Maybe this was never the place I thought it was. That image is likely just the selective memory or the idealized version of it as filtered through a younger, more naive, less aware, more optimistic version of myself. Still, the sense of loss is the same.
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/the-american-dream-of-being-an-expat
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/the-american-dream-of-being-an-expat
Comments
We enjoy the simpler things and have enjoyed downsizing.
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/the-american-dream-of-being-an-expat
For decent Americans it will be a tough fight.
Expat is to take a universal experience of uprooting everything in hope of finding safety and a better life elsewhere. But wrapping it in privilege. It discounts the universality of that with other immigrants and attempts to elevate itself. Not cool.
The family ties will always be here. The culture shock is inevitable, beyond the vacation-phase
And I suspect we Americans are not so welcome outside our territory anymore
Mexico is amazing. But I have to admit I yearn to return and raise some hell because I’m just not seeing people take the destruction of the u.s. seriously.
& don’t want to wake up angry/anxious everyday as it will shorten what’s left of my life. Get out before the fascists start closing the borders?
Now it’s really hurting you personally you want to run away. There is no running away.
Sort your shit out.
The U.S. is an economy, not a society. Once one accepts we are just marks for the taking, it makes sense.
The US leads the world in nothing positive to my knowledge yet crows of exceptionalism to paper over the cracks.
A dual citizen
Diversity: Yes to tolerating and appreciating it, but not the goal.
Diversity in values is the actual problem. We have to unite again over shared values like respecting dignity of all humans. Justice with mercy, not revenge.
I guess we all have been indoctrinated.
I do feel being able to deal in reality and knowing there are many people who are fighting for a better world is some comfort. We just can't give in to this hateful regime.
Makes me feel like crazy, less alone in the uncertainty, fear, and grief.
But I will add… I’m contemplating returning simply to raise hell and make sure the resistance can support the necessary revolution. I’ve lived a good life, I have nothing to lose.
Paul Newman /Diane Caroll
Often indefensible.
It's always been the people I've known that are Great.
Kindness, Creativity, Uniqueness, Determination, Courage, Heart, Adaptability, Faith, Sense, & more.
Every place has assholes
but America needs heroes to stand up for it more than ever.
DOGE’s rampage through institutions has parallels in China’s Cultural Revolution
Jianli Yang
I survived Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party’s purges. What's happening now reminds me of the CCP’s Central Cultural Revolution Group.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-doge-china-cultural-revolution-mao-rcna193562
The fact is, Whether you are an Expat, Native American, black American Asian, American Mexican American, we are all feeling exactly like you are. This is the ugly America that for 85 years we have fought against. our huge error? We took our constitution for granted.
If anything this version of America is more real. The racists are emboldened.
It's sad.
Thank you so much for expressing what I think so so many of us especially of a certain age are feeling.. Just thank you
As a baby boomer, the idea of American exceptionalism was a given (even if discovered later to have been exaggerated or outright lies).
But, here’s the kicker; we don’t live in the US.
We no longer feel safe and secure in the country our family has only called home for 2 generations in our case.
We are looking to leave Canada. 🇨🇦
Because of the hate from the US.
You poisoned it
It seems you don't want to except the definition of the word for whatever reason it's not a racist thing even though you're trying to make it so!
What it is becoming may be worse, but the American fantasy was not available to most.
Statements like this are indicative of privilege, not the nature of America.