Why I Fled the US

I have left the US and hope to never return. (3,000 words)

RawStory covered my previous newsletter article about the upcoming Doomsday Clock setting. Very cool. I’m described as a “prominent philosopher.” LOL!! You can read it here.

From here.

The United States is a scary place. It is not safe. It has never been safe for marginalized communities: Black people, gay people, trans folks, and so on. But it’s increasingly unsafe for everyone, including white US citizens, immigrants, and even tourists. We’ve all seen the video of Renee Good, a white Christian woman who drives an SUV, being assassinated in cold blood by an ICE agent.

This is not a one-off. It’s part of a distinct trend since Trump took office last year. As The Guardian reports, “federal immigration agents have been involved in a sharp rise in shootings in recent months.” In fact, 2025 was “the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades,” with 32 people having died in ICE custody.

On top of these deaths, ICE has sent hundreds of people, without due process, to the CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador, where they’ve been assaulted, beaten, and tortured. ICE has also held tourists from Germany, the UK, and Canada in detention centers without charges. One person from Germany even had a Green Card, yet was interrogated for hours “after returning from a visit to Germany and being told simply that his Green Card had been flagged.” The victim was “deprived of sleep, food and water, and had his anxiety medication withheld.” His situation became so bad that “he had to be taken to a local hospital.” Another visiting the US was “shackled and transported to an [ICE] detention centre, where she was locked up for 19 days — even though she had money to pay for a flight home, and was desperate to leave the US.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has launched a vicious attack on free speech. The Late Night hosted by Stephen Colbert, who Trump said should be “put to sleep,” has been cancelled, and Jimmy Kimmel was fired following FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s threats to deplatform him. Both have been highly critical of the Trump administration. Trump has also gone after New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump for fraud in 2022 and won the case, as well as James Comey, the former FBI Director, and John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor during Trump’s first term. All have dared to stand up to Trump. As Trump said on the campaign trail, his goal is “retribution.”

Then, of course, there were the abductions of students like Rümeysa Öztürk, apparently “targeted because of an op-ed she wrote in a university newspaper.” Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident attending Columbia University, was taken by ICE agents without a warrant due to his involvement in protests against the US-backed genocide in Gaza. Trump — who’s repeatedly fantasized about shooting protestors in the past — has made it clear: the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not protect people from speech that his fascist regime doesn’t like.

Seeking Safety

These are just a few reasons that I fled the US in December 2025. My departure follows that of other academics, including experts in authoritarianism and fascism like Jason Stanley and Marci Shore, both of whom taught at Yale University. As Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, told The Daily Nous last year, he wanted “to raise my kids in a country that is not tilting towards a fascist dictatorship.”

The way I’ve explained my own motivation for leaving is this: there are certain emotional states that I’ve experienced on a daily basis, such as depression. I’m not alone in this, of course: we’ve all had periods during which we felt sad most days out of the week. However, there are other emotional states that I’ve never experienced chronically, such as fear. I’ve had spikes of fear, as when I was nearly mugged in London years ago, but then the feeling subsides. That changed in 2024, when Trump was reelected. For the first time in my life, I woke up feeling afraid, suffered this feeling throughout the day, and then fell asleep feeling afraid — for months on end.

This is due largely to what might happen — and is now happening — to others during the four years of Trump 2.0: immigrants, minorities, poor people, activists, so-called “Antifa,” members of the LGBTQ+ community, and so on. I am afraid for them.

But it’s also personal: I’m a nonbinary academic and journalist, and as such fall at the intersection of multiple Venn diagrams of danger. The Trump administration, of course, is not shy about their hatred of trans and nonbinary people, and is actively carrying out an effort to further marginalize and eventually eliminate this demographic in a manner that I would classify as “genocidal.”

Furthermore, JD Vance has declared that “professors are the enemies” and Trump has repeatedly stated that journalists are the “enemy of the people.” That puts a target on my back, which significantly contributed to my sense of chronic fear.

(Video taken as my plane approached Lisbon.)

At the end of last month, then, I left the US for Europe and have no plan to return. In Europe, fascist parties and politicians like the AfD (Alternative for Germany) and Marine Le Pen in France have growing influence, but they have not yet taken over their respective countries the way Trumpian fascism has in the US. It is much safer here; I am in no immediate danger.

As one person wrote on social media, what happened to Good in Minneapolis has “never ever happened in the EU, never would, [and] never will.” He continues:

If a mother of three (youngest child of age 4 or 6) got point blank shot in the head by an officer here, no matter the circumstances, no matter the reasons, no matter the driving directions, or intentions, even if she were the worst human on the planet, governments would fall, elections would be called, and the offending officer would end up serving a horrible jail sentence (and his superiors wouldn’t fare much better). … Oh, and in the EU politically mandated militias, such as ICE, are strictly illegal.

This is true: if Good’s cold-blooded murder had happened in the European Union, heads would be metaphorically rolling. In the US, though, Trump and his US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem — famous for killing her dog with a bullet to the head for being rambunctious — defended the ICE agent’s actions, essentially demanding that people ignore what’s clearly visible in videos taken of the incident: Good attempts to flee ICE, because ICE is a dangerous and unaccountable Gestapo-like militia, and in the process gets shot in the face.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Quality of Life

It’s not just greater safety that Europe offers. In virtually every category relating to quality of life, Europe is unequivocally superior to the US. In fact, most other Western countries are better than the US in just about every respect that matters. I bring this up not to boast that I managed to escape the “shithole country” in which I was born — to borrow Trump’s derogatory term for countries in Africa and elsewhere — but to emphasize that there is no reason the US couldn’t be as good as, or better than, the rest of the world. We are, after all, the wealthiest country. What’s lacking is the political will to implement commonsense social welfare programs, provide universal health care, clean up the environment, etc. It’s shameful. Our political leaders and the media apparatuses that enable them should be embarrassed.

To give you a sense of what I mean, consider the following statistics:

The US ranks 48th in life expectancy behind countries like Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Spain, Norway, France, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Portugal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, and even Puerto Rico and Kuwait. The US also ranks 53rd in infant mortality behind countries like Canada, the UK, Germany, Greece, Ireland, France, and Norway.

Yet the US has by far the highest health care costs, way above every other country. Consider that the life-saving drug Prograf, which prevents organ rejection in those who’ve had an organ transplant, costs $765 in the US whereas it costs only $12 in the UK, $21 in Australia, and $157 in France. Xanax costs $416 in the US but only $1.79 in France. And Prozac costs $1,503 in the US but only $6.33 in Finland.

Furthermore, an appendectomy amounts to roughly $48,000 in the US but only costs $4,000 in Germany. An MRI scan is about $3,000 in the US but only $283 in France. And the daily cost of a hospital bed in the US is about $6,489 but only $800 in Sweden and $934 in Australia. (From here.)

Turning to other matters, the Global Social Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum examines the opportunities people have to climb the economic ladder. The US comes in at #27 behind countries like Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Canada, and the UK. In a very real sense, it is “easier to obtain the American Dream in Europe,” to quote Politifact.

With respect to sanitation and drinking water, the Environmental Performance Index published by Yale University ranks the US #26 behind Scandinavian countries, as well as Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Austria, Japan and other countries. The US also has a relatively low overall air quality, lagging behind European countries like Denmark, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Norway, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

According to the US News and World Report, the US ranks 12th in terms of the “most well-developed public education systems.” The best systems are in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Finland, Germany, Canada, Norway, Japan, and Switzerland, among others. Similarly, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report shows that the US doesn’t have one of the top 10 best school systems in the world. The honors instead go to Japan, Barbados, New Zealand, Estonia, Ireland, Qatar, Netherlands, Singapore, Belgium, and — in the number one spot — Switzerland.

In fact, Switzerland consistently ranks as one of the best places to live and be born. One survey focusing on life expectancy, political freedoms, gender equality, government corruption, homicide rate, climate, and unemployment rate ranks Switzerland as the best place to be born. It’s followed by Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore, New Zealand, Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, Finland, Ireland, Austria, Taiwan, and Belgium, and finally the US.

According to the Mercer “Quality of Living City Ranking 2024,” which considers “factors such as political stability, health care, education, infrastructure and socio-cultural environment,” the best cities in which to live are:

1. Zurich, Switzerland

2. Vienna, Austria

3. Geneva, Switzerland

4. Copenhagen, Denmark

5. Auckland, New Zealand

6. Amsterdam, Netherlands

7. Frankfurt, Germany

8. Vancouver, Canada

9. Bern, Switzerland

10. Basal, Switzerland

US cities don’t make the top ten. Another survey, the Global Liveability Index 2025, similarly leaves out the US. According to its metrics, the best cities are:

1. Copenhagen, Denmark

2. Vienna, Austria

3. Zurich, Switzerland

4. Melbourne, Australia

5. Geneva, Switzerland

6. Sydney, Australia

7. Osaka, Japan

8. Aukland, New Zealand

9. Adelaide, Australia

10. Vancouver, Canada

Finally, the “Quality of Life” report published by the US News and World Report ranks the best countries to live in based on “access to food, housing, quality education, health care and employment, … job security, political stability, individual freedom and environmental quality.” These are the best countries on their analysis, many of which are located in Western Europe:

1. Denmark

2. Sweden

3. Switzerland

4. Norway

5. Canada

6. Finland

7. Germany

8. Australia

9. Netherlands

10. New Zealand

11. United Kingdom

12. Austria

13. Belgium

14. Japan

15. Ireland

16. France

17. Luxembourg

18. Spain

19. Iceland

20. Portugal

21. Italy

The US comes in at #22, just above Singapore, Poland, South Korea, and our geopolitical rival China, the last of which has pulled a staggering 800 million people out of poverty over the past few decades (more than twice the US population).

Additional Stats

We could also look at statistics relating to homicide rates, mass shootings, school shootings, police killings, poverty, social welfare spending, democratic institutions (the US is classified as a “flawed democracy,” although it’s quickly becoming a “competitive authoritarian” state), wealth inequality, maternity leave, vacation days per year, maternal mortality, and so on. (See the graphs below.)

In every case, the US trails behind most other Western countries. The US isn’t even one of the “best countries for starting a business,” according to a US News and World Report ranking. Beating us are countries like Thailand and China.

From here.

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Maternal mortality rankings. Rates are lower in Palestine, Lebanon, Malaysia, and 61 other countries than they are in the US. From here.

Police Insurance

To offer a personal example, when I was a PhD student in Germany, I was given 26 days off each year for vacation. If I chose not to take all of these days, they would transfer to the next year, meaning that I could have up to 52 vacation days to spend — no questions asked, to be taken whenever I want. I knew someone in Germany who took off more than 6 months to deal with a mental health problem; their company, by law, couldn’t fire them for being sick.

On another occasion, I myself had a medical scare when visiting Portugal as a tourist. I went to the nearest hospital and was provided prompt treatment for free. It’s a very strange feeling having a bunch of tests done that would have cost thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars in the US and then just ……….. walking out the front door. This has been my experience in every European country that I’ve visited.

As Bernie Sanders is constantly reminding us, in virtually all Western countries, health care is universally provided to citizens. It’s seen the same way Americans see, for example, the police: when you call 911, the operator doesn’t ask you what kind of “police insurance” you have or whether the police station nearest to your emergency falls “within network.” You don’t have to pay $500 in police insurance every month, with a $1,000 deductible that you have to pay out of pocket if someone breaks into your house and threatens your life with a gun.

Most Americans would describe a law enforcement system of this sort as absurd. Yet that’s exactly the system they have with respect to health care. Universal health care is not a radical idea.

I Am Unbelievably Privileged

So, my move out of the US was based on both a repulsion from the increasingly unsafe, scary, dangerously fascist state that the US has become as well as an attraction to what rightwing Americans would call the radical “socialist” policies of most other countries in the Global North.

The US is a great place to be if you’re very wealthy, but it’s one of the worst places to end up if you don’t have a lot of money — which I don’t. In the US, it is extremely expensive to be poor whereas in Europe, there are very few treacherous poverty traps that throw those stumbling to the ground and bury those already laying in the dirt.

I am incredibly privileged to have been able to flee the US. This is for four reasons:

1. I’m legally entitled to French citizenship. With French citizenship, I’m also an EU citizen, meaning that I can travel and live anywhere within the European Union.

2. I have a job — writing this newsletter and freelance journalism — that doesn’t require me to be in any particular place. I can be itinerant, which is my plan right now: to stay in a different town, city, or small village each month of the year. I suffer from chronic wonderlust, and feel incredibly energized when I’m exploring new places.

3. I’m white. Parts of Europe can be pretty racist, which isn’t something I have to worry about.

4. I’m single and I don’t have any kids. There’s nothing in the category of interpersonal affairs that anchors me to any specific location. I also travel light: literally everything I own right now can fit into a single suitcase and my backpack.

I don’t take for granted that I’m so privileged. Most Americans don’t have the option of moving to Europe, Canada, etc. But there are some ways to get out: for example, you can stay in Thailand for up to 60 days and Myanmar for up to 28 days as an American citizen. My understanding is that if you leave one of these countries for even a single night, the clock resets, meaning that you could bounce between them indefinitely.

The same goes for Canada: US citizens can live there for up to 6 months, and I’m told that spending a single night in the US gets you another 6 months. However, the decision ultimately depends on the border patrol agent. (Does anyone have any info about this? If so, please share it below for those who might want to escape the increasingly ominous specter of US fascism!)

My travels are also enabled by the incredibly cheap Airbnb’s available at a monthly rate in Europe. In the urban dystopia of Cleveland, I paid about $1,350 per month for a single-room apartment. Kitchen, bed, table, etc. all packed into something like 14 x 14 feet.

Yet I can get the same sized apartment along the Mediterranean, in the Alps, or on the coast of Portugal for between $600 to $700 a month (sometimes cheaper). Hence, my plan is to follow 70 F weather throughout the year, sojourning in the Alps during the summer and in Portugal or Spain during the winter. Everything, including accomodations, food, and once-a-month travel costs less than ~$20k a year. (Unfortunately, though, the dollar’s value has collapsed thanks to Trump — otherwise, I would need only about $16k or $17k.)

The dollar’s value over the past 5 years. It increased significantly during Biden’s presidency, and collapsed in 2025. I am so pissed about this!

Finally, you can get just about anywhere in Europe via public transportation and, as noted above, health care is free (or costs almost nothing). I don’t have to worry about losing all my money if I get appendicitis. Incredible.

That’s why I fled the US. The US is not safe, and the quality of life in Europe is significantly higher. (Even the vegetarian options at the grocery store are delicious and affordable!) If you find yourselves overseas, please let me know — I’d be happy to meet up at some point. :-) As always:

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the other side!

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Thanks so much to Jackie Singh for reading an earlier draft of this article. You can follow her insightful work here: