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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't even talk politics when I'm in America with my American friends, with whom I agree politically. We all understand we are aware of what is happening and we prefer to avoid doom-discussions to preserve our mental health.

I especially avoid doom-discussions with strangers, who I have to assume are informed by a cult of online misinformation. If on the random chance we agree, I'm avoiding doom-discussions.

With strangers, in another country? If I was traveling with someone who brought up politics with a stranger in a foreign country, I would abandon them.

[/quote]

Again, I doubt you travel the same way that I do.  I'm about to go on a solo trip to Latin America for a month, for example, and I'm fluent in the language.  In the past, I'd never bring up politics with anyone I'd meet.  But things are different now.  The first question anyone is going to ask you is where you are from.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm Canadian or any of that bullshit.  Nope.  I'm going to say I'm American.  And once you do that when you're abroad nowadays, you're going to hush the crowd around you.  The reaction is palpable.  Especially if you're older and white.  The assumption is that you're a Trump supporter, and it's a major turn off for 90 percent of people who don't live in the USA.

So you make clear from the outset that you hate the guy, there's a collective sigh of relief, and the conversation more often than not goes in another direction.  Sure, sometimes folks will want to continue with the political discussion, and that's fine too.  It's our patriotic duty to reassure humans who have never been to the United States that not all of us have lost our minds.

The bottom line is that pre-Trump it was much easier to avoid discussing US politics with foreigners abroad, but now you almost have to or you'll be treated as a pariah.[/quote]

I don’t think this is just a factor of HOW you are traveling but WHERE.  There are some parts of the world where bringing up politics, especially with someone you’ve just met, is considered impolite.  Surely you have enough experience to recognize that you can’t always just go running your mouth, you need to know your audience.  And many countries in Europe have their own right wing nut jobs to worry about so they are less infatuated with Trump than you might think.[/quote]

Sigh.

I don't introduce myself abroad and say "Hi, my name is X, I am American, and I hate Trump."

I'm talking about situation -- which is now way, way more common than it ever was -- where someone asks you where you're from, you say the USA, and you can read their faces.  They're thinking "MAGA" and they don't like it.  I squash that thinking like a bug every time, and never once -- never -- have I ever sensed that I was being taken as "impolite" for doing it.  To the contrary, I almost always sense immediate relief.

These are different times.  They just are.  And they require different approaches when traveling.[/quote]

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