Right wing politics vs Immigration

[qesehmk]

Jan 24th, 2021

I have been running this forum for about 10-11 years now. I am a progressive and a globalist. I believe that "people" and not just capital, should be free to cross national boundaries and prosper in foreign lands. That is part reason why I run this blog. I was not born progressive. I became so after living American life for 20 years and seeing how removing our biases and accepting others leads to prosperity. I think that's really a uniquely American story.

Sadly however, as the world is becoming global, losers and cheats world over are stoking fears of other people/cultures/races to gain influence and power. Nationalism based on race, language, religion is rearing its ugly head the world over. In US we see such tendencies very strong within GOP while in India we see such tendencies in BJP/RSS family.

The strange thing about right wing Indians (aka Hindu nationalists) is that these same people who would like a place in American dream are not so liberal in their view about India and fellow Indians. The same people who ask for equality and justice never once may think that it is may be wrong to badmouth entire muslim community in India, or that perhaps it is high time we have a Dalit prime minister or have equality of opportunity in India. As such we see such elements have no shame hobnobbing with similar right wing anti-immigrant elements in the United States. The whole S386 GOP fiasco and Durbin Blame game last year is a clear example of such tendencies.

I personally have tried to keep objectivity and freedom of this forum and keep this forum truly pro immigration. However of late I have observed many such people on this forum who mix Indian right wing politics with American right wing politics and end up muddling the right perspective for Backlogged immigrants.

I have limited time on my hand and I can not butt heads with everybody. At the same time I can not tolerate disservice to immigrants by such right wing hacks. I have no desire to entertain or help any right wing extremist - whether American or Indian. So I am going to say it loud and clear - Any right wing extremist is NOT welcome here.

I am happy to engage in this discussion on this thread. But if I EVER see any right wing BS on any other thread, I am going to shut down that discussion and may start banning users outright - if for nothing else - out of respect for my own time.

[moonlight]

Jan 24th, 2021

I have been running this forum for about 10-11 years now. I am a progressive and a globalist. I believe that "people" and not just capital, should be free to cross national boundaries and prosper in foreign lands. That is part reason why I run this blog. I was not born progressive. I became so after living American life for 20 years and seeing how removing our biases and accepting others leads to prosperity. I think that's really a uniquely American story.

Sadly however, as the world is becoming global, losers and cheats world over are stoking fears of other people/cultures/races to gain influence and power. Nationalism based on race, language, religion is rearing its ugly head the world over. In US we see such tendencies very strong within GOP while in India we see such tendencies in BJP/RSS family.

The strange thing about right wing Indians (aka Hindu nationalists) is that these same people who would like a place in American dream are not so liberal in their view about India and fellow Indians. The same people who ask for equality and justice never once may think that it is may be wrong to badmouth entire muslim community in India, or that perhaps it is high time we have a Dalit prime minister or have equality of opportunity in India. As such we see such elements have no shame hobnobbing with similar right wing anti-immigrant elements in the United States. The whole S386 GOP fiasco and Durbin Blame game last year is a clear example of such tendencies.

I personally have tried to keep objectivity and freedom of this forum and keep this forum truly pro immigration. However of late I have observed many such people on this forum who mix Indian right wing politics with American right wing politics and end up muddling the right perspective for Backlogged immigrants.

I have limited time on my hand and I can not butt heads with everybody. At the same time I can not tolerate disservice to immigrants by such right wing hacks. I have no desire to entertain or help any right wing extremist - whether American or Indian. So I am going to say it loud and clear - Any right wing extremist is NOT welcome here.

I am happy to engage in this discussion on this thread. But if I EVER see any right wing BS on any other thread, I am going to shut down that discussion and may start banning users outright - if for nothing else - out of respect for my own time.

Q, You have been maintaining this immigration forum for a very long period. Countless people got benefitted from it and you have blessings of all. I have been an avid visitor on this site and I tried registering earlier but I gave up when I faced some hiccup in registration. However, I tried again a few days back with a different Id and it got completed successfully.
I am no one to give you any suggestion but I feel impulsive to mention that the energy and time should not be diverted to politics or ideological topics rather than the core purpose of the existence of this site. The site has helped many and I wish it continues to help future members in their immigration journey.
"Right wing", "Left Wing", "Center Wing" are not official tag of any individual or party; instead just words coined to associate the thoughts, opinions, and actions of individuals. One person has different thoughts towards different things in life. So at any point of time, one individual can be right wing, left wing and center wing at the same time. I know you are a balanced person overall and you don't wear a cap of any wing. When you start banning or removing users; that will be termed as right wing or fascism by someone. Here we go; the wing changed without any change in persona or ideology. This is all judgemental stuff towards one person by another person. The judgment of one person can be right and other's can be wrong OR both can be right OR both can be wrong. Let's not get entangled in philosophical or ideological complexities and continue to help our fellow immigrants. The journey has not been free from hardships and each of us has personal unique story; and been traveling along with prejudices, discriminatory scenarios, devoid of homeland visit, secondary opportunities, family loss etc. These stories are not complaints against US or the amazing opportunities it has provided to all of us. Despite the hardships, I still consider we are fortunate people to land here whereas scores of people languish in different parts of the world.
Request you not to ban or remove people. If you find anyone making the discussion toxic; one small reminder will bring them back to the core purpose of immigration.

[alpha0]

Q - i see you are much interested in "equality of opportunity". When you get a chance, read "The Tyranny of The Meritocracy".

[bones20]

Not good or fair to name political ideologies without specifics or arguments or a 2 sided historical perspective to current reality. I think the notice would have been fairer if it censored both left and right wing extremism.

[qesehmk]

Q - i see you are much interested in "equality of opportunity". When you get a chance, read "The Tyranny of The Meritocracy".

Thanks alpha. I quickly scanned and it resonated with me. The topic is too deep to quickly say anything definitively but my first instinct is to say I kind of agree.

There are two reasons I kind of agree with the concept above:
1) Meritocracy is necessary but not sufficient. Ethics are also very important. (as Confucius so well observed and devoted entire life preaching).
2) Meritocracy is a bit subjective. It depends on what you measure and how you measure and the socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages.

On the flip side I think if we trash meritocracy as elitist concept we kind of get onto a slippery slope. Is one in 20 chance not good enough to go from bottom 5% to top 5%?

That's why I think I don't really have a definitive opinion on this as yet. But incredibly potent concept nonetheless.

[qesehmk]

Q, You have been maintaining this immigration forum for a very long period. Countless people got benefitted from it and you have blessings of all. I have been an avid visitor on this site and I tried registering earlier but I gave up when I faced some hiccup in registration. However, I tried again a few days back with a different Id and it got completed successfully.
I am no one to give you any suggestion but I feel impulsive to mention that the energy and time should not be diverted to politics or ideological topics rather than the core purpose of the existence of this site. The site has helped many and I wish it continues to help future members in their immigration journey.
"Right wing", "Left Wing", "Center Wing" are not official tag of any individual or party; instead just words coined to associate the thoughts, opinions, and actions of individuals. One person has different thoughts towards different things in life. So at any point of time, one individual can be right wing, left wing and center wing at the same time. I know you are a balanced person overall and you don't wear a cap of any wing. When you start banning or removing users; that will be termed as right wing or fascism by someone. Here we go; the wing changed without any change in persona or ideology. This is all judgemental stuff towards one person by another person. The judgment of one person can be right and other's can be wrong OR both can be right OR both can be wrong. Let's not get entangled in philosophical or ideological complexities and continue to help our fellow immigrants. The journey has not been free from hardships and each of us has personal unique story; and been traveling along with prejudices, discriminatory scenarios, devoid of homeland visit, secondary opportunities, family loss etc. These stories are not complaints against US or the amazing opportunities it has provided to all of us. Despite the hardships, I still consider we are fortunate people to land here whereas scores of people languish in different parts of the world.
Request you not to ban or remove people. If you find anyone making the discussion toxic; one small reminder will bring them back to the core purpose of immigration.

Moonlight thank you for your kind words, balanced perspective and advice. I will think about it.

Sorry about registration pains. We get a lot of spam registrations and it is a constant challenge to figure out real users from bots. Sometimes things slip through. But glad you are not through. Welcome and hope you find value and potentially be useful to others!

[qesehmk]

Not good or fair to name political ideologies without specifics or arguments or a 2 sided historical perspective to current reality. I think the notice would have been fairer if it censored both left and right wing extremism.

Thank you. Good point. We should. I agree. Please feel free to point out any left wing propaganda/false information.

I hate to be the arbiter of truth - to be honest. But the whole S386 episode has really troubled me.

[bones20]

Thank you. Good point. We should. I agree. Please feel free to point out any left wing propaganda/false information.

I hate to be the arbiter of truth - to be honest. But the whole S386 episode has really troubled me.

Glad you are open to counter views. Below in bold (in your original post) are objectionable left wing propaganda (pointing it out since you condoned it). Underlined is commendable:

In US we see such tendencies very strong within GOP while in India we see such tendencies in BJP/RSS family.

The strange thing about right wing Indians (aka Hindu nationalists) is that these same people who would like a place in American dream are not so liberal in their view about India and fellow Indians. The same people who ask for equality and justice never once may think that it is may be wrong to badmouth entire muslim community in India, or that perhaps it is high time we have a Dalit prime minister or have equality of opportunity in India

[qesehmk]

Glad you are open to counter views. Below in bold (in your original post) are objectionable left wing propaganda (pointing it out since you condoned it). Underlined is commendable:

The bold ones are mostly opinions and we can speak along supporting facts but that hardly is the topic of this blog. Isn't it?

What we are trying to avoid is propaganda and falsehood where facts are spun as truth (e.g. what happened with S386 durbin bashing).

[usvisas]

(e.g. what happened with S386 durbin bashing).

so S386 durbin bashing was done by right wing or left wing or any wing?

[qesehmk]

so S386 durbin bashing was done by right wing or left wing or any wing?

Right wing. I tried to chronicle the history of S386 here. Read the header of this thread.

https://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showt...ghlight=durbin

[Turbulent_Dragonfly]

Right wing. I tried to chronicle the history of S386 here. Read the header of this thread.

https://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showt...ghlight=durbin

To add my 2c to this threads, the reason I came here was to escape religion fueled politics but little did I know how big of a shadow it casts here too.

The most amazingly disappointing thing that I have experienced over the last year or so is some of the really educated Indian community around us and their blind Trump support because of their Modi support. Not only did they espouse all his views, they actively keep spreading misinformation regarding Covid in the local chat groups. In fact over Sankranthi, one particular family who is a rabid supporter (Trump flags, stop the steal sign boards outside their home) got so pissed after the formal certification that they invited two other families to their home to celebrate the festival 'in defiance' of what they think are going to be draconian measures prohibiting assembly after Biden assumes office. One of the people there was a doctor who works with Covid patients but just got the vaccine. Now literally everyone who was in the gathering have Covid including one child who has severe asthma and another old lady who has diabetes and cardiac issues. How far will people go just to stick to their political viewpoints?

[moonlight]

Can we get back to immigration topic, please? We left India long back, aspiring to get US citizenship and here we are hoping to have Dalit Prime Minister in India irrespective of good or bad for the country. Later on Muslim prime minister, Christian Prime minister, Budh, Jain, Brahman, Marwadi.. list goes on. We will not stop there... why one term for one community and more terms for other community. May be rotation will be good idea. Let's leave that to folks who vote in India.
We stopped talking about immigration and discussing here BJP, RSS, Muslim, Hindu Nationalist, Democrats, Republican, Biden, Trump etc.
Many of us joined this site to get purely the insights on immigration. Like other numerous forums, here also we are discussing religions, castes etc. It won't be surprising when people start leaving this site or stop participating in discussion. Happiness by having more registered users for any website and active participation on it far more outweighs any feelings arising due to people removal/leaving on ideological conflicts.

Since we are discussing political factors on immigration, my own personal views...Neither democrats nor republican would be exuberant enough about clearing the backlogs. I remember four recent events - Obama(Democrat) facilitated H4EAD. But he tried maximum to stop new or old H1B holders entering/re-entering here. Many people were made to return from airport itself and back then the discussion was on whether person should buy the return ticket on his own or not. Bush (Republican) opened the flood gate in 2007 and many people got benefited. But Trump brought in all the possible measures to reduce the H1B extension approvals, GC slow down. Bottom-line in 14 years from 2007 to till now in 2021, EB2 Date just moved for two years only and those two years was under severe recession and filings would have been relatively lower. I am not alluding to any official data here but just describing the situation.

[qesehmk]

Can we get back to immigration topic, please? We left India long back, aspiring to get US citizenship and here we are hoping to have Dalit Prime Minister in India irrespective of good or bad for the country. Later on Muslim prime minister, Christian Prime minister, Budh, Jain, Brahman, Marwadi.. list goes on. We will not stop there... why one term for one community and more terms for other community. May be rotation will be good idea. Let's leave that to folks who vote in India.
We stopped talking about immigration and discussing here BJP, RSS, Muslim, Hindu Nationalist, Democrats, Republican, Biden, Trump etc.
Many of us joined this site to get purely the insights on immigration. Like other numerous forums, here also we are discussing religions, castes etc. It won't be surprising when people start leaving this site or stop participating in discussion. Happiness by having more registered users for any website and active participation on it far more outweighs any feelings arising due to people removal/leaving on ideological conflicts.

Since we are discussing political factors on immigration, my own personal views...Neither democrats nor republican would be exuberant enough about clearing the backlogs. I remember four recent events - Obama(Democrat) facilitated H4EAD. But he tried maximum to stop new or old H1B holders entering/re-entering here. Many people were made to return from airport itself and back then the discussion was on whether person should buy the return ticket on his own or not. Bush (Republican) opened the flood gate in 2007 and many people got benefited. But Trump brought in all the possible measures to reduce the H1B extension approvals, GC slow down. Bottom-line in 14 years from 2007 to till now in 2021, EB2 Date just moved for two years only and those two years was under severe recession and filings would have been relatively lower. I am not alluding to any official data here but just describing the situation.

This site has always discussed immigration until right wing hacks came here bashing Durbin. People who twist truth and lie blatantly.

My observation about Dalit PM is just an observation - not a plea. But heck if you ask me, I would be very happy if India looks like its people. That includes all its institutions and all its corporate houses and not to mention wealth distribution. I would be happy if dalits muslims adivasis farmers women obcs jains sikhs whoever are represented even half of their respective population size in all places.

[suninphx]

Q - thanks for starting this new thread so that main thread can remain focused on immigration. Appreciate it!

[qesehmk]

After thinking it over I think it is best to continue our policy of not deleting posts. Rather we will simply move objectionable content to Lies and Misinformation thread

If other moderators feel the content deserves to be in the original thread, they should feel free to move it back.

Let's stick to facts, data and objective analysis and try to keep partisan politics aside.

The EB2-3 Predictions thread is now open.