Immigration

Originally posted by Urbane Guerrilla
Here is an example of tw's acute emotional immaturity, and I've slapped tw around on that before. This sort of belittlement tactic isn't too out of line for a fourteen-year-old, tw -- but it is altogether grotesque in a man of fifty ...

I agree with NoBoxes, though, in the effect on one's thinking that having held a clearance has ... You have some notion of what may be happening behind the scenes, and it restrains any tendency to blow off.

Sound reasoning Urbane Guerrilla. Not only can you recognize propaganda embedded in a deluge of benign facts, you have also acquired useful character assessment skills. tw could pass as an intellectual high school or college student due to that apparent "emotional immaturity." (and tw's profile is skeletonized). This begs the question: is it immaturity; or, something else?

tw is not unlike many second worlders that I've met (I've met quite a few in my time, including the President of one Central American country). They have second world ethics. Among these ethics is that whenever one group has a problem, they instinctively look for another group to blame it on. Another second world ethic is that other groups alway owe your group something. Note tw's virtual motto: ask not what the Mexicans can do for themselves, ask what you can do for the Mexicans. I also found it interesting that in a thread about immigration, tw's focus is on Mexicans. tw isn't campaigning for other nationalities; or, the improvement of their homelands. This reflects yet another second world ethic: common ethnicity, nationality, religion ... etc. trumps common situation (like the American Revolutionaries had). This analogy could go on and on ...

Originally posted by Urbane Guerrilla
Something tw is not yet aware of is that nothing done north of the Rio Grande is actually striking at the root of the problem ... Latin America's economies were all built on the Spanish model of great estates owned by the wealthy few and leaving practically the entire remainder of the population as landless tenant farmers and workers, poverty-stricken, with little stake in the economy and next to no incentive to improve or develop it ...

Your analysis is roughly in line with Tonchi's. Besides working in Central America, I've written an area study on one Central American country and read US Government area study handbooks on others; also, Mexico. All of these sources support the conclusion that there is little to be gained by pouring resources into such countries until they achieve more significant internal reform.

Amusingly, tw still hasn't quite figured out that I never intended to engage in the immigration debate. I recognized early on that tw is a fanatic on this subject who is simply proselytizing in the Cellar. My only purpose was to moderate tw's definitiveness so that other Cellarites would be aware of tw's use of propaganda technique.

Well, thank you for your insight Urbane Guerrilla. While I haven't been here long enough to make a definitive diagnosis of tw, I'm hoping that rehabilitation will be somewhere in the treatment plan. The prognosis is guarded.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally posted by Urbane Guerrilla
I've slapped tw around on that before.

No, the only thing you've slapped is your keyboard. Sitting there basking in your own witty repartee doesn't make you any more credible to the reader.

Originally posted by NoBoxes
Besides working in Central America, I've written an area study on one Central American country and read US Government area study handbooks on others; also, Mexico. All of these sources support the conclusion that there is little to be gained by pouring resources into such countries until they achieve more significant internal reform.

You draw on your opinion and the opinion of US government experts on Latin America for your conclusions. We the readers, have no basis to judge your opinion and the government experts on Latin America have been, historically, obscenely wrong.

TW, long winded and abrasive, at least cites his sources and gives the reasoning behind his views, beyond opinion. I don't believe he was advocating dumping resources into Latin America, only leveling the playing field so they can compete with us(US). I don't agree we have the responsibility to help them compete against us but that's just my opinion.
I do respect the fact that he never claims, Well, trust me, because I know shit you don't.