Do Not Travel to Europe If You Intend to Evade Trump's America

I am well aware that 2024 will go down in history as a watershed year for our liberal American friends.

There are those of you who have lost all sense of belonging in your own nation, and I assure you that I could not be more empathetic if I tried.

However, before you make any rash decisions—like, for example, deciding to leave your nation for more favorable conditions in Europe—it's wise to think about things from our European point of view, which may not be immediately apparent to you unless you're a native European.

I reside in Europe, so let's look at it from another angle. And when Trump was elected, my first reaction was to pack up and go, just like you.

Things in Europe are not secure

In the current political atmosphere, Europe seems to be a lovely dream, but it may easily become a nightmare.

There are certain benefits, I'll admit.

We have compensated medical care, food that doesn’t kill us, and inexpensive schools.

The lack of firearms means that gun violence does not occur in this place.

Violent crimes, such as murder, rape, or robbery, are 4 to 9 times more likely in the US.

It’s pretty safe to stroll at night. Or throughout the day. Especially if you reside anyplace else except the large cities (think Paris or London).

We don’t live in dread of each other, and that’s fantastic for our mental health.

But we know geopolitically we are extremely ill-located right next to a perpetually hostile Russia, which can’t wait to... well, to become great again.

There has been significant political volatility at a worldwide level, and Europe has been no exception. The weakening post-pandemic economy has given birth to powerful right-wing groups that have pushed Europeans to embrace extreme politicians.

Eight nations that are members of the European Union—Finland, Italy, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and the Netherlands—have far-right parties inside government.

In Germany, an extreme political party won a state election. In Romania, the highest court canceled an ongoing presidential election over claims of Russian intervention.

France’s administration was ousted when opposition parties in the French parliament voted on a motion of no confidence.

It’s not looking good for Europe.

It will seem much worse after Trump is in power since he plainly indicated he would no longer back the conflict in Ukraine and intends to withdraw from NATO, which will transform Europe into a sitting duck, at the mercy of a continual Russian threat.

The political climate is the fundamental reason why, if I were an American, I wouldn’t select Europe.

As a European, I don’t want to be here either.

If I had an option, I’d be relocating to Australia or New Zealand. But I don’t, therefore I’ll be joining the other sitting ducks.

There are more reasons to keep away

However, if this doesn’t scare you and you think I’m being a bit dramatic (which I usually am; I won’t deny it), or if you feel like a potential threat is nothing compared to the real danger of not having autonomy over your own body or not being able to afford pulling out a tooth, I’m ready to give you other reasons why you might not resonate with Europe once you’re here.

Here’s one that could be triggering, and for that I apologize. It was a surprise to me too.

Europeans are not Americans’ greatest admirers

One thing that I realized the hard way is how much Europeans look down their noses at Americans.

It’s true, I am European myself, but I had no notion about it until I first traveled to the States and fell in love with the nation.

And once you fall in love with someone or anything, you have this terrible tendency of rambling on and on about it. It’s unavoidable; we all do it until we’re ordered to stop.

I was urged to stop by multiple persons in various nasty ways.

So I’m writing all this from the standpoint of an ally.

Once I got back from my vacation to the States, I couldn’t stop my big mouth about how lovely America is: how nice the people are, how awesome the cuisine is, how gorgeous, enormous, and terribly overpowering the environment is.

I was captivated, actually. It was the first location that ever felt like home.

That’s when I observed that everyone (and I mean everybody—there were no exceptions) to whom I recounted this tale told me quite openly that they despise America as a whole and Americans in particular.

Of course, all these folks have never even gone to the US, so they couldn’t really come up with an educated conclusion, but that’s beside the point here.

Opinions don’t need to be valid for others to treat you poorly.

And it won’t be nice to attempt to establish a new life in a different place and have people looking down their noses at you or telling you off.

What I was told the most was that they wouldn’t “go there” (to the US, that is) even if Americans paid them to. That was unpleasant—calm down; nobody is paying you to fly to the US! They’re attempting to keep us out.

They despise that Americans are noisy, filthy, phony, and particularly that they wrongly think their nation to be the best while the whole world knows differently.

It wasn’t easy to hear, even for me, and I think it wouldn’t be pleasant to hear for an unwary American attempting to settle in another nation.

Plus, that wasn’t my experience at all.

The Americans I encountered were kind, lovely, polite, inquisitive about my life and my culture, and anxious to make my time in their nation as great as could be. One family opened their house to me and treated me like part of their family.

We remain in contact. After our first encounter, they encouraged me to stay with them next time I visited the US or if I ever chose to settle there. So on my next trip I remained at their house for 10 days, and I’d return there anytime. I miss it—I honestly miss it.

But the reality is, your experience in Europe probably won’t be the same as mine in America. Europeans are typically not impolite, and they would never tell you something like that to your face. Unless inebriated—that’s when all cards are on the table.

Or behind your back, yet loud enough so you can hear them.

In pursuit of Utopia

I was chatting with a buddy just the other day, and together we came up with this 100% utopic scenario: would it be feasible to keep all the liberals in certain nations and all the conservatives in others?

Main question: What do we have to do to break away from these people?

And although we were aware life doesn’t work like that, we were also aware that if “the others” were talking, they’d be saying the same things about us.

Things always seem different from the other side—of the coin or the pond, particularly when the pond is as large as the Atlantic.

Europe is not the place to be right now. We are terrified and bewildered, and we see the same thing that occurred in America occurring right here in Europe, right before our eyes: a gradual but inexorable slide into extremism.

No matter how horrible things become in the US, always keep this in mind: tyranny was founded in Europe.

It could appear good from a distance, but my advice is, don’t come.