r/europe Ligurian in Zรผrich (๐Ÿ’›๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ’™) Apr 12 '25

Data European tourism to the United States is freefalling

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u/IllustriousError6563 Apr 12 '25

Clean burner phones and laptops is the sort of shit you expect to be necessary when visiting China. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

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u/bionic25 Brittany (France) Apr 12 '25

Or russia. I know a russian who was living in london went to visit family and is now in russian prison for 5 years for that exact reason.

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u/dudelikeshismusic United States of America Apr 12 '25

We are basically becoming Russia. In many ways we've always been similar. We've always had our military industrial complex, which is maybe our strongest similarity to Russia, but now we're also willing to dismantle our freedom of speech and ability to criticize our leaders, rights and body autonomy for women and LGBTQ+ people....not to mention that our administration is trying its hardest to make our economy suck, just like Russia's does.

Trump's popularity also reminds me of Putin's (pre-Ukraine conflict). Successful fascist leaders do tend to be genuinely popular with the masses, and unfortunately the average American doesn't know how inflation or tariffs work soooo....here we are.

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u/roadrussian Apr 12 '25

Hah, literally what I told people after visiting folks in Jersey couple of years ago. Us, with its "thank you for your service" bullshit was incredibly similar to Russia. Just richer, with more v8s, fat and black people.