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When we hear the word "multiculturalism," some imagine people of all races and creeds holding hands, others imagine a clash of disparate cultures that cannot co-exist. There are many more nuanced definitions in between.
In the world of mainstream politics, there is now widespread acknowledgment that the failure of immigrants to properly integrate into the culture of their host nations is causing a lot more harm that good. The backlash against multiculturalism has begun to manifest itself as a rise of nationalist parties such as England's UKIP and France's National Front gaining more support from disillusioned countrymen.
In 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that,
" This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, west of Berlin, yesterday. "
Merkel also suggested that the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society, and late last year the European Court of Justice ruled that EU citizens who move to another member state "solely in order to obtain social assistance" may be excluded from receiving that assistance, an acknowledgement that multiculturalism's side effects are causing more harm than good.
Those interested in this topic should read Foreign Affairs' excellent article The Failure of Multiculturalism.
As a political tool, multiculturalism has functioned as not merely a response to diversity but also a means of constraining it. And that insight reveals a paradox. Multicultural policies accept as a given that societies are diverse, yet they implicitly assume that such diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. They seek to institutionalize diversity by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes—into a singular, homogeneous Muslim community, for example—and defining their needs and rights accordingly. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to manage.
(Score: 1) by twistedcubic on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:42PM
The only complaint I saw in the summary is (paraphrased) "immigrants suck because they need social assistance". What does this have to do with multiculturalism? In a free society, what's wrong with me practicing whatever religion I want, eating whatever food I choose to cook or buy, study whatever I want, associate with whomever I want, and say whatever I want to say? People who can't handle these differences declare that "multiculturalism has failed", when ironically, it's their imaginations which have failed.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:47PM
People who can't handle these differences
Don't forget the ones that shoot cartoonists in your list of intolerance.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:15PM
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:49PM
The problem isn't the dude pulling the trigger or the dude getting hit, but all the cheering from the sidelines and the apologists.
For all of history people have been pretty lazy. Pulling a historical 60s civil rights example, the problem wasn't black dudes getting lynched, because the odds were higher of getting hit by lightning (or at least of a similar order of magnitude, point being it wasn't a genocide). The problem was the stereotypical couch potatoe thinking thats the best idea ever even if they just kinda sat on their couch that night, and eventual success was defined not by a slightly lower lynch rate but by stereotypical couch potatoe thinking thats now the worst idea ever.
I think you could argue cause and effect for a long time, who's leading, the 999 couch potatoes muttering the conventional wisdom back and forth, or the 1 dude who took action making the couch potatoes think (note, people hate to think, and the eventual result might not be supportive...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:04PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:05PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @11:21PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @08:30AM
Yet you feel safe where you live. Must be under a force field.
No, I am in a bunker with massive amounts of ammo and my entire porn collection! Not! Actually I am cowering in fear that someone of a religion I know next to nothing about may attack me in my living room and CUT MY F**KING HEAD OFF! That's where I am. Where are you, and how's it going?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:11PM
> The problem isn't the dude pulling the trigger or the dude getting hit, but all the cheering from the sidelines and the apologists.
Why don’t more moderate Muslims denounce extremism? [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:21PM
That anecdotal experience by one journalist is counter to the polls around the western world that show apathy to outright support for this sort of behavior by islamic communities.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:31PM
That anecdotal experience by one journalist is counter to the polls around the western world that show apathy to outright support for this sort of behavior by islamic communities.
(1) You don't seem to understand the definition of "anecdotal."
(2) Also, false: Muslims Americans more likely than other faith groups to reject attacks on civilians [gallup.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:21AM
1. You obviously don't understand the definition of anecdotal nor how to make a point. He has individual experiences that he is using for generalizations and you just believe it blindly while denouncing anyone pointing out the complete lack of reason.
2. Also, my point is true: and my source has many polls proving my point [chersonandmolschky.com] while yours is one poll that is only tangentially related.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:47AM
> He has individual experiences that he is using for generalizations
He is a reporter, reporting on facts.
> and my source has many polls proving my point while yours is one poll that is only tangentially related.
(1) You don't seem to understand the definition of "tangential."
(2) Not even close. For one thing "23 countries across Southeastern Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East" is literally not the western world and for another belief in sharia is no more support for extremism than keeping kosher and obeying the talmud is.
You really suck at definitions. Srsly. Stop using words you don't understand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @11:33PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:17AM
Make up things all you want the truth remains the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @02:30AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:16PM
> What does this have to do with multiculturalism?
That part doesn't and neither does Merkel's victim blaming Those are just e-fueled finding what he wants to find.
If you read the Foreign Affairs article it roundly blames the government for pitting minorities against each other rather than supporting their commonality. Instead of protecting them from abuse by people who want to define them as "other" it built walls that enforced the idea of them as "other" like forbidding citizenship to 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants. It was also very interesting to read that France's obsession with things like the purity of the french language is mostly rose-colored glasses, how at the time of the french revolution 50 of the population didn't even speak french and only about 15% spoke 'proper' french.
One thing about humans - we will always find ways to divide the group up into "us" and "them" no matter how minute the differences.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:46PM
How 'bout those subway bombings in London? The Boston Marathon bombers? This multiculturalism thing is just a fancy way of saying that you welcome poisonous creatures into your family.
If a group refuses to assimilate into YOUR culture, they should not be welcomed, it's simple as that.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:17PM
How 'bout those subway bombings in London? The Boston Marathon bombers? This multiculturalism thing is just a fancy way of saying that you welcome poisonous creatures into your family.
Just like Anders Brevik, Craig Hicks, Michael Page and Jean Charles de Menezes are proof that you welcome the poisonous creatures that are already part of your family.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:23PM
that are already part of your family.
Not entirely sure which side of the argument you're supporting, but I'll assume you are along the path of something they have in common is getting kicked out of the family, either into prison or whatever afterlife may or may not exist. For the benefit of folks who don't recognize the list of murders names.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:32PM
Finally, someone who gets it!
Thanks man, I couldn't have done it without you!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:45PM
Thanks man, I couldn't have done it without you!
No problem, I'm just glad I didn't have to unleash one of my world famous automobile analogies. Its kinda like when the fuel injectors decide to move in, suddenly the carburetor is permanently unemployed and we have to install systemd on the engine computer to make the injectors happy or they'll riot and burn down the engine compartment because injectors use vi and the car used to be a pure church of emacs, and they refuse to learn the local editor to fit in. Or something like that.
In light of the usual social stress involving semi-controversial topics, it might be fun to come up with the worst imaginable analogy involving cars and systemd and all the greats from the past.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:59PM
Hahah! You are so clever and smart.
You grace us with your unique insight and wit!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:34PM
Exactly. We do send our own family members to prison for murdering people at random - or, we even execute them.
With this multiculturalism thing, we're expected to accept the thought that imams can sit safely inside their temples, preaching to the next generation that the culture surrounding them is evil, and must be destroyed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:40PM
we're expected to accept the thought that imams can sit safely inside their temples, preaching to the next generation that the culture surrounding them is evil, and must be destroyed.
Same reason we are expected to accept the thought that grand wizards can sit safely inside their temples, preaching to the next generation that the culture surrounding them is evil, and must be destroyed.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:05PM
Same reason we are expected to accept the thought that grand wizards can sit safely inside their temples...
Except of course for one small detail; we don't in point of fact do that. It is true that we do respect their 1st Amendment right to say what they do, we allow them to march, etc. The State doesn't infringe their rights, and this is right and proper and the most radical Islamic fundamentalist should expect the same protections of basic civil rights to speak, write and think. On the other hand, society applies every possible sanction on the old Terror Wing of the Democratic Party (now that it isn't needed and works against the current policy of oppressing blacks via the smothering hand of the welfare state... another subject for another thread) in such a way that they are effectively excluded from all civilized discourse. Meanwhile, the thought of subjecting militant Islam to the same sort of shunning is simply unthinkable by the progressives who command the cultural highlands. When discussing racial strife a representative from the Klan is never invited, while certain Islamic terrorist financiers, sympathizers and unindicted coconspiractors always seem to find airtime.
The question I put before the group here is why? Is someone willing to attempt a rational explanation for this difference?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:26PM
> When discussing racial strife a representative from the Klan is never invited
The way Fox interviewed [youtube.com] Paul Fromm? [wikipedia.org]
Yeah that never happens.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday May 24 2015, @10:24PM
Seeing as how you had to find an obscure reference from seven years ago, I can only thank you for making my point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @10:34PM
> Seeing as how you had to find an obscure reference from seven years ago, I can only thank you for making my point.
Just the first one that came up on google.
Here's some more:
Don Lemon Interviews KKK Member [mediaite.com]
Chris Hayes Politely Interviews KKK Imperial Wizard Frank Arcona [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:43PM
With this multiculturalism thing, we're expected to accept the thought that Tele-evangelists can sit safely inside their temples, preaching to the next generation that the culture surrounding them is evil, and must be destroyed.
Fixed that for you, as well. And don't forget Waco, Oklahoma City, several Mosques, synagoges, and a Sikh temple where cultural crazies have gone homicidal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:02PM
No no! Those people are white so their culture isn't to blame. It is some other reason.
Only brown people with funny clothes and funny accents who smell like strange food can be cultural ideologues. It is part of their culture!
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Monday May 25 2015, @01:06AM
What?
Anders Brevik - Killed 77 people
Craig Hicks - Allegedly killed 3 people
Michael Page - killed 6 people
Jean Charles de Menezes - was an electrician on his way to fix a broken fire alarm when the police accidentally killed him
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:42AM
Anders Brevik - Killed 77 people
Craig Hicks - Allegedly killed 3 people
Michael Page - killed 6 people
Police - killed Jean Charles de Menezes for the same reason all the other people were killed
FTFY
(Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Monday May 25 2015, @02:54AM
Anders Brevik is in jail, where he'll be for the rest of his natural life. He wasn't treated like a hero by our society, nor were his tactics accepted (grudgingly or otherwise) by any sizable portion of the population. Contrast that with 20% of British Muslims feeling some sympathy with the motives of the 7/7 bombers. [telegraph.co.uk] These are not the same situations. Muslims in the West simply have a higher incidence of tolerance for violence than the general population. Not all feel this way, certainly, but 1 out of 5 is incredibly significant when populations are in the millions.
Stop equivocating.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:14AM
Anders Brevik is in jail, where he'll be for the rest of his natural life. He wasn't treated like a hero by our society, nor were his tactics accepted (grudgingly or otherwise) by any sizable portion of the population. Contrast that with 20% of British Muslims feeling some sympathy with the motives of the 7/7 bombers. These are not the same situations.
You are right 'tactics' and 'motives' are absolutely not the same thing. What is your explanation for conflating them?
(Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Monday May 25 2015, @03:18AM
What is your explanation for conflating them?
In this context, the sentiment is interchangeable. Read the article. 20% supported the 7/7 bombers in word and deed. Are you going to stick your neck out and claim that anywhere close to that number support Brevik, even only his motivations? Even in the weaker interpretation, my point stands.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:34AM
> Read the article. 20% supported the 7/7 bombers in word and deed.
Where is the deed part?
Seriously there is not a single word to that effect in your cited article. The question in the poll was very explicitly about motives.
You are making shit up. Which should be a warning sign to you that you are off in the weeds.
> Are you going to stick your neck out and claim that anywhere close to that number support Brevik, even only his motivations?
Yes, absolutely. Easily 20% of europe is racist and nationalist.
For example, the UKIP party got 3.9 million votes in the latest UK elections and those are just the worst of them.
After all that is the point of this whole story - whining about the browns polluting their countries.
Hell, one of your most dishonest comrades in arms actually justified not just his motives but his actions. [thinkprogress.org]
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:59PM
If there is a solution to the problem, it lies in addressing why those monocultural enclaves are forming in the first place - allowing for that fact that communities that are heavily biased towards one culture are going to happen because people who share things in common *will* tend to gather together. That's going to be a tough challenge; it doesn't just mean deterring those immigrants who are migrating with that monocultural goal in mind, but also the fear amongst the existing residents that is driving those who might have had a more open mind into those monocultural communities out of fear and a general sense of not being wanted, no matter how much they have to offer.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:52PM
it lies in addressing why those monocultural enclaves are forming in the first place
The .gov and the establishment always support that as an intentional strategy of "divide and conqueror". It sucks for everyone but the establishment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:19PM
> If there is a solution to the problem, it lies in addressing why those monocultural enclaves are forming in the first place
If you read the Foreign Affairs article, you'll see that the rise of these enclaves is due primarily to government action - in both countries like the UK and Germany where policies encourage cultural isolation and in France where official policy is to treat everyone equally but also ends up enabling the dominant culture to exclude minorities (such as denying native born children citizenship).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:32PM
Its not the fact that some need assistance, its the problem we are having in the USA with the illegals where you have people coming only for welfare where you end up with the obvious "free rider" problem where you have too many taking out that have never put in. Look at the case in NV that made the news not too long ago where you had coyotes organizing "treatment buses" where they would drop off tons of illegals needing all kinds of expensive medical treatments at the doorsteps of the ERs, to the tune of over 30 million dollars every month which of course ends up being dumped upon the people that have paid in in the form of higher taxes and lower benefits. In my own area the wife of one of my customers is quitting her job as a social worker because she said she is tired of being told to look the other way at illegals gaming the system because the higher ups fear being called "racist" if they deny them. We have seen what that kind of attitude gets you in the UK, where a pedo ring was allowed to operate with impunity because they were Pakistani and the politicians feared being called racist if they went after them!
The reason you have so many nationalist parties growing in strength every day is because the common man is sick and fucking tired of political correctness replacing common sense and the creation of "protected classes" that are given preferential treatment simply because the politicians fear getting called the "r word" if they treat them like everybody else. As a socialist of the 70s where we were taught a person should be judged by their character and not by some hyphen? I understand why it is happening and if it actually causes a discussion and maybe even an end to this "hyphen driven" racism? Then I'm all for it.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:09PM
Look at the case in NV that made the news not too long ago where you had coyotes organizing "treatment buses" where they would drop off tons of illegals needing all kinds of expensive medical treatments at the doorsteps of the ERs,
I would like to look at that case. Can you provide a citation, because I can't find it. [google.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:35PM
Wow, Hairyfeet, I have not seen so much spittle in once place for a long time! Is your name in real life Archie Bunker? You may have been a liberal or even a socialist at some point, but now you sound just like any other old, rightwing, Fox-watching Tea-bagger! I mean, busses of illegal immigrants being bussed across town to achieve racial equality just because of the Supreme Court legislating from the bench! People on welfare driving Lamborginis, as witnessed by Ronald Reagan!! Not being able to call a spade a spade because then people will know you are a racist, and that is censorship!! And Political Correctness! Oough! The Burn!!!
But seriously? The "common man"? Fairly uncommon. You should be embarrassed to be one. Yes, you can tell the rest of us to get off your lawn, but just because you are old, bitter, crotchety and racist does not mean that we have to respect your decline into dementia. You should get some help.
But I do agree with you about the hyphens! Both myself and Teddy Roosevelt agree with you! Remember when Teddy got to be where you are now, and started complaining about all the hyphenated-americans? Around the time of WWI, the Great War, remember? Damn "German-Americans" who couldn't decide which side they were on!!! We should have put them all in camps, like some other Roosevelts would have.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Sunday May 24 2015, @10:37PM
I am amused because I once had a bumper sticker made that said, "Archie Bunker for President." It was a sure-fire way to get some amusing responses including horns and the finger here and there.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @07:25AM
Our mission, should you chose to accept it, is to prove to Hairyfeet that he is in fact a Tea Party Republican, and a total Shill for Micro$erf. If you choose to accept this mission, and become part of the team (which is awesome, when you are part of it), please mod up Hairyfeet's racist remarks. We are inflating him to prepare for the inevitable "intervention" that will occur later. Repeat, mod up Hairyfeet until further instructed! End Transmission, Hairyfeet Special Task Force, Social Justice Warriors Division, Internet Sanity Patrol, Div. One, Unit 4.
(Score: 1) by KGIII on Monday May 25 2015, @03:40PM
He appears to be the same HF from /. which means he is mostly harmless as he is too busy online to affect change. You can probably ignore him but it won't be nearly as fun. I will do what I can...
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by shortscreen on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:45PM
I would say you are mostly right, but there is a type of culture that will always cause problems in a free society: one that doesn't believe in the idea of a free society in the first place.