Qin, I’ve already noted you - and warned someone else - about your insinuations about Rubio’s sexuality. Being coy and putting his name in pink only demonstrates that you know exactly what you’re doing.
If you wish to continue posting at the SDMB you will straighten up immediately.
From today’s perspective, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism looks starkly different than Christianity, but in the nineteenth century the Protestant majority (when they were not bickering over whether Baptists or Methodists should be regarded as acceptable) looked on the incoming Catholics as utterly removed from good “American” values.
There were fierce tracts issued right up to WWII warning of the dangers of Southern and Eastern Europeans.
And while there were immigrant communities in the U.S. who held on to their religion, language, and foods right up until the 1950s, Doug Saunders has demonstrated that the Muslim immigrants to Europe (from both the M.E.N.A. region as well as from Iraq, Iran, and India), (prior to the current war-driven migration), were assimilating quite well into European culture.
Assimilation is always an issue and there are groups who readily assimilate and groups who do not so readily assimilate–and the rate of assimilation is often based on the welcome or hostility they face on the local level.
Most immigrants to the U.S. today come from Latin America and the Caribbean. If there is such a thing as “Western Civilization” that includes both Europe and the U.S., then it also includes Latin America and the Caribbean. What’s the difference?
Yes, I actually mentioned Australia to my students as an example (there are many others) of why “American exceptionalism” is mostly such a crock. They engaged in a respectful and interesting debate with each other about this (“American exceptionalism” in all its guises, not jus about immigration.)
Back in January, we were at my FIL’s for his birthday. Somehow, the conversation turned to the election, at which point he offered that Trump had a lot of good ideas, and that his second choice would be Ben Carson. A statement like that pretty much knocked my wife and me back on our heels, and we quickly changed the topic. So they are out there, you just need to know where to look.
I’d love to pick the brain of one of the Trump supporters they found on the Triumph Hulu election special. They had segments with fake Fox News reporters asking Republicans about various “breaking news” absurdities. My favorite: the dude who responded to “did Trump go too far in calling for Puerto Ricans to be sterilized ‘until we get this thing figured out’?” with an enthusiastic “he’s not going far enough!”. Jesus.