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This is very weird comment. Are you saying that the USA was not a multi-ethnic/multi-religious state in the 1960s? In a nation state, politics tend to be divid
by scroblart 7y ago
This is very weird comment. Are you saying that the USA was not a multi-ethnic/multi-religious state in the 1960s?
In a nation state, politics tend to be divided more on ideological and regional lines, because everyone shares an identity.
There has never been a "nation" where everybody shares an identity in the sense discussed above.
- hyperdunc 7y agoThe comment makes sense, but the US isn't best example. Although last century the US was somewhat dominated by one identity (which is now waning and leaving room for others to grow) it has always been multi-ethnic and multi-religious. A better example would be European nations like Hungary, which have reinforced their national identities in the face of the recent migrant crisis.
- User23 7y agoThat is a lie, but charitably I assume you’re deceived and not a liar. Up until the early 20th century the US was overwhelmingly Christian and overwhelmingly American, which is an ethnic group of British origin. This is a scientific fact easily verified with modern genetic profiling. These are simple matters of historical fact, 1984 style history rewriting notwithstanding. I’m aware that in contemporary usage American means anyone who manages to reside in the USA, which is of course intentional because erasing the former dominant ethnic group’s identity is necessary to displace them. The Education of Henry Adams is a wonderful autobiography by one of the old Americans who saw his people were losing their political power at that time. Edit: yes I’m aware there were Germans, Dutch, Jews, and West Africans, among other ethnic groups present in the USA. They were however tiny minorities and not at all comparable to the post 20th century mass immigration populations. That was when the USA became a multi-ethnic and eventually multi-religious state.
- selimthegrim 7y agoUh, Pennsylvania Dutch much? Regular Dutch in NY, for that matter? German as the national language being a possibility? If you want to mourn the WASPs Stewart Alsop might ring your bell better.
- spamizbad 7y agoIf you define "British origin" to include Irish Protestants, which is reasonable.. But the country was barely 50 years old by the time that cultural hegemony started eroding as German, Dutch, Irish-Catholics, etc poured into the country. There's even an infamous 1899 political cartoon that asks "Why should I let these freaks cast whole votes when they're only half American?"[1] The fact is, the US has spent a majority of its existence feeling like there's an immigration and/or integration crisis, starting in the mid-1800s with Irish-Catholics and stretching to the modern day with Latin-American immigrants. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Hyphenated_Americans_Voting_Cartoon_1899.jpg/1280px-Hyphenated_Americans_Voting_Cartoon_1899.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Hy...
- scroblart 7y agoAmerican, which is an ethnic group of British origin lol. Why would you ever say this? Charitably, I assume that you are a troll out for giggles, rather than an actual white supremacist.
- dang 7y agoWould you please stop posting uncivil and unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that do that. Instead, please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here. We'd appreciate it very much.
- scroblart 7y agoPlease examine the post to which I replied. === Edit: sorry I see that you did. Thanks
- dang 7y agoWe've asked you repeatedly to stop doing ideological flamewar on HN. A crazy number of times actually. Would you please really stop now so we don't have to ban you? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html