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My desire to visit the US just went sub zero.

The worst part is this has the possibility to spread to other countries (that the US can twist the arm of) because they want to extend their policies further.


xtracto
Right, just freaking stop going there. Americans have made it loud and clear (by voting with majority) that they don't like outsiders.

Stop going to the US. Is it pretty? There are way better places on earth. Is it fun? There are way funnier places ok earth. There's no reason to submit to all that degrading behavior.

Good riddance. Let the. Keep their decadent country to themselves until it crumbles.

soared
To be clear, at this point the majority of Americans do not support the current administration. So blaming it on the American government is more apt.
tempaccount420
If a little less than half the people on the street hated you, would you feel comfortable walking that street?
The majority voted for this government... They don't get to wash their hands of it just because some people later changed their minds.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
Not even a majority of voters, let alone the whole population, voted for the current President.
overfeed
> To be clear, at this point the majority of Americans do not support the current administration

At the very least, the majority of Americans certainly condoned the current administration at the polling booth - or couch. The Trump campaign can't be accused of not being up-front with its agenda.

sbelskie
A plurality of those who voted, you mean.
overfeed
Choosing not to vote when you're eligible is a statement in itself - which why I referred to the couch.
bdcravens
While I feel like many across the world realize this, unfortunately it doesn't make them any safer while they're here. Moreover, the most extreme haters of outsiders feel empowered by the current regime, adding to the risk.
jampekka
Majority supports the immigration agenda though.
quantified
That's not clear. The problems and the agenda don't align. Majority definitely supports fixing the problems, but the political leadership clearly supports keeping things dysfunctional. Remember that the US Congress was ready to pass legislation to solve before the last election, and Trump made them stop it so he could campaign on the problems.
jampekka
About half support more raids and more ICE.

37% approve illegal deportations to El Salvador. Not a majority, but a shoking approval for literally illegal, both domestically and internationally, operations. General Trump disapproval is barely over 50%. These reflect a widespread rot in the culture, not just a rogue administration.

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/17/americans-ha...

I'm Canadian. Before Trump, I made several trips a year to the USA. all my vacation money was spent there. Now I go to Europe every summer instead.

Meanwhile, I recently received a survey from some industry association in the USA asking what it would take for me to return to travelling in the USA. Like asking a bunch of questions about accommodations, travel, flights, etc. Without even mentioning the obvious.

Do Americans not know how they are perceived in the rest of the world?

quantified
As an American, I can only believe it because I know the dipshts that got elected. I wouldn't come here. This is all a real wtf.

Note that in the pre-social media era, this particular bs would not be possible.

idkfasayer (dead)
msgodel
Yup. When we said there were problems 10-20 years ago it would have been good to have a nuanced discussion about immigration. Now we have this instead.

There are plenty of other countries to immigrate too, at this point many are probably better than the US. Stop bothering us and let us work our problems out.

quite-sfwd
Some countries don't even need the arm twist (eg Central/South America) they'd just copy the US out of inertia.
franczesko
USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hositable. I think that there's a big difference between what people do and what the state does. I do agree however, that what is happening in this country right now is deeply concerning.
jeroenhd
The same can be said about just about any country.

Based on the way Americans vote, I don't think that hospitality is there for the majority of Americans. I know the way the American system of politics has shifted to a binary choice doesn't leave much room for nuance when it comes to specific policies, but when Americans were faced with a choice between a racist, misogynist, fraudulent, insurrectionist sex offender and anyone else, they showed their values.

Plus, the country's leader announced he was considering invading a close ally, that kind of threat cannot be ignored either, though it's only one of the more recent threats to world peace that only happens to hit close to home for me. I'm sure people in the Middle East and Central or South America will have heard this kind of talk before.

In the same vein, I hope people judge my country for the fact that right extremists that have held a significant amount of power for years now. There are hospitable, kind people in every street in every town, but I won't pretend the average person will be like that; voter demographics have definitely been a continuous source of disappointment for me. Perhaps that's one of the downsides of democracy: the people of a country show their true colours quite publicly, and can't hide behind "that's just what the regime thinks".

You're right about the beauty, though. America is a very pretty place.

sofixa
> but when Americans were faced with a choice between a racist, misogynist, fraudulent, insurrectionist sex offender and anyone else, they showed their values.

Don't forget serial cheater with multiple divorces (supposedly the choice of the religious people of "family values"), blatantly corrupt out in public, borderline senile (seriously, listen to the guy speak for more than a minute, it's barely coherent), mocking disabled people, etc etc etc.

How that person is even seriously taken as a candidate, let alone actually winning anything, is genuinely beyond me. Especially for a second term after multiple convictions inbetween.

laurentiurad
shows the morale decline of the general population
quantified
Moral, I think you mean.

Being all "jesus christ is my savior" has nothing to do with actual morals, just power.

Morale has declined too, though.

jumpman_miya (dead)
showsover
As can be said about Afganistan and its people. That doesn't mean it's not risky going there or that people are queueing to enter.
kashunstva
> I think that there's a big difference between what people do and what the state does

One of most famous speeches in U.S. history talks about a government that is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If the State behaves in a certain way, it is of the people. Many people who cast their vote for the current regime are perfectly cordial in face-to-face interactions; but nonetheless they gave their consent to these policies. There is a deeply divided plurality, of course, but I’d rather limit my visits to the U.S. regardless of its natural beauties or the hospitality of its populace, be it real or superficial. Were I a student from outside the U.S., forget it, I would never consider it a safe option for post-secondary education. The absolute risk of serious harm, I imagine, is low; but who needs this humiliation?

beloch
Speaking as a Northern neighbour of the U.S., it rings hollow when we hear American state politicians telling us that they love Canadians and really hope we visit more (tourism is down) and go back to buying American (exports are down).

The American government is waging economic war on us with the openly announced intention of annexing us. American pundits (and the idiot ambassador Trump sent us) tell us to downplay it, but the president keeps bringing it up!

I'm still working to cut more American goods and companies out of my life. I'm sorry, but Americans are responsible for what their government does. If you wish to be forgiven, you must first stop doing what you say you're sorry for!

amanaplanacanal
I think most of us would like to get rid of our idiot president, but the only way to do it now is impeachment, which would require breaking the Republican majority in both houses of the legislature. It could possibly happen next year in the mid term elections, but it's going to be tough.
jumpman_miya (dead)
> USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hospitable.

There’s a high degree of variability there based on location, your English fluency, and skin color. I know people who’ve had very different experiences based on that - it’s why my white European friends never think twice about going on a backwoods camping trip but some from Africa or South America stopped. Even if most people are nice, the ⅓ or so set the tone for the entire trip.

The point of GP's remark was not to condemn the people or the beauty of the place, but that they didn't want to expose themselves to these rules.
arunabha
> USA is a beautiful place to visit and people are very hositable

Yeah, the jury is still out on the second part of the claim.

Whilst that is nice to know, these are real tangible barriers to entry. Both literally and by making it a far less attractive place to cross the border.

As a very run of the mill Australian, I would not feel safe crossing your border right now. The overreach, lack of transparency and documented instances of recent abuse put it at about the same risk as Russia or China. If border force is having a bad day, bad luck, you get fucked over with no recourse, no transparency. Too bad.

It is no surprise that tourism has plummeted.

tigrezno
North Koreans are also good people but I'm not visiting that country ever
jampekka
> The worst part is this has the possibility to spread to other countries (that the US can twist the arm of) because they want to extend their policies further.

UK is already almost as bad. But UKs political elite is maybe even more pro-Israel than USAs.

ascorbic
It really isn't. The UK government has strongly criticised the Israeli government's actions, and has applied sanctions to some far-right Israeli government ministers:

- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-... - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-partners-unite-to-...

TheOtherHobbes
Performative and meaningless. The UK has been providing direct military support for the Gaza campaign for months now, long after it became obvious what the goals and methods were.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/bbc-chief-downplays-britains-...

The UK's media have also provided extremely slanted reporting.

jampekka
UK also deports and revokes visas for "inciting antisemitic rethoric".

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/25/visitors-to-...

ascorbic
That's a statement made by the previous government
dontlaugh
There’s hardly a difference between the previous blue Tories and the current red Tories, particularly in Israel.
TheOtherHobbes
We lost a potentially transformative prime minister because of an insane media campaign that painted him as simultaneously wildly anti-semitic and a lackey of Putin - when the reality was that he was (still is...) popular with Jews in his local constituency, and had been protesting Russian atrocities as soon as they started, while the official story was that Putin was a potential ally who would be good for business.

It's been genuinely shocking to see how many EU leaders are in lock step over this. Only Spain and Ireland have broken ranks and called Gaza what it is.

sofixa
While I agree on Corbyn being wrongly painted as an antisemite, he is still a piece of shit Putin lackey.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/02/jeremy-corb...

August 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, calling for "peace" by stopping shipments of armaments to Ukraine, saying they won't solve anything. The useless communist party of France has the same rhetoric, as do the far right loonies here. Because letting Ukraine fall to the Russians will definitely get peace.

Anyone with that sort of opinion is either incredibly dumb, or paid by the Kremlin.

jampekka
Well, how much have the shipments solved? Any peace agreement after these years of carnage will be a lot worse for Ukraine than was on the table in 2022.

Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being labeled antisemites or pro-Hamas.

sofixa
> Well, how much have the shipments solved? Any peace agreement after these years of carnage will be a lot worse for Ukraine than was on the table in 2022.

What peace deal was on the table for Ukraine in 2022? Surrender and let their population be brutalised by the Russians, their culture and language erased, their civilians and military tortured and raped? Great deal, I wonder why they didn't take it.

It has solved the immediate problem of limiting the Russian expanse and subsequently war crimes in Ukraine. It's literally the best that can be done right now, until Putin realises he can't win.

> Labeling those with different views on Ukraine-Russia policy as putinists is the same phenomenon as Israel critics being antisemites or pro-Palestine.

No, because both sides in the Israel/Palestine conflict both have good points and deficiencies. Both have a right to exist, and both have done terrible things to one another. There are nuances, and there can be a solution where both exist. But both need to take part of it.

In Ukraine, Russia is a genocidal regime invading its neighbour. Ukraine being forced to give up territory and concessions on army/NATO restrictions would just guarantee they'll be weaker for Russia to invade again in a few years. If you want peace, take it up with Putin. Preventing help getting to Ukraine to defend itself is serving Putin's interests and nothing more. The war stops the second Putin stops.

GJim (dead)
[flagged]
tomhow
Moderators hadn't touched or even seen your comment, but other community members were right to flag it.

Moderation of threads has been done the same way for years on HN. The guidelines have been in place and essentially the same for many years, and it's been the same people upholding them for a long time too.

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lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
> for calling you out on this ridiculous whatabout-ism

This is not why your comment was flagged.

> accept you have a problem

Don’t write like this and you will receive fewer downvotes/flags.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> strange moderation

The actions are not from site moderators; other users thought your comment violated one or more the guidelines so they flagged it.

laurentiurad
considering the low price of the aircraft tickets (at least from Europe) to the US, you are not alone.
amazingamazing
It’s for the best - air travel is expensive climate wise and our planet is warming.
ponector
Is it the only way to travel to the USA?
amazingamazing
The vast majority of those traveling to USA do so through plane, yes.

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