Comments Elsewhere

Kennedy:

Mexican immigrants tend to have more in common than ethnicity. If a comparable number of demographically comparable Scots were entering the country I have little doubt the reaction would be similar.

Well, at least the reactions from nativist bullies were pretty similar when comparable numbers of demographically comparable Irish immigrants were entering the country.

So I’m sure it’s true that part of what motivates nativists is based on socioeconomic status at least as much as it’s based on race. Still, I’m not sure why this would make the argument based on something other than bigotry. Isn’t there class bigotry as well as racial bigotry?

The arguments of people like Du Toit are largely sincere, I think, and must be addresses on their merits in any case.

Right, but pointing out that an argument rests on bigoted premises isn’t necessarily an evasion of the merits of the argument. Bigotry is a form of collectivism, and if you have a general case against using violence on the basis of collectivist premises than afortiori you have a case against using violence on the basis of bigoted premises. So pointing out that someone is trying to use bigotry to defend aggression seems to me just as good an argument as pointing out that someone is trying to use other forms of collectivism (e.g. constitutionalism or democratic mysticism) to justify aggression. If the latter doesn’t work, the former doesn’t either.