Current Events > calling immigrants aliens is okay?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Maybe I'm shouting at clouds here, but the apathy towards those words is gross. Maybe apathy isn't the right word.
I thought we moved beyond calling immigrants aliens. It's completely dehumanizing and really needs to be called out way more.
Trump seemed to open the door on debate night.

Am i just shouting at clouds or what?

no you're totally right

it's weird bc it absolutely shouldn't be acceptable, but because of the severity of everything else that's getting said it just doesn't seem as bad in comparison

Alien is basically legalese for immigrant.

I was really hoping the moderators or Walz was gonna address that...once. "please refer to humans as humans." Walz got close a couple times talking about how things are demonized.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien

It has a lot of different meanings honestly.

Originally that was what "alien" meant. Basically the same as "foreign." Obviously since it came to mean extraterrestrial life that makes it an ugly word to use to refer to human beings. Legal language still has it just because it's too hard to go back and change everything--legalese has a lot of outdated language for this reason.

In real life, people have generally stopped using it to refer to people because of the ugly connotations. You're conjuring up the idea that they're not even human. But recently conservatives are trying to bring it back, because they like those connotations.

We have.

The current terminology is "undocumented," if I recall correctly.

Someone isn't following your updated language guidelines? Oh heavens nooooooo!

shnangyboos posted...

Someone isn't following your updated language guidelines? Oh heavens nooooooo!

3/10, do better next time.

Yeah, its all about the connotations. Its not technically incorrect, but its not being used in a benign way.

Its the same as how some people will label white immigrants with means as expats (regardless of whether or not the word really fits) but anybody poor or not white is still an immigrant. Its definitely done with an agenda.

Alien is a term of art, in the context of immigration. It's the term used by the US Government. For example, there is a special visa for "aliens of extraordinary talent". All legal permanent residents (AKA green card holders) are assigned identification numbers that start with "A", for Alien.

Someone isn't following your updated language guidelines? Oh heavens nooooooo!

There, there. We all know you would prefer to use worse.

How loud did you cheer when Trump lied about people eating pets?

As someone who wasnt born here myself, undocumented immigrants is genuinely the more egregious word choice. To be an immigrant is to go through the emigration process, which is nothing but documentation. Its a candy coated phrase that never made sense. By all accounts, an alien, whether a resident or nonresident, is a foreigner in your country. The space alien term uses the same root, but has only been in common use for a few decades instead of a few centuries.

That said, I do see the problems that occur with people using language abusively. The easiest example is urban, a completely normal word that sounds different when coming from upper class white snobs. But when people use proper language as an insult, I dont feel we need to shy away from the words. I think its just an opportunity to openly condemn the individuals and prevent them from dictating how words are perceived.

Just call those Mayflower society types what they really are; the descendants of hostile alien invaders.

changing terminology doesnt really change the underlying meaning. for that reason it makes no sense to change the terminology. call them undocumented, and now the new insult is undocumented

shnangyboos posted...

Sorry, fellas, a handful of people decided a change was necessary. Acquiesce or be bad, those are your options.

Its always awkward when someone pulls out the cold storage alt for incredibly obvious baiting.

Words change meaning over time. Alien could mean foreigner but nowadays people use it for extraterrestrials.

Similarly, the word "barbarian" in its original Ancient Greek context meant non-Greek speaker. The Ancient Greeks used that term to describe people around them like the Egyptians, Thracians and Persians. In the modern day the word is mostly associated with "primitive" people or acts of extreme violence. The Ancient Greeks did use the word "agrios" to describe "uncivilized" people in a similar way to its modern usage.

sfcalimari posted...

Alien is basically legalese for immigrant.

It shouldn't be. I'm pretty sure "negro" was once legalese for African Americans and black Africans. It's not acceptable anymore, and the language in most government documents has since been changed to reflect that.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

g too many voters. Its sad how well its working. Democrats have moved much farther right against immigration as a result.
Sadly, this is a problem everywhere and not just in the US. Recent overseas elections have highlighted as much. I don't understand why such a huge percentage of the industrial world's population is frightened by immigrants and demographics change.