chance meeting with a nationalist

A few days ago I noticed a guy with a white rat on his arm from the tram. I saw the man sitting next to me laughing, and since I felt the same way, I reacted similarly. But then, to my surprise, he started a rather long monologue about those silly folk who spread disease with such animals which was so typical exactly here, and he would really do something against it. For which I said I saw someone with a rat like that in Berlin back about twenty years ago, and they meant no harm. Actually, I visited a colleague just a few days ago, whose daughter kept a white rat as a pet.

But as they say in one of my favorite books "Resistance is useless", and he went on with how the rats traveling onboard sailboats carried the pest, and all that horror to other worlds. Right after that he started to lament about those immigrants who set fire to Catholic churches, and somehow ended up with black people marrying our women, also pointing out because womenfolk have more choice?...

And then he mentioned that he's been to Cuba, and how you have to go and drop your shit behind the house, and that they walk the streets in trash up to their knees... which is a bit hard for me to believe. Anyhow, I pointed out that right there where we were traveling in the inner city there was a lot of trash and even shit dropped.

However he really wanted to prove his point and said those folks don't even see a doctor, and then come here as migrants, and spread all possible plagues. For which I really had to answer that even though I pay social security, my personal experiences with the so-called professional health workers left more serious consequences behind than my original problems I'd visited them in hope to receive help.

I also tried to explain to him that minorities who are descendants of people who were forced to leave their homes and serve as slaves in countries like France, or in the colonies what their countries were diminished to, are only waking up now from a long lasting nightmare, and as still not given much chance for integration, express their frustration in different, and for the "local population" not so favorable ways, is only a balancing action in long-term history.

Then he, eyes open wide, only asked "Why is this all happening right now?". Which sounded yes, just the same as "Why me, blah-blah-blah...." So, I simply said that with global issues it makes sense that it takes some time before it all finds a way to any kind of even trying to find a way for a solution. And it won't necessarily be any better than the actions taken back when it all started. Such is life.