I don’t really see the sort of political pressure that you mention here. The number of US citizens being detained for any appreciable period of time is a very low false negative rate for the hundreds of thousands of people that ICE detains, so it doesn’t scream American citizens are in danger of being deported to me.
I am a white guy of mixed European descent (not a heritage American though so I guess only 2nd class on the new hierarchy) so I agree I don’t have the perspective to really comment on this stuff. If the president wanted to deport me for political speech, where would I be sent? Ireland? England? Germany? Italy? I’d be surprised if they would take me. Maybe South Sudan, but that’s one of those things people joke about because it’s at-face ridiculous. I imagine if I was of visibly distinct national origin though, “deport him back to India” wouldn’t seem like such a crazy concept.
> The Vice President started talking about ‘heritage Americans’, meaning Americans who could trace ancestry to the Civil War.
Vance is an interesting guy to me. He’s married to an Indian, and has half-Indian children with clearly Indian names (“Vivek”, not “Christian”) but he also subscribes to this sort of heritage American rhetoric. Is he an idiot? It doesn’t seem like it to me (he’s one of the smarter politicians IMO). Is he a Machiavellian playing the Trump wave for his own benefit? Maybe, but then what is his own goal? Cynical accumulation of power for its own sake? Maybe again, but it seems like there at least has to be a broader life-narrative he justifies the accumulation of power *for*, so what is that goal?
Either way he’s an anachronism. I’ll have to get around to reading Hillbilly Elegy before the next election cycle.
> I imagine if I was of visibly distinct national origin though, “deport him back to India” wouldn’t seem like such a crazy concept.
Note too that much of the pressure I am feeling is coming from the people I care about, and _their_ situations are different from mine. My friends aren't just distinctly not white, some of them are also explicitly on visas. All of my family is naturalized, many born here; but some weren't, and there's serious concern about going after or revoking citizenship for people who were naturalized. (Idk if that concern is real, but it is obvious that people in the upper echelons of government are salivating over the concept, which itself is crossing a bridge that was previously uncrossed)
Is this overblown? Maybe. But the chilling effect is about self censorship, and self censorship is a subtle and subjective thing
I don’t really see the sort of political pressure that you mention here. The number of US citizens being detained for any appreciable period of time is a very low false negative rate for the hundreds of thousands of people that ICE detains, so it doesn’t scream American citizens are in danger of being deported to me.
I am a white guy of mixed European descent (not a heritage American though so I guess only 2nd class on the new hierarchy) so I agree I don’t have the perspective to really comment on this stuff. If the president wanted to deport me for political speech, where would I be sent? Ireland? England? Germany? Italy? I’d be surprised if they would take me. Maybe South Sudan, but that’s one of those things people joke about because it’s at-face ridiculous. I imagine if I was of visibly distinct national origin though, “deport him back to India” wouldn’t seem like such a crazy concept.
> The Vice President started talking about ‘heritage Americans’, meaning Americans who could trace ancestry to the Civil War.
Vance is an interesting guy to me. He’s married to an Indian, and has half-Indian children with clearly Indian names (“Vivek”, not “Christian”) but he also subscribes to this sort of heritage American rhetoric. Is he an idiot? It doesn’t seem like it to me (he’s one of the smarter politicians IMO). Is he a Machiavellian playing the Trump wave for his own benefit? Maybe, but then what is his own goal? Cynical accumulation of power for its own sake? Maybe again, but it seems like there at least has to be a broader life-narrative he justifies the accumulation of power *for*, so what is that goal?
Either way he’s an anachronism. I’ll have to get around to reading Hillbilly Elegy before the next election cycle.
> I imagine if I was of visibly distinct national origin though, “deport him back to India” wouldn’t seem like such a crazy concept.
Note too that much of the pressure I am feeling is coming from the people I care about, and _their_ situations are different from mine. My friends aren't just distinctly not white, some of them are also explicitly on visas. All of my family is naturalized, many born here; but some weren't, and there's serious concern about going after or revoking citizenship for people who were naturalized. (Idk if that concern is real, but it is obvious that people in the upper echelons of government are salivating over the concept, which itself is crossing a bridge that was previously uncrossed)
Is this overblown? Maybe. But the chilling effect is about self censorship, and self censorship is a subtle and subjective thing
hm! interesting! the agents at the border of any nation have all the information they need or want. their screens are filled with replete records. i think it seems about right that they're fishing for inconsistencies https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/33524-33551_privacy-pia-cbp-tecs.pdf page 8