Shove your "civilizational suicide" JD Vance.

I know it’s not news that JD Vance is a prick but man is JD Vance a prick. Here he is, expounding on how Germany will “kill itself” by letting in asylum seekers and immigrants.

“Europe is at risk of engaging in civilizational suicide,” he said recently. “If Germany allows another few million immigrants to come in from countries that are totally culturally incompatible with Germany … Germany will have killed itself,” the husband of a daughter of immigrants opined.

He often says things like this, echoing immigrant Elon Musk’s invocation of “suicidal empathy,” the idea that Western civilization will collapse if Europe welcomes more refugees.

As it turns out, these two pricks’ arrogant meddling in Europe’s politics lowered support for the fascist parties in recent elections, which is pretty funny (“Legalize comedy!”). In that regard, I guess they should be applauded for saving Western civilization.

But the vilification of immigrants—paired with whisking them away to a foreign gulag against a judge’s order, say—is not just morally repugnant. It’s pathetic denialism; imperialist self-delusion about Western cultural superiority.

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Let’s take one example. I’ve been hanging out with young Syrian refugees for a book. They’re men roughly in their early to mid-20s, because the border crossings are too hard and risky for other groups. We’ll get to them in a sec.

First, close your eyes and picture your average, upper-middle class, 23-year-old American man. Has he faced enormous hardship, yet persevered? (I guess there’s “Call of Duty.”) Is he resilient in the face of adversity? Mentally and physically strong? Brave? Does he have a strong moral compass? Pursue meaningful relationships? Sacrifice his needs to fulfill his duty to others?