This is something I like to ask people, and Hubski would be so great for it, I don't know why I haven't posted this before. But this post earlier made me think it's as good a time as any to actually bring it up.
Obviously this country is very different than it used to be, and even less people-- especially those under 35-- believe in the 'American Dream' or the idea of America that our government and media seem to present. But it would be a lie to say there are massive benefits to being here. Does the good outweigh the bad for you? Do real opportunities mean more to you than your ideals and qualms with America? Do you truly love everything about it, and find the issues to be minor or inconsequential or overblown? Do you have hope for a bright future of change? Do you feel it's your duty to attempt to change things? Romantic, sentimental, possibly knowingly-illogical reasons keep you?
Or did you leave? Do you plan to?
Personally, I'm conflicted. I despise so much of what goes on here, I don't believe the idea of America exists as it should anymore, or maybe never did, and the American Dream is laughable and impossible to attain if you aren't born into money. Our government disgusts me on a deep level, and I don't see it ever doing anything but getting worse. I find many of the things the US does to be total violations of humanity and push us further into a state of ruin as a society as a whole. But there are still things I love about being here. I don't know if I'd ever be able to give up the US entirely. Perhaps a dual-citizenship is in my future.
I like people, and I'm good around them, but human nature disturbs me, and I find the idea of removing myself further and further away from people more appealing as time goes on. Perhaps it adds to my hatred for the US because that happens to be where I am, but I often toy with the idea one day I'll leave near on a small town or in a forest, owning land or a farm, being far enough away from people for peace, but close enough that I can go to town if I like. Half of the time in this fantasy, it's still in the US, in places like Montana or Iowa, and half the time it's elsewhere in the world. Somewhere cold. Estonia or Finland or Norway or Poland or a variety of places.
Anyway, this is a complicated topic in my head frequently. It's hard to make succinct points of it even to myself, or to summarize things, so what are all your opinions?