For sure. I just meant that they intentionally and repeatedly use this wording to obscure the fact that undocumented status isn’t that big a problem (it doesn’t hurt anyone except maybe the undocumented person), as well as to reinforce the idea on a subconscious level that they’re somehow dangerous criminals.

Even though being in the country undocumented is a civil offense, like speeding or something. Still, using language alone, they made this the one offense that supposedly makes a person be “illegal” — textbook dehumanization btw.

So it’s legally on par with speeding, factually less dangerous than speeding, but somehow it’s seen as the worst “crime” in the country, so bad that they argue it warrants suspending due process like you’re at war or something. Manufactured delusion.

This.

R-- Really?! They found a sentient one?!

This sounds nice but in practice will backfire. You need the systems to be universal, so that everyone, including the richest, have a stake in wanting to see them improved. Otherwise you’ll get a two tiered system where the public versions are trash because they’re underfunded and the private versions (what the rich use) are great but also expensive af.

You want things to work like insurance, where everyone pays in but only the people who need them use it. I want Musk to pay a fuckton into Social Security, not nothing at all because he doesn’t use it. Even now there’s a problem with Social Security in particular because, even though everyone has to pay it, it puts a cap/limit on how much you pay, so Musk currently ends up paying his share in the first day of the year, and his contribution amounts to the same as a teacher or something.

Universal programs with progressive taxation, that’s the way. Low taxes at the bottom, high taxes at the top.

I’m stealing that analogy, thank you very much.

I’d generalize it a bit to say, fascism is the immune system of any system built on bad principles that’s collapsing under the weight of its own internal contradictions. The obvious decay then creates a space psychos and grifters to pose as faux saviors and gain power by scamming people into something they pretend is a solution but is actually a death cult.