- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmit.online
EU stops advertising on X over hate speech. Fines could follow next year::The European Union is pulling its advertisements from Elon Musk’s X for now, citing an “alarming increase” in hate speech and disinformation on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
I don’t want to get in the middle of a flame war, but as someone who’s seen the culture of his small town shift over the last couple decades, I can’t help but have some sympathy for those who worry about this happening in their local (Admittedly, in my case, it’s watching a town where the suburban drops off to rural slowly be subsumed by city sprawl, so this might be a false equivalance).
But I think the real issue is that that’s not an evenly distributed 11%. People will naturally bunch up in groups along cultural lines. I could see a city developing a single Arab/Muslim neighborhood over the course of a decade being of no note, but it sounds like some are developing multiple over just a couple years.
I have no real data to back that notion up, but from what I hear from Europeans, that’s the general feel. I think that’s the real issue: things are changing and they feel like they’re changing fast, and that’s freaking people out. Telling people who feel that way they’re crazy only “others” them and I feel that’s really how the situation gets worse.
But also, the towns the guy above mentioned feel like bigger cities (I’m American and haven’t been to Europe, so I also might lack perspective), and so I do feel like they’re overstating the point.
Yeah, and Americans in general once felt that the Irish or the Italians would take over the country because they were emigrating in large numbers. Guess what never happened?
I suppose, the point I mean to make is that belittling this guy does nothing to solve the problem.
How did I belittle them? By saying they were needlessly fearmongering? Because they are needlessly fearmongering. Muslims haven’t taken over port towns and they won’t implement sharia law in Europe.
That’s fair. I can see how I read more malice into your comment than was intended. I’d like to apologize for that.
I do want (for the sake of clarity) to say that I agree the flow of muslims to EU/US cities is not a problem. The notion of any western nation implementing Sharia Law (or any approximation) is wild at best.
I do think that the way you accused him of needlessly fear mongering doesn’t placate or soften the guys opinions. I think flat accusations like that are part of what pushes guys who do believe “Sharia Law will come by having Muslims around” into more extremist positions. Whether you intended it or not, I’m sure it was received as a belittling comment what will only serve to alienate the guy.
That does beg the question: what is the correct way to handle comments like this guy’s, to which I don’t have a good response. I do appreciate you rolling out actually data. But watching the polarization of beliefs and politcal positions, I feel the part folling the link to statistics isn’t helping.
There is a big difference though. Their beliefs were compatible with Americans, everyone believed in Jesus, not killing people and such. And most importantly, the next generation mingled and married locals and they were almost fully assimilated by the third generation.
Where I live, and other places, most of the Muslim population (not all, mind you) keep their children from others as much as possible. The children are taught what they can and can’t do because they are Muslim. And they can only marry Muslims (conversions are allowed but the family must live Muslim lives under those rules. They are not allowing natural assimilation. Places like Denmark have laws forcing immigrant children to attend day care with locals, because otherwise they won’t.
Okay, but they’re still a tiny minority. They will not be implementing sharia law in Europe any time in the foreseeable future because they just won’t have that power.
Also, if you’re going to say belief in Jesus is a requirement for being European, you’re going to have to do something about the Jews who live there too. And considering they’ve lived there for thousands of years, maybe that isn’t a defining characteristic of Europeans.