# "\[Immigrants\] breed like rabbits"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [May 25, 2019, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483 "2019-05-25T00:46:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/162 "2019-06-16T19:14:21Z")

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> [@Bone](#):
>
> Your whole ouvre rests on the idea that one party and perhaps its members are evil. With that as a foundation, it’s not surprising that ideas that don’t align with yours are seen as trolling.
> 
> This isn’t unheard of on the boards either. For some, the idea that people hold various views is unfathomable and as a result the only explanation that makes sense to them is that the other person must be trolling.
> 
> If you want to have actual discussion sans animosity and personal insults, then you’ll have to suppress the need to call folks who disagree with you trolls. Or you can stick to the Pit and go nuts.

So immigrants breed like rabbits is a point worthy of discussion?

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**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/163 "2019-06-16T19:18:59Z")

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> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> So immigrants breed like rabbits is a point worthy of discussion?

I invite you to read post #24 and #26 in this thread:

> [@Bone](#):
>
> Perhaps. But I’ve seen this type of rationale from the other side of the coin used quite often - that demographics favor X group, or some other iteration that basically hinges on birth rates and immigration rates of various demographics and whatever policy implications that may lead to. If I interpreted in the most favorable way possible, I could see the sentiment expressed in the post in question as a very inartful way of describing similar ideas.

> [@Bone](#):
>
> If I had to bet, I’d say no. But I don’t know for certain, and expressing nationalistic sentiment is not forbidden. If a person expresses the idea that they want to limit immigration because the changing demographics encourages other changes they don’t like, that is an idea that can be debated. The principle is that more debate is better than less, even when some specific ideas by themselves could be a net negative, the general principle of more debate rather than less makes the board better.

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/164 "2019-06-16T19:24:40Z")

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So, again - should it be the forum policy that bigotry is not allowed, or that it is allowed if it is _politely expressed_?

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**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/165 "2019-06-16T19:26:53Z")

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> [@Bone](#):
>
> Your whole ouvre rests on the idea that one party and perhaps its members are evil.

A position I feel more than willing to defend, and which I think you’ll find a lot of people here share since… Well, see my signature.

As usual, euphemisms are doing a lot of heavy lifting. I don’t think advocating for a lower tax rate is evil. I don’t think advocating for less restrictions on guns is evil. I think defending neo-nazis is evil. I think lying about the law for partisan benefit is evil. I think running concentration camps is evil. I think dehumanizing and attacking LGBT people is evil. These are not abstract positions, and it’s not even a little unreasonable to treat the people who push for and hold them as evil.

> [@](#):
>
> With that as a foundation, it’s not surprising that ideas that don’t align with yours are seen as trolling.

It’s not just that they don’t align with me. It’s views that are fundamentally indefensible in any rational discussion. Like, to the point where you’re necessarily either so crazy that it’s not worth communicating with you, or you’re arguing in blatant bad faith.

Insane conspiracy theories. Stupid bullshit “whataboutism”. Needling and prodding at a thread until someone finally takes the bait. This kind of shit is cute for - charitably - a few minutes when dealing with people whose beliefs are largely harmless (flat earthers for example), and considerably less cute when dealing with, oh, say, the president pardoning a psychopathic serial killer before said killer’s court martial.

Hell, in the most recent example, you flat-out told the guy “don’t post in this thread again because your post is such a stupid distraction - but also, this isn’t trolling”, a mod decision I cannot help but find a little bizarre given both the poster in question’s contributions to the thread _and_ the overall pattern we’ve seen. That PM I sent you was not a joke, mind you - this shit is super easy to spot.

> [@](#):
>
> If you want to have actual discussion sans animosity and personal insults, then you’ll have to suppress the need to call folks who disagree with you trolls.

Without the ability to understand that there are a great many people here who are operating in bad faith, a lot of these conversations make no sense. Like… imagine there’s a poster who claims to be a lawyer. And imagine this poster consistently argues legal positions that would make a Free-Man-On-The-Land blush while insisting that, yeah, they’re definitely an expert in the field. Past a certain point, the fact that that poster is definitely lying about something becomes a feature of the conversation that cannot be overlooked if the conversation is to make any sense.

Why yes, I would like to have actual discussion. [It’s really, really, _really_ hard to do sometimes](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21630743#post21630743).

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/166 "2019-06-16T22:46:41Z")

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> [@Unreconstructed\_Man](#):
>
> TBH, anyone who thinks Quillette is “The smart racist’s Breitbart news” simply isn’t capable of deciding whether or not anyone is a “Nazi or a troll”.

Indeed, BPC is doing a marvelous job of illustrating my point.

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**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/167 "2019-06-17T05:22:27Z")

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Let’s be honest, the Dope skews old and white, and this lack of diversity affects how we react (or often don’t react) to overt bigotry expressed here.

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**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/168 "2019-06-17T08:13:49Z")

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> [@SlackerInc](#):
>
> Indeed, BPC is doing a marvelous job of illustrating my point.

[https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21701299#post21701299](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21701299#post21701299)

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**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/169 "2019-06-17T11:31:06Z")

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Since we are in ATMB: Why does my User CP keep falsely indicating new posts ITT? Third time now. :dubious:

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immigrants-breed-like-rabbits/834483/170 "2019-06-17T13:55:58Z")

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You know, this thread has run it’s course. Everyone stand back, take a breath and come back to fight another day.

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