Paris riots: immigration is not the problem
With the continuing nonsensical claims by reactionary forces that the Paris riots are supposedly caused by “Muslim extremism” and immigration, I feel compelled to keep pointing out that, actually, the Paris riots have been caused by statism. As I said before:
The modern nation state requires, and typically creates, a violent urban underclass. The growth of that underclass is a result of state socialist / state capitalist / fascist public policy. The existence of that underclass provides a low-grade internal threat to the middle-class that serves to bolster the mythology the State promulgates to apologize for its own existence.
Some of the reactions to that around the net have included the predictable reactionary myths — claims like:
- I’m supposedly making excuses for black Africans who fail to successfully compete with white Europeans. That misses the point entirely, because the essense of my critique is that market-distorting governmental obstacles to competition serve to keep the oppressed down artificially. I mean, “Hello?” They’re not allowed to legally work in the case of many immigrants. You think that might be some kind of monkeywrench in the process of building a productive, middle-class life? I do.
- Some claim the riots are over lower-class greed — that welfare payments are not seen as big enough and that this is an unethical lust for unearned wealth. That claim, though, perhaps willfully misses the point. The grains of truth in conservative critiques of the welfare state, which are in turn mere pale echoes of the more rigorous libertarian critiques of it, ought to be informing those who say this sort of thing. After all, they are somewhat likely to consider themselves “conservatives”. So, let’s review. The social democratic welfare state is bad for the poor precisely because the welfare system is a trap. So, then, why not remove the things that hold people back, instead of whining about how ungrateful they are when they denounce what meager rations your kind has allotted them in lieu of allowing them to produce for themselves? The answer I say, and which you won’t admit, is this — the welfare system is a cornerstone of the power of the elite. It will not be removed by reform. It will have to be circumvented by revolution.
- Some say that pointing to poverty and injustice is mere making of excuses for thugs. That’s not true at all. Widespread poverty and injustice are actively manufactured by the State. It’s not excusing thuggery to point out that reactionary policies create perverse incentives to become a thug.
Some final words of wisdom:
Share This“There is nothing — nothing — that illegal immigrants can do to a county like America that is one percent as bad as what legislation persecuting illegal immigrants can do to it.” — A Herring of a Different Color, by L. Neil Smith
[...] While the French Government struggles to come up with a plan to deal with the riots, the question widely being asked is, “Who is to blame?”. A report being circulated focuses blame on the misconceived concept of the “Islamisation” of France, a claim that even some Muslim’s believe. Whilst I do not ignore reports that a Salafist group has been reported to have issued a call for action against France, let it be noted that the Muslim community is not in agreement. The reality of the matter is that the French reap what they sow, and I’m not just referring to the police throwing a tear-gas grenade into a Mosque at prayer time!. As I have previously stated, the root of the problem is NOT Islam or being Muslim, but instead poverty, economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing. Then there’s the facisim of the out of touch Nicolas Sarkozy. When will people and politicians start to listen to the residents themselves, who do not believe the riots to be the work of “Islamist’s”, nor the work of criminal gangs? [...]
[...] Brad Spangler has his own take on the real roots of the Paris Riots. [...]
[...] Paris riots: immigration is not the problem [...]
[...] The riots which started in the suburbs of Paris have recently been the subject of many discussions by “expertsâ€Â. The most widely used argument by lefties is this: The rioting youth (mainly Moslems) feel isolated from the French Society. The problem is mainly economic; they don’t have equal job opportunities and they are not recognized as full French citizens. Today, Tarek Ramadan, a Euro/Islam expert, was saying on the BBC that the problem is mainly social, not religious. [...]