The land of the free, the promised land, the place people once longed to visit or immigrate is quickly becoming the land to stay far away.
going to the US is more unpleasant than going to Soviet era Russia or even Iran 10 years ago. Sure, you sometimes have to bribe people, but at least I’ve not had gear stolen off me during security checks or had people break my gear without at least compensating me.
And taking pictures. Well, let me put it like this: you are 20 times more likely to get hassled for whipping out your camera anywhere in the US than in, say, downtown Teheran.
I offer this as an observation from the outside. The US is isolating itself and it is becoming a very, very unpleasant place to visit. I often talk to fellow travellers and even a lot of business types in nice suits often relate how they’d rather not travel to the US if they could help it and that they’d rather work with people in Europe or Asia. I can relate to that.
[Source, Reddit, Why I stopped travelling to the US and I largely stopped doing business in the US.]
My fellow Americas. Can we please return to the pre-9/11 sensibilities we once had?
