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The Sh*thole Next Door

The way we use that word against our own people
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One of my friends posted this on his Facebook feed:

It’s shameful to deride immigrants by saying they come from “shithole countries.” I would not be surprised if President Trump said that. I am also not surprised by the outcry against it. But it’s not the first time I’ve heard that.

A couple of months ago, one of my professors referred to a nearby town as a “shithole” because of its significance to the Confederacy and because, somehow, that 152-year-old historical fact necessarily reflects on the character of its current citizens. One of last year’s top podcasts was “S-Town,” which earned its title from the word the main character used to describe his hometown in Alabama.

I don’t know if it’s shameful for Trump to use the phrase only because he is the president or if it’s okay for my professor to use the phrase only because he was presumably referring to Trump voters, but I do know this: it reveals a lot more about us—and the human condition—than I think we’d like to admit.

I think we all hold a little fear or hate in our hearts for “the other.” For some, like Trump and many of his constituents, “the other” may be a person of a different color and a different faith from a different country. For others, like probably many of us, “the other” may be a classmate we gossip about, a family member we can’t stand, or a next-door neighbor we don’t care to meet. My own hypocrisy reminds me of the haunting words of one of Dostoyevsky’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov: “The more I love humanity in general the less I love man in particular.”

Jesus once said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Personally, I think that means we need to welcome the good people of Haiti and nations in Africa who are seeking a better life. But I also think it means we need to start thinking better of the people in southern Virginia and Alabama, or next-door, too.

UPDATE: I read the “welcome the good people of” as “treat the ones who are here with respect,” not “let’s open the doors wide.” I don’t agree with open-door immigration. I posted this item not because of that aspect, but because of the writer’s admonition to stop thinking of people in our own country as lesser because they live in places we would dismiss as “shitholes”.

UPDATE.2: My readers write:

Braden Wilson
10:09 PM (11 hours ago)

to rod.dreher, me
Rod,

I love you, but please do not go Full Cuckstian on us and start virtue signaling like a pozzed faggot demanding that 3rd world DACA vermin aren’t deported.

Do you really want these right-wing college girls ( https://pewtube.com/user/AltMedia/32UxDC4 ) to have have bigger testicles than you?

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