Nelson R. Elliott

When I was young, dumb, and full of Ayn Rand, I found Americans who sought to protect their "jerbs" from hard-working immigrants to be lazy and pathetic. I grew up poor, so I naturally admired those who risked everything and worked until they collapsed every day. I figured they deserved whatever success they earned, more than the soft rich whites I knew. But upon having kids, a lot of things fell into place for me. I realized I wasn't the result of a genetic "lottery." I'm the result of every decision ever made by my parents, and their parents, and so on, and the society that I was born into is part of my birthright as an American. Even if I'd been born rich, at some point in my ancestral line there was a guy who risked everything, deferred pleasure, and worked his ass off to make a dime, so that I, to some degree or another, wouldn't have to risk, defer, or work my ass off. Libs can't wrap their heads around this because they, blank slatists that they are, think God rolls the dice and you pop out of your mother's womb with random stats like in Dungeons & Dragons. They see every person as an isolated individual economic actor, randomly plopped by a stork onto the globe, into the U.S. or Rwanda, so you have no right to expect anything more out of life than anybody else on the planet. They see rich kids and "nepo babies" as cheaters. "You didn't earn that." "You didn't build that." Just the luck of the draw.  These freakazoids literally want to make wealth inheritance illegal, which would be the ultimate progressive victory: the mythical "level playing field." Of course they'll never have it without having to spill a lot of blood because it runs counter to humanity's central biological drive. I realized at some point in my journey out of the libertarian mind prison that even if it was possible, I wouldn't want a level playing field. Parents should tilt the odds in favor of their children. Like everyone in history up till the boomers, I want my kids to work less than I did, for more. It's not fair. It's not even the cherished boomercon "equality of opportunity." But it's basically the reason every single one of your ancestors got up in the morning. To tilt the playing field just a bit, to make life easier for you. So you wouldn't have to work at Chipotle. So you wouldn't need to compete for scraps with an infinite stream of the lowest-possible-time-preference person on earth. Someone who's spent his life living off $2/day. God love him, I hope that guy makes it. I hope all his people make it someday. But I want them to try... over there. This stuff isn't clear cut. We need a trickle of fresh blood for American dynamism. It's undeniable that some immigrants have given the U.S much more than they've taken, and have made indelible contributions to the messy and beautiful American story. Very few of us can trace our heritage to the Mayflower. Btw, Chris Rufo isn't directionally wrong on the "bootstraps" stuff either. Some of you mf's would be lucky to manage a Chipotle and should jump at the chance if one of these $100k jobs actually exists. You could live a decent life like that. Plenty of people do. Almost none of us are "too good" for fast food. Sorry, we're not all temporarily embarrassed aristocrats. But some of you are, and that's OK. Some of you really are too good for Chipotle, and should aim higher. Maybe it's you, the chud reading this? Anyway, you can admire hard-working immigrants at the individual level. But it's OK to send most of them back, and wish them well in their future endeavors. Your ancestors spent centuries battling entropy so they could one day carve out a slice of heaven on earth. They didn't do that so you'd have to out-grind everyone on the planet to have a piece of it. By all means, pull those bootstraps and yank them hard. But that pretty, safe neighborhood? That high-trust society? That prosperous industry? They made it for you. They gave it to you. It's your birthright, anon. Claim it.