I do wonder about the extent to which the modern state has turned people from active participants in self-government to, essentially, passive consumers of government.

Whether there is a shared heritage is less important than the belief that there is.

(Alternatively, 'The West' is the Anglo-American Hegemony Club, hence why Japan frequently gets included despite being on the wrong side of the planet).

Does 'the West' need to be intellectually defensible to be useful or meaningful? It strikes me that the category is primarily about self-ID and mutual ID. A country is part of the West because it considers itself as such and is considered as such by other Western nations.

Give no ear to bondsmen bidding us endure.
Whining “He is weak and far”; crying “Time shall cure.”

The great irony of these thuggish authoritarians is that they create the world they use to justify their behavior. Yarvin is afraid of this outcome because it's the sort of thing he would do given the opportunity.

I think the confusion comes from permissive immigration being unpopular, but immigration enforcement under Trump *also* being unpopular. There are a lot of voters who would happily press the magic mass deportation button, but have no stomach for the grotesque reality of implementing it.