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Comment by quantummagic | Hacker News Reader

> border fascism

I hope you keep to your principles and make sure not to lock your doors at night, and don't deny anyone the right to live in your house with you for free if they desire.

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Sorry I must brake away from HN guidelines here: But this is an infinitely dumb comparison. I can’t even begin to fathom what kind of endless ignorance and prejudges can possess a person to speak such stupid words.

A persons house is not the same as a border. You are comparing apples to grocery stores here. An immigrant can simply build another house next to mine if they want it. You can have open borders and private residence at the same time. One does not exclude the other.

Now please, take your racism somewhere else.

Typical response. Defending my home isn't racist. And your willingness to use that accusation is pathetic and not really worthy of a response... but understand that a border is the same concept be it for a home, for a community, for a city, or for a nation. Your dismissal is not cogent, it just hides utter misunderstanding of reality, and a desire to make other people pay a price you're not willing to pay yourself.

> understand that a border is the same concept be it for a home, for a community, for a city, or for a nation

People from other cities may enter my city, but people from other homes may not enter my home. These concepts are not the same, nor are they close, nor are they comparable.

They are exactly comparable. The concept is exactly the same. We have borders and protected areas, and it is reasonable to make restrictions on other people based on those borders. It is not racist.

> We have borders and protected areas, and it is reasonable to make restrictions on other people based on those borders.

I agree.

However, in the prior comment you made a much stronger statement, implying that a principled person must, if they open their country's borders, also open their home's borders.

This claim is unreasonable. My city's borders are completely open, and yet my home's borders are not. Similarly, my country's borders can be completely open, without my home's borders needing to be so, too.

> It is not racist.

I did not call you racist, and I agree that doing so does not add value to a discussion.

"Advocating open national borders means you must let random strangers live in your house" a truly reasonable and not at all disingenuous argument. On par with "advocating socialism means you must let random strangers use your toothbrush".

Misrepresenting the argument is not a good look. The argument is that everyone believes in borders. And that borders aren't racist. The only question is where we personally accept them being drawn. But NOBODY believes they're inherently all bad. Not even the people who pretend to do so, and are all too happy to throw around accusations of fascism and racism, to appeal to base emotion rather than logical and practical arguments.

But the person you are responding to didn't say "any and all borders are racist, including borders in your own home". You are the one misrepresenting their argument.

I don't know if you're being intentionally obtuse, or you genuinely believe what you're saying. I was the one saying that a border is a border, and you had better have a good explanation as to why the national border is fundamentally different from your home. If it's okay to protect your home, why is it WRONG to protect your country? See? I was putting the OP to the test: why is one just fine, but the other reprehensible? Instead, the OP responded with accusations of racism.

There is a lot of space in my country that is not actively used as living space. On the other hand, 100% of the space in my home is actively used as living space.

Comparing a country and a home is a poor comparison.

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