Ben Anderson: We Have a Moral Obligation to Welcome Refugees | Joe Rogan

We talked about Syria early, you know half the population is displaced Yeah, you know you're talking about, you know, 12 13 million people internally displaced or fled You know just unimaginable unimaginable and it's one of the biggest Controversies in this country in terms of what to do when the refugees come what what do you do? Some countries are taking them in with open arms Some countries are not and there's a lot of people that are concentrating on the negative aspects of taking these people into your community Community. Um, what did you what did you take on watching all this thing happen? Why watching all this? I was I spent Friday and Saturday in in Houston with a group of Afghan interpreters who had been with in Afghanistan who got these special immigrant visas And came to America with that with their families I cannot think of a better group of people who are contributing to life here I mean on the Saturday morning, they were they were running a food bank They've got jobs. They're paying taxes Yeah, I mean, I think we should welcome them with open arms and I think You know despite our moral obligation to do that. I think we would benefit. Yeah from from doing it and You know We turned away Jewish refugees during World War two You'd think we'd learn from that and say never again. Yeah, you know, I mean if you're if you're an American Christian, I think Christianity is fairly clear and what to do with refugees. Yes, you know So so the then to not only say no to refugees but also to vilify them and say oh look a lot of them are Fighting-age males. Yeah, clearly Isis sneaking in. I mean, that's a level of of Viciousness and ignorance that I just I just can't fathom the ignorance is it's It's very pervasive, right? It's like it's one of these things where we don't you don't know You're reading these stories and there these people are telling you These are fighting-age males and that we could very well be letting Isis in to our country We very well could be letting in these terrorist cells and allowing them to come in But we also could be letting families in that This is a country that's made of immigrants. I mean, it's one of the weirdest things in this country that this is a country so so Obsessed with borders and immigration. Yeah, but yet it's comprised entirely of immigrants. Yeah, there's a great Um, do you know Gary young the British journalist? No He interviews Richard Spencer And Richard spent Gary young I think makes a very similar point and Richard Spencer says Yeah, but this country was built by white people, you know We came up with he said no. No, it was literally built by black people Gary young says he says yeah Yeah, but only because we told them how to do it And it's on camera Gary young says, you know what? I came to see you because I thought you were the intellectual argument for supporting Trump So I thought I'd might not Richard Spencer was the he did. Yeah, why do you think that? I don't know but he says you're not this is just ridiculous and he just shuts down the interview turns around and walks off Good for him. I don't know anything about Richard Spencer other than he always gets Mentioned as a white supremacist. I literally don't know what he stands for what he does or what he says And they always say he's well-dressed and with a nice haircut. Yeah This is a yeah, it's just such a crazy subject the idea of I mean it would be nice if the whole world was up to the same standards of health and and Prosperity and you didn't have to worry about where you could go if the whole world was Essentially like the United States where you could go to where the good parts were, you know If you live in Detroit and you save up your money You can move to Florida or wherever you want to go. I mean you can do that This is the beautiful thing about living inside of a country Be fantastic if the whole world was like that you could just kind of go wherever you would prosper and wherever things would be well, but this the thing about refugees in other countries where we don't understand their language or their culture and then you get scared because you hear that they're Muslims were worried about Muslim terrorists and It's again, it's one more Piece of information that just it just Overwhelms you one more one more thing to concentrate on there is a difference with Muslims in the the Catholic Church and child abuse scandal Yes, did a lot of people say are therefore all Christians are suspicious and all Christians are secretly pedophiles, right? They're just not telling us. No, they didn't they didn't but they do with with Muslims What's fear of the unknown, you know, it's a lot of it the languages and the the fact that we're You know, there's also this there has to be this feeling that we've invaded their country several countries and been there for a long time and there's a deep-seated resentment that you know, there's the thought of every time you Accidentally blow up a wedding party with a drone every time you kill civilians and times any collateral damage you're creating Untold numbers of people that hate the United States you'd think that I you know having traveled to much of this country I don't see don't see that and yesterday I was interviewing the Afghan interpreters and I said, what do you think about negotiating with the Taliban? I mean in one case a good friend of mine called Srosch Who's now living in in Houston? I said, you know, these guys killed your brother because you were working for the Americans as an interpreter So, how do you feel about the Americans now doing a deal with the Taliban? And what about if the US leaves and the Taliban finishes off the government and then comes after your family? He said, you know what? America's not gonna let that happen America has so much power and knows what to do that They will make sure that any agreement they reach with the Taliban will be enforceable and it'll be safe He had so much faith and I mean far more than me Wow, and that's that's what I hear far more often than than the opposite Does that really depend on where you go? I mean because if you go certain places people have a lot of faith in Trump You know like Donald Trump's gonna protect us from evil. There's places where you go that I mean, it's becoming cliche But I do think you'll you'll find a lot of places critical of American foreign policy. Mm-hmm That doesn't mean they're critical of America. How do they parse that out? I think I Mean Vietnam I think is a good example, you know, we we we Have defeated communism or communism has been defeated in Vietnam just because the new generation Grow up and think Western culture communism. I know which one I want. It's a simple choice Yeah, and I think that young generation is making that very simple choice and it could just mean democracy And you think that is in Afghanistan as well? Yeah that they're recognizing that Western culture provides more freedom and more economic opportunity more prosperity. Yeah And I haven't heard apart from from the Taliban. I haven't heard much anti-american feeling in Afghanistan at all Really? I'm also a lot of that. I mean, maybe I'm biased because a lot of people I'm talking to had interactions with with Americans But they would even say as many mistakes as were made in the prosecuting of the war with airstrikes and night raids And all that the American soldiers and Marines we met we knew were good people And and it like I said with with with strokes my interpreter. It's it's incredible. How many people still believe that to this day