Europe is being flooded with immigrants. #RefugeesWelcome is the latest hashtag of choice to shed light on the plight of thousands of refugees flooding into Germany, Britain, Armenia, and elsewhere. Remember, hashtags totally work, just like #BringBackOurGirls brought back the girls. Wait...

It's heart-breaking to see what's happening with these refugees. The deep feelzies are sparking an interwebs discussion on human rights. Everybody's talking about how Europe needs to take more people in, how their governments need to be good governments, because we have to help these poor, homeless refugees! Give them sanctuaries! Give them homes! Especially if they're transitioning.

But there's an element here no one is talking about: why we have these refugees in the first place! Hello! Yes, #RefugeesWelcome is great, it's warm, it sounds good, it sounds caring - but it's treating a symptom, not the root problem.

That's not to negate their plight, which is real. But if somebody is bleeding from a gunshot wound and a doctor throws a band-aid on it without removing the bullet, that doesn't ultimately help. Neither would proposing sensible "Gun control!" measures as you let him bleed out before you.

The reason we have this refugee crisis? Could it be ISIS? Terrorism? People are not leaving their homelands in droves because they want to take selfies at the Eiffel Tower. They're fleeing because they feel they're in danger, because evil is running rampant through their villages and cities. They need our help at home just as much - if not more - than they need it once they become refugees.

Where's the #DestroyISIS hashtag? Why does our evening news cover the refugees, but doesn't show the latest ISIS video of men being hung on a swing set and burned alive? The "Wicker Man" as it were. This madness isn't going to stop if we turn a blind eye to the cause of the problem because we feel good about a hashtag we used today with an article we shared online. That might make you feel better, but it accomplishes precisely zero.

Look where they're coming from...
Image Source

Furthermore, why is it solely the various EU governments' responsibility to provide for these immigrants? Boatloads of people are tweeting #RefugeesWelcome - care to guess how many of those same people are offering up their own homes to these refugees? Yeah. You guessed right. Like... none. #SymbolismOverSubstance

Kudos to Glenn Beck, though. He's actually standing up and asking people to take refugees into their homes, or at the very least, help sponsor a refugee family to bring them to someone else's home. That's what a real welcome looks like, folks. But he's a racist. Never forget that he's a racist.

Meanwhile... can we bomb ISIS? Ground troops? ACME anvil? What do we need? If the world truly cares about human rights, if we really care about the hundreds of men, women, and children being beaten, raped, and slaughtered in the Middle East, if we want to actually solve this refugee crisis, then eliminating ISIS should be somewhere near priority #1.

But that's just because I'm a racist. Always remember to call me a "racist."