Nativist Backlash

If there is one thing that I detest above all else it is the small-minded bigotry that undergirds nativism. The Anti-Naturals, inheritors of the promise of the Situationists, embrace cosmopolitanism as a bedrock principle; we will not let tribalism distract us from the real struggle against Capital and its enforcers.

So, it is with sadness and alarm, but not surprise, that I note the rise in nativism globally. I study immigrant neighborhoods in global cities, and have been detecting increasing signs of political opportunism oriented toward im/migration for a couple of years. But nativism is taking to the streets more recently, as a scan of the news reveals: you have the Bircher rally in DC, of course, and new hate groups in Japan as examples from just today.

It is distressing. The solution, I think, is a more public and militant cosmopolitanism. We have to answer these nuts preaching nation and "patriotism" with the mockery and insults that they deserve.