Noah Smith
· Noahpinion
· April 09, 2026 at 09:56
· ⏱ 15 min read
| Read on Substack ↗
Summary
Noah Smith argues that assimilation into a shared American culture is essential for national cohesion and warns against both MAGA nativism and progressive anti-assimilationism, which he sees as leading to racial balkanization. The article is a cultural/political essay with no direct market or financial implications.
•Assimilation is framed as a 'melting pot' or 'stew' where distinct cultures blur through intermarriage, friendship, and shared media, not forced erasure.
•Matt Walsh and MAGA figures treat non-European names as presumptively non-American, signaling a racialized definition of belonging.
•Shadi Hamid, an anti-woke writer, now rejects assimilation because it pressures Muslims to secularize; he argues minority rights shouldn't depend on cultural convergence.
•Bianca Mabute-Louie's book 'Unassimilable' calls for Asian Americans to build separate political alliances against a perceived white hegemonic culture.
•Smith cites historical examples of forced assimilation (German name-changes, Japanese internment) and argues that gentle integration has been working, citing his personal friendship with a Chinese-American immigrant who 'just felt very American.'
•Smith predicts that MAGA's nativist backlash is temporary, similar to the Know-Nothings of the 1850s, and will not succeed in defining American-ness by European heritage.
•He contends that shared life experience—watching the same shows, using the same slang—binds the nation more than shared heritage or ancestry.
•The article concludes that Americans are less polarized than online media suggests and that assimilation is simply 'living our lives together until we become one people.'