I would not fly to the US even if I got paid for it. I value my life and the US politics look like a serious threat to my wellbeing.
So, count me (German) into the group of „stay the hell away from the US“ people.
bold_atlas 39 points a year ago
Don't worry. Americans will start coming to you when things start getting bad here. You're lucky though. You'll get the Americans who are able to travel by air.
Mexico and Canada will get ones who can't fly because they believe airplanes are demons.
BenLeMan 58 points a year ago
Oh they're already here. One American expat I know greatly enjoys our affordable healthcare, childcare, worker's rights, tenant's rights, 30 days of paid leave, customer protections, etc. etc.
And she's a Trump supporter.
Oh, and she thinks there are too many immigrants coming to Germany.
SkyeStarfall 25 points a year ago
I have no idea why it's so common, but a lot of immigrants seem to hate immigrants. My parents are one of them
I seriously don't get it. You're the immigrant!
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 6 points a year ago
Probably had a bad experience with an immigrant-hating-immigrant and decided to hate all immigrants in response.
timbuck2themoon 3 points a year ago
Same people who always pull the ladder up behind them.
RecursiveParadox 8 points a year ago
Yes. A lot of people including expats immigrants do not understand this.
FosterMolasses 11 points a year ago
"Rules for thee, not for me"
BrainInABox -5 points a year ago
Don't worry, the current German government is just as evil.
BrainInABox -2 points a year ago
It's certainly more competent than Trumps, but it's just as evil, presuming you care about morality and not just the material comfort of white Germans
krasogad 0 points 9 months ago
As a short term resident in Germany, this is demonstrably false and a straight up lie. It could always change, but immigrants (and citizens who are not white) aren't getting disappeared and killed in the streets like in the USA.
Unlearned9545 107 points a year ago
I am a US citizen living abroad. Even I'm afraid to go back home to see my family.
Gradually_Adjusting 83 points a year ago
My father in law passed away back in the states and my wife was told not to come back because it's not safe. Normality has fully ended.
sexy_peach 36 points a year ago
Wow that nearly is wartime stuff
Gradually_Adjusting 22 points a year ago
The yanks that stay have a fight on their hands whether they like it or not.
mineralfellow 17 points a year ago
Similar situation. I crossed the border last week with no issue. A work colleague got stopped and spent hours being questioned (also a US citizen). No idea what the odds are, nor what the flags are.
burntbacon 7 points a year ago
I didn't even cross the border. I just got within 30 miles of it as part of a job and hit a security checkpoint.
zerofk 8 points a year ago
I’m old enough to remember the iron curtain. That’s exactly what it was like. If you lived or stayed close to the border, you knew to expect being stopped and checked.
I guess that’s what they meant by “great again”.
ansiz 100 points a year ago
Even as an American I don't understand why tourism hasn't dropped more than it has. I know it's down but I'm amazed people are still coming at all.
But, it's true that the mainstream media isn't really reporting on this, Trump's 'flood the zone' strategy works exceedingly well.
Legisign 47 points a year ago
I don’t understand why tourism hasn’t dropped more than it has. I
Probably because something so big as a voyage to the US is often planned for years before which may make it too difficult or expensive to cancel. A year from now, things might look a lot different.
cazssiew 8 points a year ago
I know a Belgian guy working in DC, he says people are bracing for the start of the school year, the expectation being that many will have made plans to leave over the summer when it's most convenient.
UnrepententProcrastinator 27 points a year ago
As a Canadian, I went to LA this summer because tickets were cheap and trade wars weren't begun when I bought them. But the cost of life over there is so expensive it trumps any savings on the tickets.
Not going back until you guys fix this.
psx_crab 13 points a year ago
Going to US for tourism purpose is often very expensive for a lot of people, even european need to fly quite far away to reach there, so more often than not people would gamble on the chance of getting in without issue instead of cancel the plan. If they're white then it's likely less issue.
javiwhite 20 points a year ago
You say that, but I've seen my fair share of news articles about chalky Brits being sent back home; usually for stuff like offensive content found on their phones (the one that comes to mind, was someone being rejected entry because he had the fat Vance meme saved in his images automatically by a WhatsApp chat).
I suppose Americans wouldn't even be aware that foreigners are liable to these checks prior to entry, or that governments like Germany and the UK have put up travel advisories warning against visiting. Crazy to think about given it's such common knowledge the world over... Some NK level of public deception.
javiwhite 3 points a year ago
Ah you're right, he wasn't British; he was Norwegian, so even more likely to be white. Is it accents rather than skin colour that set the racism off?
The claims that this didn't happen, is simply the accused saying "actually no". It's their word against his, no evidence has been provided to prove that what the DHS say is accurate (the current regime still won't release the Epstein files, so I doubt they'd release any evidence about something so trivial in comparison) and quite frankly, the maga regime hasn't been honest about a single thing thus far, so why would they start now?
The supposed admission you refer to is due to them finding a picture of a wooden pipe in his photos on his phone, not because he admitted to drug use on a form. Which makes the whole "white tourists are getting deported for the content of their phones" still ring true.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 2 points a year ago
I’m amazed people are still coming at all.
expats
the_mighty_kracken 90 points a year ago
Go read about how empty Las Vegas is and all the people scratching their heads wondering why no one wants to come. Personally, I think the people who say they don't know are lying or stupid.
javiwhite 41 points a year ago
I just did a YouTube search for 'Las Vegas dead' and found a video of a guy highlighting how dead it is, and my god the comments are all to do with stuff like price gouging cited as the reason why... Someone even suggested it's because they're all going LA instead. Nobody is mentioning the lack of foreign tourists... Crazy stuff.
Raiderkev 40 points a year ago
Honestly, 2 things can be true. Vegas has gouged consumers excessively in recent years. Fees for parking, increased resort fees, fewer comps for gamblers while at the same time removing anything remotely affordable like buffets. They have not helped themselves in attracting domestic visitors, and the regime isn't helping with foreign visitors. It might get ugly out there really soon, and frankly, a lot of it was self inflicted by greedy corporations.
GlendatheGayWitch 16 points a year ago
That's crazy, with the reportedly large ICE presence in LA, I'm sure domestic tourism is even down.
I've heard the same about the Disney parks, where people are wondering why it's not as crowded as usual.
javiwhite 19 points a year ago
I didn't even think of the ICE situation in LA but you're right; suggesting that's where the tourists are just shows a lack of awareness around that whole situation too, which is just as insane.
pseudo 12 points a year ago
In this economy I don't get how people spurge on Disney park. If I was a regular Disney park visitor, I would probably try another cheaper one if I could still afford the annual trip. But I will certainly not try the Disney park from another continent.
GlendatheGayWitch 3 points a year ago
Even if it was cheaper to go to another continent, that means dealing with US customs and/or ICE on the way back for US citizens. With due process going out the window, that's even unsafe.
iridebikes 3 points a year ago
If it's such a ghost town why is media reporting that there has only been about an 11% decline? It seems bigger than that....right?
TheReturnOfPEB -9 points a year ago
Crazy is getting reality from one youtube video
rumba 15 points a year ago
lying or stupid
Partly #2, there is a pretty decent news blackout for the things they don't want you to hear. Right-wing news shows nothing of it, left-wing news might occasionally eek something out. Museums are being strong-armed to take down historical displays that don't mesh with the narrative they're trying to write, real-life 1984 stuff. When there is news, it's 50 articles about cutting health care redistricting to make the left wins impossible. There's so much they're pandering to the extreme right that the deterred tourists hardly makes a dent.
I'm all over the left and centrist news, and I've heard of a couple of German tourists and a few Canadians being held for weeks to months, but nothing from NZ. I kinda want to try to log all this stuff in a link warden to preserve it.
ArmchairAce1944 12 points a year ago
When they put bounties on people and they don't bother checking for legal status much... with those bounty hunters probably trigger happy dumbasses and more and more reports of lilly white people getting caught up in this shit it is no wonder people are just not interested in being another statistic.
btaf45 10 points a year ago
When they put bounties on people and they don’t bother checking for legal status much…
Just like when Stalin gave police arrest quotas and they just started arresting random people at train stations and public buildings etc.
BrainInABox 1 point a year ago
Yeah, or like how America has treated it's African American population for it's whole existence. But you know Americans, they can never see their own country doing something bad without saying "What are we, a bunch of foreigners?"
RedditRefugee69 2 points a year ago
A bit more than decimated, technically speaking.
UniversalBasicJustice 6 points a year ago
We decimated the decimation!
HK65 21 points a year ago
I used to work in tourism.
It really matters which 11% are we talking about. The relatively little people attending conferences on a company dime that won't exit their hotels and will spend exactly as budgeted are probs still there. The richer touristy people who can choose where to spend and are happy to spend on random bullshit going elsewhere hurts more. This is conjecture of course.
I've personally seen - in an unrelated place - tourist crowds getting bigger, hotel revenues getting slightly bigger, but everyone else in the industry like restaurants, activity places and souvenir shops, stagnating and closing as the bigger crowds were because the festivalgoers and young single people were switched out for families who pack their own lunch and primarily only sightsee and do what's free.
Look at Venice, insane crowds from cruise ships mean zero income for the city and its inhabitants because those people eat and sleep on the ship.
It really matters which 11% is missing. If you want to know how it affects tourism, you need data from that industry, data I think the Trump admin will be reluctant to collect.
merc 0 points a year ago
I don't work in tourism, but I would have thought business travellers were among the more sought-after guests. Since they're not paying with their own money, they don't put much effort into bargain hunting. They're not high rollers, but they'll probably at least spend as much as their company allows.
OTOH, someone travelling on a personal vacation will probably be watching their pennies. They don't have an expense account.
I know that business travellers are the most sought-after clients for airlines. They're not in first class, but first class bookings are fickle. Business customers are reliable. They book last minute flights and pay whatever that requires.
HK65 4 points a year ago
Flights and hotels are different this way than other establishments, as they are "essential" for visitors, you don't buy them on the spot and you can't really get to a destination without transportation and a place to stay. From a different perspective, they are privileged, since for them only first class is fickle. For everyone else, all customers are.
So if you work for eg. a place that rents out jet-skis on the shore, you won't see a lot of suits, because they don't have time. And to be honest, most likely only around 10% of visitors will actually be your customers. Now if those customers are overrepresented in that missing 11%, you may have just halved your turnover, which means you'll need to close up shop.
TheReturnOfPEB 9 points a year ago
go lose 11% of your monthly income and come back and let us know how that works out for you
chuckleslord 9 points a year ago
11% down is devastating. Why downplay it?
the_mighty_kracken 3 points a year ago
There was clearly a modifier in front of the word "empty." There is a huge difference between saying, "empty" and "how empty." Perhaps you have some sort of agenda that kept you from realizing that.
DarkFuture 7 points a year ago
Every time I've been to Vegas there have been a TON of foreigners. Same with Tahoe. I'll be in Tahoe soon and I'm going to keep an eye open for how many less foreigners there are this time.
mfed1122 3 points a year ago
Do you live in LV? I was there just two weeks ago, I found it just as crowded and bustling as it has been in all my many other visits to the Strip. It was absolutely crowded, not dead anywhere. Maybe the difference is something more subtle that only a local would recognize. But from my perspective I noticed nothing strange.
Tollana1234567 2 points a year ago
Apparently vegas was already declining for a while, because of thier gouging and online options for gambling. the current issue, is trump basically accelerated its decline. ALSO NEVADa which is a red state depends on people gambling and touring to nevada, alot of california transplants went there for the no-income tax. it will be hilarious once they realized things are just as expensive if not more when tourism basically flatlines.
a YT channel i originally followed, asian poc talking about the news. some of the owners moved to vegas , and some of the guest host moved to reno, it was hilirious watching them complain about california and NEVADA for its lack of services like schools and private pratices, and yes they are RIGHTIEs.(very long story i used to follow but keep tabs on them through a subreddit) like former fans.
Vigilantfox85 1 point a year ago
Because they think it’s only minorities and white people are still welcome.
pelespirit 71 points a year ago
Oh wow, it's true. This is from April, it was 8 at that time:
One Kiwi woman in her 40s was allegedly detained at San Francisco Airport for 15 hours and forced to buy a return ticket to New Zealand after officials took issue with the visa she’d been issued by the State Department.
Planning to visit her partner in Florida, who works on a fixed-term contract, before holidaying in Europe, the woman was allegedly questioned for five hours over her visa, Arizona-based author Wendilynn Kay alleged in a post reshared on Facebook.
JackbyDev 66 points a year ago
I watch Telemundo with subtitles in my office when I want to have something on so I can try to learn a little more Spanish. Everyday they're talking about ICE abducting people. It's wild. And it's local Telemundo. This shit is fucked.
I told someone from UK recently that yeah, America is cool, I think it's worth seeing some of the national parks, but maybe wait until this administration is out because holy FUCK.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 25 points a year ago
can i borrow your rose colored glasses i need them got a feeling today is gonna be rough
betanumerus 13 points a year ago
Cheetoh Hitler doesn't get to make that decision: you do.
Bytemeister 11 points a year ago
You might have missed some news in the last few days...
Awkwardparticle 2 points a year ago path: 0 18630813 18631831 18638755, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
michaelmrose 6 points a year ago
Most places which fall to fascist regimes have a minimum of a few decades of bad times and thousands to millions of deaths.
BrainInABox 0 points a year ago
Well the US has already thoroughly managed the millions dead, assuming you consider foreigners human.
michaelmrose 0 points a year ago
Of course but I meant that it's naive to expect it to go back to normal without substantial strife for the people who live here not downplaying any strife elsewhere.
The Republicans are going to fuck up badly enough that they doom themselves in fair elections leaving them openly cheating or otherwise ending actual democracy. This leads to resistance and upset which they meet with violence which cycles up until the whole thing explodes.
BrainInABox 2 points a year ago
Of course but I meant that it’s naive to expect it to go back to normal without substantial strife for the people who live here not downplaying any strife elsewhere.
Well that "normal" people want to go back to already included massive strife for the rest of the world, so I'm not sympathetic to Americans.
otherwise ending actual democracy.
I find it hard to say that's there's much Democracy to end anyway.
This leads to resistance and upset which they meet with violence which cycles up until the whole thing explodes.
Yeah. That's the Imperial Boomerang for you, I suppose.
michaelmrose 65 points a year ago
You aren't supposed to travel into Nazi Germany right as they are setting up the concentration camps. US tourism should be zero if you don't have family here
MNByChoice 10 points a year ago
Germany cleaned up Berlin, took down signs, and chilled out somewhat for the Olympics. I don't know if the current administration is smart enough to do that.
DarkFuture 56 points a year ago
As an American I can confirm we are absolute trash right now and we're sealing our fate for at least a generation.
People the world over are going to spend the rest of their lives at the very least having a bad taste in their mouth when America is brought up. Things may "normalize" and regular trade agreements may resume, but trust is broken and that's long-term.
It's unbelievably depressing to watch from the inside. The shock of finding out that such a high percentage of your fellow citizens are stupid/racist/hateful is profound.
NutWrench 19 points a year ago
This. Don't come here for the Olympics. Don't come here for the World Cup. You could find yourself in a world of shiat for absolutely no reason at all. We've got some serious problems here, right now.
BrainInABox 6 points a year ago
I cannot remember a time when you didn't.
infinitesunrise 8 points a year ago
The people downvoting you don't understand that they're part of the reason our country keeps doing shit like this. Unwillingness to do some radical self-examination or entertain hard truths about the history of the place they live help ensure that it'll keep happening. A lot of people can only emote at bad things and refuse to understand how or why they occur.
BrainInABox 2 points a year ago
It's because they genuinely don't consider foreigners to be fully humans; they see them as extras in the story of America. That's why they get so angry at Trump, because he's treating 'main characters' the way America has always treated lesser humans.
Assassassin 2 points a year ago
Before this it was Iraq and Afganistan, before Iraq was 'nam and the cold war, before that was us nuking Japan and then hiring Nazis via operation paperclip, etc. etc. We may have become independent of England, but we certainly continued the longstanding custom of fucking things up for both our own citizens as well as the rest of the world in pursuit of money and power.
Medic8teMe 8 points a year ago
Oh it will be generational.
I am Canadian. My kids 12 and 10 are learning to avoid all products and services from 'murica. They're into it and talking about it with their friends. They will be taught and they will follow through. They already are.
Death to 'murica.
BrainInABox 6 points a year ago
but trust is broken and that’s long-term.
I hope you don't think anyone trusted America before Trump. You've been a scourge on the globe for a long time.
infinitesunrise 3 points a year ago
Should we actually get better the long-term broken trust is merited, because if we cannot present a proven way to prevent this from ever happening again then it most certainly will.
Australis13 56 points a year ago
What has been particularly telling for me as an Aussie is the sheer number of radio ads I've heard in the past few months trying to get people to travel to the US, or offering competitions where the prize is a US holiday (which, if I was the type to actually phone and enter radio station competitions, would be a deterrant for me!). It's clear that US tourism has taken a nose-dive and plenty of us non-Americans don't want to visit any more (it's a bit disappointing as there are a few things I would like to have seen, but wouldn't risk going there now).
WorldsDumbestMan 5 points a year ago
Funny how many "Going to Canada/USA is easy" type of ads I have seen. No, I don't see why I need to go to Canada either. Travel is a huge pain in the ass even without interment camps.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 7 points a year ago
canada has internment camps too?
Heliumfart 5 points a year ago
Have you been to Canada?
SereneSadie 4 points a year ago
I have to put up with the shitty KIIS (106.5) repetitive trash at work all day. Hearing Gordie hammer on about going to LA just drives me nuts.
UnderpantsWeevil 1 point a year ago
Headphones and cranking my jams/podcast to eleven.
Maybe also, occasionally accidentally unplug/knock over whatever is broadcasting that trash.
Australis13 1 point a year ago
Ouch! I am glad I generally get to choose when the radio is on or not (most of the time it's when I have to run an errand and so have it on in the car and can pick which channel to listen to).
SabinStargem 1 point a year ago
Here's an idea: enter those competitions, win the prize, and then request to turn it into cash. It is win-win: ICE loses potential bounties, and Australians get money.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool 48 points a year ago
Im a Canadian citizen, but was born in Central America. I have tattoos and anti trump memes on my phone. I at least used to tel myself “at leadte if I get arrested and fucked with, the Canadian government will save me”
Then I saw a report about a white Canadian girl who was detained for weeks. And the Canadian government did nothing and let her rot till the Americans released her. So yeah I ain’t going anywhere near the U.S
Darkassassin07 2 points a year ago
What is the Canadian government supposed to do about it, invade the US?
It's not like reasonable negotiation is getting anyone anywhere.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool 17 points a year ago
It’s not for me to say what the government should do, im not a diplomat. But I know that ignoring the family and saying nothing about it is not the right response. They should post a travel ban that treats the U.S like North Korea an other “do not travel to for any reason” countries. I for one am done with America and all Americans in general. World would be better off if every American got raptured tomorrow.
Jankatarch 10 points a year ago
Ok but what does US gov have to gain from just detaining random foreign civilians? I am geniuenly confused why this is happening.
Zier 8 points a year ago
Fascists want complete control, and it sends a message not to come here. They only want 'their kind', meaning white racist conservatives. Detaining is a power play. Just a reminder, this is the trump government, not the citizens. The majority of people are welcoming, only about 25% of Americans are complete and utter trash.
BrainInABox 0 points a year ago
There hasn't been a US government in my life time that wasn't unspeakably racist and evil, so it's kind of hard to believe the majority are welcoming.
BrainInABox 2 points a year ago
American's will never fail to blame foreigners for all their problems. It's zero surprise America is in this state when both sides of it's political system are xenophobic nationalists who believe in the modern version of the Judeo-Bolshivik conspiracy theory.
Rivalarrival 13 points a year ago
New fetish unlocked.
burntbacon 5 points a year ago
You don't get unlocked until the poutine is gone. Get back in the corner!
AlpacaChariot 19 points a year ago
To be fair, it would be difficult to be on Lemmy and not be aware of this stuff, it's the vast majority of people who have no exposure to this kind of stuff that are the problem.
ToastedRavioli 6 points a year ago
I literally read just about every single thing posted to Lemmy, at least anything Midwest.Social is federated with, and I havent seen a single link posted about foreign tourists being detained since those two German girls got detained in Hawai’i for no reason several months ago
AlpacaChariot 1 point a year ago
I can't tell if you're joking. Assuming not, that's great, Lemmy working as intended
Grizzlyboy 29 points a year ago
Remember the countries Trump called shitholes? That's America for most sane Europeans. It's a shithole counrty where you'll be detained if you've got a meme of Jester D. Vance.
HubertManne 1 point 9 months ago
he didn't like the shitholes because they were competition for his vision of magamerica.
KarlHungus42 29 points a year ago
People who watch fox news don't know anything. Those of us who read the news from various sources are aware of what's happening. Sadly, we're a very small minority. What's happening here is scary as hell, especially when you see so many people just acting like everything is normal, either because they actually think that or they just don't know what else to do. I hope democracy will survive this, but the architects of its demise have been largely unimpeded so far. If I wasn't American, there's no fucking way I would come here with the fulvous fascist in power. Fuck trump. Fuck fascism.
UnderpantsWeevil 34 points a year ago
They know
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
They very explicitly and purposefully do not. This is a cornerstone of American domestic power. You cloud the news media with "Crime Wave" hysterics and neoliberal economic truisms, then strategically squelch or discredit any opposition views, from Dan Rather to Steven Colbert.
This is in large part thanks to a massive consolidation of media ownership over the last forty years, particularly via capture by Big Tech parent companies.
If "they know", who told them?
UnderpantsWeevil 3 points a year ago
lmao
You're a strong data point, I'll concede that much.
drspectr 19 points a year ago
As an American, they really don't know. Its worse than that, they refuse to even look at any evidence of it happening, "its all fake news" they say. I recently got a few of them to finally see it and they instantly got depressed and went down deep and fast; "this is not what I voted for" they said. I'd argue that a lot of the people supporting this bullshit aren't really bad people, they got conned by a brilliant coordinated effort of corporate propaganda and would be completely against it if they could ever open their eyes and pay attention.
Politics is not a team sport where you support some side for fun, sadly it has consequences. And I fear with the evolution of modern AI this type of propaganda efforts just got 100 times easier to do today, not only the news are telling us what to think in America, now the AI's can easily sneakily slip in some agenda to pull us in whatever direction the corporation feels helps them.
AdrianTheFrog 9 points a year ago
I agree, republican propaganda is just insanely successful in that they have people believing that they're the only source of truth and everyone else, even scientific papers, is biased, wrong, and "written by the enemy"
By the time a republican sees an actual accurate source, their news media has already prepared them with several excuses for why that isn't actually something to be paid attention to.
Randomgal 0 points a year ago
Yep. The whole 'they don't know better' is just a way for the other team* to imply they are smarter and the ones who know THE truth. While failing to see the reality right in front of them.
Vigilantfox85 1 point a year ago
I always here “it’s/them/they/are woke!!!”. It’s lost all meaning and it’s just dumb brainwashed and it assholes don’t like something it’s woke.
Glitterbomb 32 points a year ago
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume its predominantly Maori being detained. Because they're brown.
Medic8teMe 3 points a year ago
Canadians too.
cwicseolfor 15 points a year ago
@Glitterbomb @Dogyote They’re detaining absolutely anybody they think might not be partial to the regime. They demand you make your social media pages public so they can see if you posted anything critical, they’ve sent people back for things as simple as memes. Plenty of the people they’re sending back are their exact racial preference because *the chance to exercise power* is the draw to this sort of work (though that often goes hand in hand with racism, when overreach must be more selective.)
Medic8teMe 17 points a year ago
Loads of people have been "detained" simply for having anything resembling anti trump sentiment on their personal electronic devices. People from many different countries.
Don't travel to 'murica. It's a fascist dictatorship and you do not have rights regardless of your skin color or where your passport is from.
davidagain 14 points a year ago
Which part of ICE=lunatic racist clueless lawless unaccountable goon squad personal trump army did you miss?
musubibreakfast 7 points a year ago
I'm guessing it's because of their cool accents and off the wall sense of humor
NotJohnSmith 22 points a year ago
Literally just had to explain to my wife that her friends may be OK visiting as they are white but that it's not a great idea to be travelling to the US.
Regrettably I feel it's the minority in alot of countries that have these moral sensibilities
lurch 21 points a year ago
AFAIK it's not a skin color thing. Everyone may get asked to unlock their phones and provide access to their social media. If they don't like what they see, you get seperated from your children, have to go back or are deported to El Salvador.
sp3ctr4l 8 points a year ago
You are correct that its not entirely a skin color thing, that all that stuff can and does hapoen to anyone, of any nationality/appearance...
But at the same time, you are way, way more likely to have a really fucking bad outcome the further your skin tone is away from eggshell off white.
I see stories of southern Italians / Siicillians getting held for weeks, Canadians of Hispanic heritage getting sent to some kind of internment camp... but, white/euro descent Canadians with some minor misdemeanors in the US 10 years ago getting basically just turned away at the border, then eventually they get some kind of visa/residence permit re enabled after some paperwork bs.
Skin color is absolutely a good general indicator of how bad your outcome is likely to be.
The ... particularly infuriating thing, to me at least, is... these Nazi ICE fucks can't tell the difference between an indigenous, native American, and a hispanic person, all they see is brown skin, and I am also seeing reports of people of that kind of descent being lumped into roundups and raids.
They've literally been here for thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands of years, but nope, America still hates the fuck out of the Sioux, Choctaw, Commanche, etc etc.
Supervisor194 30 points a year ago
It's not personal, the government is just gearing up so it can deport anyone it wants on demand - including citizens - and this is all part of the normalization of that.
Our government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian and Israeli governments due to corruption, kompromat and unimaginably huge sums of money, so we are being driven off a cliff in order to create a (lower case) new world order.
Encouraging tourism doesn't factor into the equation. The opposite, actually.
lonefighter 13 points a year ago
Once the immigrants are out they'll just start onto the next group they don't like. I have a family member who told me during Trump's first presidency that I should "get out" and that I was no longer welcome in the country, simply for the crime of no longer being the good little brainwashed conservative I was raised to be. (I'd have loved to get out, but that takes money or education and I was raised with neither because conservatives like their children stupid and I'm trying but fuck it's difficult to gain an education as a single adult in this economy)
They don't want anyone here who doesn't shut up and fall in line and you'd better be a heterosexual white nationalist Christian while you're at it or you're going to be fucked sooner or later.
FosterMolasses 7 points a year ago
It's crazy to me whenever I read accounts of stories like these from people who you'd think would be the least impacted demographically speaking, only to find it's endless hoop jumping all the way to the top. You could be a caucasian cis heterosexual man with generational wealth tying your ancestry to the state, who always votes republican and never speaks ill of capitalism, and yet at the first sign of doubting the regime's doublespeak you'll still be cast to the wolves as if you were yet another trans immigrant protesting human rights violations in Gaza.
Tell me it's 1939 without telling me it's 1939.
burntbacon 8 points a year ago
We've been saying it on lemmy for at least two years...
The cruelty is the point.
IphtashuFitz 4 points a year ago
It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s in part due to the quotas that Trump denies exist, but various news outlets have reported on. They’ve all said Trump is demanding 3000 arrests by ICE every day. That’s over a million a year, and there’s no realistic way to achieve that sort of goal short of sitting outside the international arrivals terminal of an airport and randomly grabbing some of them…
Medic8teMe 21 points a year ago
We see regular articles about the decline in business for American tourism in our part of Canada. There have been some major destination offers of 50-80% off offered to Canadians willing to return and stay at traditional places Canadians visit.
Fuck em. Death to murica.
cheloxin 16 points a year ago
I wish people like you would stop saying half voted for it and half didn't. In reality, ⅕ voted for it, ⅕ against it, and ⅗ don't have any accurate representation in this phony system of choice so they didn't vote at all.
cannon_annon88 2 points a year ago
You can't change the system if people don't vote, though. So go vote. You can't just sit at home and lament how broken the system is, not participating, and then expecting it to somehow change without any effort. Not saying this is you, but the idea you're defending.
prole 6 points a year ago
“Well they were immigrants, they were stupid if they lost their greencard”. When I reply with “uh, it’s us citizens next” they are too afraid and hopeless to accept it.
It's also just not true as they're deporting legal permanent residents and greencard holders as well.
UnderpantsWeevil 4 points a year ago
Half of us literally voted for it
Turnout was mediocre compared to 2020, in no small part thanks to conservatives cranking voter disenfranchisement to eleven. Then you have enormous swaths of residents whose views effectively don't count, because they're in the wrong state or they're the wrong age or they've never been properly documented and registered in our Byzantine bureaucracy.
Something like 40% of residents actually got to decided the next president. And of that 40%, half of them got what they wanted.
When I reply with “uh, it’s us citizens next” they are too afraid and hopeless to accept it.
Afraid and hopeless to do what, exactly? If there's a button to press, they'll push it. If there's a campaign to support, you'll be surprised how many people get into the streets.
But the activism has been strangled by a heavily armed, overwhelmingly well-financed police state.
You'd be stupid not to be afraid, particular after watching tanks roll through LA.
ExtraordinaryJoe 20 points a year ago
Some of us are absolutely aware, but powerless to make any change. I'm speaking up to family who only watch the propaganda put out by the right wing machine. But I'm mainly wonder how to sell my house, and get my ex wife and son out of here... and from there... where? What would I do for work?
fossilesque 25 points a year ago path: 0 18637833 18638361, hotness: undefined, score: 25, children: 3
Kamsaa 4 points a year ago
Hi, I'm french and, while I would genuinely love for my country to be a safe space for trans people, I feel like I should warn you: things here are not as bad as in the US but the far right is progressing real fast and I'm quite afraid that they'll pass in 2027. We (the leftists) are fighting the best we can but the media and our government are definitely inclined towards the far right already. Feel free to save my handle to get in touch if you move to France, I'll be happy to help and share some info and advice. Best of luck
AtrusOfDni 2 points a year ago
As someone who lived in France for a couple of years a decade ago, in sorry to hear that. I loved it there and would move back to France in a heartbeat if it was feasible.
ZILtoid1991 20 points a year ago
Or get labelled as "dangerous criminals", because of the quota of ICE.
I grew up learning that the communist secret police was bad, because they had to fill out quotas of arrests for crimes, so they just tortured people until they confessed. Often they were executed. Even one of my great-grandfather was sent to a gulag after he was at the wrong place during the 1956 revolution of Hungary, while the other was almost arrested for not wanting to shoot protestors with a machine gun.
EmpressRka 19 points a year ago
I'm trans, if I ever set a toe in that shithole I'm gonna get shot
Thank gods Europe is still free (at least for now)
razzazzika 12 points a year ago
They're not shooting us YET but I'm sure it's coming. I'm trans and HERE and scared as fuck.
eupraxia 3 points a year ago
yeah... :((((
take care of yourselves, this is gonna get rough. I'm sticking it out where I am until I have no choice but to get out, and seeing what we can do here to help people relocate to relative safety. I have tentative hope that some states will effectively resist this, at least for now, but no matter where you are it's definitely time for a flight plan if you can make one.
we may have lost the battle for now, but there's time still to bolster our communities and survive this. at least I have to hope so.
burntbacon 8 points a year ago
Don't discount the power of media bubbles. I know my parents are completely ignorant. One gets 24/7 fox news on the tv, the other does nothing but scroll facebook, aol/msn/yahoo shitfeeds, and what all the friends (boomers with silver spoons, every one) talk about.
I mentioned some small things about ice deporting citizens, legal residents, and illegal aliens without due process as a routine thing, and I was looked at as if I was talking about ufo sightings.
OldChicoAle 17 points a year ago
Americans are dumbasses.
Source: I live in the USA
mdm 17 points a year ago
@JeSuisUnHombre In 2023 I took a trip to Canada from the US via car -- at the Canadian border, a nice guy asked me two questions and they waived me through. No guards, no guns, no dogs.
Coming back into the American border? Militarized checkpoint. Black-clothed rifle-carrying agents marching up and down through lines of cars, with dogs. A car next to me with a family inside being stripped down for a search.
Most Americans don't travel out of country, and thus don't see this stuff.
GreenKnight23 16 points a year ago
as an American, I know what's going on but I don't consume mainstream media.
I wish I could do something right now to resolve this, but I myself (who has lived here my entire life over 50 years) could risk deportation to an El Salvadorian prison.
I am the primary breadwinner for my family, who has already been targeted due to autism and ADHD.
I am afraid to do anything that could jeopardize them and their safety.
I know I am not alone, and that we are being cornered, but what else are we supposed to do?
MrSulu 15 points a year ago
We do not specifically hate the US. We fear for our safety and our families with MAGA, Trump, ICE and sadly now, the people we're supposed to go to for help, the police. .I've been visiting the US every 3-4 years since 1994 when 'fly drive' holidays were affordable for people aged 21. Havent been since Trump was rising in popularity for election and we were having a chat about it in a restaurant in Orlando. We had not realised just how quickly strangers could get hostile so quickly. Currently, my social media and messages would likely be sufficient to have me disappeared. I am maybe typically of Europeans for my open view of Trump.
BJ_and_the_bear 11 points a year ago
I know it's a total trope, but it isn't all Americans. Plenty of us are horrified by what's happening too...
Stonewyvvern 14 points a year ago
As a Black/Jewish guy who works with Mexicans and a few illegals from South America, I'm worried that ICE is going to show up at my workplace and arrest my coworkers.
ICE will more than likely scoop me up with my coworkers without even giving a shit that I'm a Fourth generation native.
We know shit is happening, but we have privileges now, not rights. And if you stand up for your privileges you might find yourself arrested and/or dead.
We are afraid and we feel hopeless. We are working on it though.
InternetCitizen2 1 point a year ago
As a Black/Jewish
Like from Ethiopia? I've heard of that but it always spoken of as if its an odd off shoot
chefdano3 9 points a year ago
Am American, can confirm. Trying to talk to my family about this results in arguments and then calling me "a sheeple" and blind, and/or blaming it on the "democrats fake news."
Comparing them to rocks, is an insult to rocks.
Tollana1234567 1 point a year ago
same, confirm a family member still loves YE considering him being OUT OF his mind and supporting the nazis, he thinks hes just stirring shit up and now actually crazy.
WhyNotZoidberg 13 points a year ago
@JeSuisUnHombre this: so many Americans have no idea they're living in a dictatorship and that's almost the most scary thing of all.
BotsRuinedEverything 13 points a year ago
Hm. It's almost like we have some kind of secret police that is unaccountable and anonymous.
VeryInterestingTable 11 points a year ago
Add Canadians to the list.
naeap 10 points a year ago
Maybe it's the right thread to ask:
We will be flying from Europe to Central America in a few months.
On the flight there, we have s stop in Houston Texas.
Do I need to worry just about the transit?
If I would actually need to go the USA at the moment, I would have a completely empty smartphone and laptop.
But do I need to worry about the transit?
Edit: obviously I don't plan to do anything illegal, I'm just a tourist. But after all the stories, I'm getting a bit worried
B0nes 18 points a year ago
American here (lucky enough to no longer live there), the US is one of the few countries that makes you go through immigration during transit. Please make sure you have a visa if required. Safe travels friend.
scutiger 2 points a year ago
Yes, the US makes you go through customs even when just transiting through the airport. It's a pain and potentially adds a lot of time to a layover. Make sure you have enough time to get to your next flight.
naeap 2 points a year ago
Because I can't cancel it or change it - only in case of sickness, as far as I know
And I just booked it yesterday, before I saw this thread and thought about it.
I'm currently going through my options...
Bytemeister 6 points a year ago
We're very welcoming to sexual predators. Seems like the US is the Mecca for pedophiles and child traffickers lately.
gandalf_der_12te 3 points a year ago
... which is very odd to watch from an european perspective because the US used to be the epicenter of the moral panic of the 20th century
Tollana1234567 1 point a year ago
birthplace of panic, gay panic, satanic panic, now transpanic, and immigrant panic. plus also the birthplace of nazi ideas based on american segregation methods and internment.
Tollana1234567 2 points a year ago
seems like the people coming here have booked thier vacation/spots in advanced, on non-refundable trips. after DECember we are going to see the touristy spots are going to be devestated. LVegas is already seeing the effects, although they have been dying for a couple years already.
undead 10 points a year ago
path: 0 18651167, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 0
Any American who has crossed the border in the last couple of years does know, and the CBP were cracking down even during Biden's admin.
That is why many USians are also not traveling abroad during Trump's regime, because we would have to come back in through those same checks under his admin.
I mean, for those USians who have plans to come back...
BurningRiver 9 points a year ago
Oh for fucks sake, stay away. Most of us know exactly what is going on. Stay they fuck away for a dozen years or so while we fight our out of it, or show up to help. Either way, don’t come here to holiday. We gotta unfuck ourselves first.
BrainInABox 1 point a year ago
It's hard to imagine American's unfucking the country when even the ones who oppose the current regime mostly just want to return to the status quo of a being a genocidal empire with titan prison population.
Tollana1234567 9 points a year ago
they are detaining anything criticising trump, plus its good talking points for anti-immigration and foreigners for thier stupid base.
gravitas_deficiency 7 points a year ago
Which, obviously, is causing tourism to fall into a giant crater.
And our Dear Leader is simultaneously whining about how bad all these “foreign invaders” are, while also being furious at how tourism revenue has fallen off a cliff because of the “woke mind virus” or some other idiocy like that.
What a time to be alive.
varyingExpertise 6 points a year ago
Father in law, an engineer in his early sixties has been declining jobs his company had lined up for him in the US. He's worried what being detained for a few days without his meds would do to him.
tazeycrazy 6 points a year ago
In many of the cases we here it's not the rapist or murders but the minor paper work mistakes that get you locked up. One tick can get you gitmoed.
AdolfSchmitler 4 points a year ago
whY Is TouRiSm dOWn?!?!
Nalivai 2 points a year ago
Copros are always follow the profit, what else is new. When the pressure was on being "woke", they were "woke". That means we need to continue do pressure. Or did anyone thought corporations are people and have feelings?
rhvg 2 points a year ago
Americans have been flooded with lots of news.
Report is tend to based on verifiable facts, returned victims are inconvenient to verify.
Americans are simply new to this phenomenon and don’t know how to interpret/imagine. In a few generations, when trump dynasty is over, we will see documentaries about how this works systematically and what news have reported are just tip of the iceberg.
baardhaveland 2 points a year ago
path: 0 18659637, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
It's not long since this guy from Norway was detained for several hours while security went thru his social media accounts
They found an old meme presenting J.D.Vance as a bald baby
Then they sent the guy back to Norway...
However....
If they spend even five minutes going thru any of MY accounts, then I will most likely NOT be returned to Norway. Instead they'll just "lose me" somewhere near the southern parts of Cuba...
So, no... I'm not going anywhere near USA! 😄
yonderbarn 2 points a year ago
Kim Iversen has always been clueless. Didn't realize Tulsi Gabbard was full of it back when she was running for office.
Tollana1234567 0 points a year ago
tulsi dad was responsible for delaying lgbtq+ marriage in HAWAII for quite a while, tulsi was in a wierd cult, go figure. plus she only became a DINO as a way to infilitrate and undermine the hawaii legislation, she probably was probably a russian shill by then too. and after '16-'20 what you know became a russian mouthpiece, plus only worked with the GOP. Also found out that just before the election, like a few weeks, or amonth. she was on yt channel of a poc "talking about news" a bunch of asian(who enshittify themselves). she was allegedly airing her grevience against the "left" on that episode.
qgustavor 2 points a year ago
@JeSuisUnHombre Reminds me when talking with someone about their dream to visit Disney: "no way, unless you are talking about Disney Paris or Tokyo". To be fair, I guess both are still bad choices as those still means supporting the USA and it's current administration, so next time I should recommend a theme park from a non-USA based company.
Microw 2 points a year ago
I know two people who recently went to the US. One had to go for business reasons, and we assumed there would be no problems (although werent sure). Indeed no problems.
The other one went to visit family, and we were concerned. In that case there was an increased questioning at the airport but also no actual problems.
Now, both of these are pretty unpolitical people. If you have any past of sharing certain political views online or on your device: yeah don't even bother to think about going there.
Elleaster 1 point a year ago
@JeSuisUnHombre That's Americans who can afford to go to New Zealand. Trust us, we brown people are well aware.
dragonfucker -2 points a year ago
This got drag thinking about North Korea. They're probably like Americans when it comes to knowing what their country does.
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Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.
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