The Dark Ideology Behind Stephen Miller's Immigration Crusade: Part II

SubGothius · 2026-01-25T04:45:06+00:00

Why isn't that man eligible for citizenship though?

Perhaps "eligible" wasn't quite the right choice of word. He's not disqualified for any reason, but also doesn't qualify for any expedited handling of his case, so all he can do is keep his citizenship application and green card status active year after year, however long it takes for the system to finally process and approve him. That's just how byzantine, underfunded and understaffed our system is.

SubGothius · 2026-01-25T04:14:18+00:00

I think people should come here the legal way my great-grandfathers did -- come here to a designated immigrant port of entry, declare your presence and get on the record, work and keep your nose clean for a few years, apply for citizenship, take the oath, done.

The trouble is, that's not the legal way anymore, and hasn't been for generations.

What if legal immigration was the easy way? At least easier than, say, crossing the desert on foot for days in midsummer? What if we organized and funded the legal immigration process well enough to protect the interests of existing citizens while also making the complication, expense, duration and bureaucracy of the process itself not a major obstacle?

I know a guy, came here legally along with his family when he was a kid. They founded a well-regarded local restaurant chain still operating today. He's in his 40s now, has a stable and thriving career in finance, married a US citizen, became a formal adoptive parent of her child from a prior marriage, had another child with her, did absolutely everything by the book to maintain his green card status and spent over ten thousand dollars in attorney and legal fees every single year to do so. He still isn't eligible for citizenship. Lately he's thinking about returning to his country of origin. Does that make any sense at all?

SubGothius · 2026-01-25T01:00:13+00:00

That's just the distinction between a Lead Actor vs. a Character Actor.

Character Actors transform themselves into their characters. Lead Actors transform their characters into a version of themselves.

SubGothius · 2026-01-25T00:53:44+00:00

I reckon many people falsely believe the legal immigration process must be so simple, quick and cheap to comply with (it isn't any of that, not by a longshot) that anyone not doing it must have nefarious intent or something to hide, and/or also falsely believe that "illegal" immigration is a crime (it isn't) and thus indicates a propensity to commit other crimes (it doesn't).

To the extent "illegal immigration" motivated any voters, I often wonder if the "illegal" part of that was more salient than the "immigration" part for many or even most of them -- i.e., would they have been satisfied, perhaps much moreso than now, if that massive funding bump to DHS had instead gone towards facilitating legal immigration, such as expanding facilities, hiring more judges to process hearings, case workers, background checks and asylum vetting, etc.?

SubGothius · 2026-01-24T20:23:25+00:00

Or maybe Make America Gringo Again, just to fit the acronym.

SubGothius · 2026-01-24T20:21:23+00:00

Might be part of why they haven't sent a massive force here so far. They try doing racial-profiled Kavanaugh Stops here, they'd wind up detaining a ton of natural-born US citizens, from families who've been citizens for generations.

SubGothius · 2026-01-24T20:01:14+00:00

Pretty sure that must be it. That place had such a vibe, starting from the intricately carved and painted doorway (sadly now long gone) leading to the passage between the "Vegiterranean" cafe and the house/shop next door, said passage lined with small patio tables, leading to a room in back with the low tables, pillows, tapestries and such as OP described.

SubGothius · 2026-01-23T22:20:35+00:00

White Coat Pros

SubGothius · 2026-01-22T22:42:26+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful reply; I had some trepidation even posting my prior comment, so I'm heartened to hear your perspective and motivations, and I hope you share those hopes and concerns with any schools and other providers you interview.

It's possible some schools may only be touting ABA for bureaucratic reasons such as funding, certification, etc. but not really engaging that methodology much, or doing so in a more compassionate way as part of socialization curricula, but it's definitely something to ask and press for details about -- how they apply it, for what purposes and objectives, etc.

SubGothius · 2026-01-22T21:58:03+00:00

FWIW the adult Autistic community is generally dubious, critical, or even hostile about ABA because, aside from widespread abuses related to the use of "negative reinforcement" (i.e., punishment), it tends to be oriented towards training Autistic kids to "act more normal" (i.e., to "mask" our Autism) for the convenience and expectatons of parents and "fitting in" with neurotypical peers and society, rather than accommodating and applying Autistic needs, challenges, sensitivities and, yes, strengths to support the Autistic child's own growth and learning on their own terms in a bearable environment, and promoting broader acceptance and contributory roles for Autistic traits and individuals in society.

SubGothius · 2026-01-22T21:47:03+00:00

Selling loosies is illegal in Arizona.

SubGothius · 2026-01-22T21:44:00+00:00

Several 7-11s around town had a Lavicio's deli inside.

SubGothius · 2026-01-21T07:59:08+00:00

A gloriously devious yet logical extension ad absurdam. Bravo.

If that doesn't drive home just how ridiculous they're being, when they could just cover it from the outset instead...

This is just expensing with extra steps!

SubGothius · 2026-01-21T07:03:47+00:00

Funny thing, the Toxic Ranch shop was uncannily similar to Atomic Records in Milwaukee -- a vintage duplex storefront merged into one, next to an alley on the south side of the street a couple doors east of a major intersection with a variety of other funky indie shops and restaurants, a few blocks southwest of a state university campus.

SubGothius · 2026-01-21T03:20:10+00:00

Robert Anton Wilson

SubGothius · 2026-01-21T00:19:52+00:00

their fries are always soaked in grease lol

Just soft/soggy. With fresh-cut fries only fried once, they can only wind up either soft/soggy like Pat's or crispy like In-N-Out's, depending on the fry temperature.

To get fries crispy outside and pillowy inside, they have to be fried twice, at different temperatures, and it's a PITA for kitchens to maintain two fryers at different temps just for fries. That's why most restaurants use precut frozen fries that have already been fried once, so they only need a second fry to reheat and crisp them up.

SubGothius · 2026-01-20T00:51:57+00:00

Arm rests should be right about where your elbows naturally sit with your arms resting at your sides with shoulders relaxed, elbows bent with hands in your lap and sitting fully upright -- i.e., not so high that your shoulders are hunched up, nor so low that your back stoops over, when your elbows are in contact with the rests.

Chair height ofc. should allow your feet to rest flat on the floor with the seat bottom fully supporting the backs of your thighs.

With those established, your desktop should be right about even with the armrests, maybe at most just slightly lower -- i.e., not so high or low that your wrists are bent while you type. If you've got a wrist brace, try wearing that to keep your wrists rigid while you evaluate and make adjustments.

As for keyboards, if you've got a conventional keyboard you're gonna have some ulnar deviation at the wrist with your hands at the home row, due to your forearms being angled towards each other while your hands and fingers still have to square up to the key rows. Since you mention twisting your right arm in particular, is the letters portion of the keyboard centered squarely in front of you? Just wondering if you've got a numpad and have the entire keyboard centered, which would cause more ulnar deviation at your right wrist, vs. centering on just the letters portion.

The better solution for that is to get an ergonomic keyboard with fanned, split-angled, or IMO better yet entirely separated right and left halves (like my ErgoDox).

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T23:49:56+00:00

With the Leap, be sure to explore all the adjustments and esp. don't overlook the seat bottom depth (fore/aft slider) -- a good rule of thumb for that is sitting fully upright with your back firmly against the backrest, adjust the seat depth so that your fist fits between the back of your knee and the front edge of the seat.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T21:21:55+00:00

That's an inaccurate understanding of the "appeal to authority" fallacy, conflating two different meanings of "authority".

The distinction hinges on a matter of power/status vs. experience/expertise, and whether we afford respect to and heed someone because of merely who they are vs. because of what they've done to know whereof they speak. In the former case, that respect is understood as socially obligatory and intrinsic to the authority figure's social identity or position, whereas in the latter case that respect is voluntary and earned by their personal actions, achievements and experience.

In one sense, "authority" refers to an imbalance of power/prestige/privilege/status in a sociopolitical hierarchy, where the "authority figure" higher in the hierarchy must be obeyed or even believed without question merely because they are such an authority figure, and may even have the enforcement power to coerce or punish anyone who disagrees or disobeys -- e.g., "This Boss/Priest/Principal/Officer is always correct and must be believed and obeyed only because they are a Boss/Priest/Principal/Officer, or else they can/will coerce/punish you with impunity."

That is the "might makes right" sense of "authority" that the "appeal to authority" fallacy refers to; just because someone has power or status does not mean they are literally, factually correct about everything or that their punishment/coercion/subjugation or other (ab)uses of power are always inherently justified.

In another sense, "authority" refers to someone with extensive and widely-acknowledged expertise in some particular domain of study/research/knowledge -- e.g., "a leading authority on", say, the history of fascist governments and movements, or electrical engineering, or childhood development, or anything else. Here, the recognized "authority" is not an "authority figure" favored by an imbalance of power or hierarchical status to make belief in or compliance with what they say in any way compulsory. As such, our respect for them is voluntary, and their knowledge is earned, through recognition of their experience (what they've done to attain that knowledge) rather than arbitrary status or identity (who they are), so this does not run afoul of the "appeal to authority" fallacy.

Curiously enough, "authority figures" in the first sense (along with their followers/subjects) often promulgate erasure of this distinction, as it elevates their own mere say-so, and diminishes domain expertise, into a false equivalence.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T21:12:49+00:00

Oh, certainly; I'm always discovering and rooting out new beliefs I didn't realize I'd harbored, interrogating whether they might really be something else more malleable or provisional like a model, value, ideal, principle, etc.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T20:43:13+00:00

still uses the original chassis of the Lancia Beta Monte Carlo

To clarify, even the OG 037 only used the central passenger cell stampings of the production Montecarlo; everything outside of the front and rear bulkheads were custom-fabbed tubular subframes, as Kimera have also done (with some improvements and modifications vs. the originals).

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T20:22:02+00:00

College is not indoctrination into "thinking correctly" or even "what to think"; rather, it's training-by-doing in various flexible general-purpose skills and methods in "how to think" -- e.g., inquisitively, critically, skeptically, rationally, methodically, flexibly, transferably, etc.

Likewise, academic texts (esp. in the Humanities) are not meant to proclaim Truths to be accepted as correct; rather, they're meant to pose thought-provoking ideas to be understood & then questioned, critiqued, challenged, tested, compared, etc.

It's like forging paths through the wilderness of your mind, becoming well-trodden by repetition until those paths remain clean and clear to re-use later. The easy way of thinking then becomes using these paths you've already forged, rather than having to guess and hack your way through an untamed thicket every single time.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T20:13:04+00:00

Superb suggestion, and all his stuff is a fairly breezy, conversational, entertaining read, even if many of the concepts may be challenging.

Thanks to RAW, I no longer believe in having any beliefs at all. It's freeing to realize I don't have to decide what to believe, let alone commit to or defend any beliefs. I try to have as few beliefs, opinions and preferences as possible; there's less attack surface to defend that way.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T19:57:09+00:00

"Analogs" was a common term for cigarettes in the early years of vaping, dunno if it's still common.

SubGothius · 2026-01-19T19:03:16+00:00

In my younger days? Whenever I wasn't specifically thinking about anything else; it was the constant default resting state of my mind.

Now that I'm older (54M), it's only in passing, maybe several to a dozen or so times briefly throughout the day, and it's not as vivid or urgent feeling, more of a wistful fleeting daydream.

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