Glad I Don't Live In America.

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I really hope that you are not implying that I'm an incel? I think I have far too much respect for women for that.

My God no! So sorry! I'm editing my post RIGHT NOW!

It's ok, as long as you didn't mean that. Personally I can't stand incels and just the idea of being compared to one would bother me lol

It wasn't a comparison, I was just trying to summarize a fictional situation with which most forum members are unlikely to be familiar. In fact I didn't even think about that episode until I began writing the comment, at which point I wasn't thinking about you at all.

I guess it was just a misunderstanding on my part then. I apologize

I grew up in a divided time and yet am very concerned about the about the rise of-the Trumpers and the concurrent “Great Awokeining”. Blaming the politicians and social media is a deflection they are both a reflection of and exploiting real issues. Everyday interactions are less friendly. People are becoming defensively more cautious or aggressive.

That said everyday conversation is far different from a Wrong Planet PPR thread. The words MAGA and woke are not daily verbiage. The chances of being killed or wounded by a mass shooter are infinitesimal. People generally will wish you good luck, or say they are sorry if something bad is going on with you.

Things make the news because they are atypical, movies are fantasies so if you rely on them for your view of America you are only getting a part of the truth.

It is a cliche but a few often do ruin it for everybody. Now it seem those few are pulling everybody in, I do have a strong sense of things falling apart and few willing or able to stop it. I hope my fears are not born of experience but of being a clueless old man.

@Joe90, I can't imagine you and your boyfriend emigrating so I would be hard pressed to imagine you ever living in the US. The UK seems a decent place, it has its pros and cons, from what I can tell. Sometimes it seems like people there can be absolute dicks for no reason at all whereas in the US it seems there's usually some sort of reason.

As for living in the US, for myself I am American and have visited a number of other countries. The first thing for me to consider is that anywhere else I would be foreign. There are some places like Mexico with a considerable American ex-pat population and I think I would like to experience living there although it probably won't ever happen. I can imagine living in some European countries or Canada but only temporarily for the experience. Sorry I can't think of a single reason why I would want to live in Australia apart from the fact that their houses seem better constructed, as wood isn't as plentiful there as it is here. Oddly, I could see living in South Africa (I was once there so I have some idea what it's like) however most South Africans would probably think me an idiot to say so, as most seem to want to leave. Hard to explain but there you have it — it's not going to happen anyway.

Something I find hard about discussing the US with people from other countries is that I don't think they fully appreciate just how incredibly huge the US is and some parts may seem partially "foreign" to somebody from some other part of the US. I can't let myself get upset about some law in Texas (for example) that doesn't directly affect me (OK I understand that could lead to a complicated discussion but please permit me to oversimplify in this instance).

The county where I live has very good social conditions and I am very proud of it. I think most people here are happy to be living here. The fact that it's in the US wouldn't matter to them. Most of them have always lived in the US and a large group are here by choice esp. from India, Korea, other Asian countries and of course the Spanish-speaking world. Probably even the odd British person. I've even encountered people who lived in Canada before coming here.

I spent several weeks in Israel when I was 21 and event picked oranges there for a month. It didn't seem at all like a country where I'd want to live permanently however some people there seem to really like it.

Sauce for the goose you know.

Speaking of Cuba, I'd rather not move to a country that locks homosexuals up in concentration camps to be raped, beaten, and killed. Like Fidel Castro did when he was still alive.

Sorry, ain't happening.

Well, America MAY be flawed, but some countries are more flawed than it.

Don't get me started on countries that are run by Communism.

Personally, I'd like to go to Canada, and see what it's like before I decide to move there or not.

I agree, and the fact that some of the Leftists in the US seem to be saying that we need to start embracing communism scares me just as much as the Trumpists who seem to be embracing a new form of facism.

The basic idea seems to be "Hey! Since capitalism has failed us, let us fight over replacing it with an ideology that's even more broken!"

Except for tankies most leftists don't want anything that resembles Maoism, Stalinism or any other flavours Leninism.
Tankies aren't generally well accepted among the rest of the left, they're often dismissed as 'red fashies' and treated like the most left of the alt-right instead of treated like they're part of the left.

It's not surprising that societies with a long history of absolutism ended up birthing totalitarian interpretations of their ideology and at least some portion of the left seems to have learned lessons from the failures of the Soviet Union and PRC. These days someone like Emma Goldman is held in much higher regard than the Soviet men she criticized after living there for awhile.

Also, progressives outnumber social democrats who outnumber democratic socialists who outnumber libertarian socialists who outnumber tankies. The tankies aren't much of a threat politically, they don't have the numbers to be meaningful.

So that leaves us with Trumpism aka Neo Fascism. So far that seems to have a higher chance of taking over and ruining us.

Psst! It's the same on the right, the actual Nazi adjacent types are a tiny, tiny fringe that gets disproportionate attention because it's in the interests of others to act as if they're a real threat.

Normally, my views are more to the center, but the past few days, I’ve been in a big “own the cons” mood.

For example, wanting AOC to be president simply to watch the right lose their sh*t because a young, educated woman of color would be in charge.

In reality, I can’t support her any more than I can support Greg Abbott.

I want people in Texas to be able to do whatever they want in the bedrooms without having to worry about the cops breaking down the door, and to be a state where an unweatherized power grid is a far worse issue than dick pics.

I hadn't noticed.

Ummm, have you not noticed the number of gunmen and bombers from the fringe right over the last few years or so? They're not so fringe and few and far between anymore.. Hell, some of them stormed the Capitol on January 6th while others planted pipe bombs.

The far right ARE a real threat.