Why a MAGA-like border policy, foreign policy, and energy policy should be framed together as an attack on developing countries
3mon 14d ago by slrpnk.net/u/activistPnk in immigration@slrpnk.net
The recipe for disaster goes like this:
- tighten your border: unleash hard-assed ICE bullies; stop approving renewals on existing visas, then deport those with expired docs
- drain their brains - exceptionally allow privileged immigration of engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, etc, those who are most needed to develop their homeland are poached from their homeland
- cut off aid to foreign countries
- impose tariffs, but then do deals with other developed countries. Make the deals better for other MAGA (immigration-hostile) nations and lousy for charitable socially responsible immigration friendly countries like Spain
- promote fossil fuels and penalize green energy suppliers - push climate denal as climate change impacts developing countries the hardest (the same countries with minimal contribution to the problem)
Did I miss anything?
Shouldn’t this collectively be regarded as an attack on developing countries? Just as corporations and billionaires are extractionist, whole MAGA-like countries also behave as large-scale extractionists.
These issues are always presented separately in the press. But it seems like the press could do more justice by putting them together. E.g. whenever a journalist reports an anti-immigration move, they should also bring up the brain drain and aid cuts at the same time. It should be presented together as an assault on developing countries.
How should we name this practice? Maybe woke spelled backwards?
EKOW: enshitify and keep others worse
I really dislike the term "developing country" as it is in many ways too broad to actually be useful. There are huge differences between Brazil and Mali, but both fit the definition of developing. That being said I disagree with some points.
The brain drain is probably the biggest one. Moving to the US is going to improve a lot of peoples quality of life for sure, but not if ICE throws you into a prison cell for no reason. It is therefore much more likely they stay at home or move to another country, where that sort of stuff does not happen. More so with Trump blocking the processing of Visas for 75 countries!
You forgot the military actions Trump is taking on. The kidnapping of Maduro is a huge direct threat to Latin America. The current bombing of Iran has already caused chaos in the region. That has increased oil prices a lot. The poorer a country, the more of their wealth is spend on energy.
Brazil
Brazil is indeed expected to be the next developed country. It’s on the edge of it, regarded as neck-and-neck with India around 10 years ago.. but now ahead if India if you are using HDI: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/developed-countries
In any case, “developing country” is the broad abstraction that suits this particular thread. HDI would be too narrow in the context of the effects of extractionism.
Brain drain
The brain drain is something the US has done historically. Trump may indeed not be doing a brain-drain, as he has a habit of shooting himself in the foot and working against his own intentions as a consequence of cognitive dissonance. Recall that Trump famously said “Mexico is not sending their best.. they are sending rapists, murderers, ..” Implying before his 1st term that he would gladly drain Mexico of their “best” (those with highly skilled talent).
You focus on Trump but he is not the only game in town. The thread is broadly about MAGA-like nations and movements therein. There is a MAGA movement in S.Korea now (Make Korea Great Again). Poland has locked down their border to an illegal extent, and decided to just pay the EU’s fines of ~€1 million/year. There is a tendency to beat asylum seekers off with a stick while opening the doors to anyone meeting a standard of skill or wealth. This is the brain drain that keeps countries down.
Whether one country in particular does a brain drain is interesting to discuss but it does not make or break the thesis of the OP.
Military interventionalism
You forgot the military actions Trump is taking on.
The idea is that it’s a collection of general policies that form a “recipe” for a developed country to keep less developed countries down. Military attacks are generally seen as an attack, unlike the other actions I listed which are less obvious. Specific military operations likely exacerbate the EKOW problem but I would not want Poland to escape scrutiny on the basis that they are not doing the same. This thread is about identifying a 5-factor pattern that’s emerging in MAGA-like regimes. The US is unique in the extent of its military force and will to use it to intervene globally.
You must also realise that military intervention does not necessarily inherently ruin a country. It often does, but it’s also possible that helping a country become developed could potentially be done by forcefully removing a corrupt dictator (nation building).