How am I stuck in the country?

My government won’t issue me a passport.

Aside from the extreme financial and planning difficulties involved with emigrating, It’s exceedingly difficult for trans individuals to get a passport right now. The department of state has been destroying identity documents of anyone who is currently or has previously requested an official gender change and they are not providing any recourse or remedy to the issue.

Just a “please leave or you will be arrested” when asked what can I do to get a passport…

I don’t have the financial wherewithal to pick up and move to another country. If I did I’d be out of here.

Money.

Also, people tend to have things like friends and family.

If I could gather all my friends and family with me and move out of this backwards ass shithole, I would. It’s not that simple.

Have you ever considered how expensive it is to emigrate to another nation? And then there’s the acceptance part, which anyone who has gone through it can tell you, is VERY difficult.

The uncertainty surrounding it is just far too much for most people.

This is always the Libertarian shitpost response: “you’re free to do what you want” because you don’t recognize economic coercion. It’s a perfectly OK form of limiting freedom. Fuck off.

I could tell you why I would choose to stay where I am even if I had the resources to leave. It is actually possible for some of us to put together a decent life for our families and try to brighten the lives of those around us.

…Even though our government is somewhere between evil and self-destruct, and our culture is somewhere between “fuck you got mine” and “die woman/jew/brown/LGBT+/other!”

And yeah I’m a straight white dude, how did you guess? :/

But anyway, I’ve lived in the same house for 17 years. It is a 10 minute walk to the elementary/middle school my son will attend for the next 5 years. It is a 6 minute drive to the office for the best job I’ve ever had. We are active in our community and school district, and have some wonderful friends. All my son’s grandparents are within a reasonable drive (but not too close). All my nieces and nephews are similarly close by.

It’s a small modest house that we’ve made our own. In the past 5 years we’ve done some major renovations, repairs, and remodeling. We fenced in the back yard which is great for our kid and our multiple dogs. And our tortoise. Oh yeah, we’re animal lovers. And that includes a koi pond that I built in the back yard that’s literally part of my mental health self-care.

Moving to some place that seems less insane right now would materially change my entire life, not just which government I have to live under.

What would possibly be unclear here

Do I foresee little ProfessorNougatScience babies in the future…?

I understand that options aren’t available to everyone

A mixture of emotions. In my case,

1.) I live in Illinois and bought a home in 2020 when the interest rate was 3.2% as a first-time homeowner. If I were to sell and look for a new home, the interest rate in Canada would be somewhere around 4%, plus the cost of living is higher compared to where I live. That’s ignoring the complications that could come from obtaining a permanent work visa as a foreign citizen.

2.) I love my job as it is now and it may be difficult to find a job in the same field. Also, my wife recently found a job in her career field and for the first time wants to stay at her employer for the foreseeable future; working in public health and helping the people this horrible healthcare system is failing to care for.

3.) Family and friendship ties to the area.

4.) There’s some semblance of hope if we stay. I do still want the best for everyone that I share this earth with. Even if it were financially viable for me to leave, there’s millions that aren’t so lucky. If I pack up and leave that’s one less person voting for progressive policy and advocating for empathy in a country that has real projective power in the world.

5.) Illinois, as a blue state, is temporarily insulated from damaging policy that Trump is trying to enact. JB Pritzker has remained steadfast in his opposition to Trump and regressive political action.

I liken it to French opposition during the period of Nazi occupation. (Clearly it’s not a 1:1 comparison.) The french resistance hampered Nazi wartime efforts just enough to keep Nazi logistics from being able to cross the channel and occupy Great Britain. If that were to happen, the United States wouldn’t be able to set up any sort of staging area on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Amphibious assaults would have taken place on the western coast of GB where there’s cliff faces rather than the sandy beaches at Normandy. Maybe Germany is then able to allocate more troops to the eastern front in that scenario, who knows. But thankfully that’s just a hypothetical and isn’t something we have to ponder.

You’re probably being down voted because of the presumption that we’re not doing things. Protests, calling representatives, boycotts, mutual aid networks, etc. Some of us work directly in politics or directly in government, and do what we can in those spaces, too.

It’s kind of irritating to get a finger-wagging admonition when you’re exploring all options short of outright assassination. And if the suggestion is to just start shooting, well, I think it’s asking more than you think for someone to choose to become a killer.

I downvoted you after your edit, because you’re a little bit of a dick about it.

Those who are really going to do things about stuff shouldn’t yap about it on social media. Loose lips sink ships.

Right now I’m in a holding pattern. There’s a non-zero chance that Trump will be distracted by something shiny and we’ll move on to the next fucking fever dream crisis. There’s also a really, really good chance that if he does order to invade Canada, real shit will start to pop off here.

Nice try. How long have you been working at DOGE?

There’s a good chance that wherever you live, far-right candidates are making headway in your government. What are you doing about it?

I don’t know about them, but I’ve been attending protests and getting more locally involved. I live in a very blue state so haranguing my local reps won’t do much since they’re already on the same page.

The reason you’re getting downvoted is it’s a problem even here in the country. It’s the “Why aren’t you doing anything about it?” to all of us.

In the case of me, I live 1000 miles away from the seat of power, our representatives actively are dismantling things we voted for, not national I’m talking, state level, because we’re outright surrounded by the people who are actively cheering for this. (and the example of the voting against, state voted to get rid of the most strict abortion law in the country, legalizing it… and now the representatives on state level are trying to get a pregnancy registry “to try to stop preventable abortions.” while the state rep at national level is trying to get a national abortion ban going. This is one of many many many things in the state by itself. Hell, I just learned the state just gained police control to the other city after they managed to vote that out.)

I didn’t downvote, but I want you to read “What are you going to do about it?” out loud. Hell, you yourself said it’s the apathy. But the fuck am I going to do? Show up and wave a sign at the people who already have shown they couldn’t give a flying shit about our opinions? Or be there when the fight starts and be a martyr. The second option the best case scenario is getting to be like Tank Man, but honestly demographics I’d be one of the many forgotten in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. And that’s what it’s going to look like, because this administration you better believe is looking for an opportunity to go full martial law, and if we don’t do it, their brownshirts will for them.

So the best I can fucking do is stock up, prepare, keep my head down, keep in contact with the people who are in the same boat as I am being in effectively enemy territory and use the privilege I have of looking like a standard white conservative to see how many I can keep safe when being that demographic is important.

What do you want people to say to you on the Internet that is owned and monitored by the same people doing this?

Vote Yes when secession comes up?

As a Californian, I’m hella stoked for the future nation of Pacifica.

If NY and California just split off or joined with Canada…

Patrolling the Mojave? Nah, a stroll around the Night City should be nicer even.

It’s 1933 Germany at worst. Give them some credit. /s

What part of the country already felt hostile? The South or some flyover state?

I have relatives who moved to the states, they tend to come down once a year since they have their own business and can easily take off time whenever, whereas for me as a full-time employee it’s not so simple. I’ve already not visited the states in quite a few years so that part isn’t a loss for me at least.

I dunno if they will visit this year though, that will be interesting to see what happens with that.

Yeah, that’s like the one part of America that holds mystique for me too. I guess American Samoa has the weird timezone.

misinformation farms from Russia, China and North Korea

For those unfamiliar:

• Internet Research Agency

The Internet Research Agency, also known as Glavset, and known in Russian Internet slang as the Trolls from Olgino or Kremlinbots, was a Russian company which was engaged in online propaganda and influence operations on behalf of Russian business and political interests. It was linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Russian oligarch who was leader of the Wagner Group, and based in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

• 50 Cent Party

The 50 Cent Party, also known as the 50 Cent Army or wumao, are Internet commentators who are paid by the authorities of the People’s Republic of China to spread the propaganda of the governing Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The program was created during the early phases of the Internet’s rollout to the wider public in China.

I think there’s concern about the fucking plane crashing on the way. 100% legit concern.

Wow friend, that’s really reassuring buddy.

I think it’s more like a sibling that you grew up with who was taught the same moral code as you. They were living a healthy, normal life for a while but got offered a very high paying job that is at odds with those childhood morals. They decided to take it, and at first, they did just a few unethical things. Then, they realized that they could make more money by being more unethical and the people who were supposed to be chastising them were not very good at punishing people with money and were really easy to manipulate, so they leaned in to the lack of ethics.

They know what their doing is hurting people, and they don’t care because they want to drive their Lamborghini to family Christmas and bring an ostentatiously expensive bottle of wine so that people can praise and fawn over them. But, if you call them on their bad behavior, they become enemies because how dare you?! Now we’re the sibling who is powerful but has completely gone awry due to that same power.

I’m hoping we gave a nice family reunion someday where my country has learned the error of its ways and can once again be accepted by its lovely Canadian relatives.

They are compromised.

I don’t remember saying shit about us not handling this internally or going to war but you do you.

The idea that the USA is untouchable by global counterparts is absurd. Look at what Russia does to our elections with a couple of script kiddies. We can absolutely be targeted and displaced by outside forces, especially with the current crop of dipshits running the federal government right now.

I think I’m going to invade that ass