I won’t talk politics, but I will say after going out and seeing other countries I completely agree, it’s way different than what I was told. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t left NA has any right to compare us against anyone.

Yes, quite a lot. I’ve never actually been to America though.

Something I really envy is the EU controls on food. Much of what passes for food here in the US is heavily processed, GMO, misleadingly labeled, etc.

Nope! I have worked from when I was in high-school all the way til now. I get a couple of vacation days a year. So I do what every good American does and goof off for decades. I still do good work mind you.

No time for travel when you dont have all that much vaca.

What does seem to be a point of agreement for Europeans that live in the States for years is that the US is so huge that for most people, there’s no reason to leave. Whatever landscape you want can be had, from the tropics to the Arctic Circle. Geography makes it easy to never have a passport and experience 20 lifetimes of places. It actually is an amazing and diverse place.

That being said, getting an outside perspective of the world is an entirely different thing. Until an American gets their exceptionalism challenged by someone, it’s an internal emotional paper tiger. It typically benefits Americans to leave the country.

I won’t touch your point about most dangerous. I don’t agree, but won’t engage because I don’t want to end up in a Palintir database. Delete this post unless you want CBP searching your phone next time you re-enter the country.

Yup. American living in Germany for 2.5 years now, been traveling all over EU and UK…the world is a huge place and there’s a LOT of people. Most of them never think about the states and will never have any reason to. Germany may not be my favorite place, especially since i really struggle with the language so i know i dont fully understand a lot of things here. But the EU in general has a lot of things going way better.

With that said…everywhere always has its own issues as well. The grass isn’t always completely greener, if you will.

Even if you go to Europe (where I live), you will still listen to American music, read news about America everywhere, eat American crap food, use American Internet services, watch American TV shown. It is not easy to leave America :D

I’ve only travelled outside of America.

Had some ideas about visiting the US for Gencon, but 2025 doesn’t seem like a good year for that.

I’m no world traveler or political scientist, but of the handful of places I’ve been outside of the US they seem to have just as many same or different problems. I think it’s a grass is always greener situation. Much of the world would trade places with an American if they could. Granted education is a big factor in making that decision, or not.

Every government is just pulling on different levers and creating different flavors of the same problems. Some people have socialist programs, but spend a lot on taxes. Some people have low incomes, but cost of living is more affordable. Some places have lower cost of living but standard of living is lower. Then you got all varieties of societal stuff.

The only place I’ve been in America is NJ/NYC, for the rest of my life I’ve travelled exclusively outside of America.

As an American, I have been out side the US and not just Canada or MX.

Central America: Panama and Costa Rica Panama was nice as you could drink the water.

Costa Rica the people were great. Land was a little more wild. Highlight was fishing and some locals caught some scallops. After talking with them for a bit they gave me fresh one to try with a squirt of lime juice. Briney with enough acid made it great.

Euorope: Ireland, UK, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Spain Ireland was my honeymoon. Stayed south mostly. Farthest north we made it was limerick. Wish we spent more time around Cork

UK i was visiting my sister in Bristol. Cool town was there during the Hot Air balloon festival. Also spent some time in Edinburgh. Definatly recommend going to Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival. Lots of free show or pay what you can shows.

Iceland we stayed around Reykjavik. The city was alot of fun. Definatly recommend visiting the bath houses to relax

Denmark we were in Copenhagen. Christina land was very freeing to visit. Food was great too. Stayed for 2 nights

Germany we did Octoberfest is Munich. Had a ton of fun. Did the tourist and local version. The local version was toned down a bit and more casual to drink at. Remember pace yourself. We did a day trip from Munich to visit Salzburg. Definatly a city worth seeing. Trains are fun.

Spain we did a quick trip over a long weekend. Stayed in Madrid mostly doing tours. Became full of pickpocket. The tours there were always a few people sulking around bumping into people. They all knew each other trying to make distractions for one another. Went to Valencia too. Walked the former river park. Bought some of the best oranges ever. Ate too much paella.

Asia: Indonisia, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore Indonesia was a work and vacation trip. Spend 5 days on Bali. Visited various temples and ate lots of good seafood. Spent a few days in Jakarta. I am definitely in about a dozen photo albums with some Indonesians on vacation who wanted a picture with a 6ft2in American. Work was in Bandung, again the food was great. My GF at the time, came along and spent her days shopping at the malls nearby. Lots of big brands are produced here. The last night in Bandung, my colleges and GF were at a small bar where a band was playing Classic Rock, when the power went out. We were in a corner booth next to the breakers. A bartender came over and opened the breaker box. There were flames inside. They simple sprayed it with an extinguisher, waited 5 minutes, and then flipped them all back on.

Japan was a quick day trip, our layover after Indonisia on the way back was super long so we made it out of the airport and visited Tokyo. The government building was a great free sight seeing stop. Ate lots of good sushi and noodles

Thailand we visited Bangkok, Ko Sumia, and Phuket. Things i learned about the food. If the chillis are diced up, you’re meant to eat them. If they are kept whole but split upto the stem once or twice, do not eat them. Ko Sumi was our favorite as the water was clean/clear the there were lots of places that you could walk to to buy food both restaurants and local shops. Phuket is know for being a party area. Tons of people, had to explain to my wife what a “Ping Pong” show was. Bangkok was crazy but great the night markets were the place to be.

Singapore was an add on from our Thailand trip. Spent 3 days here. People were super nice and food was great. There are many michilelin star rated hawker stands. The food is great. Also you can drink the water. I like to tell people if they are worried about going to SE Asia, go to Singapore 1st. If it’s too.much for you then you cannot handle SE Asia. The botanical gardens were very cool to see

Hope this helps any one unsure if they want to travel

I have many times, and I agree that travel is a good thing. But don’t be so quick to scoff at Americans who don’t travel overseas. Traveling is expensive. The flight alone from my house to Frankfurt or Tokyo (for example) is at least $1,500 per person, and a day of travel each way. That’s out of reach for a lot of people. Hell, it’s out of reach for me now that I have a family to bring with me. The most basic, banal holiday overseas would easily exceed $10,000. Nevermind the luxury of being able to spend enough time there to understand local takes on geopolitics.

The US is huge and there is a lot to see. I know working class people who only travel as far as they can drive in a day trip. As far as America being “the MOST dangerous country outside of warzones” while it is popular to badmouth where you live (familiarity breeds contempt) I’ve never felt my life is in danger anywhere in the US. On the other hand I don’t go into areas likely to be crime ridden and these exist in other countries too.

Yes, lots of Americans don’t go beyond the Carribean and don’t have passports simply because they can spend a lifetime traveling around North America. They in turn have lots of stereotypes of all the places they’ve never been. People think the French are all horribly hostile snobs, I found them friendly, Turkey was like Midnight Express, ummm, no, and China is a police state with agents following your every step, nope. I was more worried about wandering off and getting lost than anything else in China.

most of the world is in fact freer than them, has a better system in place for their people, and doesn’t have some of the major problems that America has

Very debatable. Every country has its own issues and restrictions. Turkey is an autocracy for instance. Vietnam is a single party state with major corruption problems, etc. Switzerland is safe but very expensive. You seem to have a narrow view of the world.

This post is a bit American-centric.

A better wording would’ve been, “Have you ever travelled outside your own country?”

Yes, I travel outside of America almost 100% of the time.

Yup. But I’ll admit - I was briefly considering a trip to Medellin Columbia but the level 3 travel advisory and Venezuela shit had me change my plans to Peru instead.

Lived in Japan for 6 years (2 as military 4 as a civilian), best place I’ve ever been and my number one regret in life is not doing whatever it would have taken to stay.

I’m not a huge traveler, but I’ve been to the UK and parts of Europe. The Czech Republic was my favorite place, of the places I’ve been. Ironically never been to Canada, despite having some extended family there. I would love to go, and I love being in foreign places, but I hate getting there. Travel is awful, especially now.

I’ve lived in both urban and rural areas, and the fear is constant everywhere among people who have never traveled. Urban people are afraid that everyone in the country is a Deliverance KKK member, and rural people think the cities are a gang-infested war zone. What’s wild is that, unlike visiting other countries, they could just hop in the car and visit the city or countryside for a weekend. They are consuming lazy media tropes and taking them as fact.

Traveling, even just regional travel, would benefit a lot of people in the USA. We have way more in common with each other than with the oligarchs.

If you don’t know less than 50% of Americans have a passport.

It reached 51% last year

Cyclist gets detained in Russia, basketball player detained in russia, tourist gets put into coma before dying for stealing North Korean poster, hikers detained in Iran. There are a lot of people with passports and these glowing ideas that were all the same, and going to places will broker friendships and change things. These may be enlightened ideals, but very, very stupid actions. Going to Mexico is fine but you better fucking be smart about it. Go with a large group and stay where you’re supposed to, you should be fine. My company had at least 2 security guards for anyone taking business trips to Mexico because they’ve had to pay ransoms in the past.

To act like going to dangerous places is enlightening is a very stupid take. Look at how many journalists died in Gaza, and those are a supposedly protected group who generally know what they’re doing. Extreme tourism is absolutely stupid in my opinion. I traveled enough while in the army and don’t currently have a passport, nor am I interested in getting one. If I ever leave this country again, it will be permanent.