Ask HN: Are you afraid to travel to US to tech conferences?

For those wondering, several German nationals have been detained through a process irregular enough to garner comment from the German government.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/germany-inve...

I would be considerably more worried about being incorrectly detained by ICE and getting caught up in that nonsense than gun violence.

Simultaneously, you're getting a lot of Americans in the comments talking about how the risk of gun-violence is near-zero and nothing to be worried about. There have been 58 mass shootings in the U.S. In Europe, there have been 2. Statistically, going from Europe to the U.S, your risk of being caught up in a shooting ARE significantly higher.

Is that still worth not travelling for? In reality, 58 mass shootings in 3.5 months across that number of population centres, the risk is incredibly, incredibly low.

But is it still significantly higher than Europe? Yes, absolutely.

Should you worry about the U.S violence getting "worse"? No. But it is more violent, statistically, than Europe.

As I said though, I'd be more worried about ICE nonsense.

As a U.S. citizen my fear of being involved in gun violence on a day-to-day basis is zero.

Basically all gun violence in America is either confined to very specific economically depressed areas, that are well-known and easy to avoid, or is between two private parties.

Yes the big news headlines are scary, yes I wish the number was zero, but the reality is that the risk is still extremely, extremely, extremely low and is not something the average person needs to even think about unless you live in one of the violence prone neighborhoods.

As a European with a lot of US connections, I've always felt a bit uneasy about going to the US, and it's probably the only liberal democracy where I felt this way. So maybe the rule can be a rule now, that I only feel unfairly treated in non liberal democracies.

With the US, you just get the feeling every time you are at security that they might mistreat you, for no reason. The way the agent looks at you, the way the questioning goes, it's like they suspect you of being a criminal. The only other country where the guy made that atmosphere for me was Cuba.

As for violence when you're in the country, my impression with those statistics is that it's highly localized, wherever you are in the world. There's some neighbourhood that you're not supposed to go to, and if you just stay out, your risk is very low.

Regarding the people you meet, the US is the only place where I get the Jekyll/Hyde vibe. Lots of super friendly people who will be happy to chat with you. But also the feeling that if you get on their wrong side, it will be unpleasant really fast.

>it seems to me that there has been a huge increase in violence, and I have huge fears about guns. I live in Europe and the thought that there are mass shooting is for me too high risk specifically considering traveling with my family. I understand probabilities but still more than 0% is a huge risk just for visiting a country.

I don't think there's evidence to support this and holding the line at 0 risk seems impossible / a real risk of a lot of stress for 0 gain in actual safety, or worse.

Example of the "worse", someone might see reports of a plane crash(s) and chaos at the TSA and choose to drive rather than fly. The result is they've increased their risk or injury or death (even if still very low).

Let alone the endless amount of worry reaching 0 risk would involve, sounds like a mental heath nightmare honestly.

I think people who hear "oh that strange place has this problem we don't have as much" they naturally view it as a far greater risk than it really is.

Humans are not good at measuring risk.

It's your call on travel, but that aspect of your concern seems unfounded and honestly potentially unhealthy.

> I understand probabilities but still more than 0% is a huge risk just for visiting a country.

This is a logic driven community, but this statement is 100% emotionally driven. (E.g. you understand it's extremely unlikely, but you don't feel comfortable still)

There's nothing wrong with making emotionally-driven decisions, but there's also very little anyone else can say (or at least no stats, no probabilities, no logic based reason) to make you feel differently about the chance of improbable events occurring.

American here, and I think your stance is reasonable. Authoritarian regimes are harmful, and a boycott is one approach. I'm skeptical that there's a significant increase in violence, though; maybe that's news amplification? Far too many Black, Indigenous, and other non-white people have been murdered here over the centuries (by the US Army, by cops, by posses, etc), and that continues apace.

The last time I visited the US was in 2017, and I vowed never to go again. All because of the treatment by immigration. Over a number of visits during the years, I have been shouted at multiple times, talked down to, and generally treated like crap. I am travelling on a South African passport (I am white, though, before anyone tries and blames it on racism).

This last incident in 2017, I was standing by the immigration officer, and while he was looking through my documents, I was looking around at the people waiting in the queue. He asked if I was travelling with someone. I said no. He asked why I was looking at the queue. I said I was just looking around. He told me to stop looking around and look in front of me. I said OK. Somewhere during this I put my hands in my pocket, so he told me to take my hands out of my pocket. I was a bit startled at this and trying to figure out what was going on with the guy. I was obviously too slow for him so he shouted loud "take your hands out of your damn pocket". I just zipped my mouth and wanted to get through it.

Once I got past him, I needed to get a connecting flight to Mexico. I walked down a passage following the directions and saw that I was going to end up in the main check-in area. Since I was just connecting, I was confused and I asked two immigration officers whether I am going in the right direction. The lady just told me "keep moving sir". I tried to explain that I was connecting and thought I was going in the wrong direction. She then shouted at me "keep moving!". I told her again "please, just listen to me", and she shouted at me again. Thankfully, the guy with her told her to calm down and took a minute to listen to me and explained that I was going the right way.

Honestly, this trip was the last straw for me and I vowed never to go back. The contrast between the immigration in the US and other countries - especially compared to Asia - was night and day. I decided I would visit countries that are happy to have me visit and treat me with dignity instead.

Another time in the US, I was walking past a construction site. I was walking outside the safety barriers, but on the same side of the street. I guy rushed out at me and started shouting at me to get on the opposite side of the road. Huge guy. Looked like he wanted to attack me and was red in the face of fury and spittle sprayed all over me while he was shouting at me.

Quite honestly, there are too many angry people over there. I have visited many countries and never experienced anything like the angry people in the US.

I wouldn't say I'm afraid. Yes there's mass shootings nearly daily but statistically rare to impact a tech conference. My number one reason not to go is the USA threatening the sovereignty of my country (Canada) daily, as well as the risk of being detained and thrown in a pit for weeks. There's a recent story where that happened to a pretty white Canadian lady with good paperwork - that's usually an untouchable class of people. Many more stories for other countries like Germany too. I've also never seen so much Canadian nationalism and "buy Canadian" sentiment in my life because of this trade war and so I also won't spend my money there like for a conference or hotel. I've already canceled two trip plans and won't go for at least a few years unfortunately.

We basically stopped holding conferences in the US back in 2018/2019, because so many people at the company had had visas refused and ESTAs revoked (including me). US loss, Europe's gain. It wasn't because of a worry about shootings though, just a very practical problem that people were unable to get to conferences in the US.

FWIW, I lived in Chicago (one of the favorite punching bags for gun violence) for over 30 years and heard gunshots twice.

While gun violence here is absolutely far more common compared to Europe, it is still very rare in absolute terms. The only guns I’ve even ever seen were in a police officer’s holster or in the possession of military personnel. Most gun violence is related to domestic disputes or among criminals. If you’re not selling drugs or don’t have an ex-husband with an anger problem and access to a gun, you’re probably going to be fine.

It’s not the guns you should worry about, but the border and entry process.

I lived there for years as a legal resident. During Covid I got a national interest exception allowing me to return to USA from Europe while the border was closed to non-citizens. So I have reason to believe my immigration sheet is clean.

I’m still afraid to go back now. It seems like they’re simply making an example by throwing random people into weeks of detention at the border. A green card holder credibly claims he was tortured over a decade-old marijuana misdemeanor on his record.

Needless to say this perception is pretty bad for American tourism, business travel, conferences, etc.

Not "afraid," but unwilling to travel there, and have just cancelled some plans to do so.

I'd have been travelling by air from Canada, so the border-crossing is on Canadian soil, which (probably) greatly reduces the risk of landing in detention due to the arbitrary decisions made by a MAGA-addled CBP agent.

Personal risk of harm or imprisonment aside, I have ethical concerns about continuing to behave as if the US is a normal, rational actor on the world stage while its administration threatens the sovereignty of Canada, Denmark and Panama.

As long as this bellicosity continues, the US should be shunned and isolated as much as possible by the global community.

>it seems to me that there has been a huge increase in violence

So you think that there's more violence because you hear about it on the news/social media, or is it informed by actual statistics? The latter shows a slight bump during the pandemic, but is back to pre-pandemic levels.

>Now I also read about non-US citizens being detained on the border.

The two cases I've heard about both involve people with visa issues trying to cross a land border, with neither side wanting to accept. If you're traveling for a conference and don't have obvious work intentions (eg. interviews lined up) you should be fine.

I'm not a USC, but I will be eligible to apply for citizenship next year.

I have made the decision to avoid international travel so that I don't run into any potential issues at the border until I've gone through the citizenship process.

I'm also keeping an eye on the situation with domestic air travel. If we start getting reports of people being detained and stripped of their LPR status while trying to board domestic flights, I'll probably just stick to ground travel.

The rate of violent crime in the US has not increased since 2014[1].

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-...

I wouldn’t be too concerned about gun violence, but the TSA and CBP have become increasingly hostile toward visitors to the United States.

If you're white and traveling from the EU or elsewhere, you’ll likely be fine, though the experience may still be unpleasant.

However, if your passport lists a country of birth deemed undesirable (such as those in the Middle East or Africa), you may face detention, additional questioning, and other issues, regardless of the passport you hold, you will be filtered out based on your skin color and physical features.

Personally, I’ve stopped traveling to the U.S. altogether. These days, I even avoid connecting flights that pass through the country.

It’s unfortunate, but as a Canadian, I no longer see America as an ally, and I fear things may only get worse in the coming years.

> Imagine why this is a throwaway account because I read they check the phone, laptops at the boarder.

They ask for your social media accounts too. "Hey, you left out your HN throwaway account from this list. Come with me (1).".

Well, I guess I'm in someone's list now.

People were worried about donating to Assange defense fund when it was a thing.

To people defending it, imagine if this was happening to someone you care about in some country you think are run are by assholes: 1) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...

I had a long response typed up with more personal data but the short of it is that yes, I am more hesitant to visit the US than I was in the past. I was already quite hesitant due to my experiences over the years (I did my undergrad in the US) but now I feel like there is a risk of more than simply being denied entry and swiftly returned to my home country.

Yes - the recent nightmare scenarios experienced by EU citizens in the US has unnerved me. I've also become far more worried about sending (non-white) members of my team from South East Asia to the US.

In my companies recent town halls people are voicing concerns about US travel, which has never happened before. In comparison, our large events in (far more authoritarian) China, which were attended by large numbers of foreign employees, didn't have any such concerns other than usual IP-sharing ones.

I don't think it's likely I'll be detained if I visit, nor do I think I'd suffer from gun violence. I simply don't want to visit a country where much of the population voted for this current government.

Gun violence is very very rare. I’m in the northeast and there is very little gun culture here. A post doc college who came from Germany said his coworkers thought he was crazy coming to such a dangerous country, but after being here he realized it’s not bad. During the election there was lots of commentary about how bad it’s gotten, when it really hasn’t changed significantly.

There have been increased instances of foreigners being detained and there social media gone through. The results vary from being denied entry to being locked up for a couple weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-f...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/canadian-act...

I have two conferences booked and paid for in the US this year. (I'm Canadian)

I am canceling the one in April.

The other is harder for me to cancel, as its my industry main conference for the year. It will hurt me professionally, and fanatically not to go.

But stories like this, White woman with good paper work, and regular traveler to the USA (similar to myself), No criminal record, No apparent reason, no ability to call a lawyer, getting detained for weeks, is making me very nervous.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...

My company is considering starting our own local conference, outside the US, as an alternative. A expensive and distracting exercise that I would prefer not to have to do.

I am not worried about gun violence in the US at the moment.

I am worried about arbitrary detention without representation or recourse.

What's unnerving to me when I go to the US, is that legal limbo you're in between getting off the plane and going through immigration.

At that point you're the most vulnerable.

The plane is US soil, and it's well covered by international law, but once you get out of it, and before you enter the country, not even constitutional rights are completely clear.

I think at this point you should be more worried about being thrown in a detention centre. But the likelihood of being affected gun violence in be US especially if you stick to the right parts is low as long as you're there for a short while.

I am a U.S. citizen and I wouldn't recommend risking a chance at the border, personally. Although gun violence or other random violence more generically is not something I am worried about, even living in a somewhat impoverished urban core.

As there is a genuine risk my passport could be confiscated at the border for the gender marker not matching that on my birth certificate, it would probably be unwise for me to try and travel to the US

As a Canadian I don't really think Americans have really understood how upset we are. Most US-facing talk is about tariffs, but the repeated threats of annexation and taunting (Governor, 51st state, Noem's despicable actions at Haskell Library) are both enraging and terrifying. I have no intention of returning to the US for any type of tourism or business travel indefinitely. People are ensuring their flight paths to other countries do not even cross US airspace.

This audience will likely call me paranoid, or try to downplay/deflect, but we can see clearly what's going on and the gaslighting does not help.

Even the Visa Waiver/ESTA program is silly. You pay a fee to immediately receive a not-a-visa. The marginal cost of this is a tiny row in a database. It's just silly.

The US made it very clear many years ago that they've had all the visitors and immigrants they need. I guess they reached critical mass, and believes they are invincible at least within the lifespan of the current rulers. "Sheer fucking hubris" as the quote from Star Trek goes.

I would not travel to the US unless my life depends on it.

Don’t go. Your anxiety will make the entire duration you are here very uncomfortable. Although the probabilities are very low like you said, you’d probably want to take baby steps, not jump straight into a conference with many people that can be an easy target for a mass shooting. You’re going from a country where a mass shooting is practically impossible to one where it’s a daily occurrence.

Speaking to the immigration point, as a US citizen who knows several non citizens I still believe you will have no problem and be completely welcomed as long as you enter legally through a port of entry and don’t overstay visa or conduct illegal activity while here. Despite what gets reported, you are welcome and valued to visit tech conferences here.

I’m very much reconsidering attending KubeCon in Atlanta later this year.

Around 1980, in the age of 14, I took part in an US-/German student exchange programme of my school. As a German at that time, I received a supposedly lifelong US-Visum in my passport.

Some years later, as a grown-up, I started to visit the US a couple of times, for business (visiting trade shows, conferences and customers), and as a tourist.

Around the 10th trip, the immigration officer unexpectedly crossed out my visum in the passport upon entry. I was stunned. He explained to me, very friendly, "that the policies had changed, the visum type was not existant anymore and thus cancelled, in the future I would just have to fill a paper in the airplane, welcome to the United States".

Next trip I received the questionnaire in the airplane, with one of the questions being "has there ever been an US visum cancelled for you?". That seemed a difficult question to answer. Would I say "no", that seemed like lying, because a visum had - as a matter of fact - been cancelled for me. Would I say "yes", I probably could just keep sitting in the plane seat for an immediate return. I decided to clear this up with the friendly immigration officer.

Who turned out not to be friendly, at all. Before I could even open my mouth, he noticed the unanswered question on the form, yelled at me like crazy, made me get back to the end of the line (I had spent already almost an hour in the line), told me to better not come back with unanswered questions on the form (I chose "no" on the second attempt) and then kept me interrogating for 20 minutes, all the time giving me the feeling that I would go right home. I was finally allowed to enter and spent another hour with customs.

Didn't feel the urge to ever come back to the US. That was long before ESTA. And long before I started to collect exotic stamps in my passport, some of them showing arabic typefaces. And long before Europe became an enemy of the US.

I have been to African countries (which the current POTUS would describe as shithole countries), whose administrations were less erratic and unpredictable than the US currently are.

I'm a US citizen who has been detained at the border in the past because facial recognition systems seemed to think that I didn't look like my passport photo. Agents could have just looked at me and seen that I am in fact the person in my passport photo, but no, they detained me instead and treated me like a criminal on two separate occasions. I've also been critical of Trump on social media. US border agents do not care about common sense or decency, they haven't for at least a decade. They're just following orders, and their orders are to look for any possible reason to detain you, and then treat you as guilty until proven innocent.

All that to say, even as a US citizen, I'm hoping to avoid traveling to the US until this fascist government is removed.

As someone who just returned from the US for a family wedding, its the last time I'm stepping foot in the US until the administration and direction changes.

The odds of getting an 'emboldened nationalistic fuckhead', or ENF's as I call them, at the border, or a LEO officer has gone up considerably. Scientists blocked at the border due to social media posts, Citizens/legal green card holders are being deported for simply criticizing or protesting the administration. Legal visitors and musicians are being followed and harassed by LEO's demanding their country of preference and treating them like drug smugglers. Legal visa seekers are being detained for weeks in horrible conditions. This is only a short list of the many things visitors need to be aware of and concerned about.

This administration is showing every indication of refusing to follow multiple judges orders and attacking the judicial system people would typically expect to curb and/or stop such abuses.

If you have any sort of public profile or social media presence that isn't pro-Trump/US you are at risk.

Attend remotely or not at all, and make it known to the conference organizers that the US is not a safe place anymore to host international conferences. It will only take a year or two of people refusing and these conferences will stop being organized in the US.

Hopefully a new administration comes along sooner rather than later and makes significant inroads into restoring democracy and freedom in the US, for now its an autocratic regime with a very thin skin and massive ego.

I wouldn't be at all worried about the guns; realistically while your chances of being shot or otherwise murdered are substantially higher in the US than in most of Europe, they are still, in the scheme of things, very low, and you're at greater practical risk of death in the taxi from the airport.

FWIW there has _not_ been an increase in violent crime in the US since 2014; it's down a bit since then. The media does seem far more fixated on it, granted.

However, the increasing border nonsense would put me off. Particularly because, if I decide now to go to something in, say, June, well, who knows _how_ bad it'll be by June. I'll likely try to avoid going over for the foreseeable future.

The gun violence fear seems over the top, but I'd prefer to have my freedom of speech to call any politician "an idiot" without the need to explain myself to a gang member with a badge.

Currently, Trump is so surreal that it is hard to decide what is thought out policy and what is pure idiotism, but getting caught in the crossfire is rather unnecessary and I'd prefer to wait for things to calm down before committing to any US travel.

The mental cost of going there is just too high. For the first time in twenty+ years, I won't be attending any of the regular conferences in the US this year. Funny note: we just hired two Americans (unrelated) back to back, they will be moving here with their family. Reason given: "had to go live somewhere else".

For the first time in nearly 20 years, I chose not to go to SXSW this year - not out of fear of violence or border detentions, but I just don't want to give my tourist dollars to the current administration.

> throwaway account because I read they check the phone, laptops at the boarder

You should be aware that it has been an official recommendation for e.g. athletes participating in international events in, erm, some countries, to get themselves 'burner' (throwaway) phones just for the purpose so there's nothing much to glean from the device. If you're considering to travel internationally with a laptop well here are my condolences, why spend so much time, money and effort just to shlep around that silly thing.

There are specific groups of people for whom travel to the US is a serious, clear risk right now, and for everyone else it is a much harder to assess danger because policy and practices are changing rapidly, in ways adverse to travellers, with little to no public notice, and also because the targeted groups are being targeted using arbitrary process which has a jigh false positive rate and may be difficult, at best, to correct errors.

Your fears are unfounded and the traditional media and social media may be to blame. However, even as an American, I wouldn’t visit here unless absolutely necessary.

The orange man and his kleptocracy cabinet are dismantling the federal government to make way for a corporation run country or “nation states.”

Take your tourism dollars and please spend them elsewhere. America in its current state does not deserve your patronage. Encourage conference leaders to move their venue out of the United States.

People saying "This is crazy and emotional" - you don't realize how bizare your country has become: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-f...

In short: French scientist denied access to the US based on the contents on his phone (critical messages).

Not because of guns. Crime exists everywhere; TripAdvisor will tell you how to stay safe.

But when non brown people are getting sent to ICE, and when criticism of political figures is terrorism, then this is definitely not America you are going to. It’s a country that has popped up in the geographic region previously occupied by America. This new country isn’t a place for conferences in fields that are all about upsetting the status quo.

I'm curious about your probabilities and violence comment. Where do you live?

I believe that in general people tend to overestimate the threats in places they do not live because the news reports on the worst stuff. There is also not an even distribution across the country, or even the state or city for that matter. If I was to visit your country, I wonder what concerns I would have about it that you would find unusual.

Not so much afraid, but not planning because they will probly not let me in anyways. There are better places to visit anyways

At least the Western countries, and some selective Asian nations, are allowed to enter US with ESTA. For the majority of the population in the world (whole continent of Africa, the continent of Asia except Japan, S. Korea, Singapore) needs a US visa to enter US; 90% of tourist visa applications are denied, anyway.

Think of the risk of getting caught in gun violence like the risk of mass stabbings or vehicles being driven into crowds. It can and has happened, but the odds are staggeringly low.

Most gun violence is between people who are known to each other (gangs, suicide, domestic violence). As a random person, you are very unlikely to have problems.

What is the purpose of your visit? "Эта... конференция по новым компьютерным технологиям и защите компьютерных программ"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Q0RPooaHw - the best way to visit tech conferences in US

Compare the statistics of murders per capita in your city and the US city you plan to visit.

I think your fear is unreasonzble.

But it's a good thing to avoid travel. By fying across ocean you would contribute to environment damage by the airplane emission and potentially transmit infections.

Participate remotely, stay home, save time, money and the planet.

As an American that goes to academic/tech conferences, this situation is also pretty negative, because it certainly is going to lead to many organizers moving their conferences to other places.

If I were running the convention center in Vancouver/Toronto/Montreal I'd be feeling pretty good right now.

Yes Americans are fairly unhinged and there are definitely lots of shootings but I’ve lived in this land my whole life and haven’t been shot at.

I think you’ll be fine. Shootings here get a lot of media coverage which makes it seem more common than it actually is.

I'm an EU citizen and I have been to US and Canada once in 2019, for business trip visiting a company that does business with the company I work for. The trip was without issues.

I wouldn't go US again, it's nothing like in the movies.

I will no longer travel to or through the USA. I'm a white New Zealander, nearly seventy, have no criminal convictions, but will not even contemplate putting myself at the mercy of American border officials.

I will not visit the US, for any reason (work or pleasure) while Trump is president (or indeed any Republican is president).

I wouldn’t fear guns but the political climate. If you have said anything critical about the Trump government or of about a tiny country’s conduct in the ME, your fears are not baseless. In the past there were reports about having to hand out laptop / other electronic devices and handing over your pin/password, if you refused, you wouldn’t be allowed to enter the US. I also know a christian arab who regularly was taken to the secondary by tsa agents. And was interrogated.

I was not aware of an increase in gun violence since the trump adm. Any sources?

You can’t even guarantee the safety of your family where you live 100%. Why the fear of guns specifically? Have you ever fired one? Best way to get over the fear is just get some training. I view guns as just a slingshot 2.0. Take a class and get over your Hollywood and fear mongering news led view of them.

Literally the only guarantee you have is that on a long enough timeline, you will die.

This is what happens when you get your information from entertainment media masquerading as news. Sure, there are shootings. What is the distribution? Shootings are not randomly distributed.

Some quick stats from Pew Research in 2023 there were 46,728 gun deaths. Sounds like a lot, right? Remember though the US is BIG. A full 58% were suicides. That’s 6/10!

A distribution map is available at https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/05/what-the-...

And finer maps are available too.

I have lived here over 40 years and never such as heard a gunshot outside of the range. I have lived in New Jersey, Illinois, and California. I have never been threatened with any kind of weapon.

I spent six months in England though and was threatened with a knife.

If you are afraid to travel to the US, I’d ask if you’re also afraid to travel to Asia, South America and Africa where risks are comparable regardless of gun ownership.

It seems that you would be cutting yourself off from a large portion of the world.

Don't take personal safety advice from an ivory tower.

I'm a US citizen, have been living in Cuenca, Ecuador for almost all of the last 12 years. I was last in the US June-August 2024, intending to do some backpacking in my old haunts in Washington state, plus a bit of sightseeing.

Too hot, for one thing, even in western WA, home of wet, gray winters and (formerly) gorgeous mild summers. Now you can't even go for a hike without registering on recreation.gov, and then also having to drive possibly hundreds of miles out of your way to show up in-person at a national park headquarters anyway. For what, I don't know -- maybe to be fingerprinted. Roads and trails have also seriously deteriorated since I lived there. Infrastructure maintenance seems to be regarded as an unaffordable luxury these days, something to be needed only by freeloaders, never the rich overlords.

The US also felt really creepy, even compared to my last visit in late 2019. These days, in Ecuador, I'm used to going everywhere on foot and dealing with people in a low-key, individual, informal way, but being in the US is more and more like finding oneself in a bad dystopian science-fiction movie.

People there are isolated from one another, it's all about driving around or standing in long lines for self-checkout at stores, or getting into a confrontation with store policy when just trying to (as a 76-year-old) prove that (1) I exist and (2) am really truly old enough to buy beer (via scanning my driver's license for the appropriate data). Yeeps.

The US is now just a crazy, lonely, assembly-line place full of discouragement and homeless people. And I'm not talking about some urban slum -- this is Olympia, WA, which used to be really pleasant.

And guns. If you look, you notice them. Back in 2019 I fended off three aggressive dogs illegally running loose on a suburban trail in advance of a horse-riding couple, then had the guy say he had a gun and had him threaten to kill me for pepper-spraying his dogs, then had him ram his horse into me, then threaten to kill me a second time. Life these days. Nope.

And even I (little old quiet invisible no-criminal-history me) worry about being hassled or even detained coming into the country, just because. I was already questioned around 10 years ago at the Atlanta airport about what I had been doing in Ecuador. None of your business, dipshit.

So, the US was my home country but, ah, no. Not any more. I'm glad to be where I am now, free of that, all of it. I'll probably never go back, definitely never for anything I can just safely read about at a distance, like a tech conference.

No

Yes. As someone publicly critical of the Trump administration, I don't want my entire social media presence crawled by immigration officers, just to end up in some detention centre for weeks or months. I'd rather just stay at home or travel to safer countries like Canada or Mexico.

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There's like 1.2 guns per person in America. The country is basically a giant shooting range.

Yes, you will be detained if you are using illegal means

For me it's the opposite, I do not travel to places where I can't carry a gun on me, this usually means staying in the USA full time.

I personally would not feel comfortable in a country with restrictive gun laws, if my phone is stolen, I could lose valuable customer data which I'm entrusted to keep secure - it's not right to offload my security to others.