Nationalism is often considered immoral because it values the interests of some people over others, rather than being universalist in its circle of concern. For nationalists themselves, the ideology is often defined by such a preference. I agree with the standard liberal critique of this worldview, but I think the universalist/particularist distinction is the weakest point on which to attack it. The bigger problem with nationalism is that it’s usually very bad for the people it claims to speak for and represent, even putting aside the interests of outgroups.

Many observers have been noting the distinction between caring about the “Palestinian cause” and the Palestinian people. As I’ve also pointed out, if you want what’s best for the actual human beings who live in Gaza, you would encourage them to seek a better life elsewhere. But there is relatively little interest in this as a solution, because it would harm the cause of Palestine, which keeps millions of individuals and their families stateless for generations for the sake of a political movement.

This kind of thinking isn’t limited to Middle Easterners. Last year, I did an X poll and found that white nationalists would prefer by over a 6:1 margin a country with 400 million Americans that is 75% white over one with 1 billion Americans that is 50% white, even though the latter would have 200 million more white people.

This is quite frankly a deranged result. Just to be sure people knew what they were voting for, I also clarified that the question was about more or fewer white people existing in the entire world, rather than whites being plucked from other countries and brought to America. All of this means that if you had a proposal that could increase the white birthrate, white nationalists would oppose it if it led to a similar number of black and brown babies being born too. I think if you posed the question above to Ibram X Kendi or some other radical leftist, they would pick the option with more white families. Few people are more anti-white than white nationalists. Their indifference to the fate of their own people, at least relative to how much they care about coming out ahead of an outgroup, makes them similar to the leaders of the Palestinian cause.

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