Racist memes spread after false claims that immigrants kill and eat pets.

[Pogo]

"As of May 2024, Haiti has no remaining elected government officials and has been described as a failed state.[33][34]"
"Historically poor and politically unstable, Haiti has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas.[39]"

Wiki.

Sounds like it's full of poor, desperate people to me.

First rule of holes.
When you are in one, stop digging.

 

[Rival]

First rule of holes.
When you are in one, stop digging.

Haiti is a failed state.

Therefore it's not ecomically viable.

Its citizens are poor.

Poors are more likely to steal.

Next.

 

[Spice]

"As of May 2024, Haiti has no remaining elected government officials and has been described as a failed state.[33][34]"
"Historically poor and politically unstable, Haiti has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas.[39]"

Wiki.

Sounds like it's full of poor, desperate people to me.

Many here have been watching the downfall of Haiti for more than a year. Missionaries this past Christmas had great difficulty with their deliveries. Those that have made it here are living a dream, economically, but I just heard a news report of one man who is becoming fearful due to this hype. He thought he had left that kind if fear behind.

Scripps News will have a documentary on the troubles in Haiti on Saturday night.

 

[Pogo]

Do you get jokes?

should have used this one first and saved the other one, oh well.

Time to go find beating a dead horse.

 

[icehorse]

Spoken like someone who has never been on the receiving end of racism

We have a lot of huge problems in the world. But I would place the following as all being more important than racism:

- ecological overshoot (e.g. climate change)
- a worldwide oligarchy that is poisoning every aspect of society
- the threat of nuclear war
- Islamism and it's attendant misogyny.

So is racism a problem? Absolutely. But it is not, "THE PROBLEM".

I think that if we were all honest, we'd agree that classism is a much bigger problem than racism, and that if we really tackled classism, a lot of racism would vanish.

And, fwiw, I've experienced racism a handful of times, but I'm a victim of classism every day, and so are you.

 

[Pogo]

Haiti is a failed state.

Therefore it's not ecomically viable.

Its citizens are poor.

Poors are more likely to steal.

Next.

Trump says we are a failing state, does that mean you see Americans with visa's as dangerous automatically?

You do know that immigrants to the US are less likely to commit crimes than other US citizens and further, the people in Springfield were drawn there by the jobs available that they are filling.

When you see a couple of Poles on a building site, do you assume that because Poland is poor relative to the UK they are stealing?
You really need to do some introspection.

 

[Rival]

Trump says we are a failing state, does that mean you see Americans with visa's as dangerous automatically?

You do know that immigrants to the US are less likely to commit crimes than other US citizens and further, the people in Springfield were drawn there by the jobs available that they are filling.

When you see a couple of Poles on a building site, do you assume that because Poland is poor relative to the UK they are stealing?
You really need to do some introspection.

Is that what I said?

Also yes, poor people from any background are more likely to steal. Everyone in my family has done it. Our foreign friends have done it. Nearly every poor person I know has done it. Stealing is so common it's why I'm acknowledging it may be going on.

Perhaps you have never stolen but nearly everyone I know has.

 

[Rival]

Is it surprising to people here that people in poor countries are more likely to steal? It's due to poverty, unsurprisingly. Not "race".

 

[Father Heathen]

View attachment 97053

We've already established earlier in this thread that the bottom picture wasn't related to Springfield. What did you hope to accomplish by spamming this?

 

[Father Heathen]

Is it surprising to people here that people in poor countries are more likely to steal? It's due to poverty, unsurprisingly. Not "race".

I don't think "surprise" has anything to do with it. Going around stealing and killing other people's pets is a serious accusation to make, regardless.

 

[Pogo]

Many here have been watching the downfall of Haiti for more than a year. Missionaries this past Christmas had great difficulty with their deliveries. Those that have made it here are living a dream, economically, but I just heard a news report of one man who is becoming fearful due to this hype. He thought he had left that kind if fear behind.

Scripps News will have a documentary on the troubles in Haiti on Saturday night.

1971

Papa Doc, a Ruthless Dictator, Kept the Haitians in Illiteracy and Dire Poverty (Published 1971)

illus with father in father's obituary

www.nytimes.com

 

[Father Heathen]

This is neither racist nor offensive. It's an inference from known facts.

Making a presumption or accusation based on one's race alone is still a bit racist. For example, just because cats are/were eaten in some rural parts of some Asian countries, it would still be pretty offensive to claim that Asians in general eat cats.

 

[Rival]

Making a presumption or accusation based on one's race alone is still a bit racist. For example, just because cats are/were eaten in some rural parts of some Asian countries, it would still be pretty offensive to claim that Asian's in general eat cats.

That wasn't my claim though. It was more nuanced than that. I made the case that some may be engaging in ritual sacrifice, be poor, and thus end up stealing in order to make the sacrifice. As someone who grew up around theft, this is the most straightforward argument to me.

Stealing animals for many reasons is common and as I've stated on this thread, Europeans tend to steal pets to make money. It's common here to the pont I'm baffled by the pushback on this. Unless pet theft is not common in the US I'm confused.

 

[Quagmire]

Falsely claiming that immigrants are taking the pets of American citizens (implied white citizens) to sacrifice and eat is racist

Not sure where you getting those implications from.

I've spent several hours between yesterday and today looking on the internet to see who's saying what about which, and probably half if not more of the people saying this is going on, or that it could be going on, are actually African American.

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

Note: I'm not offering any of this as evidence that it's actually going on, I'm just pointing out that, no, it isn't just white people saying this.

Edit: and really, the assumption that it's just white people making these claims is itself a pretty racist assumption.

 

[Quintessence]

Some of the pushback has to do with why the claim was made in the first place during the debate.

Assuming that the person who said it isn't simply bat guano insane (which was frankly my reading of it but let's pretend they aren't bat guano insane), they were not making any sort of well-reasoned argument. Their entire aim was to weaponize fear of the "other" to whip people up. This is not a new tactic from their rhetoric, even if this particular instance of it was especially unhinged. It also isn't unique to one party.

Conservative talking points have long framed migration as a threat to national identity, homeland security and economic stability. Politicians, from far-right populists to centrist liberals, use anti-immigrant narratives to deflect attention from deeper systematic issues such as affordable housing shortages, economic inequalities and failing public services. These narratives not only dehumanize immigrants but also create an environment of fear and hostility for everyone.

Even Harris’s immigration policies reflect this shift in rhetoric. Her focus on border enforcement and deterrence over more comprehensive immigration reform echoes Trump’s approach to securitize the border. Her controversial comments during a 2021 trip to Guatemala, where she told migrants, “do not come,” reinforced narratives that criminalize migration rather than address its root causes.

Beyond the Harris-Trump debate: How politicians use anti-immigrant rhetoric to mask systemic failures

Politicians increasingly frame migrants as threats to national identity, security and economic stability. This dehumanizes immigrants and creates an environment of fear and hostility for everyone.

theconversation.com

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I said it may be happening and here is why.

That's a logical deduction.

It's called playing Devil's Advocate.

I'm putting forward an argument.

You put forward an argument that's not derived from the claim. The claim is Haitian immigrants are stealing pets to eat them. Saying this may be happening as a part of animal sacrifice does not follow from the initial claim. There have been no claims of ritual sacrifice yet you introduced that as a means to make an adjusted claim seem plausible.
But it still has the problem other than social media stories (where lies heavily outwieght facts) there's no real evidence in the world to suggest it happened. According to everything we have these claims are as bogus as Qanon and Pizzagate.

 

[Rival]

You put forward an argument that's not derived from the claim. The claim is Haitian immigrants are stealing pets to eat them. Saying this may be happening as a part of animal sacrifice does not follow from the initial claim. There have been no claims of ritual sacrifice yet you introduced that as a means to make an adjusted claim seem plausible.
But it still has the problem other than social media stories (where lies heavily outwieght facts) there's no real evidence in the world to suggest it happened. According to everything we have these claims are as bogus as Qanon and Pizzagate.

I just connected two things that seemed to go together.

 

[Rival]

Not sure where you getting those implications from.

I've spent several hours between yesterday and today looking on the internet to see who's saying what about which, and probably half if not more of the people saying this is going on, or that it could be going on, are actually African American.

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

Note: I'm not offering any of this as evidence that it's actually going on, I'm just pointing out that, no, it isn't just white people saying this.

Edit: and really, the assumption that it's just white people making these claims is itself a pretty racist assumption.

I missed that. I don't get where all this race **** is coming from. I never said anything about white people.

 

[Father Heathen]

That wasn't my claim though. It was more nuanced than that. I made the case that some may be engaging in ritual sacrifice, be poor, and thus end up stealing in order to make the sacrifice. As someone who grew up around theft, this is the most straightforward argument to me.

Stealing animals for many reasons is common and as I've stated on this thread, Europeans tend to steal pets to make money. It's common here to the pont I'm baffled by the pushback on this. Unless pet theft is not common in the US I'm confused.

It happens, but American society still frowns upon the act of stealing and killing pets. The right has attempted to paint immigrants in general with these allegations and are using it as a political fearmongering campaign.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

JD Vance repeats baseless claim Haitian immigrants are eating pets as Ohio officials say there is no evidence

The viral claim about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, has garnered millions of views on X.

www.cbsnews.com

It seems the right is doubling down even after local police claimed there was no evidence to support the accusations.

It's what they do -- divide and conquer, you know. Make some people frightened of other people (especially of the other people are a minority), and you got yourself a loyal army of supporters.