The Stupid Crisis
So much stupidity -- it burns, it burns!
Jun. 11 - Like everyone else, I wasted a lot of time yesterday trying to write something about what’s going on in Los Angeles (and will soon enough be going on elsewhere.)
Ultimately I gave up.
The stupidity of it all defeated me.
I’m an immigrant. I came to Denmark on the automatic 3-month visa, renewed it twice, applied for and got temporary residency, then applied for and got permanent residency, then finally applied for and got Danish citizenship.
It took 15 years.
As part of that process, I had to learn Danish. I was unable to draw benefits from the Danish system. While merely a resident, I had to maintain a “deposit” of about eight thousand dollars in a special account that the government could draw on if I ever had to be deported. I had to have my papers (or my card) on my person at all times. I had to remain employed. I had to participate in Danish culture. I had to take a test to prove I understood Danish history and culture. There were periods when I had to hand my passport over to the Danish authorities for weeks at a time. Months, at one point. It was a lot of work. It cost a lot of money. It was a massive pain in the ass.
At one point in the early years I got a letter from the government saying that if I didn’t have a full-time job in Denmark by a given date I would have to leave the country. That I was married to a Dane, was the father of a Danish child, and had drawn no benefits from the Danish state made no difference. Play by our rules or get out, they said.
I did not burn any cars. I did not throw rocks at anyone. I did not loot any stores. No, I found a stupid job about three weeks before the deadline, then got a real job—the start of my Danish career—about a month afterwards.
Herself was an immigrant an America. Lived there ten years. Played by the rules. Got her green card. Our daughters are dual nationals, citizens of both Denmark and the United States. That took paperwork, visits to consulates, fees.
I am therefore absolutely, unrepetentantly, irreconciliably opposed to illegal immigration—in Denmark, in America, anywhere.
You want to migrate? Good! Great! Grand!
Do it legally.
I saw a clip from an Adam Corolla podcast yesterday (this one) in which either he or his guest made what I thought was a good metaphor. I’ll paraphrase from memory:
Say I grew up on a farm and learned to drive at the age of twelve. Got to be a pretty good driver and just went on driving my whole life. Was a good driver. Safe. Obeyed all the rules. Never even parked illegally. Then one day when I’m like 25 I get pulled over and I’m like, “Wait, what? You’re pulling me over now?”
It doesn’t matter that the system just caught me now. I’ve been driving illegally all along. It’s not on the system, it’s on me: I had plenty of time to get my driver’s license, I didn’t, and there’s no one to blame but myself.
If you don’t want to be deported from America, enter the country legally and keep your residence legal.
If you can’t be troubled to do that, it’s not my problem.
Don’t blame Immigration and Customs Enforcement for enforcing the law—if you didn’t break the law, they’d have no interest in you.
That’s the main stupidity about this whole debate: the argument that it’s wrong to hold people accountable for their own illegal acts.
If I stroll into the local Cineplex to watch the new Mission Impossible flick without buying a ticket, what’s my defense when management tries to eject me from the theatre?
What right do I have to sneak into the theatre and watch a movie without buying a ticket?
What possible justification could I offer to accuse management of cruelty or fascism for escorting my unpaid ass out of the theatre?
Are there people too stupid to understand that?
Apparently.
But that’s just scratching the surface of the stupidity at play right now. We’ve got a whole pageant on our hands, a veritable cornucopia of stupidities.
For example, I don’t think the governor of the state of California or the mayor of Los Angeles are that kind of stupid. Which begs the question: why are they pretending to be? What kind of stupid is that?
When the overwhelming majority of Americans support the enforcement of immigration law, why position yourself in defiance of a perfectly sensible and popular law?
Why pretend that things people can see are happening aren’t happening?
Much has been made of Governor Newsom’s recent efforts to realign himself as a more centrist Democrat, presumably with an eye toward running for president in 2028. Why throw that away by galloping hard left on such a visible issue?
I can understand the impulse for someone who only ever wants to be elected in safely Democratic districts, which certainly describes California as a state and L.A. as a city. America itself is not a safely Democratic district, as the 2024 election demonstrated. Newsom may win the Democratic primary as “the guy who stood up for illegal aliens back in ‘25,” but only at the expense of the general election.
Is that what he wants? To be the Democratic nominee and then lose?
If not, what the hell is he up to?
(As for Bass: maybe she already knows she’s radioactive and unelectable anywhere outside of California and is therefore just playing to her stupid base: “Sure, they’re wrong on the legal merits, but I’d rather be wrong with them and get their votes than right on the issue but without a future. . .”)
Then there’s the very special stupidity of the rioters themselves.
I like the cut of that guy’s jib. We’ve got some stylistic differences, sure, but we’re on the same page in terms of this particular stupidity.
“Fuck this fascist country!”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“They want to send me and people like me back to Mexico!”
“But if you hate this country so much, why do you want to stay?”
“Fuck you man, it’s my right! I got a good life here!”
“But you’d only be deported if you came here illegally. Did you?”
“Hey, man, that was a long time ago! I got a life here, I pay taxes!”
“So why not deport yourself voluntarily and then reapply for legal entry? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about being deported.”
“Deport myself back to Mexico? That shithole? I got no life there, man!”
“So why are you waving the Mexican flag?”
Then we’ve got the peaceful protesters, some of them members of Congress—the witting or oblivious enablers of the rioters—who are aguished that “the community” is filled with “fear” because of the ICE raids.
The only “community” that need fear anything at all from ICE is the “community” of people who came into America illegally and never bothered to do the work required to become legal residents, much less citizens.
Getting back to the cineplex analogy, this is the “community” of people who snuck into the theatre and are now wracked with fear and trembling because the ushers are checking everyone’s tickets.
The fear is real and I’m sure it’s uncomfortable, but it’s also appropriate. You broke the law. You knew you broke the law. Now you’re afraid you’re going to get caught. That sucks.
Who’s responsbile?
Look in the mirror.
There’s the asshole who got you into this mess.
If you came into the country through a line like this:
…and kept your visa up to date, and maintained a legal status, then you’d have nothing to fear.
But if you came through a line like this:
Or like this:
…and then made no effort to get yourself onto some kind of path to residency or citizenship, what are you crying about? Or screaming about? Or setting cars on fire about?
Speaking of which: yet another variety of stupid:
Back in 2020 when we all saw the famous “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” chyron, most of us thought: there! The thing is done. We have reached peak stupid. The legacy news media cannot get more stupid or dishonest.
Four years of the Biden presidency offered a partial corrective to our naivete, but even Joe “this is the best version of Biden ever” Scarborough has to concede defeat to this guy—Jory Rand, of ABC News Los Angeles.
His full quote, in context:
Noting there was “a large group of people” running wild, Rand said it “could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there the wrong way and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators.”
Ah, yes, the grand American past-time of watching cars burn. Just like the song!
Drove my Chevy to the levy and then set it on fire
And them good old boys was drinkin’ whiskey and rye
sittin’ round to watch that Chevy fry. . .
Rand gives himself a little bit of an out, though, did you notice? He says “if you move law enforcement in there the wrong way.”
Sure, law enforcement might “move in there the wrong way,” but if you don’t sit around having fun watching cars burn, law enforcement won’t move in at all. So who set that ball rolling?
He also says the whole thing “could turn very volatile.” As if everything’s hunky dory as long as no one tries to deprive anyone of the pleasure of watching cars burn.
Question: these people enjoying the sight of grand theft auto being wed to felony arson—can we assume the car’s owner is not among them?
Would the sight of their own cars going up in flames provide as much merriment and mirth?
Would Jory Rand have any objections to my torching his car so I could enjoy watching it burn?
When Alfred says “some people just want to watch the world burn,” he’s not making an off-hand observation along the lines of “some people like crunchy peanut butter.” He’s saying: there are some sick fucks out there who revel in death and destruction.
He’s saying that for some people violence isn’t a means to an end, but a pleasure in its own right.
Jory Rand is saying, yes!, and let those people have their fun, or bad things might happen!
The last thing the people of Gotham on the Pacific need is for the authorities to let the psychopaths, sociopaths, and other mental defectives satisfy their violent cravings at everyone else’s expense.
California Governor Newsom and L.A. Mayor Bass say everything’s under control.
You know, like the border was under Biden. (The Biden who was sharp as a tack, top of his game, solving Fermat’s Last Theorem while juggling knives.)
What’s worse: the ubiquitous stupidity, or the continued insistence by the legacy news media that there’s no stupidity to see here, none at all, move along, let’s get back to Trump versus Musk or the Big Beautiful Bill or that awful thing Trump posted last night on Truth Social IN ALL CAPS?
Donald Trump ran for president on closing the border and deporting illegal aliens. The American people ratified that position by electing him. Polling shows Americans still back him on that, even this week. Even according to CNN.
Americans have pretty much always supported a secure border and the removal of people in the country illegally. Up until very recently it was one of the few things that had bipartisan support. Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama all paid lip service to the need for a secure border. All three spoke out against illegal immigration.
Look at this chart:
(Source.)
Illegal aliens get deported. About 1000 a day, when we’re not all cowering from covid
That’s how it works.
If immigrants don’t want to worry about being deported, all they have to do is entry the country legally.