Hacker News Reader

Comment by clock_tower | Hacker News Reader

The three items you list -- anti-intellectualism and love of physical action; xenophobia and fear of subversion; national or tribal supremacism -- remind me of the Scotch-Irish, especially the lowland Scotch-Irish who've traded in their dulcimers, moonshine, and family feuds for NASCAR, OxyContin, and Christian Dominionism.

How does one convince a society, especially a very xenophobic society, to abandon characteristics that make it unusually vulnerable to fascism?

View on HN

You integrate it. You integrate the economy throughout the country so that the economic interests of West Virginians are aligned with Silicon Valley and Manhattan and Alabama. This means decentralization and access to opportunity for all, not a winner-take-all system.

You allow for differences, as well. Cultural differences such as a rural/urban divide should not be exacerbated by smarmy elitism in either direction. You do this not by highlighting differences (extreme PCism or racism/bigotry) but by fostering an attitude among our peoples of love towards their fellow person. That our differences are there, but that they don't ultimately matter.

-----

Obviously our country (and others) have a long way to go with a lot of hard work ahead of us.

To expand upon your last sentence, " That our differences are there, but that they don't ultimately matter." I thik that we can in fact, we can celebrate our differences as they make us unique. However, with regards love towards our fellow person, as you said, the differences shouldn't hinder that.

I think you may have the Scotch-Irish, at least the ones living around Scotland and Ireland wrong. They have never been particularly fascist and I have not noticed them being unusually xenophobic. In the recent Brexit vote it was the English who voted out, not the Scots or Irish.

Presumbly it is the American ones (such as myself) being referred to - separated from their relatives by more than a century and a half https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_Americans

Exactly. For some reason, colonies preserve the cultures that settled them, while their homeland counterparts continue to change. The Scotch-Irish of 300 years ago, who still live in the US today, are profoundly different from the modern Scotch-Irish -- and for some reason have never adapted to an environment of peace and security.

(Possibly because the US is less peaceful and secure... but part of that is perception, and/or a product of people expecting it to be.)

He's referring to the ones who settled in the US Appalachian region in the 1800s.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com