Replacement theory is a danger to more than just African Americans. Victims in the past several years have included Jews, Hispanics, and others. It is also a danger to democracy and is a fuel that ignites the afterburners of autocracy. Yearning for autocracy and white domination are wedded and even promoted by influential elements in US media, like Tucker Carlson and FOX, and major conservative organizations. The embrace of Viktor Orban of similar racist policies also brings with it association with autocracy as a preferred method of governance instead of democracy.
A recent Associated Press story began with a white older woman from Trinidad, Colorado, for over 400 years a corner of my state dominated by Hispanics. She was held out as an example of a FOX Carlson fan who embraced the "replacement theory", a theory that Democrats were trying to replace white people with too many Hispanic immigrants and Jewish interests like George Soros were behind the effort. This theory, per a recent poll, is a belief that is held by one out of three Americans that those supporting more relaxed immigration policies on our southern border were promoting immigration because the goal was to replace white voters with brown ones at the polls. EXPLAINER: White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks | AP News
The demographic shifts are due to a decline in white population growth, especially among the emerging new generations, and an increase in birth rates of those not white. . Theory or not, replacement theory is fueled by fear of loss of power by white people, who see demographics changing and it has become the tool of entertainers like Carlson and political movements like MAGA dating to Tea Partiers to either gain advertisers or votes and or power from the like-minded. I have long believed that such anger, fear, and hate supporting theories were embraced as the truth because the holders of fear, the angry, and the hateful, want to believe in them. This willfulness is fueled by dislike or fear of people who are not like them and exploited and enhanced by the power craven. I have noticed there are times it has become more public, and other times it has diminished from the "breaking news" and media opinionists.It is raising its public voice again in the past few years. President Biden said it best: about white nationalism "It is a stain on the soul of America", in comments about those who have been victims of a racist/replacement theorist mass killer in Buffalo, It is wrongheaded thinking to think that victims are only African Americans, but Muslims, Jews, and Hispanics (of any Latin descent )The Decade's Top 10 Incidents of Hate (adl.org)
In the American past dating to the 1940s, the object of actions of hate has been directed to include Italians, Irish, and Catholics. Even in the midst of World War II, it existed, yet the rest of the nation saw the evil of tyrants who also exploited hate to rise to power and rationalize the aggression. This is one of those periods in American history that this undercurrent has risen to the surface from a fringe political movement to greater public acceptance and a degree of respectability. Nowhere is mainstream acceptance more evident that the outright embrace of those from CPAC of Vickor Orban, prime minister of Hungary. https://www.vox.com/2022/5/19/23123050/hungary-cpac-2022-replacement-theory
This update is also moved to a separate post Hungary: CPAC's fantasyland.:Such wide acceptance of replacement theory is becoming a threat to democracy itself. This embrace of Viktor Orban of similar racist policies of anti-immigration and Hungarian ethnic domination also brings with it association with autocracy as a preferred method of governance instead of democracy. Hungary's Orban opens CPAC by telling conservatives "we need to coordinate the movement" of allies - CBS News Tread lightly, CPAC. You, too, will find yourself with not only the racist, anti-semitic white nationalism that is Orban's but saddled with his method of governing, which means no press freem ( or press only permitted that is approved by Orban) and what we would consider in the US, a corrupt alliance between big business and government with rewards going to friends of Orban. Hungary is not like the US. Orban could be as racist and nationalist as he liked since 97% of the country is Magyar (HUngarian) and speaks Hungarian. There are no large groups of minorities. That is not the US now and in the future. Takeover by someone like Orban appealing to white nationalists has not bee would not be and will be not be a peaceful process. For US white naitonalists, Hungary is fantasyland. The late Madeleine Albright, our beloved former secretary of state, tagged him as a fascist in the making in 2019. mostly because of his racism.
The dishonesty and the use of fear of "others" of the Tucker Carlsons of this era, is the claim that Democrats want open borders to get more voters. This is illogical if you give it a minute of thought. The demographic shifts we are seeing fueling this hate-filled racism are not because of some conspiracy to cause the demographic shift for political gain, It is the birth rate of those already here projected forward.. Immigration only speeds up the timeline It takes years for even legal immigrants to achieve citizenship and vote. This is a long-term proposition at best and it does not mean such immigrants a decade from now will vote like Democrats., Democrats look at alarm now that Hispanics are leaving their camp today, though they are not becoming Republicans, either. More Hispanic Democrats in new poll considering leaving party than Hispanic Republicans | The Hill. The trend is like other immigrant waves that those assimilated into the existing population look to other concerns, including the economy, taxation, religious, cultural, and kitchen table issues to inspire their voting. Mass shooters do not stop first to ask if you are here for 400 years, voted for Trump in 2020, or if you arrived yesterday before firing away, as those in El Paso learned. If you look Hispanic, you are their fair game. Ginning up fear and loathing of Hispanics and others,, as the right-wing is doing, is no way to win new friends and gain supporters in the future. It also makes the coming years of these demographic shifts bloody and full of friction with a population searching for a dictator/autocratic strong man to lead them out of such misery. It has happened before and it is happening now.
Fascism: a warning from Madeleine Albright - Vox Madeleine Albright on Viktor Orban : fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power. A fascist is somebody who identifies with one group — usually an aggrieved majority — in opposition to a smaller group. It’s about majority rule without any minority rights. Which is why fascists tend to single out the smaller group as being responsible for or the cause of their grievances.
The important thing is that fascists aren’t actually trying to solve problems; they’re invested in exacerbating problems and deepening the divisions that result from them. They reject the free press and denounce the institutional structures within a society — like Congress or the judiciary.
I’d also add that violence is a crucial element of fascism. Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power. It’s a bully with an army, really. (Her book was written before the violence of Jan.6)
Hungary: where editors tell reporters to disregard facts before their eyes | Hungary | The Guardian
Living With Corruption: An Examination of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary — COLUMBIA POLITICAL REVIEW (cpreview.org)
What the 2020 census will reveal about America: Stagnating growth, an aging population, and youthful diversity (brookings.edu)One reason for this is that the white population declines discussed above are more pronounced among the young. Since 2000, the under-18 white population registered absolute population losses. Meanwhile, millennials and their juniors were born during years of higher immigration. In many ways, from the 1980s through the early 2000s, immigrants and their children have contributed to both the growth and diversity of the nation’s younger population—however, more recently, natural increase rather than immigration is the primary source of Latino or Hispanic population growth. This has led to stark generational differences in diversity. About 60% of the U.S. population identifies as white alone; that figure reaches more than 70% for baby boomers and their elders, but only about half for the combined Gen Z and younger populations, with nearly two-fifths of those groups identifying as “Black or brown.”
The mass shooting in Buffalo is hitting home for some people in El Paso, Texas : NPR
Population: demographic situation, languages and religions | Eurydice (europa.eu)
How Viktor Orban Degraded Hungary’s Weak Democracy (thewire.in)
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