Okay like of course this perspective is vile. I would never defend it. The people I refer to below are not the same people represented in this tweet.

But the right’s justification for anti immigration makes sense to people. Its the oldest trick in the book! Artificial scarcity? Housing crisis? Employment crisis? Some of us have a rigorous class analysis that can neatly disprove these lies, part of why red scares are such a fundamental component of the right’s culture war (a component many progressive liberals accept unquestioningly.)

But for the average person who doesnt think about stuff that way, the working/middle class swing voter who is simultaneously directly affected by economic and political oppression but deeply confused about the underlying causes, how do we convince them? The pendulum has flipped and Trumps policies are deeply unpopular, but what is the convincing explanation that the whole basis of their logic is flawed? How do we prove that immigrants aren’t the problem?

Its like in avengers, thanos says he will kill half of all people in order to end scarcity in the universe. And none of the heroes even questions his logic. The attitude is like, he’s a bad guy but it would still work. And, no it wouldn’t, scarcity in advanced society is driven by class, not population. Malthus was thoroughly disproved like 150 years ago and yet this myth persists (like the myth of immigration and race-based scarcity).

Because as long as our political strategy amounts to “shame anyone who demonstrates an affective affinity with the right, and vote” we won’t be able to resist the creeping threat of fascism. In 5-10 years it will be full on Nazi shit and I dont want to die in a concentration camp please and thank you