[tao_oat]

I love the US; I’ve lived there and held an H-1B visa. Moving there permanently was a teenage dream of mine.

Unfortunately the country in that dream no longer exists. I now avoid jobs that require travel to the US. As a non-American it makes a lot more sense to focus on building up the tech centres closer to home.

[stinkbeetle]

Not American here, what did you like about it that is no longer?

[atoav]

It was once an open, free country that fought fascism and respected the rule of law?

Arguably it was never perfect and the ugly bits where there, so a lot of that is about an image it projected to the outside world.

You know it is the land of the free when you have to give them access to all your social media accounts at the border. I have heard stories of fellow countrymen being held for weeks without hearing any cause. So yeah, no thanks.

Maybe if you restore the rule of law and have the current, president, supreme court justices and representatives removed in 20 years or so.

Bigotry and xenophobia has brought the downfall of the US empire, for real. It was always more about who believed in it than it was for real. The US had an ugly history that it tried to ignore for the passt hundred years and at some point unsurprisingly it comes back to haunt you.

[stinkbeetle]

I don't understand your question. Are you asking or saying that it was once an open, free country that fought fascism and respected the rule of law? When?

[atoav]

I said is was seen as such. The US has derived great value of being seen as a country that fought fascism and respected the rule of law (in their own weird way at least) by many countries around the world.

When is a good question but can't be answered without an additional "Where".

[tao_oat]

A lot of the good is still there -- e.g. the nature, the unusually high level of drive/determination/spirit/openness. At least compared to northern Europe where I'm from.

Unfortunately tilting towards fascism outweighs those.

[stinkbeetle]

Thank you for answering!