Is USA safe to visit?

[perellonuts]

I can’t even believe I’m asking this but is it safe to visit USA now? I’m concerned about the social media issue, I’m pretty sure I’ve liked one or two anti-trump posts each time I’ve doom scrolled since his first term. Could this be used against me? I definitely feel free speech is not tolerated there now. I’d be travelling with my neuro diverse son, age 7. He is perfectly capable with full autonomy and we travel a lot but being separated with no due process would be a disaster and scares the hell out of me. We’ve been invited to go to collect a prestigious award and they put you in a hotel for a few days etc. We have American friends and family and the first hand ICE stories are horrific.

Gun violence is a reality but so far it's not been what I've been most concerned about (although exiting a restaurant once to find that the boulevard was the scene of a police standoff with circling police helicopters overhead certainly was an experience... )
Regarding safety, I am frankly more concerned about drunk driving at night. I find driving in some of the big cities sometimes quite hairy, especially in the evening.

I think the families at Sandy Hook probably thought they were sending their children to a school in a very safe neighbourhood.

I’m not a US citizen. I don’t know where you got that from. My husband has duel nationality. I’m not worried about him.

If you seriously believe that all people in the US voted in the last election, you are being a bit careless in your thinking.

156 out of 348 million Americans voted in 2024. 49.8 % of those voted for T*p, which is shocking enough, but please don't think that everyone here loves that creature.

Also, I live in NYC and don't know a single person who owns a gun, or is anything other than horrified by guns.

I did find it amusingly ironic that he was in the middle of minimising gun violence while under a sign that read "prove me wrong".

I'm from NYC - grew up there and except for university, lived there my entire life until we moved to Paris and then London. People in both places are always shocked and disbelieving when I tell them that the only guns I've ever seen in person in my life are on police officers. It's like they have this vision of the US as a modern Wild West movie, with every second person whirling a gun around their finger.

That said, I was a bit freaked out by the AR-15s slung extremely carelessly across the chests of the Amtrak cops at Moynihan Hall when I was there in November. I don't remember seeing anything like that before.

*To be fair, I don't believe I know any of the 156 million either.

ICE are the violent thugs. They scraped the bottom of the barrel when recruiting.

"The US is no worse than [insert dreadful regime]" isn't exactly high praise.

It's not like the OP was proposing Iran as an alternative.

No then. Not with Arabic name.

Also would not travel with neurodiverse child there. Just not worth the risk of a meltdown meeting arrest and handcuff/ shoot first ask questions later police. Especially with Arabic name.

While it is probably ok, it's not worth the risk.

I even know Trump voters that don't and have never owned a gun!

@DdraigGoch "The US is no worse than [insert dreadful regime]" isn't exactly high praise.

The point is that western nations seem to be subjected to unusually severe criticism compared to other countries where (for example) it's normal to stone gay people in the street or publicly execute them. For some reason, the latter countries seem to get a free pass.

ICE would not exist if people were civilised and respected borders and immigration laws; something that everyone should do for every country.

I had a friend recently tell me she wouldn’t set foot in America due to lgbt rights. She recently went to Dubai 😂😂

Jesus. Not the point of the thread but Trump and Thatcher are poles apart. I mean, I wasn't a fan at the time, but given what we've had since, a Thatcher might be quite useful

I wasn't particularly comparing them tbh 👍 Just that I despise(d) both of them in their time.

It’s the faint whiff of hypocrisy that I was pointing a pin at, rather than the moral relativism adopted by people who choose to visit countries that are repressive and actively so, and are known for repressing women and minority groups over decades.

but certainly it’s everyone’s prerogative to do so: Just don’t take the moral high ground!

Really? I don't usually even see a human when returning to the UK any more, it's all e-gates. Put the passport face-down on the glass and just carry on.

So now that Donnie is clearly in the grip of quite severe dementia (not that he was entirely switched on before), how's that all working out for you?

No one in the UK has been imprisoned "for voicing their opinion".

A Tennessee man got locked up for 37 days for gently pointing out that the Dear Leader's responses to a school shooting and the murder of Charlie Kirk were rather inconsistent.

Who is giving Iran or Syria a free pass?

ICE don't respect immigration laws. People who have been going through the citizenship process by the book have been arbitarily locked up. US citizens have found themselves being deported - despite court orders instructing ICE to stop. DHS have been doing everything they can to circumvent the law and the courts.

ICE are criminal thugs and social rejects.

I have a child under 11

According to who? Not the same publications/news channels that told us all there was absolutely nothing wrong with Biden?

THIS is the issue. Frankly, it’s the main issue. Choices aren’t binary.

You hate Trump. You love Biden.

You hate Fox. You love CNN.

You hate the US foreign and domestic policy. You love Iran.

And for the UK; you hate the Tories. You love Labour.

It’s bullshit. Both Biden and Trump are clearly cognitively unfit to lead a country, especially one with so much power. Both the liberal and conservative press have issues. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are rife with cronyism, special interests, politics as a career, shady deals, self-interest and compromise.

The moral and political centre is a wasteland. And that’s where good sense lives. Cooperation, bipartisan solutions, working to serve the people, not the party. Understanding the flaws of both entrenched positions.

But hate and division sells and garners clicks. So here we are. And it’s incredibly sad and dangerous. Looks like Trump has bombed Caracas. They are not at war with Venezuela but people will defend the bombing by a democracy of another sovereign country without declaring war because SIDES. And murdering people in the water (against all civil, criminal and military law) because of the same.

And in the UK it gives us Farage.

Very much not a Trump fan, but this thread is wild. I bet some of the people commenting have visited countries with much much worse abuse of human rights, authoritarian leanings and underlying instability without a second thought. Turkey? Egypt? Dubai? African countries with safari-based tourism. Anywhere in North Africa. Most of Asia. Even continental Europe has been electing very right wing people for decades. France will I suspect have a hard right government within the decade and my guess is MNers will still be off to Brittany and the Loire.