Americans have no idea

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.

I know it's a total trope, but it isn't all Americans. Plenty of us are horrified by what's happening too...

Americans are dumbasses.

Source: I live in the USA

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.

I won't even enter American air space for as long as I live. Also, I'm not ever going to buy American products unless I absolutely have to.

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.

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)

They're not shooting us YET but I'm sure it's coming. I'm trans and HERE and scared as fuck.
- 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.

There is nothing worth coming here for. This place is not a place of honor... nothing valued is here.

@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.

@JeSuisUnHombre this: so many Americans have no idea they're living in a dictatorship and that's almost the most scary thing of all.

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.

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.

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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- Crazy is getting reality from one youtube video
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.
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.
- 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.
11% down from 2024 is not "empty."
- Sorry, decimated would be more appropriate then.
- 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.
- go lose 11% of your monthly income and come back and let us know how that works out for you
- 11% down is devastating. Why downplay it?
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
Because they think it’s only minorities and white people are still welcome.

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

The Olympics were held in Germany while Nazis were in power, it'll be that way here too.
- 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.
US tourism should be zero, and if you have family here then you should be trying to help them leave.

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.

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.
- 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.
I live in the US and won't do any international travel under this regime for the same concerns when I inevitably have to return to the shithole of the Americas.
Don't worry, the current German government is just as evil.
- The current German government is bad. But it’s far from being as catastrophic as Trump‘s shit show.

@JeSuisUnHombre

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...

Some examples:

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.

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
Bud...i have one hell of a revelation for you....
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.
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.
- I cannot remember a time when you didn't.
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.
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.

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.

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.
- 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.
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.
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.
- 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.
I’m amazed people are still coming at all.
expats

Corporate media supports fascism for tax cuts and deregulation. Their woke shit was only ever marketing.

Copros are always follow the profit, what else is new. When thr 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?

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.

can i borrow your rose colored glasses i need them got a feeling today is gonna be rough
American here. We have almost 3.5 more years of this horse shit. If indeed cheetoh Hitler allows another election.
- Cheetoh Hitler doesn't get to make that decision: you do.
- The numbers for your last election don't make sense. You are not going to have a free election for a while.
Most places which fall to fascist regimes have a minimum of a few decades of bad times and thousands to millions of deaths.
- Well the US has already thoroughly managed the millions dead, assuming you consider foreigners human.

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

What is the Canadian government supposed to do about it, invade the US?
It's not like reasonable negotiation is getting anyone anywhere.
- 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.
- What is the Canadian government supposed to do about it, invade the US?
  Canadians have already burned down the White House once before, doing it once again might be a good idea.

I am a US citizen living abroad. Even I'm afraid to go back home to see my family.

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.
- Wow that nearly is wartime stuff
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.
- 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.

Why are New Zealanders being detained?

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.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume its predominantly Maori being detained. Because they're brown.
- Nope. White fuckeras everywhere. Same as the aussies
  the US can't even claim their usual racist shitfuckery, they're just goddamn insane
- @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.)
Which part of ICE=lunatic racist clueless lawless unaccountable goon squad personal trump army did you miss?
I'm guessing it's because of their cool accents and off the wall sense of humor

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).

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.
- Going is easy. It's getting to come back that's the problem.
- canada has internment camps too?
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.
- Headphones and cranking my jams/podcast to eleven.
  Maybe also, occasionally accidentally unplug/knock over whatever is broadcasting that trash.
- 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).
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.

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.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/travel-news/eight-kiwis-detained-at-us-border-since-november-mfat-reminds-travellers-of-entry-rules-amid-safetravel-review/BUP6FRREGJE33FEV4IJ334VSVQ/

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?

I realise your post is rhetorical, but I am sprinkling some knowledge here for those that need it; fwiw, here are good places to start looking for opportunities abroad:
https://visasponsor.jobs/api/jobs
look for immigration short lists per country, e.g. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-immigration-salary-list/skilled-worker-visa-immigration-salary-list - note there's also unskilled work included in these, notably carers on the separate (see link) healthcare list
https://europa.eu/eures/portal/jv-se/home?lang=en
short stays/stepping stones/staying mobile:
https://www.workaway.info/
https://wwoof.net/
Maybe it may help someone...
- can't do the UK because I'm trans, but I'm looking at staying in France for a spell at least. thanks for the links!
Some of us are aware and outside the US and basically expect to become stateless prisoners in El Salvador the next time we try and enter the country.

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.

Good luck with that. I mean it. When shit really hits the fan it's not just you being in trouble due to the dependencies other countries have to the US.
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.

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.

When everybody talked about “shithole countries”, practically everybody outside the United States thought of one country that deserved that label (we all thought of the same one).
Every accusation is a conversation
More true everyday

Was recently at a conference and I wasasked if I would give a presentation at one of the Universities in the US. My rather fast no offended them.

No fucking way, nope nope nope

I’ve heard of a big conference this year in the US (decided and planned for years before Trump) that now offers remote participation option.
- I like to attend in person as a big part is networking, I have many projects that came from sit downs and a few Wines

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.

they are detaining anything criticising trump, plus its good talking points for anti-immigration and foreigners for thier stupid base.

This is how state Russian media works. Never cover the truth, like a war with Ukraine. It's a "special military operation".

Ok but what does US gov have to gain from just detaining random foreign civilians? I am geniuenly confused why this is happening.
- 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.
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.

They know. The voted for it and are witnessing it quietly.

But don't forget the files guys. Keep talking about the files instead.

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?
- also animal ag is an atrocity you must never think about
- You know who else says this? Every other American lmao
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.
- 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.
- They voted for hate, this is what they wanted.
  Let them change their behavior, but don't let them gaslight you, they wanted EXACTLY this.
- 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.

I'm Canadian and I'd rather get a piping hot poutine enema than visit the US right now.

New fetish unlocked.
- You don't get unlocked until the poutine is gone. Get back in the corner!

Yeah, wow. First I'm hearing of it and I live here.

They're doing US citizens too though, so it doesn't surprise me.

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.
- 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
This is basically common knowledge. It's in dozens of mainstream international media outlets and has been all over social media.
My guess is that you consume a narrow selection of news media. So, think broader!

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.

As a Black/Jewish
Like from Ethiopia? I've heard of that but it always spoken of as if its an odd off shoot

@JeSuisUnHombre

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! 😄

Add Canadians to the list.

Yeah it sucks over here. Give somebody else your tourist dollars, spare yourself the trauma.

To be fair, before that I was already afraid to go there too. There are so many people with guns and so many mass shootings, my chances of getting shot would skyrocket.

Just stay out of the public schools and you’ll be fine.

Most Americans have no idea cause most Americans are dumb as fucking rocks

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.
- 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.

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

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.
- Ah, for fucks sake, that sucks...
  Thank you very much for warning
Yeah it's definitely possible they make you go through security out then back in, it's happened to me in LAX at least during an international layover that wasn't starting nor ending in the US...
- sigh
  Well, shit
  Just booked today.
  If we'd have known this, we would have taken the flight over Toronto - like our return flight
On the flight there, we have s stop in Houston Texas. Do I need to worry just about the transit?
I did that a couple of years before the US went into full crazy mode and it was already then not a pleasant experience, it has probably not become nicer since then and I don't recommend it.
- Thanks for your input
  Will check my options and talk with the US ambessy today, to see what I'd need to prepare
Always pay extra for direct. Been doing that since 911.
- There is no direct flight from where I live
If you are asking the question, why don't you just change your booking? I guess you have some value to offset even the hint of a threat?
- 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...

Half of us literally voted for it specifically and will defend it, the other half feel powerless. Most of us abso-fucking-lutely know it's happening. I've seen it in my daily life, people I interacted with just gone after years of being here, no recourse.

Then there are those that know and downplay it. "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.

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.
- It's the system you have. It doesn't matter if you have accurate representation. If you don't hold your nose and make a decision, it will be made for you.
- I hate this so fucking much. You will NEVER have accurate representation. There too many fucking people.
“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.
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.

What is the point of detaining tourists who are about to spend all the money in your country? I don't get it. (Not American)

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.
- 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.
We've been saying it on lemmy for at least two years...
The cruelty is the point.
- Right, but I don't think that's not the whole motive
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…

Of course millions of Americans know. It's in the news, a little. It's on social media.

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.

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

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.
- 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.

@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.

No it gets reported and we think it sucks.

I voted against all this bullshit. It didn’t help.

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?

Why would anyone want to go to America atm?

Well, give it a bit more time and the US dollar will be quite cheap compared to your local currency.
We're very welcoming to sexual predators. Seems like the US is the Mecca for pedophiles and child traffickers lately.
- ... 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
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.

Hm. It's almost like we have some kind of secret police that is unaccountable and anonymous.

@JeSuisUnHombre That's Americans who can afford to go to New Zealand. Trust us, we brown people are well aware.

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.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/kiwi-turned-away-us-border-gives-advice-travellers-rnz

The people that don't know consume right-wing media exclusively or just don't watch the news in general. It's the reason we are in this situation.

I get all my news from Facebook

Not only afraid but pissed af of all this people actually voting for this piece of shit again.

whY Is TouRiSm dOWn?!?!

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.

Kim Iverson is a dumbass moron who lives in a bubble.

Kim Iversen has always been clueless. Didn't realize Tulsi Gabbard was full of it back when she was running for office.

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.

Not true I've heard about this in many twitter screenshots posted online

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.

I literally just got my visa. Well, at least I got some cringy T-shirts for $5 at Ross.

Not so much "deported", more "shot".

This got drag thinking about North Korea. They're probably like Americans when it comes to knowing what their country does.