"GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY." HATE SPEECH?

Photo from Getty Images: Representative Ilhan Omar

Telling someone obnoxious to go back to that person's country of origin may be indelicate or rude, but I strongly disagree with those who are howling "hate speech" about it. And I find the premise that this is racist speech to be laughable.

How are countries suddenly referred to as races by The Left side of politics? When did it become hate speech to verbally express an opinion obnoxiously? How did America's public dialogue become so polarized and simply stupid? Why are we being encouraged to be fearful cowards by media and politicians?

Let me explain how I have skin in this game. 

First, I am an old gay White man with AIDS. Want to talk about being dissed? As a young homosexual, I grew up bathed in homophobic rhetoric. It didn't kill me, and it didn't make me feel compelled to get castrated to pretend to be a straight woman. There was the Gay Leper thing that came with the AIDS epidemic. There was open talk in media and on the street about setting up gay concentration camps, etc.. And now, as an old White man, anyone can take a cheap shot at me with impunity. And they sometimes do.

As for non-American-roots thing, I was raised in a house where Russian was the domestic language. My grandmother, an immigrant peasant from Belarus, ruled the roost. She could not read, write or do math in any language. She was surveilled by the FBI during WWII because her son worked for the U.S. Defense Department. 

Through much of my early life, I felt I had no place in America. I would have been relieved to be able to go to a gay country, no matter how poor or beleaguered. Hence, my support of Israel. I get the idea of a Jewish homeland. So, suggesting going to a more congenial country as a viable option to immigrants who hate American identity (nationalism) does not strike me as the least bit hateful. 

I was mocked by nuns in grammar school because I found it very hard to read. They made references to my Russian family background. It was the 1950's-1960's Red Scare period. It turned out I was both dyslexic and horribly near-sighted, but the "Commie" slur stuck with my peers. 

Was this painful? Yes. Did it kill me? Obviously, it did not. Did it prevent me from having a socially integrated life in which I made my own contributions to society as well as supporting myself and sometimes others? Absolutely not. Did it make me understand life more deeply than if I had been coddled? Yes, most definitely.

Dalai Lama recently shocked people who promote open borders by telling Europeans to stand up for their own countries and cultures. Was this hate speech? Or was it the wisdom of a compassionate man whose small nation was rolled over by Communist Chinese normalization through colonization? Not a dissimilar process to the forced globalism of today. 

"Go back to your own country." is no threat in this age of dual citizenship. In fact, it can be seen as a privilege for those who simply follow the rules. Dual citizens can travel back and forth at will, and often do to their advantage. 

"Go back to your own country." might well be taken as an indicator that one's behavior is not appropriate in American culture. The intelligent person might benefit from this. The intelligent person might well try harder to learn how to better assimilate for that person's own benefit. Especially if that person is expected to represent fellow Americans in Congress. 

Countries are not races. The amalgamation of the two concepts is a cynical rhetorical ploy. Only the ignorant would fall for it. Only the devious would employee it to shame or manipulate. 

Why is this hate speech mania being employed by politicians and corporate media? Think about it. I am pretty sure anyone with an IQ over 100 can figure it out, if prone to do so. However, if you are invested in a shaming team which hopes to attain power by being devious and manipulative, you will not be prone to live more ethically and honestly. You will simply join in the unproductive bickering, while nothing of value for society will likely come from you as a thinking individual.