How Low Can We Go?

My heart sank the other day after I saw a meme re-posted on social media by a friend, someone whom I like and admire, well at least thought I did.

Like much of the rhetoric coming from the far right today, the meme is a troll to promote the culture wars, all the fashion it seems, by pissing off a large portion of the populace or as they like to say: "sticking it to the Libs". Well it certainly worked on this lib, by their definition of a lib anyway (that is to say anyone to the left of Attila the Hun); as it made my hair stand on end.

This particular troll employs a logical fallacy by expressing an opinion that while not altogether incorrect, (I'll get to that in a minute), was nonetheless outrageous because of its comparison of two disparate events taking place on opposite sides of the planet. 

This particular fallacy, one I didn't cover per se in my post last year on the subject, is called a "false equivalence fallacy". 

And boy is it ever.

In case you missed the post, you can read it here.

The meme presented a sentiment that to me anyway, expresses either remarkable ignorance, unconscionable indifference, or both.

Verbatim, broken up by some comments of mine in parenthesis, this is what the meme said:

If 10 thousand Russians (a number underestimated by about twenty-fold) crossing the Ukranian border is called an invasion, then why isn't the 2 million people crossing the American southern border not (sic) called an invasion?

My friend's only comment to the post were three "thinking face" emojis, as if to say: "hmmm... maybe this person has a point."

No, the person does not have a point. As any half-way intelligent five year old could point out, there is a world of difference between soldiers armed to the gills, entering a country in armored vehicles, tanks, fighter jets and other vehicles of war, with the intent of, in the words of Merriam Websters' first definition of the word invasion, "conquest or plunder", and individuals entering a country carrying little more than the clothes on their backs, with the sole intention of hopefully improving their lives. 

On the other hand, there is another definition of the word "invasion" that goes something like this:

An incursion by a large number of people or things into a place or sphere of activity.

By that definition, the two million (an only slightly exaggerated number) people crossing the U.S. southern border could in fact be called an "invasion."

So what?

If you're old enough to remember, so too was the phenomenon in the sixties of musical acts from Great Britain becoming famous upon these shores appropriately referred to tongue and cheek as the "British Invasion." 

Well that invasion had exactly as much in common with Vladimir Putin's degenerate war as does the current situation on our southern border.  

So what exactly is the point of that moronic comment?

Besides propagating the culture wars, it conveniently ties together two of the MAGA crowd's favorite talking points, opposition to immigration and opposition to this country's support of Ukraine in their ongoing battle for the survival of their nation. 

There are legitimate arguments one can make on both sides of the immigration issue, less so on the issue of Ukraine, but comparing the two is not legitimate. The one thing that unites the two issues is human rights, an issue that at least in my opinion, trumps all others. In the case of immigration, the current situation is untenable and while we must do our best to look out for our own interests, it is at least as important if not more to be compassionate to the struggles of our brothers and sisters, whatever country they come from. That said, solving the immigration issue is certainly not an easy task with a simple solution. 

To my mind anyway, the situation in Ukraine is far less complicated. Putin's war is illegitimate, there is no valid argument a sane person can make for it that could not be refuted by that same half-way intelligent five year old.

Lumping Russian soldiers and soldiers of fortune from other parts of the former Soviet Union sent by Putin to plunder, pillage, rape and murder innocent civilians in Ukraine together with immigrants crossing the U.S. border is beyond belief. And making the comparison between the Ukrainian victims of Putin's war to the "victims" of the immigration issue, i.e.: the American people, is heartless, cruel and downright stupid. 

Which shouldn't be surprising as this is what we have come to expect from these MAGA folks.

Have a nice day.