Debunking “Don’t Like It? Get Out!”

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “Don’t like it? Get out” response is a lazy, divisive, and moronic alternative to actual debate.

There’s a ridiculous nugget of political rhetoric that is all too common on the American right: “if you don’t like it, you can get out,” used in response to any criticism of the United States or the conservative view of its culture.

We’ve seen this argument made countless times. 

In 2019, for example, Donald Trump called on “progressive Democrat Congresswomen” Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley were all born in the United States, and all four are American citizens, by the way.

And in 2022, just yesterday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used the same retort in response to questions regarding gun control.

“We don’t have guns in the UK, that is true, but we don’t have mass shootings either. And our children aren’t scared to go to school,” an unidentified British journalist said.

“You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder and you’ve got laws against that,” Greene responded.

“Nothing like the same rates here,” said the reporter.

“Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns,” Greene replied. “We like ours here.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 @RepMTG

When British press wants to argue about our God-given American gun rights, my answer is: “go back to your own country.”

Setting aside fairly obvious secondary concerns — such as the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is all too happy to use her version of the English language to communicate her views, despite admitting to not being English so vociferously — what do each of these examples have in common? Why has the response become so routine that it’s been satirized in South Park with the “redneck” cry, “if you don’t like America, why don’t you get out”?

South Park @SouthPark

"IF YOU DON'T LIKE AMERICA, WHY DON'T YOU GET OUT!" #Rednecks #ImALittleBitCountry

These examples are united by a cowardly failure of logic — based on the often bigoted notion of an “us” category having authority over what is and isn’t important versus a “them” category devoid of authority based on their non-membership status.

In simple terms, who is the “we” Marjorie Taylor Greene claims to speak for?