Lately I’ve been watching Fox News Channel more than usual. I’ve noticed Jesse Waters (who replaced Tucker Carlson, who replaced Bill O’Reilly) using a phrase a lot: military-age males. He invariably uses it to refer to immigrants, typically illegal immigrants.
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit also did it recently.
When you observe the males they’re talking about, you know just as much about these males as Waters, Reynolds, et al do; in other words, not much.
They could just as easily go to UC Berkeley, wander around the campus, and notice that 90% or more of the males there are “military-age males.”
But they don’t refer to male U.S. college students that way.
So why do they refer to immigrants as “military-age males?” I think it’s to subtly plant in the listeners’ minds the fear that a hostile foreign government is sending these males here to help them take over or at least somehow undercut American society.
Could a substantial percent of these military-age males be actual military personnel, but in disguise? Sure, they could. But it seems unlikely.
Occam’s Razor applies here.
The more-likely explanation is that they want to get the hell out of the country they’re from becuase this country (the United States) is so much less oppressive and so much better in other ways. In fact, it wouldn’t be totally surprising if some of those military-age males were fleeing conscription. That was a strong motivator for their counterparts who came here between 100 and 150 years ago.
