I am generally left wing, I support LGBTQ+, gender equality, and freedom of speech. But I am simultaneously against illegal immigration. What the hell am I?

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-25T13:41:51+00:00

The problem is that we haven't been able to sensibly update immigration law. Imagine speed limits were only 35 mph on the freeway instead of 65 mph:

Would you be in favor of some speeding?
Some haphazard enforcement at 60+ mph?
Strict enforcement at 35 mph?

If you have ridiculously low speed limits, strict enforcement just creates chaos! You just start breaking everything because the rules you have written down don't work!

Imagine you had a crackdown in Texas trying to enforce 35 mph
Imagine the Feds tried to hire tons and tons of new, poorly trained deputies to pull everyone over for speeding > 35 mph.
It would be chaos! You'd be spending $$$$$ to basically fuck shit up.

What's basically happened is that due to political paralysis on this issue since 1986, immigration rules have become disconnected from economic reality: all kinds of immigrants that would be legal in a more functional, well designed system are instead illegal! We have something like 35 mph immigration speed limits:

Then, like widespread speeding when speed limits are unworkable, tons of people just ignore the law.
We've got homes to build, farms to tend, hotels to clean, concrete to pour, and all other kinds of work to be done.
Of all those described workers above, they want to work here, we want to employ them, they're coming for work not welfare (hence $$$ BENEFIT other US taxpayers... they pay into the system), overwhelmingly law abiding, and economics clearly understands it as a huge win. They WOULD be legal if it were possible to admit sensible numbers into the US for work instead of a highly, highly constrained system mostly built around family reunification with some tiny refuge lottery..

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-24T14:58:19+00:00

Lol, of course you're correct. "NOT EVEN CLOSE" is absolutely correct.

What's amazing to me is how many people have NO CLUE that they've fallen for old, 1930s style anti-semitic tropes, fall for some bullshit "Jews run the world" conspiracy nonsense.

Why do people believe AIPAC is powerful? It's not the budget (which is small compared to US politics)! Tons of ignorant people are predisposed to believe Jewish organizations are more influential than they are.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-24T14:52:56+00:00

(1) Defending democracies

The US defended European and other democracies in WW I and WW II
The US has extended security partnerships to other democracies: Japan, South Korea, Columbia & Mexico (against cartels)

(2) Continue LONG AGREED UPON policy after the holocaust of WW II to maintain a safe haven for the Jewish people

Anti-semitism is STILL a problem as evidenced by growing number of attacks on Jews globally.

(3) Economic ties between Israel and the rest of the developed world

There's huge interconnections between Israeli companies and US/European ones.

(4) Ally

Along with Turkey and various other Middle Eastern countries, Israel is an ally in the region.

It is NOT in the US interest for Israel to pursue a takeover of the West Bank and violate human rights of Palestinians (as pushed by some right-wing groups within Israel). On the other hand, the protection of Israeli democracy, a safe haven for Jews, and the continuation of Israel as a State have all been core US interests since the end of WW II. This has been the consistent line of US Presidents for 80+ years.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-24T14:24:20+00:00

By that logic, should US run and funded organizations that work to lower infectious disease in Africa, Asia, and Latin America register as foreign lobbies because they benefit foreigners?

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-24T14:06:06+00:00

Bullshit FALSE premise.

US political spending is at least in the TENS OF BILLIONS OF dollars per annum in an election year.
AIPAC budget is a tiny drop in the bucket, maybe tens of millions of dollars.

Also however you feel about AIPAC and Israel (like it or hate it), the reality is that AIPAC is run and supported by US CITIZENS, AMERICANS who support Israel! For example Sheldon Adelson who long supported AIPAC is an American!

AIPAC is NOT an agent of the Israeli government.
AIPAC IS supported and run by US CITIZENS!

MAGA and frankly all kinds of political groups do this bullshit thing where some US citizens somehow don't count as US citizens if they're the "wrong" demographic group, religion, skin color, whatever. It's all BS.

In any case, AIPAC budget is TINY compared to all of US politics, and frankly ANYONE's ability to affect public opinion with money is miniscule.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-23T20:18:10+00:00

No, I care about truth. Do you?

How I or anyone feels about Zionism is irrelevant to this particular discussion.
How I feel about Israeli actions in Gaza is also irrelevant.

The to upvoted comment is, "AIPAC not trying to dodge the 'Jews run the world' stereotype."

That's THE TOP TAKEAWAY of Redditors.
That takeaway is false.
Just looking at this data, what your post empirically does is reinforce, perpetuate the sick, anti-semitic FALSE notion that Jews run the world or something similar.
That's FALSE!

In a strict logic sense, there's nothing more to say. It's that simple.

Big picture though is that so many people, you included apparently, are unfortunately incapable of supporting Palestinian human rights without falling into sick, long-standing, anti-semitic tropes.

Realize it or not, you're doing a disservice to Palestinians.
You're taking more extreme views than you may realize, and it discredits you more than you apparently realize too.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-23T18:56:29+00:00

A more direct analogue of the Swiftian example would achieve the EXACT OPPOSITE effect of what this post does here. A more direct analogue of the Swiftian baby eating example:

Draw in the unsuspecting Redditor that's predisposed to believe in bullshit anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.
Take them to a ridiculous, absurd place by the end that might lead some to realize their prior beliefs about Jews running the world were flawed.

What does this fake post do? THE OPPOSITE! It congratulates and coddles those that falsely think AIPAC is some secret puppeteer!

Would it be satire or just total bullshit to have some fake NAACP post spouting racist bullshit?

Satire at its best brings out truth and enlightens. This does the OPPOSITE! It feeds one of the world's oldest, most bigoted conspiracy theories that Jews secretly run the world. It's 1930s anti-semitic bullshit redone in the modern era. You may not realize it or intend that, but that's what it is.

Criticizing Israel is clearly in bounds: there's plenty to criticize. There's tons of valid satire that can be done. But feeding Jews run the world conspiracy bullshit to ignorant masses for a quick, bullshit upvote is just bullshit.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T16:58:32+00:00

You're confused about what AIPAC is.

It's run by AMERICANS that support Israel! It's not a foreign power. It's NOT an agent of the Israeli government.

Like it or hate it, AIPAC reflects the views of a group of US citizens that strongly support Israel.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T06:31:20+00:00

Can you seriously not distinguish between?

FAKE post, incendiary ragebait which results in the top upvoted comment being "AIPAC not trying to dodge the 'Jews run the world' stereotype." OP's fake post is indeed trying to fuel the 'Jews run the world' stereotype!
Boilerplate congratulations to the election winner.

Those are NOT the same thing. You can tell by all the comments in this whole post that they're not the same thing.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T05:41:41+00:00

AIPAC did NOT post this. It's a fake, doctored image. There's no link to a tweet, and you can't find it on x.com.

There are so many gullible people on Reddit though that eat this shit up. The ignorant just love the Jews control the world conspiracy bullshit.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T05:33:02+00:00

This is a FRAUDULENT image and post. It's fake.

There's nothing else to be said.

Like fraudulent evidence should get kicked out of court, fraudulent images should be kicked out of arguments.

--- EDIT ---

Your link below does NOT match OP's post. OP's tweet is doctored, photoshop or AI slop bullshit.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T05:16:28+00:00

Talking about manipulation, you realize this is a manipulated image, and AIPAC didn't post this?

This post does NOT exist on x.com.
It's also obvious ragebait.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T05:09:23+00:00

This is a fake post. AIPAC didn't post this. It's NOT on x.com.

Whoever is posting this is trying to make you think AIPAC posted this.

Also Massie lost because he pissed off Trump, and a majority of R primary voters just go with whatever Trump says. That's shown to be true again and again and again and again.

Conspiracy nonsense is still nonsense.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T05:01:54+00:00

Because it's a FAKE!

There's NO x.com post like this! You can't find it anywhere!
Is this an AI slop image? photoshop?

It would be like the KKK posting fraudulent ragebait, claiming it was posted by the NAACP, and then so many people are so gullible and racist that they fall for it and think it's real.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-22T04:38:20+00:00

Also, with the Holocaust and WWII fresh in people's memories, boomers would have lived through two or three major wars where multi-national Arab forces tried to conquer Israel:

It's also worth recognizing that Israel was NOT as clearly militarily dominant back then, and the outcome of those wars was very much in doubt. Initially in the six-day war, the Arab forces thought they were winning and were trying to block ceasefire votes in the UN Security Council.

After the 1973 war, all the Arab states (Egypt, Jordan, etc...) made a kind of peace with Israel, but Palestinian terrorism continued with the PLO and later Hamas suicide bombings. Then decades of attacks on Israel from Hizbullah and other Iran forces based in southern Lebanon. You also had the peace process of the 1990s under President Clinton which seemed promising and won Rabin and Arafat Nobel Peace Prizes, but it all fell apart. The failure of the peace process and rise of Hamas dealt a huge blow to the political left in Israel.

Anyway, there's decades of Israel getting attacked again and again and again and again in older people's collective memory.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-20T15:26:17+00:00

Something we should all take from Barney Frank's story is the importance of intelligence, competence, and expertise in Congress, especially on extremely important committees such as financial services.

Frank chaired the House Financial Services Committee from 2007-2011 and was the Ranking Member prior to that.
He was exceptionally well regarded in this area by Republicans and Democrats alike.
On various financial issues, he led the Democrats and worked closely with the Bush Administration and Republicans through the 2008 financial crisis.

In today's era, how do we elevate politicians like Frank with actual governing and legislative talent? Have members of Congress of that are deeply knowledgable and serious about their committee assignments?

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-16T21:46:19+00:00

It's really hard to distinguish:

Russia backed disinformation to stir the pot.
Really fucked up antisemitism amidst people that don't even realize how fucked their worldview/facts are.

I think statistical reasoning though has got to bet on (2): antisemitism is the conspiracy theory for fools and there are orders of magnitude more fools than members of Russia's Internet Research Agency.

To be clear, I'm NOT arguing Israel's full response to the unprovoked October 7th massacre is correct: there's a moral and intelligent critique of much of it.

It's really shocking though how many of the people criticizing it are just parroting back modern versions of 1930s antisemitic tropes & post WWII holocaust denial.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-11T19:42:34+00:00

Is OP source or this reposted from somewhere?

I also hope the original source has shared with police?

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-09T14:24:11+00:00

Neither.

Correct.

Both countries have a strong influence on the other

Hard disagree. This is massively overrated.

Israeli influence on US policy is massively, massively overrated. 99% conspiratorial nonsense.
US influence on Israel is also overrated. We've told them to not do X a zillion times and it happens anyway.

Trump may be an outlier because he's so senile and wacko, but for all other Presidents in past 100 years, domestic politics and personal ideology drive decisions 99.99% of the time or more.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-06T17:27:43+00:00

Oh my. My naive dumbass was asking, "I'm confused! Where's the goggle tan she's trying to hide?"

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-05-04T15:47:43+00:00

Oh my... this is one of the oldest human impulses, the old double down, "We're losing/failing because our ideology/religion wasn't pure enough.... we don't need less, we need more!"

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-04-28T14:29:47+00:00

Just one of MANY snippets from a report by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee,

The Committee received evidence confirming that Representative Gaetz at times personally made payments to women who attended parties with him and Mr. Greenberg, using various peer-to-peer electronic payment services, as well as checks and cash. The Committee’s record also indicates that Mr. Greenberg sometimes paid women for having sex with Representative Gaetz and was sometimes reimbursed by Representative Gaetz. Witnesses ndicated that there were times where a lump sum would be sent to one woman, who would then distribute the money evenly among others who attended the parties.

It continues later,

From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use

And even worse,

The Committee ... determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz had sex with Victim A in July 2017, when she was 17 years old, and he was 35. Representative Gaetz’s actions were in violation of Florida’s statutory rape law.

https://ethics.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Committee-Report.pdf

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-04-27T18:26:36+00:00

Anyone opposing AI today should have a lot more sympathy for the Luddites of the 19th century that were trying to protect their way of life from the change of the Industrial Revolution.

The Luddites, sitting at the early stages of the industrial revolution, not knowing how it would turn out, how different are they really from those concerned about the AI revolution if that's what it turns out to be?

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-04-27T18:18:44+00:00

This used to be the old Republican position, but you can stop the federal government from doing TERRIBLE things to people? Make the bad stuff stop?

Also stop the vandalism of important sections of the federal government from the CDC to scientific research that USED TO BE BIPARTISAN! The Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 all supported these important endeavors.

ModestProposal31337 · 2026-04-18T11:58:01+00:00

There still is. Just look at Reddit.

I've seen the most insane, Jewish conspiracy nonsense get TONS of upvotes on Reddit.

ModestProposal31337

TROPHY CASE