Eliminationist sentiment, anyone...?

Over the past few days, I got into a discussion with a couple of commenters at Effect Measure. What really surprised me about the way this played out was that the focus of Effect Measure is mostly bird flu, and posts are written by public health officials or employees using pseudonyms so they can speak frankly without jeopardizing their jobs. The blog seems to attract a pretty middle-of-the-road readership.

The post I responded to was actually about Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. Instead of being deluged with hate mail accusing the blogger of anti-Semitism, however, the comment thread took off in a discussion of undocumented Mexican workers in America.

I was shocked when one commenter suggested offering Mexican undocumented workers a choice between returning to Mexico, or a rope. I know anti-immigrant wingnuts express such ugly sentiments, but judging from previous comment threads, Effect Measure doesn't attract the far Right fringe. So I found myself wondering it that sort of eliminationist thinking has now infected the more middle-of-the-road Rightists.

I was even more shocked when no one commented on his comment, especially the moderator. One person from Canada even said he was glad to see Americans "arguing in such an enlightened manner"!

So I responded. And you should see the response to my response.

It’s all here:

Pretty scary stuff, especially considering that these people might represent the more “moderate elements” of the Republican Party.