Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

Absolutely, it’s what you want out of life.

What I want can’t be obtained in NYC where lots is in walking distance and there is a great public transport system. We used to live in such a place (San Francisco). Wife is from NYC area. We decided we wanted calmness, serenity. Low stress. And our hobbies. And these can’t be obtained from the house I was in in Dublin. (Or any place I could likely afford in Dublin, for that matter). I have a low-stress life. I’m currently typing this sitting on the back porch of my home, sipping coffee next to the wife listening to the waterfall going into my pool in the 50x50m back yard, and contemplating where I’m going to lay the tracks for the garden railroad. I might do a HO one as well, we are talking about installing a new floor above the cars. (Garage has a 16’ ceiling). Wife is excited that the hummingbirds are back at their feeder (They migrated away for the winter). She got a Birdbuddy for Christmas, gets great enjoyment out of watching the local backyard avians (which includes a good sized hawk) on her ‘phone app. I live in the city limits, the city has a population of 2mn. I took this photo from my front door.

It’s just plain nice here. My parents have a flat in Vienna. Beautiful city. Very walkable, quick train ride to other beautiful cities like Prague and Budapest. I love visiting it. I have no desire to live there. Different type of nice.

I live in a UN City of Gastronomy. I have an airport 12 miles away where my record thus far is 28 minutes from sitting in my garage to sitting in my seat on a 737, it’s no harder for me to get to a change of scenery than for you in Ireland. (I average 12 trips a year, with a month’s vacation time. We love to travel, and the airport helps)

I do need a car to get to the park and ride public transportation, which is three miles away (6-7 minutes), has free parking and the express bus costing $2.60 has two stops: Airport and downtown, which is very pretty and walkable. The bus does the 21 miles downtown where I we can have dinner on the Riverwalk in a scheduled 35 minutes. But sure, there is less culture here than a cup of yoghurt, apparently. Despite having a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I can drive with the roof down in January, just enjoying the sunshine (not every day in January, granted, but not unusually). Wife and I both enjoy driving for the sake of driving, it’s not only a form of transportation, and the cars are affordable to run. My annual registration is $55 for a German V8. Three hours in one of said cars gets us to Galveston and a Caribbean cruise. Not sure the Rosslare ferry is as nice.

Believe it or not, I don’t walk around in fear of getting gunned down, though I fully accept that the US has a gun violence problem. Last time the kid had to go to the ER (hurt himself in martial arts class), the wait was five minutes. And I’m not bankrupt as a result of it, or the time he went due to breathing issues a few months earlier. I am irked that I can’t seem to find the World Cup in English, due to paywalls in local streaming, but it’s OK: My seven year old speaks fluent Spanish because the local (free) public school system offers his education in Spanish in an immersion program. The (free) school bus picks him up from our front door, granted at an ungodly hour because for some reason primary school kicks off at 0730. The only catch is he’s learning a Mexican dialect, whilst mom speaks in Puerto Rican.

I had looked at what I was earning in Blanchardstown, looked at what seemed to be my future over the next ten years, and decided to move. I have absolutely zero regrets about moving, just as you apparently have zero regrets about staying where you are.

My experience is not universal. There are those who, as Podge has observed, are worse off than their counterparts in Europe. But I am no oligarch either. I’m just an American who landed in the country 26 years ago with $1,500 in his pocket (and a credit card with a $2,500 limit) with no job lined up.

I submit you are out of line saying that some place you refuse to even visit is a place worthy of scorn. Some of us here actually like it here and whilst acknowledging many of the downsides you observe are true, also still think we are better off overall. If you don't want to live here, fine. It's what's important to you. But to say it's not a good life is not on.

And to be fair, this problem isn’t unique to foreigners. CNN yesterday had a reporter comment about how the South was going all-in on welcoming Freddy, in a way which wasn’t expected. It hasn’t gone over well.

https://x.com/alexchristy17/status/2065462500670222400

Perhaps if said reporter had actually arsed himself to drive around the South the same way Freddy is doing, he might have had a reasonable expectation of what folks down there are like.