I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to, although I don’t even dream of prosperous countries, i don’t care about quality of life, I’d be happy to live as shitty or even worse than I do now, just to feel free and protected and have nothing to do with a regime that kills people and the people who support it. But I’m sure that if I did so, I would feel disgust and self-loathing , since it would be an escape from the consequences of my own weakness and inaction, even if there are no direct consequences other than living in this decaying hole. And I think any russian honest with themselves is of the same opinion. Their whining like “It’s not my fault I was born in russia” when people from other countries rightly declare that they don’t want them there is irritating and disgusting, and I don’t know how anyone has the patience to deal with them. I don’t know how fair my reasoning is, and whether it’s simply due to my apathy or envy, although I think I’ve basically come to terms with my situation and don’t have any big plans for my shitty little life. I’d like to hear someone else’s point of view on this without pity or emotion.
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If I was in your shoes I’d probably wrestle with the same questions and doubt as you do.
If you don’t take action you’ll forever wonder what could have happened if you tried.
If you take action and even if it does not work out you will know. You’ll have more peace of mind at least.
thank you😳 I think your words affected me the most
I had a lot of the same feelings about my own country, and almost five years ago I left. It hasn’t been a perfect solution, but I feel more genuine about my beliefs.
Leaving the country doesn’t mean you can’t do anything against the regime in Russia. You can still support people in Russia e.g. who help victims of the regime, no matter where you are. You want to be free and safe, and that is valid. If a friend came to you and raised these wishes, would you tell them they are a dick for dreaming of a better life?
There’s a sizeable diaspora of russians in my country. There was an anti-regime protest a few years ago where many were seen destroying their russian passport.
Nobody was against their position. Russians are not by default feared in any way, here. I hope that is the same in many other places.
If you feel you are not well where you are, leave. Nobody owes anything to their country; it’s the opposite. Strive for a different life elsewhere. Don’t be afraid to speak of what drove you out. Teach others where it went wrong, so they can prevent it in their own land.
You are not a traitor. You are not a country’s property.
People may have strong negative opinions of Russia, but I don’t think most people attach that to the people of Russia. If you left, that would mean that you do not agree with how Russia is being run, which would put you on the same side as those who aren’t fans of Russia.
That being said, it’s a whole lot more difficult to leave the country than most people would have you believe. There’s a good chance that the US is going to become more like Russia, and I don’t like it, but I don’t see any possible way that I could leave if it does.
It is very easy to leave the US. You literally just get in a car/bus and cross the border into Mexico. When I crossed most recently, the agent on the US side simply demanded, I think, $3 to use their bridge. On the Mexican side, the border agent opened a few doors on my car while I occasionally let my foot off the brake to keep the line moving, in the most low-effort pantomime of checking for contraband I’ve ever seen. A few years ago when I went through the Mexican border checkpoint, there was literally no one there. Once on the Mexican side of the border, I went to get a tourist visa and vehicle import permit - though, honestly, this chore is almost entirely optional since you can easily avoid the checkpoints where they check for this paperwork, and if you get pulled over without it, you just bribe the cop to leave you alone.
If you have a passport, you can also just buy a plane ticket to literally anywhere.
These modes of leaving the country will almost certainly not change much in the near/mid term, even if the US does become more authoritarian. The transport of people and goods into and out of the country is a huge factor in our economic productivity. If Trump actually shut down the border and restricted international flights, he would lose middle america due to interfering with their vacation to Cabo, he would lose working class America because tons and tons of factories and extraction companies would shut down overnight, he would face riots in every border town as people would be unable to go to work, see family, or visit their preferred doctor, and the american billionaires would have him assassinated as they watched their stock prices plummet. It’s not gonna happen.
Imagining Trump did do this, though - his “Border Wall” is a joke. The US-Mexico border stretches thousands of miles, and along most of the border there is just a fence - if that. If worse came to worse, the fact is, there are already networks of coyotes who would be more than happy to take your money to smuggle you into Mexico just as readily as they would smuggle you out.
Suppose you leave the US and end up in Northern Mexico. Now what? Well, from there you can start building a new life for yourself. Many countries are happy to take US nationals for an indefinite period of time on working visas. You could also try petitioning other nations for political asylum if you feel it is justified. Almost any skill you used in the US to make money will be useful in other nations as well. If you have some amount of savings, you could live frugally on the outskirts of a friendly mexican village in a cozy (if not plumbed) casita for years. During this time, you can build up your social network and learn spanish, and even if you have no paperwork and no legal right to be in the country, fairly easily find some work that will keep you fed and housed.
I, personally, have quite a lot invested in the US and would be loath to give it up. But if my friends started getting disappeared, you best believe I’d be bouncing asap.
Still sounds pretty complicated to me as a European. Schengen Area is pretty cool. No border checks, no stops, cross wherever, you don’t even need a passport. Just the same ID I am required to carry with me anyway.
Okay… I don’t care. That isn’t relevant to the point I was making, which is that if push comes to shove, pretty much anyone with a low to moderate degree of competence will be able to exit the country, even if the government isnt a huge fan of the idea. Borders in europe are completely unrelated, because we weren’t talking about how difficult it is to cross the American-Mexican border relative to any other border in the world, but how difficult it is to cross this particular border relative to any given individual’s ability to do so.
This is exactly what I meant. Sure, you can get on a plane to anywhere, but deciding where to go, leaving everyone you know, finding a home and a job and starting the paperwork for citizenship is a lot more complex than just showing up and calling it home.
I mean, it isn’t something I would do all willy nilly. But what I thought you meant was that Trump/ICE would physically stop you from leaving the country in the same way that Putin tries to stop Russian citizens from leaving, and my point was that this is extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.
Honestly, slavs shouldn’t be welcome anywhere. But then again, yanks like myself also shouldn’t be welcome anywhere either.
Whats wrong with slavs? I agree with you about tha yanks part though.
There’s a pretty large group of emigre Russians living here in the Pacific Northwest, and I don’t really ever get the sense that anyone doesn’t want them here. I’m not sure if you’d feel any better as an American than a Russian, though.
I’m not sure if you’d feel any better as an American than a Russian, though.
even if I leave aside all the obvious things that could be said here, I wish I could explain to you why I definitely would, it’s a pity that I can’t😩, and thanks to you I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
Я прожил два года а Нижнем Новгороде давним давно. Я помню как себе чувствовал, вернувшим домой в СЩА. Я тебе обещаю, американцы тебя бы тепло приветствовали.
Seems like one of the worst options to go for right now considering the current state of things. If the messages sent to Denmark aren’t enough to remove Trump from office then we essentially do not have 3 branches of government anymore.
Ну-ка, я-то так и сказал!
