Why I Would Leave the U.S. if I Could

I feel out of place in the country where I was born and have lived all my life. This feeling has existed for a decade or so but has intensified over the past few years. This is a semi-lucid listing of the reasons I would leave the United States if it were a possibility.

Roe versus Wade is on the verge of being overturned, putting ideology ahead of women’s health. The thing is, abortions are going to occur whether they are legal or not, the only difference is that more women will die due to the procedure. I see that, why don’t the people who want to overturn Roe versus Wade?

Protect the unborn!

Okay, a noble sentiment, so—are you willing to pay more taxes for all the things these children and their families will require like daycare, children’s dental, college, bigger schools and so on?

That would be socialism!

Which leads me into my next problem: A knee jerk reaction to anything that falls into that stained, reeking bag known as socialism. Let’s define socialism thusly: Tax dollars used for things we rely on such as roads and schools. The police and fire departments, under that definition are socialism, as is the military. Socialism is not a bad thing; bureaucracy is a bad thing, but that is simply the nature of a massive beast such as the government of a large country.

Seventy-three million people voted for the man whose name will not be mentioned (five letters, rhymes with “Dump”). They voted for him, often for both elections, and believe his “victory” was stolen in 2020. They see him as a normal guy, a man who speaks plainly, and who wants to “Make America Great Again.” The fact that so many people do not see through the former president disturbs me, that they do not dig deep enough to see that the former president, a billionaire who has never known what it is like to have an honest, normal job or struggle to live check to check, is playing them. They do not see that the former president is a narcissist and possibly a sociopath who only wants attention and power no matter the cost. The “genius” of the former president is that he knows how to push buttons, like as populist leaders have in the past such as Mussolini. This sort of person is dangerous, the head of a cult of personality, if you read history you see what leaders like the former president have stirred up and inspired their people to do. January 6, 2021 is the defining example of this, and if he is re-elected in 2024 (or one of his disciples is), I am genuinely concerned what damage could be done. We had the former president put three far right people in the Supreme Court, that could happen again.

Seventy-three million voted for the man I call Illiterate Mussolini, eighty million voted for Biden. A good sign, you might point out. The thing is, Biden is no great shakes. All of us people in the center or left of center voted for Squinty Joe to eject Illiterate Mussolini from the White House. It was our one act of unity, and a general lack of unity is an issue. Illiterate Mussolini has created a powerful, monocultural block: They recite the same taglines, embrace the same complaints and beliefs. The Centrists and Progressives? No, man, we’re at odds. I cannot stand Cancel Culture and the purileness of Woke culture. It reeks of white liberal guilt and misplaced priorities.

Let’s pull a bunch of statues down and rename schools!

Okay, well, we kinda have more pressing things like keeping clean water a right, working towards surviving the intensity of various weathers, etc. I’m a bit more worried about that than some guy who has been dead for three hundred years and it’s the same for a lot of people closer to the Center.

We do not have a solid block against the right which, as I said before, is monocultural, always on brand, reciting the same grudges and taglines. Flying the US flag—

Nationalism. The United States is, sadly, not alone in rampant nationalism. Look at the situation in Ukraine due to Putin’s nationalism. In this country you see US flags everywhere and in weird places like on construction equipment. The problem is we just toe the line, stand when they play the National Anthem, and we don’t recognize that, for all the good things the USA represents, we have done some really dark shit under that flag, all empires are painted in blood. Some of my ancestors forced some of my other ancestors along the Trail of Tears under that flag. We commited atrocities in the Philippines at the turn of the twentieth century…it’s a long list—

And people do not comprehend patriotism is a tool used against them, the US is a baby country, not even 250 years old. We’re a petulent child putting personal freedom over the common good. We are gullible enough, on the left and the right, to believe that we live in a democracy that we can vote or protest away our problems. No. We do understand that the multi-millionaires we elect to represent us are on their knees sucking fat corporate cocks to gain office. And, often, they went to the same schools and move in the same social circuits as the CEOs of the big oil companies, financial institutions, makers of armaments, and so one. It’s all about money, you don’t change things by waving a picket sign or voting, you change things by fucking with the money—

And people don’t get that in this country, but maybe it’s the same throughout the first world.

Back to personal freedom:

It is my right granted by the Second Amendment to own an M-16.

Uh, well, dude, when the Constitution was drafted a “rifle” was single shot, took sixty seconds to reload, and was pretty inaccurate. Are you gonna bring back buckle shoes and cholera, too?

The government wants to take away my guns so they can repress me!

Really? The people who actually run the first world have you right where they want you: In debt up to your chin so you have to work too much to have any strength left to unpack the reality of the first world and how you are being conned.

So…you think you and your militia buddies are gonna take on the most powerful military in the world?

Enough about guns, people in this country, “Left” and “Right,” do not seem to comprehend that both sides are being played against each other so they do not unite. Because, surprise surprise, the media is controlled by the same corporate players—

Okay, I feel myself slipping into a rant that could be as much about the first world in general as the United States.

I was talking about putting personal freedom over the general good, it could be people refusing to wear masks, it could be any number of things. It’s an epidemic in this country.

The United States is a country where cunning is rewarded and intelligence is something to be suspicious of. It is a country that does not understand eccentricity, you are either crazy or “sane.” On the subject of sanity, the pace of life is insane. The expectations of how much money you’re suppose to be make by 30, 40, 50, the career expectations, your credit rating—it is alien to me which is why I work sustainence jobs and live out of a minivan. Everywhere you see oversized $50000 Costco Cowboy trucks rushing through beige suburbs. In the theatres there are seventy different movies based on Marvel comics. The US is like TikTok video or a cartoon. In our culture, it is strange to just sit in silence and watch birds, and that is how I want to spend the rest of my life. With each passing week I feel more at odds with this place.

My reality is that I am a middle-aged man without money or an in demand skill like doctor or engineer a country like, say, Portugal would require for immigration. More importantly, my parents are aging and I can’t leave them to the wolves. I will, most likely, spend the remainder of my life in this energy drink fueled, violent, superficial cartoon we call the United States. I no longer want to buy to land here, I cannot even imagine buying another “vehicle home” when my current van dies. Honestly, this is the one source of stress in my life, realizing I am stuck here, in a place I feel more and more at odds with. There is no tidy solution to this, I am simply sharing my feelings because I understand that I am not alone in them and if you’re reading this, and can relate, understand you are not alone, as well...