At what point is America no longer a safe place for me to live?

[arewethereyet]

It's kinda scary out there. I used to be pretty fearless and got into a lot of situations that could have turned out really bad.

I think for me, part of it is my age. I'm a bit old and not totally healthy to be out dealing with psychos at this point.

I did think about the fact that after reading the OP...I don't go anywhere after dark any more. It seems to have come along sort of naturally with the whole pandemic/stay home thing. About the only time I do venture out after dark is to watch a football game when my granddaughter is performing in the halftime events.

I can't really say that anyone is safe any more. Though some are obviously more at risk than others.

Were I younger, it would bother me more than it does. We've become a country of pissed off people who just don't give a damn about others...or so it seems.

[Rev. Rye]

Like AWTY just said, there’s clearly going to be groups that are more clearly in danger than others (and it’s safe to assume that the farther you are from being a white, cisgender, straight, Christian man who supports Trump, the less safe you are), but I don’t think it’s really all that safe for anyone.

Remember how four days ago, some dickhead shot up a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park and killed 7 people in the process? I think I’ve mentioned that I live in the suburbs of Chicago before, but let me put into perspective how close I Was to the shooting: the night before, I went to Ravinia to see Classical Mystery Tour, and as we left, we drove past the shooter’s house. My therapist lives close enough to Highland Park that I actually felt the need to ask if she was there when it happened (she wasn’t, fortunately.) Because of the shooting, the Fourth of July celebrations at my hometown were canceled (both the parade and the fireworks show) in case the shooter decided to go south and continue his spree. My Dad apparently knew some people who got caught up in the crossfire. And, as far as I can tell, the shooter didn’t even have a good reason for doing it (or even anything that might look like a good reason if you squint hard enough.)

And yet, this isn’t all that remarkable. Hell, there was a period this spring where at least one mass shooting that fit the FBI’s criteria for mass murder happened every week. And even though there’s a pretty strong correlation between our extremely lax gun laws and our high rate of gun deaths (and the fact that massacres like this happen far more often than one would expect from nations that aren’t in the middle of a war), one of the major political parties has made explicit that they don’t give a shit. That the right to shoot off an AR-15 is more important than the right for people to not fucking die, and apparently, it’s because of an amendment in the Bill of Rights that only makes sense when you consider that it was written when people were still divided on whether or not combining the various state militias into one large national army would even be worth it. And shit will be so bad that even Piers Morgan will look like the voice of reason in comparison with these guys:

---

On a less heavy note, the gun guy is kind of right about the Kinder egg situation. And I say kind of because a few months after this debate, they’d release a variant in the US called Kinder Joy, but instead of a chocolate egg with a capsule full of tiny toys inside, it’s a capsule with one half devoted to the candy and cream (eaten in a different way from the Kinder Surprise egg) and one half with a toy and a spoon to eat the other half with. The original version, however, remains illegal stateside.

---

[Mermaid]

I don't feel safe going most places where large crowds gather, like the beach, movies, concerts, etc. I don't even feel safe in my own house anymore because of people with guns and no compunction about carrying and using them. I think we're probably at that point now.

[TheJefe817]

Like AWTY just said, there’s clearly going to be groups that are more clearly in danger than others (and it’s safe to assume that the farther you are from being a white, cisgender, straight, Christian man who supports Trump, the less safe you are), but I don’t think it’s really all that safe for anyone.

I fit the white part, and the rest are not always outwardly visible, so I can pretend on the ones where I'm not and blend in.  However, I have to admit that even for someone who looks like me, I thought on the 4th about this quite a bit.  Covid has kept me indoors, but prior to that I would go see live bands at all sizes of venue several times a month, and I'm now questioning whether I'll be as willing going forward.  
Granted, I never go out on the 4th specifically since it tends to be amateur drunk-driver night, but my daughter did.  Before she left (and she, similarly white and reasonably able to blend in) I warned her to be careful since I suspected the violence of the day was not over with.  Sadly, that was an easy prediction to make.

[TaraJo]

Yeah, there's a lot of perspectives I have to consider this from.

1)  Boiling a frog perspective.  You don't boil a frog by throwing it in a pot of boiling water; you put it in a pot of room temperature water and slowly turn up the heat.  By the time the frog realizes the water is too hot, it's too late to get out.  That's my biggest worry; that if I don't get out early enough, I won't be able to get out when it gets really dangerous.  After all, if there's just, say, a dozen or so Americans trying to go to Canada or Australia or France or something, that's manageable, but if there's a few million of us trying to escape, there's going to be more scrutiny.

2)  As dangerous as the politicians are, there are the radical, extreme, fringe groups that are getting all hyped up by the right wing media.  They watch Faux News tell them how evil atheists are and they listen to Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones preach the dangers of transgenders and they read articles on Breitbart telling them how devious the left is and they get all scared and hyped at the same time.  They get angry and aggressive and violent and when they let loose, the right wing media jumps to their defense, just like they did with Rittenhouse and the January 6 rioters.  Just like Trump still can't seem to bring himself to say anything negative about the proud boys or the klansmen who supported him at the unite the right rally.

3)  Yeah, it's already not safe.  There are an alarming number of mass shootings out there and they're getting closer (This one happened just 3 miles away from me)  There seem to be more every day and not only has there not been any significant push for meaningful gun control, the SCOTUS actually made it harder to implement gun control on the state, county or city level.  

4)  Are safe parts of America going to stay safe?  California is somewhat safe, at least on the LGBT/atheist front, but how long will it stay that way?  The Republicans wouldn't hesitate to switch from "let the states decide" to "federal law says all states have to make this a crime."  They're already starting to work on that with abortion, with laws making it a crime to cross state lines to get an abortion after they spent the last 30 years demanding that the SCOTUS let the states decide.  How long will it be before they start chipping away at LGBT rights the same way?  Many states are already making it illegal for anyone to transition if they're under 18 and others are making it impossible to change your birth certificate and still others are making it more difficult to use restrooms or other facilities that match your gender.  How long will they chip away at our rights before, poof, they're gone and I'm a criminal just because I exist?  

For now, leaving America would be difficult.  I just recently got my drivers license back after having been suspended for years (unpaid tickets).  I live in a small, one bedroom apartment.  My marketable skills are somewhat lacking and based on what I've seen, those play a big role in immigrating.  I might talk to my parents about it, if it ever comes to that.  They're also very liberal and current politics in America have they considering leaving and maybe when/if they do, they can help me move out with them?  I can only hope.

[Jehanne]

I used to do work as an IT field technician (for over 3.5 years with over 1,000 jobs), which sometimes involved going to people's homes to do IT work (troubleshooting their computer, phone installs, etc.) At least half-a-dozen homes were diehard Trump supporters (Trump flag, FJB flag, giant Trump dolls, posters, buttons, etc.) To give credit where credit is due, these folks were some of the nicest and polite individuals whom I encountered in my work. On a few occasions I walked up to their front or back doors with more than a little trepidation, but once inside, things always went smoothly.

[TaraJo]

I used to do work as an IT field technician (for over 3.5 years with over 1,000 jobs), which sometimes involved going to people's homes to do IT work (troubleshooting their computer, phone installs, etc.)  At least half-a-dozen homes were diehard Trump supporters (Trump flag, FJB flag, giant Trump dolls, posters, buttons, etc.)  To give credit where credit is due, these folks were some of the nicest and polite individuals whom I encountered in my work.  On a few occasions I walked up to their front or back doors with more than a little trepidation, but once inside, things always went smoothly.

Yeah, it's always easy for them to hate immigrants when it's some vaguely defined, annonymous, Mexican monster who's stealing your job.  Not so much when it's an actual person you meet.  

It's always easy to hate trans women when they're these anonymous, random, big, hairy, manly, predatory people in a skirt.  Not so easy when you actually meet me.

It's always easy to hate atheists when they're just some group that you've never actually met anyone from but you hear about all the damage they're doing.  Not as easy when you meet and talk to an atheist.  

It's so easy for them to hate groups of people but when they meet the individual people from those groups, they can always get along.  They can't seem to acknowledge that those groups are made up of the many individuals that they've already met and get along with.

[Jehanne]

Wel stated, except, perhaps, for the "hairy" part; such is, of course, location-dependant.

[h4ym4n]

I don't feel safe going most places where large crowds gather, like the beach, movies, concerts, etc. I don't even feel safe in my own house anymore because of people with guns and no compunction about carrying and using them. I think we're probably at that point now.

exact reason I always carry a firearm everywhere I go..

Shit head xians only need to believe their god has whispered in their ear to kill to prove their loyalty.

If you can convince them that a snake and donkey communicated with humans then you can convince them to kill for jebus.

[Mister Agenda]

My partner's parents are from Canada, she's started the process of claiming Canadian citizenship. I don't want to renounce my US citizenship but if she goes to live in Canada, I probably will too. I'm goiing to retire at 62 in a couple of years, the healthcare there would be a great benefit for both of us. I'll probably establish residency in a swing state and vote in the US midterms and presidential elections.

That said, I'm hopeful. We're in the worst timeline, but we were very close to having a second President Clinton. She would have gotten the SC justice pick Obama should have gotten, and would have gotten to replace RBG, giving the court a slight liberal majority. We're way off track from where we should be, but there's a limit to how much you can thwart the will of the majority. Belief in God is down to 81%. As Jehanne pointed out, literal belief in the Bible is down to around 20%. Christianists themselve are dirving people out of their religion with their extremism. Democrats now realize how important it is to secure the presidency to keep Republicans from appointing federal judges and SC justices.

I'm not optimistic that we can do more than hold the line in the midterms, but if we can get inflation back under control before the presidential election, I believe we can get enough Democrats and Independents and never Trumpers combined to keep the presidency and gain a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. And if we're lucky, Clarence Thomas will have a health issue that forces him to resign in time for Biden to replace him. If not, House Majority and a filibuster-proof Senate majority can raise the number of justices to the number of circuit courts, 13.

The USA CAN do better. With the numbers, Democrats can institute fair districting reforms, pass a federal law protecting abortion, and bolster safeguards for minorities. And without the numbers, we'll have no one to really blame but our own apathy.