NIMBY, New York City | “This problem will destroy New York City.”

NIMBY. You may be familiar with this term. “Not in my backyard” in Norwegian.

Imagine someone who really wants green energy, but gets very angry when wind turbines appear in their area. Or someone who is very pro-immigration becomes concerned when a reception is held next to his children’s school.

“Hypocrite” is another word for this. But it’s frustratingly common.

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These are two standard examples. NIMBY is often simple, often purely geographical. But I think this term is underused, if it is a single word.

He saw the light when the daughter became a lesbian

Several years ago I read about a Republican politician whose name I can’t remember. He has seen the light. The spotlight in this case was gay rights. Among other things, this man has been against gay marriage all his life. But then he found out that his daughter was gay. (No, it wasn’t Dick Cheney.) After doing some soul-searching, he discovered that he ultimately supported same-sex marriage.

For this he received a lot of praise. I never understood why. It is fair for people to change their minds after receiving new information. But why is it commendable not to take the right side of such a matter if you don’t get it right yourself?

It’s more like a lack of empathy than anything else.

It can also be flipped. Let’s say you’re far from the financially liberal side. People spend time complaining about welfare recipients and sailors. Then you get sick and lose your job. Suddenly she is dependent on support from the state, which she believes is fair and reasonable.

But most of the time the good old version will do the trick. And if you have a role in the public eye, you have to be very careful about putting yourself in that position. It is usually self-selected.

In New York we now see traditional NIMBY on steroids.

Buses and planes with migrants

For many years, Democrats have accused Donald Trump and everyone who agrees with him in tightening immigration of racism. Maybe they were right. But New York Mayor Eric Adams appears to have set a trap for himself.

New York is one of the cities that has been declared to be one of “Sanctuary cities” in the United States of America. These are the cities where illegal immigrants are supposed to be Relatively safe from involuntary transmissionBecause it limits cooperation with the authorities responsible for this. At the same time, they complained that states that receive many immigrants complain that they have to accept too many immigrants.

Some Republican governors think, “It’s easy for you to say this is too far.” Especially him in Texas. And he started To bus and fly migrants to The Big Apple (And in other places).

Now New York receives 10,000 new immigrants a month. About 110,000 people live at the city’s expense in various hotels.

Reactions were not long in coming.

These are not the most expensive parts of the city where these people settle. The development was not popular with local residents. They complain about crime and littering at large meetings at City Hall.

REVERSE PROXY NIMBY?

When this happens in other countries, liberal media and Democratic politicians write about racism. It’s not that easy in this case. At these meetings, there are very few white people to be seen. This pattern is now being repeated in several cities in the blue states in the north.

Read more comments from Espen Goffeng

“How about we give them our politicians’ addresses and ask them to live in their backyards, in their basements, in their homes,” says a woman in a poor area of ​​Chicago. “This is about being human.” A politician answers Who do not live in the place where the migrants will be accommodated.

What will we call this? REVERSE PROXY NIMBY?

However, it’s a clear case of how things work when you want to pursue policies that affect people negatively without suffering the consequences yourself.

It all came to a head last week.

“You will destroy New York City.”

New York’s black Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, took the stage and spoke He made statements Which will be interpreted in textual form as coming from hardcore MAGA voters.

“I’ve never had a problem that I can’t see an end to. This problem is going to devastate New York City. 110,000 immigrants. We have to give them food, clothing, shelter, education, wash their dirty clothes. Give them everything they need. Health care. Month after month.”

This is a radical change in his speech from his previous statements. Before the immigrants arrived in such large numbers: “The Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor. New York is the welcome mat to the whole world.”

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German politicians are shaking in their pants

And of course he has It was quickly and comprehensively condemned.

According to Irving Kristol, American neoconservatives are “liberals who have robbed themselves of reality.” Apparently that’s what happened here.

The point is that as a politician you must be very careful about using other people’s lives as pawns in moral games. It hurts others first. In the end, there is a huge risk that it will come back and bite you in the ass.