rant · moment 12 of 18
Deporting Assimilated Immigrants and the Harvard Med School Outrage
from A Country of Laws · #61
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
6 minTim makes a substantive argument about immigration debate being co-opted by racial resentment, discussing a friend's girlfriend facing deportation and a viral outrage story about a legal immigrant getting into Harvard Medical School.
- 37:24Tim's position on immigration: he's open to debates about security and economics, but targeting already-assimilated, productive immigrants frames the issue as racial resentment rather than policy.
- 38:40An Instagram post about immigrant statistics—95% working or in school—gets criticized by someone demanding the definition of 'working,' leading to absurd semantic nitpicking.
- 39:43Tim argues against the obsession with 'following the law'—the nation-of-laws rhetoric is code for something darker, rooted in his experience growing up where betrayal was the worst sin.
- 41:12A viral tweet claims a Spanish illegal immigrant took a Harvard Medical School spot from someone else, but Tim counters that rejected applicants still have options and these immigrants worked hard for their achievements.
- 41:55The resentment toward immigrants comes from mediocre people with poor character, never from wealthy or powerful figures like James Baker, who don't publicly attack individual immigrants.
- 42:28This anti-immigrant sentiment is a low-class appeal to the lowest common denominator, and Tim questions what the Republican Party even stands for anymore.
immigrationRepublican PartyHarvard Medical SchoolJames BakerSheldon AdelsonWarren Buffett