There is something called the “Dunning-Kruger effect” which describes the situation where, since you don’t know much about something, you assume it is much simpler than it actually is. It is something many people fall into at one level or another, and the more aware you are of this possibility, if you are lucky, you don’t fall into it as often.
In a weird way I am lucky. I was born a moderately intelligent human being, and there was a time when I thought I knew a lot. I got lucky, though, the world handed my butt to me, and I learned I needed to learn a lot more. I didn’t do it in college, though, more by way of independent learning over a number of years. Today, though, I heard something equally dangerous. Someone suggested that, instead of working to find ways to summarize policy points, we just label the current immigration deportations “immoral and unAmerican.” Here is why that isn’t the best idea, even if it is more convenient and doesn’t take nearly as long:
See… I have a MAGA neighbor, and as far as he is concerned “all these people are illegally here, and you don’t have a right to break the law; sending them home is a perfectly reasonable punishment since the way they are breaking it is by being here.” To HIM, this is a very logical, law and order thing, and we are encouraging lawlessness, rather than due process. Why should they be able to show up, skulk around, make babies that they can use as an excuse to stay and be awarded for bad behavior? How do you even debate with that person?
Well… there are both US and international laws that allow for amnesty request in person on foreign soil, and that is handled by a credible fear interview, etc. Once that process is started, these people aren’t “illegal,” they are here by a legal means. Just because they didn’t manage to win one of the very few (and often drastically reduced in number) immigrant visa lotteries doesn’t mean they entered illegally. For that matter, if they entered with a tourist visa and requested amnesty before it expires, they can start the amnesty court process. There is a chance they might not get it, but they have every legal right to do so.
We need to have at least some inkling of policy, because then, people who are being even slightly (when it isn’t outright lies) misled by this administration can be corrected, and we can say to them, “Look, there are definite issues in this country with immigration. This is why we need to work together in Congress to address them fairly and with our eyes open.” There is a lot of policy I need to learn. I will be honest about that. But I think I would rather know and learn policy, find good places to reference policy (if you are a lot better at that than I am, please post links for me!), and be able to discuss it, especially about our hottest issues. There are people who are abusing power who got into office by creating confusion, and we never sat down and figured out short answers about what is really going on. When our media became addicted to clicks and engagement rather than news and information, information was lost. We need to reclaim it.
So far my writing doesn’t get the engagement my videos do, so maybe I should include cat pictures or something…
This is Lombok, by the way. His favorite trick is to open the front door and lay down in front of it so I can’t close it again.
We need to have a strategy to reach the people we didn’t reach before. I prefer passion and honesty.