Boo, forever

I expect you hear it a lot (assuming the credit link was correct) but re: your prose that starts 'sometimes you're 23': it's 1am on my 24th and I read that waiting for the kettle to boil. I don't think a piece of writing has made me feel more at peace with the world than that since ever, really. Just a thank you for putting it out there. Hope you're doing well x

Illegal immigrants are our latest distraction, vilified as if they had come to run drugs and collect welfare rather than mow lawns, clean offices, pack meat, and process poultry. There is no welfare anymore, of course, and that may be what makes immigrants such an appealing target. Twenty years ago, right-wing demagogues had welfare recipients to kick around as a stand-in for the hated poor; today, immigrant workers have been pressed into playing the scapegoat role. The strategy is the same: to peel off some segment of the poorer classes, label them as enemies, and try to whip up rage that might have been directed at the economic overclass. There may be reasonable arguments for limiting immigration, but it wasn't a Mexican who took away your pension or sold you on a dodgy mortgage.