please don't quote Laidspotato tyty

This.

Another issue with living overseas is having to relearn laws, regulations and policies that are different or may not have even existed in your home country.

Going back home long-term is also very challenging. The reality is that your experiences overseas simply doesn't register with natives in your home country. You'll talk about the places you've been and what you did overseas and their response is, "Oh, that's interesting." before talking about something that they did in your home country that you are unfamiliar with because you haven't lived there in years. That intimate connection that comes from shared experiences is lacking which makes socialization challenging at home as well as abroad.

Your friends move on with their lives. They get married, have kids, move to another part of the country and are too busy to really interact with anybody. Pretty much everybody in my former friend circle has either voluntary left it or has moved on with another commitments in their lives. Socially, I'd have to start from scratch.

When you're overseas and in a different country, you have a tendency to be sort of ignorant of political and social issues in that country. You haven't grown up exposed to them. You don't have the intimate historical knowledge that adds context to them. So it's easier to avoid bad news and remain happy. China is a full-blown dictatorship but aside from not being able to get porn and use Facebook without a VPN, I didn't feel the effects of the oppressive government on me while living there. That's the opposite when you're born in a country. Even if things are objectively better, you're more aware of the bad and that can affect your quality of life.

If De Niro made it to NZ in Heat, how long does he stay under the radar there? Iyo is it that safe of a place for a North American fugitive? I think he lasts longer in Toronto myself. Ehh, maybe not. Maybe better off going the Nazi route and trying South America.

Living in a Nazi ****hole country is getting me down. But are there any countries that don't suck and won't suck in the next couple decades?

The United Republic of Dont Fret so Much is gorgeous this time of year. Unfortunately, it can be a real challange for some to make it there.

Not far off from what I was thinking of posting in a way.

Pretty much all countries suck, but if you moved to Peru or something you might not take it so personally when the government does something terrible - at least not feel responsible for it happening.

I’m up in Canada on a family vacation right now and obviously there are many factors involved that change your perspective while traveling and off of work, but man it feels different. The Pride parade happened on Sunday and it felt like an actual celebration rather than an act of defiance. People are more polite in Canada generally (not always and it does not mean they are nicer either) but there is a missing element of division that has just crept up on me at home. Obviously a lot of that is internal, or at least amplified by my strong feeling that what is happening is unacceptable and losing respect for those who find it acceptable, but it is interesting to go back to a feeling I had not too long ago where it where I could pretend that those who had different politics than I do would not be cheering for torturing minority children.

I went to get my passport renewed while I was here. It looks like the dmv or any government office except they treat you like it’s a third generation family owned restaurant. They made every step easy, they expedited it based on my travel plans, it was ready right whe they said it would be. I spent a total of 45 minutes in the office including filling out forms, standing in line, processing and picking it up two days later.

I know that there is a lot under the surface here that probably would tilt me as far as politics etc, but it feels like it would be more to do with the speed of progress being too slow rather than regression (at best).

I can already see how quickly my sense of responsibility for what is happening in the US could dissolve if/when I leave and I still wrestle with it. My actual urgency at this point is I feel like they are getting ready to smash any uprising with the anti-fa law bs and rhetoric and I am vulnerable as a non-citizen. My fight or flight instincts are not always tuned to self preservation.

The other factor is if things go full bore Trump dynasty, it is not unfathomable that Canada is targeted for their resources. I know, I know, lol, but...

I'm not giving up on the US of A just yet, but I wanna have my options ready for when it's time to abandon ship. Best to do my homework beforehand.

But in your opinion should I not "fret" until we send people to gas chambers? By then it might be a bit too late to leave, no?

This is part of why I think it's hard to figure out where to move. Places that are good can just get invaded. Places that aren't vulnerable to invasion tend to suck or be on a steady path to sucking. Do I gamble on a country not being invaded, or on a country not continuing its trend toward becoming a miserable place to live?

I'll do some homework, then report back and ask for critiques. This should be fun, it'll be like 6th grade projects all over again!

There are times (like today) I'd rather live on a remote, empty planet/moon if I could. I'm pretty fed up with humanity. As a whole we're the same monkeys we were throughout history. Nobody with weapons to stop you from stealing, murdering, raping and enslaving? Green light! To hell with this species. We're insignificant ants in a vast universe which won't even notice when we go extinct. It will keep ticking along like we were never here.

germany england canada. learn more languages and there could be more.

Amsterdam is super English-friendly, everyone speaks it and it's such an international city that it seems like the lingua franca

Ohwow.jpg

Supposedly near half the population is not Dutch. I had a total blast when I travelled there.

Said every person caught in every fubar situation cuz, like, it won’t happen. And anways, Trump is a good fella. Loves America is all.

Try building a wall around your maple syrup.

But can you really leave? You would leave the vulnerable behind who probably will be exploited(you wouldnt need illegal immigrants anymore for the poultry factories you just round up the poor democrats who couldnt run) and the USA still remain one of the most powerful countries but now in the hands of criminals. I mean you can move to all the paradises on earth but most of these countries are dependent on others. In the end you have to consider that you have to fight for change and cant take the easy route out. For example if Germany would fall back into the times of the 1930s you could easily leave because Germany has nothing(no strong military, almost no natural resources etc). If you block trade its ruined pretty quickly. The USA still have enough natural resources.

Pretty sure nobody is going to leave because they think their absence is the one weird trick to disempowering the US. They'll leave because they don't want to suffer in solidarity over a lost cause.

I mean har-de-har and all that, but the ****er is already asking repeatedly if he can invade Venezuela and take the oil in Iraq. I may not be the silly goose in this exchange.

Last night went to visit some of my BIL’s friends in the small, remote beach town my family lives in near Vancouver. It was surreal chilling and drinking beer with three guys from the Yucatán and one from Honduras who had lived in SF the same time as me and now have visas to live and work in my other hometown. They work in construction and restaurants here, one has a law degree. They are so far from the kind of people Trump paints them as, kind, thoughtful, hardworking and contributors to the community.

So far they are being welcomed and feel safe here. One of them had been a cook in my very favorite taqueria in sf, pancho villa, which means one of the big gaps I was concerned with moving here—no good Mexican food—is no longer on the list.

In all seriousness, I think they play, given the resources (obviously a big if) is moving to one of the tropical countries that let you buy citizenship.

I'm hoping for the best but having lived here for the past 7 years, I'm pretty sure I'll be moving back to the states with my soon to be Mexican wife at some point during AMLO's reign.

He's the Trump of the left, pretty sure he even said in a debate "I alone can fix corruption" good luck

He might not end up being a leftist. Might just be a selling point to exploit a deeply pissed off citizenry.

I think that it'll be more of the same in Mexico just with a better cover. Didn't Peña Nieto come in promising to wipe out corruption too?

Corruption and megalomania are both orthogonal to left v right. FDR was a megalomaniac and LBJ was a slimy politician, but if you weren't rich in either case or Black in LBJ's time it still made a big difference.

this is the hope. He was mayor or governor of Mexico City and didn't run it into the ground. I'm not super well versed in Mexican politics despite living here for so long lol (my fiance isn't political at all except she was very depressed AMLO won bc her family was)

I could be wrong here, but Anaya (mainstream party candidate) campaigned on an independent attorney general's office which has been a big factor in Mexico's political corruption (past president's dictate to AG what they can and cannot investigate) and for some reason AMLO is against that. red flags raised in my eyes at least

His initial comments since winning about wanting to restore relations with the US are promising, I thought NAFTA was gg for sure if he won, even though it could be anyway because lol Trump

Probably wrong forum to debate this in, as I'm pretty sure I've read a lot of y'alls stances on NAFTA and seem to think its been an overall negative (again, could be wrong here, just a casual lurker, it's hard to stomach the bubble circle jerk nature of 2+2 politics forum sometimes)

I'm confused, from my learning all the coast near Vancouver is not beachy, but rather rocky.