Donald Trump made clear on the Philadelphia debate stage this week, as he has throughout his three presidential campaigns, the basis of his run for office. Trump is running on the platform that non-white immigration is an existential threat to the nation. This time around, Trump has made his primary message, the so-called Great Replacement Theory (GRT), more vivid than ever. It is therefore of existential importance in understanding the stakes of this election to have clearly in mind what has happened in the past when GRT has been the central driving narrative both of individuals and of states.

According to the Great Replacement Theory, the nation’s greatness, its traditions and its practitioners, are existentially imperiled by an influx of foreign races, ethnicities or religions. The foreign elements are sometimes described in the narrative of GRT, as vermin or diseases.

GRT was central to the official Nazi motivation for the genocide of the Jews of Europe. Hitler blamed the loss of World War I on Jewish betrayal of Germany. But this betrayal, for Hitler, was intimately connected to the Great Replacement Theory, via the introduction of Black soldiers in the French army subsequently occupying the Rhineland, the so-called “Black Horror on the Rhine.” In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes:

  • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    I’ve got a theory of my own: anyone afraid of being “replaced” isn’t that great, and should actually be replaced. Bigots, feel free to go back where you came from.

  • LouNeko@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    US uses predominantly black slaves to achieve in a century what other countries did in a millennia

    Free’s slaves

    US: “Thank you black people for what you’ve done for this country.”

    Black people: “And…?”

    US: “And… now, get the fuck out.”

  • btaf45@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    Trump is throwing up shit everywhere just to see what sticks. He also promised billionaires that he is going to hand out an unlimited number of green cards to foreigners to work American jobs and lower American wages. Trump is actually an immigration extremist at both ends.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/donald-trump-immigration-expansionist/

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fans-rebel-over-immigration-proposal-green-card-college/

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      GRT is one of the strongest ideological narratives of current racists.

      It really should be.

      If I was illiterate racist redneck trash in the south, I’d be terrified when decent people who actually believe in work and are far better Christians than I always scream I am show up.

      Trash is embarrassed when they’re compared next to not-trash.

        • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          I love lower-class people everywhere else.

          Just not the racist filth in the south.

          We ended reconstruction early.

          Their cruelty towards those poorer than them (just because they had a different skin color) is even worse.

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    I mean, I didn’t read the article, but anyone can go look at the demographics over time and see that white people are having less babies, and becoming less of a majority every census. It’s not a theory, it’s statistical fact.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      How much of that is because the same racists focused on “replacement” decided that they will judge children using the same “one drop” bullshit they have always used so they can exclude more people from “whiteness?”

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      The theory isn’t the statistic. The statistic is true. The theory is that there is a concentrated effort to replace white culture, values and people. In reality, white people have just been well off long enough that our culture has shifted away from having a ton of children.

      Plus, the entire premise is predicated on the idea that having fewer white people, relative to other ethnic groups, is a bad thing. It’s not, but the people who give this theory the time of day are racist, so they see it as a problem. It is not.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’ve seen racists online whining about media showing mixed race couples as part of their conspiracy theories. But it requires a bunch of racist assumptions to say that children there are not carrying on their parents’ culture and traditions.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      That doesn’t mean you’re being replaced. It means demographics are changing, like they always do.

      If you feel threatened by that, you do you, but I don’t give a shit.

    • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      The theory isn’t about birth rates. The theory is that it’s a nefarious purposefully planned event by the illuminati

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Well that bit is more about importing cheap abusable labor, and making talking about it into something that’s perceived to be racist

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      And this only matters to people who think that “whiteness” is somehow better than “non-whiteness.”

      • NABDad@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Or people who know how minorities are treated and are therefore afraid to become one.

    • Gerudo@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      The issue is, do you see that as a problem? Yes, our demographic is changing, no one is denying it. To the vast majority of people, it’s not a problem though.

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        The issue isn’t one of race. It’s of defeating unions by importing cheap abusable labor. The propoganda here is making it out to be racist, when it’s a class issue.