238 Comments
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Greg Hauenstein's avatar

I keep returning to the quote from Office Space: "Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!"

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Jeremy Rosen's avatar

Truth.

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JRS's avatar

This is my life. I feel seen.

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Janet's avatar

My parents were born in Scotland, and I think I could get citizenship there. I’d love to move there…but at this age ( nearly 75) it is off the table. I’m in great health, but have a disabled husband who definitely wouldn’t want to go.

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jacqueline coursey's avatar

I’d like to live somewhere where the administration has an intelligent and compassionate approach to serving its people.

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Jon Rosen's avatar

You mean on this planet? Where would that be? 🙃

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Todd Mason's avatar

Though at the moment, it isn't too hard nor rare for the other wealthy countries to do slightly better, at least.

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Truckeeman's avatar

Denmark. Finland. Sweden.

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Chess Piccione's avatar

After watching my homestate devolve into a cutscene from The Handmaid's Tale, I moved from Houston to Boulder. Smartest thing I've ever done

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jacqueline coursey's avatar

Nice!

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Tristen Bonacci's avatar

Wait - you can afford Boulder??? Jealouse!

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Jillian L Schweitzer's avatar

I always entertain the idea (I spent time in a study abroad program in Prague in college and LOVED the city) and I've always thought Scotland would be a lovely place to live but it's not fair to those who can't leave, who must stay and fight.

I'm thankful that Maryland is thus far a sane state with regards to civil rights, etc, so despite the ungodly humidity every summer, I am staying put and fighting.

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DB's avatar

Oh my gosh, Prague is so wonderful. How lucky you were!

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Jillian L Schweitzer's avatar

It was stunning, I adored being there!

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Paula Brantner's avatar

I'm in Maryland for the time being, but I am close enough to DC that I have started to fear for my safety. I worry that one day, Jamie Raskin is going to say enough to really piss them off, and my neighborhood with lots of Latin American immigrants is going to be raided in retaliation. I live right next to an Islamic education center, and with 52 languages in the local public schools, I'm sure there are a ton of immigrants from multiple countries who are either undocumented or have enough tattoos to qualify. After January 6, my proximity to DC has gone from being a serious plus to being a significant liability. We were at Union Station on Jan. 21, and knowing that just a day before, the area where I was was filled with MAGAts sent a chill down my spine and turned my stomach.

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Jillian L Schweitzer's avatar

Yeah, I'm really worried about my son's school being targeted, but thankfully the county has really stepped up and told ICE to pound sand.

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Kris Jackson's avatar

I’m in central Maryland near Annapolis, and Anne Arundel county is so dreadfully… Confederate! They fucking love that fucking flag around here. I often wonder what year it is here. Thankfully other counties are more sane.

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Jillian L Schweitzer's avatar

Oooh yes. I used to visit dear friends in Annapolis all the time and boy howdy, it's another world.

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Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

Oh god absolutely would 100% be out of here. Unlimited Money Me would buy a villa in Tuscany and have a beach house in the (non-US) Caribbean.

As it is, we have been considering Mexico. Baja California Sur is incredible and there's so much to do. I love the water, and I can't be landlocked. Easier said than done, though, and I feel very grateful to live in NYC. At least for now...

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MAS's avatar
Mar 31Edited

If I had the resources, absolutely. I’m done with this crap. I want the rest of my life to be about peace and joy and learning and exploration. Not angst and outrage and worry. I think the European way of life is way closer to my own heart’s desire.

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Greg Joseph's avatar

I think this question depends on who you are, who your family is, what your religion, race, gender identity, what your sexuality is etc. The far right is ascendant almost everywhere, or at least most countries that I would like to live in.

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DB's avatar

There is no escaping Nazis and the far right, as best I can tell. They have certainly been ascendent in Sweden in the recent past. The future here is not looking especially great politically.

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Jeff's avatar

It's true they can be found elsewhere. But the guardrails are still functioning in Europe for the most part (save maybe Hungary).

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DB's avatar

That is true. The woman I lived with as an exchange many years ago once told me that everything that developed in the US eventually came to Sweden. There has been at least one attempt to shut down a drag queen reading to children at a library. There have been many attempts, largely successful, to restrict immigration. Although it’s not law yet, some officials in the government want to be able to deport the family members of any immigrant found guilty of a crime. It is absolutely true that things are much worse in the United States. Still, Swedish democracy is threatened and I don’t know where it’s going to be in 10 years. Still largely safe, I hope.

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Jeff's avatar

While I agree several of the trends we're seeing in the US are appearing in Sweden, and in general there is growing conservatism, not to mention unease toward immigrants, not everything goes there. They still have remarkable social services, medical care, childcare, and generous family leave provisions.

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Greg Joseph's avatar

My point is I think this question has a different answer for different people based on their identity. Just because a country has guardrails against fascism doesn’t mean white supremacy or homophobia or transphobia isn’t a huge thing there

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Galen Guffy's avatar

When the Nazis took over Germany, folks with means who saw it coming left. We don’t question their choices in hindsight do we? I don’t anyway. At the same time, this is my country. I don’t want to abandon it and with it my fellow Americans.

A therapist I went to when I was younger often advised that not making a decision is also a decision. That idea haunts me still like a zen koan. But it has special relevance now, I think, for a nation on the brink…

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Elizabeth Gaucher's avatar

One of my favorite lyrics. "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice" -- Rush ("Free Will")

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Galen Guffy's avatar

Great song! Free will 🙌

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Olivia Michaels's avatar

We entered the dumbest timeline when Neil Peart died.

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D.A. Friend's avatar

Reading about Nazis Germany as a youngster (50's-60's) I sometimes wondered why more people did not leave. The many reasons are clearer to me now. I don't want to abandon my family, friends, and fellows either. But if the current administration's vision is realized, this will not be the nation I grew up pledging allegiance to.

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I’ve Really Seen Enough's avatar

Unlimited funds? I'd pick up a German passport in a heartbeat. My mom is German and I was born there. We left Europe in the 60s because of Russian threats and the ailing European economy. A bad, violent day in Germany is like peace and empathy breaking out all over the US.

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Elizabeth E's avatar

there are days where i truly wonder if my family should have stayed and risked the hitler regime. although i guess at this point we are fighting here at least?

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DB's avatar

Oh, that breaks my heart. What a terrible feeling that must be.

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Yowza W's avatar

If you're eligible (and it sounds like you might be) getting a German passport is actually not expensive, and they just changed some of the laws so it's easier to hold both. Worth looking into! (dual US-German citizen here)

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Amanda's avatar

Not expensive at all but since they changed the law TONS of people have applied and the wait times are insane. I was told processing my application would take 24 MONTHS when I turned in the forms in December.

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Chris Long's avatar

I have Canadian citizenship through my parents, but we're the main caregivers for other elderly relatives and we would not leave the US while they still need us. Plus, as a middle-aged cis het white chick, I feel duty bound to stay & fight for those who can't

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DB's avatar

Thank you for your service to your relatives and your community. In all sincerity, that is important and also exhausting work on both fronts!

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JenP's avatar

If money were no object, I'd at least buy homes in Iceland and New Zealand (beautiful! remote!). But I hate the idea of straight-up moving. It feels like giving up. Fuck these assholes and their bullying. We need to stay and fight. Any kind of surrender just emboldens them. I currently live in Virginia and that feels safe-ish despite the proximity to DC. Honestly, my thoughts about moving within the US are more about climate change anxiety than fascism.

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Connie C's avatar

I’d love to move back home to Illinois, but we’ve invested so much in our house here in Georgia (added on and remodeled for universal design…we’re in our late 60s), and I don’t think I can uproot my husband. Plus, I don’t think Canada or Denmark (where we spent time while my husband was getting his PhD) want us. Can’t blame them. We and our daughters will stay and resist. I will say that if I were by myself, I’d take our dog and be outta here.

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DB's avatar

Thank you for your willingness to resist!

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Stacey's avatar

We are in Georgia too and moved out of Atlanta to Bremen (West GA) during Covid. We thought we could be farmers, but we are giving up and coming back to the city. I'm from Chicago originally (been in GA since 1992). It is truly frightening how cruel these Trump people just an hour outside of Atlanta can be and I think it is only going to get worse. Our eventual plan is to move to Vermont in 2 years. But who knows what 2 years will look like, 2 months has been exhausting. I will say, I bought and learned how to fire my first handgun, rifle and shotgun while living in rural Georgia so I could help fight if shit really goes south in the coming years.

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VA's avatar

I feel similarly. I have invested over 3 decades of my life to building a home in my little TN town. Both of my adult children live here. I have a paid for house, a wonderful life partner, a gazillion friends and neighbors, a rewarding career, a lifetime of meaningful connections to this place. I just don't think I could abandon all that. We are staying and working for a better future here.

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Paula Brantner's avatar

I grew up in Missouri, which is lost to me. But it occurred to me recently I could live in Illinois, reasonably close to my 89YO father, and even in a red area, I would have Pritzker as my governor and Tammy Duckworth as my senator. (Not so much a fan of Durbin at the moment but he has done some good stuff over the years.) My beloved has become obsessed with looking at houses there, and since he worked in construction his whole career, he could do whatever remodeling we need. It's tempting, even though we would still be in the US. Michigan is also a possibility since I went there for college (#GoGreenGoWhite) and my partner's son is a Ph.D student there.

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Connie C's avatar

I am actually from the St Louis area, across the river in Illinois, but I lived for many years in St Louis. When we left for Georgia, Missouri was a bellwether state; it is now, as you say, utterly lost. My home county (Madison) used to be THE downstate Democratic stronghold because of the unions. Then Reagan…and then Trump. Now, the friends and family I have left there are split pretty evenly between batshit crazy Trumpers and people like me. It’s heartbreaking to me.

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Paula Brantner's avatar

I'm from North Missouri, so we are looking at Quincy. There are some amazing homes there from the late 1800s to early 1900s that appear to be in pretty good shape for less than $100/SF. It's a little over an hour from where my dad lives. I tossed it off as a joke, but when he started looking at what was there, it became a bit of an obsession.

Where I'm from was always pretty conservative, even after Reagan destroyed the farm economy. I got out in the 80s and only went back for a few years (to Kansas City, though) and even then, in the early 2000s under W, it was becoming a place I didn't want to be. I now live in metro DC, where it had always been my dream to live, but not anymore.

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Jeanne's avatar

I'm grateful to live in Illinois, where people have been leaving due to "high taxes". I'm thinking this trend will be reversing??

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Sadye Scott-Hainchek's avatar

Moved from my hometown in Illinois to Iowa for a job in 2012. Within a few years, Iowa had swung far right, and I began consoling myself with the knowledge that I'd be going back to Illinois eventually anyway — my partner and I are both from there, and our parents aren't getting any younger, and I for one am not going to saddle my sister with all the caretaking work. Plus, as I cheerfully tell people now, I can get pot and an abortion in Illinois!

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DB's avatar

I moved back to Sweden 7 years ago to be near my grandchildren. If money were no object, I would live half the time in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is my emotional home, and the other half in Sweden with my daughter and her family. Sometimes people ask me if I have survivor's guilt, but I moved to be with my family, not to escape the political hellscape. Still, I don't judge anyone who can leave and does. My friends with transgender children are trying to find out if their young adult kids have any options for leaving and I would be doing the same in their situation. I think this is a challenging question.

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Brendan Whalen's avatar

Having serious conversations about emigrating to Mexico, where my partner's father has lived for over a decade if it feels necessary, but it would involve such radical change and basically leaving behind almost everything we own that neither of us is very keen on the idea. That said, it feels irresponsible not to be prepared for the possibility.

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David Roberts's avatar

Tied to NYC by innumerable non-financial bonds. BUT, for the first time ever I googled the requirements to move to Canada and the UK.

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