[cujo]

> We should instead spend time uniting people in opposition. Stay where you are and fight.

That is definitely one approach, and one I'm hoping to see through. But simultaneously you have to acknowledge that there could come a point where it's time to jump ship. That point is going to be different for everyone. Recent events have pushed some past that point. That doesn't seem hard to grasp.

> It's mind-blowing that people won't engage in trying to actually do something, even something as simple as helping a campaign, or donating money...

Have you been paying attention? People in this country have been more engaged over the last few years than at any point in my lifetime, and at this point the ship is still sinking.

Every time there is a school shooting, there is outrage and no change. Proud boys terrorize another fucking library event, and there aren't even reports of a single arrest. Women's rights being slaughtered and we get to hear how we need to vote. Another hearing laying out the obvious coup attempt on Jan 6th, and no action taken but another news headline.

This is just a snippet of the last ~30 days. 1 short month. I don't argue that it's my country. My country just looks like a real shithole lately.

> but instead they're like "well I'm going to just give up and spend all this time and effort moving to some other country where I also won't uphold any civic responsibility".

This is such a weird take. Consider employment. You can join a startup, work your ass off, cross your fingers, and hope for that big payday. High risk, high reward. Alternatively, you can join a mature company, collect a comfortable paycheck and moderately help to steer the bigger ship.

Right now, the US is looking like that startup. You can work your ass off, and it may give you a great payoff in the form of opportunity. But it's looking increasingly like it's going to fail. Alternatively, you can move somewhere that has all the big stuff in order, and you get to work on the small stuff that still has effect while not worrying as much about whether you're one injury away from bankruptcy.

Who knows? Maybe if we vote harder it'll turn around. At this point, I'm inclined to believe it's cultural. We barely voted out an insurrectionist. 48% of the country voted to keep that in play. This country is full of people who are actively encouraging someone to overthrow our government. 48%.