph Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch” in Munich in 1923. I don’t think the disparate group or groups that assaulted our capital possessed anywhere near the level of sophistication that the Nazis ultimately achieved, but in 1923 the Hitler gang may also have been viewed as no more than dangerous clowns. It took the Nazis 10 years after their attempted “putsch” to come to power, so who knows how mighty some of the White Power and neo-Nazi groups may become in 10 years if unchecked.
I personally don’t excuse the January 6 rioters in any way. But I do have to ask if they were, or are, “monsters of our own creation?”
“THEY WILL NOT REPLACE US”
Tucker Carlson, in one of his broadcasts earlier this year, seemed to support a dangerous far-Right complaint on air, “They will not replace us.” CORRECTION has been made to an earlier version of this post.
I believe he was referring to immigration, certainly illegal immigrants, but possibly also legal immigration. (Did you know that the United States has a combined total of more than one million naturalized citizens and new lawful permanent residents – Green Card holders – each year and has achieved this number for many years now?) Overall, more than 44 million people living legally in this country are considered immigrants. See www.migrationpolicy.org or the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at www.uscis.gov for more complete information.
None of this should be construed as “replacement.” Legal immigrants come from all over, including China and India, and often represent a veritable brain drain on their home countries because so many legal immigrants are in fact college graduates, entrepreneurs, or professionally trained persons. Such people are not “replacing” us. They’re joining us.
But … look at what’s happening to working class and semi-skilled Whites, the people who were our house painters and gardeners and handymen and “gadget guys” and neighborhood mechanics and more for many years. Such people often were Southerners who had moved North in the first half and middle part of the 20th century. You can read the best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy” for background, and I wrote a major newspaper series on that trend more than 30 years ago while reporting from Indianapolis, which was a major destination city for many Southern whites.
And yet … I had my house painted in 2018 for the first time in many years. I contracted with a company owned by two brothers who had grown up on a farm in Indiana and now had their own house painting company. When the actual painters showed up they were all Hispanic. I have no idea who was a citizen, or who was here legally or not.
There was a storm this spring in my small, quiet subdivision north of Indianapolis. Several homeowners had new roofs installed – in all cases the crews were Hispanic. I currently have a short-term lease in the Washington, D.C., area while visiting family – we’ve had a couple of early maintenance issues and the workers were Hispanic in each case, except that the manager of maintenance is Portuguese.
Meat processing by the big companies appears to all or nearly all be immigrant labor. Nannies today are most likely to be Hispanic or Filipino, based on what I see in occasional news items.
I can add that the immigrant laborers are generally terrific workers, working fast, staying late, and always doing a good job. This usually translates more into increased profits for the business owners than lower costs for people who employ their services, but that’s another matter. The point is that many “Whites” have been thrown out of work, and this is happening on top of the offshoring of millions of factory jobs that has disproportionately affected working class and rural whites, most acutely in the industrial heartland. By all appearances, quite a few have become meth heads and opioid addicts, and some have joined up with the neo-Nazi, White Power and White Nationalist groups.
Still, “replacement” is a terrible word to use, and I don’t like the people who are using it, but what word would you use?