Strange ideas? Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't until the start of the 20th century most countries either explicitly or implicitly ethno-nationalist (and most countries still are today)? The USA itself had an effectively whites-only immigration policy until the Hart-Celler act of 1965 reversed that. Taking the opposite direction, most Slavic countries seceded along ethno-linguistic lines, e.g. the fall of the Soviet union, "Balkanization", the split of Czechoslovakia...

In fact, the NYTimes themselves didn't find it strange, but wrote approvingly of such arrangements (or rather, disapprovingly of trying to change them).. at least when applied to other nations:

Human rights activists said that the moves to change Kashmir’s status were only the first steps in a broader plan to erode Kashmir’s core rights and seed the area with non-Kashmiris, altering the demographics and eventually destroying its character. Previous laws barred outsiders from owning property. - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan...

WaPo shared their position: Kashmir’s new status could bring demographic change, drawing comparisons to the West Bank - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/08/kashmirs-new...

>These little islands of people with strange ideas are always interesting to me, but it never seems that we ever really find out what motivates them. Not just motivates the founders, but those who join them.

There are entire schools of academia, philosophy and political theory around what motivates white supremacy and white identity in the United States, even up to the current white supremacist/alt-right zeitgeist within the Trumpist movement. We know what these people believe, if for no other reason than they've infested every corner of every platform on the web and won't shut up. I've even seen people on Hacker News argue the beliefs reflected in the article. I think dang (or is it tomhow, now) probably has "don't incite race war" set up as a macro.

For the country as a whole? No way.

But I'm a bit more optimistic. It would probably take a lawsuit going all the way to the Supreme Court, but I still hold out hope that this would be struck down.

>The question is --- is the current political climate really a "good thing" for the creators, their residents or the country as a whole?

Yes, yes and not entirely.

White people seem to be having the best time they've had since the 1940s, which by definition means things are worse for everyone else.