The birthplace of U.S. President Donald Trump’s director of personnel has been the subject of media speculation — fuelled by his refusal to answer the question.

  • dan1101@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    It’s not xenophobia, it’s the fact this person is from our biggest rival for decades, a country that is our political and military rival. Russia is widely suspected of hacking and election influencing and interference in this country. It would be different if he was from Finland or something, not many would have a problem with that.

    • setsubyou@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      He’s not from Russia though. He was born in Uzbekistan and he was 5 when the Soviet Union collapsed. He grew up in Malta and in the US.

      • dan1101@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Ah that’s a bit different. The next question is did he hate being under Soviet rule or does he miss those days.

        • SheeEttin@lemmy.zip
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          4 days ago

          He was a child and moved away very young. He isn’t qualified to have an opinion on it.

    • Solumbran@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      So Russians are by default evil because of their country written on their passport? Or is it about where they’re born? Maybe about their ancestry? Or about their “ethnicity”?

      Once you start allowing discrimination based on “origin”, the difference between that and pure racism is just a blur.

      Is the guy a spy? Is the guy having ties with another government? Is he behaving in a suspicious way? Those are what matter, his “country” doesn’t, and the fact that people are immediately rushing to say that he’s from Russia shows the intention behind it: to apply a stereotype to someone they don’t like.

      As I said, I’m sure that you can find a lot of dirt on this guy that has nothing to do with his ID papers. Right now people are playing like Trump trying to cast doubt on the immigration status of his opponent: they are trying to use a stereotype based on origin to make someone look bad, without any further argument.

      At some point people need to stop thinking that morals are something that you can ignore freely whenever you want.