In the aftermath of yet another right wing terrorist’s murderous rampage I have seen a plethora of articles decrying the blatantly antisemitic and racist great replacement theory that posits a cabal of Democrats and Jews are involved in a conspiracy to replace “real Americans,” aka white christians, with dirty and criminal people of color but none addressing the basic fallacy of that idea. This racist conspiracy theory has become de rigueur on the right, espoused by the likes of Tucker Carlson, Elise Stefanik, Matt Gaetz and an ever expanding list of mass murderers. Not only is this theory racist and antisemitic, it is an incredibly stupid explanation for the demographic change the US is experiencing. The United States is becoming more diverse for two simple reasons: The end to explicitly and de facto racist immigration laws and the fact that people emigrate to improve their lives and the opportunities for their children. A simple internet search on life expectancy and median income will tell you the average life expectancy in Norway in 2021 was 82.64 years. In the US life expectancy in 2021 plummeted to 76.60 years due to Covid and our terrible healthcare system. In El Salvador the life expectancy for 2021 was 73.63 years. The median income for Norway was $22,684, for the US $19,306 and El Salvador was $3,095. Without even getting into the vastly superior access to education, healthcare and childcare the Norwegian government provides for their citizens compared to the US, why would any parent want their children to make less money and die younger by moving from Norway to the United States? On the other hand a parent in El Salvador can be virtually certain that immigrating to the US will dramatically improve the lives of their children. It’s simple to see why we are becoming less lily white and it doesn’t take a lazy, racist, antisemitic conspiracy theory to explain why.
P.S. I would love to live next door to a mother that cared enough about her child to walk 1,600 miles with them from El Salvador for a better life and would be justifiably terrified of a “real American” neighbor with an assault rifle and an unshakable belief in racist conspiracy theories.