Right people, I’m getting bored of arguing with people on the internet about Immigration.
Its not that I tire of arguing for immigrants and immigrants’ rights, I genuinely care. But I do get tired of the tedious and repetitive arguments, so I think I’m going to create a resource of arguments and rebuttals to save time in the future. Like Skeptical Science but with UK immigration not Climate Change.
I’ll start here, with an argument I had on James Graham‘s blog and I’ll probably note down arguments from else where. There’s more to be done here too.
Anyone with links to posts, comments or resources would be welcome.
After a few weeks or months, we’ll have all the ammunition needed to ctrl+c and ctrl+v our way to victory when ever the anti-migrant types show up – saving time, learning and improving our chances of bringing people on side.
If you seriously intend to close the immigration argument, then all that is necessary is to enumerate the benefits in a manner than can be understood (and believed) by the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus, and which do not entail any of the following:
- the use of dubious economic assumptions;
- the standard litany of ‘benefits’, to wit: ethnic cuisine, colourful new dress styles and exciting new dance syncopations;
- any recourse to a value-laden narrative intended to induce feelings of post-colonial or ‘rich world’ guilt, and;
- any effort to depict the benefits accruing to migrants themselves as a benefit for the host society.
Figure that one out and you will have cracked it.
Challenge accepted.
I’m glad you notice I’m not out to convince you, just 51% of the population of the UK will do me.
“exciting new dance syncopations” did make me laugh, you’re an odd sort.
Fuck racists, like Dan Dare, like Charlie, seriously, fuck ‘em; they are a lost cause.
Point by point rebuttals with racists is like trying to teach German to a cat, utterly pointless and will take you ages and nothing will have changed when you’ve done it.
I like it as an idea but as someone who has debated racists a lot, I have found the best thing to do is just call them racists and then go and do something productive.
Check out the BNP thread at Lib Con, snowed under with bigots seeing who can be the most racist, while all the decent folk have got out of the shit pit to do something useful.
Arguing with people, esp. racists, on the Internets is a waste of time.
PS:
It is of little surprise that all the leading threads at Lib Con, with regards to comments, are immigration threads because the small-minded bigots come down in the truck load to spam up the comments with racist bullshit, bullshit that is allowed to stand.
Of course when they use racist abuse, they get banned but what many folk seem to miss is that the whole premise for their argument is racist but that is allowed to stand for some reason?
Don’t give racists airtime Left Outside.
I’m doing it for my own benefit don’t worry DHG.
There’s plenty to cover and I write on migration quite a lot, so I may as well try to create some sort of reference from it.
A noble endeavour sir but I do not envy you.
I an but
a glorious warrior working for the glory of the people of earthsomeone with a boring job and the odd evening free.[...] Outside, like me, is tired of arguing on the internet about immigration and is doing a series of posts addressing most of the biggest myths on the subject put about by [...]