It pains me to say this, but we often fall on "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing". We should be conscious of the fact that evil also triumphs when it's supported by a lot of people. Even if the Taliban didn't exist, regressive and repressive structures abound all over Afghanistan.
It pains me to say this, but we often fall on "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing". We should be conscious of the fact that evil also triumphs when it's supported by a lot of people. Even if the Taliban didn't exist, regressive and repressive structures abound all over Afghanistan.
I would love to see Afghanistan turn into a country its people want to live in. We also need to be thoughtful about the fact that there is still very strong support among Afghans that don't support the Taliban for things that the Taliban supports. Child marriage, wifebeating, sexual abuse of boys, etc.... these things happen broadly, even where the Taliban is not in charge. These are not liberal values.
I live in Wisconsin, and there have already been reports out of Fort McCoy that they've uncovered child marriages in refugees that they're housing. Already reports of sexual abuse. These are our allies, right?
Yes, these same things occur here. Yes, not everyone does this. I'll still assert that America has engaged in a very hard reckoning on these issues, and on women's rights that help stop them. We're not perfect, but no serious person would counter that Afghan culture is somehow our peer on these issues. We should be helpful, but not bend in the least on making sure new arrivals understand the reason they want to live here is not because America is perfect, but rather that we provide superior culture and opportunity. And it is their duty to adapt, more than ours.
I've been a solidly Democratic voter since the Bush administration, before which I was fairly mixed in my voting patterns. But I also see the dangers in the ascendant attitudes of the woke Left that somehow America is to blame for all that goes wrong, and these countries would be heaven on Earth if not for us. That is simply not the case. People want to live here for a reason, and we should not be ashamed to have some degree of confidence in our culture and make sure newcomers adapt to it.
Remember this: People don't tend to move to countries that oppress them. You didn't see a lot of Jewish immigration into Germany in the 1940s. You've seen Afghans and Muslims of all stripes trying to move here, despite these protestations that America has caused their civilizational decline (which, by the way, began a few centuries before America arrived on the scene). It's okay for us to call out this hypocrisy.
We have things to learn from them. They have far more to learn from us.
It pains me to say this, but we often fall on "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing". We should be conscious of the fact that evil also triumphs when it's supported by a lot of people. Even if the Taliban didn't exist, regressive and repressive structures abound all over Afghanistan.
I would love to see Afghanistan turn into a country its people want to live in. We also need to be thoughtful about the fact that there is still very strong support among Afghans that don't support the Taliban for things that the Taliban supports. Child marriage, wifebeating, sexual abuse of boys, etc.... these things happen broadly, even where the Taliban is not in charge. These are not liberal values.
I live in Wisconsin, and there have already been reports out of Fort McCoy that they've uncovered child marriages in refugees that they're housing. Already reports of sexual abuse. These are our allies, right?
Yes, these same things occur here. Yes, not everyone does this. I'll still assert that America has engaged in a very hard reckoning on these issues, and on women's rights that help stop them. We're not perfect, but no serious person would counter that Afghan culture is somehow our peer on these issues. We should be helpful, but not bend in the least on making sure new arrivals understand the reason they want to live here is not because America is perfect, but rather that we provide superior culture and opportunity. And it is their duty to adapt, more than ours.
I've been a solidly Democratic voter since the Bush administration, before which I was fairly mixed in my voting patterns. But I also see the dangers in the ascendant attitudes of the woke Left that somehow America is to blame for all that goes wrong, and these countries would be heaven on Earth if not for us. That is simply not the case. People want to live here for a reason, and we should not be ashamed to have some degree of confidence in our culture and make sure newcomers adapt to it.
Remember this: People don't tend to move to countries that oppress them. You didn't see a lot of Jewish immigration into Germany in the 1940s. You've seen Afghans and Muslims of all stripes trying to move here, despite these protestations that America has caused their civilizational decline (which, by the way, began a few centuries before America arrived on the scene). It's okay for us to call out this hypocrisy.
We have things to learn from them. They have far more to learn from us.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/22/two-fort-mccoy-afghan-refugees-charged-child-sex-spousal-abuse/5820807001/