Ex-It Patriots: Western Civilization's Suicide Doesn't Have to Be Yours (Installment I)
Editor’s Note: This is the first in what I envision as an ongoing series of looks at why I left the United States. And why I heartily recommend others take a long, hard, serious look at doing the same.
Greetings from Belize.
An old saw is:
“Nothing makes you appreciate the US - more than a vacation abroad.”
I am now living almost the exact opposite:
“Nothing makes you happier to not live in the US - than to not live in the US.”
It’s one thing to dip your toe in a foreign culture for a week or two - knowing you’re returning to the only life you’ve ever actually known.
It’s another to immerse yourself in a foreign culture - as a part of your becoming a part of it.
The former doesn’t change your mindset even a little. The latter fundamentally transforms it.
Tourists abroad - returning home? Never really leave the home mindset.
As I describe it:
“Fish don’t know they’re wet. They’re swimming in it.”
As the classic flick “Jaws” describes it:
Hooper: It doesn’t make much sense for a guy who hates the water to live on an island either.
Brody: It’s only an island if you look at it from the water.
It’s all, as always, a matter of perspective.
I started looking to leave the US in 2013. I finally (FINALLY) pulled the trigger on December 10, 2022. I spent the intervening years doing a LOT of research (writers tend to do this) on all sorts of possible destinations.
I wanted tropical. I wanted a great people. I much preferred an English-speaking people.
I wanted MUCH less government.
Belize overwhelmed my list. And provided a bunch of additional things I either didn’t know I wanted - or didn’t think I could get.
(And it is by no means my only option. To wit: I checked out the Philippines in December. And I could definitely enjoy making a go of it there too.)
But my decision making process is irrelevant to…pretty much everyone else. Each of us has individualistic criteria of what they want out of life. How I decide has little to no bearing on how you decide.
But it is a HUGE world outside the confines of the US. Lots of countries - offering lots of different lifestyles. Only you can decide what you want out of life.
Since departing the US? LOTS of people have dubbed me a Bad American. Almost all of them alleged political conservatives.
I say alleged - because despite their self-identifications? Much of what they believe and how they behave - ain’t even a little conservative.
These alleged conservatives don’t respect an individual’s right to self-determination. These alleged conservatives LOATHE me for “Giving up on the good ole USA.”
And then they accuse me of being a Rosie O’Donnell Leftist. Which is an excellent representation of how stupid things in the US have gotten.
To be sure: Most of those one would classify as Bad Americans are hardcore Leftists. Rosie O’Donnell left the US - because she deemed it too conservative.
I don’t know what she’s smoking. But I’m sure I don’t want any. I don’t know how anyone who ain’t really high reaches that conclusion.
I left the US - because the Left is winning. Huge. Take the W, Rosie.
The thing is? I can do math. Both literal and figurative.
First, the literal math.
As I type:
The US is hurtling towards - and will then hurtle WAY past into oblivion - $40 trillion in debt.
And the alleged conservative Republicans in DC? Just passed a Big Broke Bill that has deficits larger than the last budget Biden and the Democrats passed.
The US’s Social Security and Medicare programs are $175+ trillion short.
And the alleged conservative Republicans in DC? Are doing NOTHING about any of it.
The US’s dollar has lost 87+% of its value since 1971. And DC is still printing many trillions more.
And DC won’t ever stop printing. Because they have painted themselves into a corner - where they absolutely can not ever stop printing. That is, until the entire system comes crashing down upon us all.
And the alleged conservative Republicans in DC? Are doing NOTHING about any of it.
Never mind everything else that is wrong with the US? That’s the ball game. There is no way back from that much debt - with that pathetic a currency. The literal math - doesn’t math.
Speaking of everything else that is wrong with the US? That’s where the Bad American figurative math enters. The societal, moral and cultural rot.
I never liked much of the life-lifestyle-culture to which my fellow Americans subjected me. It’s mostly been so crazy and so wrong. And only ever gotten worse.
Now? The US is:
HUGE-and-ever-growing government. Big Gov-Big Biz hyper-cronyism. Big Gov-Big Biz hyper-commercialization.
“Men can get pregnant.” “There are 57+ genders.” The Kardashians….
The figurative math - didn’t math either.
So in 2013, I calculated a subtotal. And decided I had had enough. Hence, eventually, Belize.
Someone of whom you all have heard was also looking at the US this way.
I, for many years, emailed regularly with the late, great Rush Limbaugh. (Man, do I wish I’d saved those missives.)
In his very last email to me - two or three days before he passed - Rush told me he felt like a failure. Because he looked back on his life’s work of trying to make the US better - and saw the US only ever getting worse.
We genuinely commiserated with each other over the observation.
I am not saying Rush would have ever left the US. I’m in fact quite certain he never would have.
I am saying that having hundreds of millions of dollars? Is excellent padding against the hard reality of life in the US.
I don’t have anywhere near Rush’s coin.
So I started looking for places that treat my diminished dollars a whole lot better than does the US….
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End of Installment I