> This is utter bullshit, have you ever lived in the midwest?

Yeah I've lived across Iowa, Indiana, and eastern Pennsylvania for ~30 years. I spent a few years in NYC and I've been in DC for about a year now. Since it seems relevant, I'm also a straight white atheist guy.

I'm actually very happy the midwest works for you; there are a lot of benefits and I weirdly kind of hold out hope for it. But my guess is climate change will be very hard on it, and I don't think--outside of Illinois maybe--there's governmental competence to handle the coming challenges. But hey, what do I know.

I don't dismiss your experience, and I think one of the kind of confounding things about the US is that it is actually very good for most people, and especially good relative to almost anywhere else. I'm sensitive to the optics of criticizing a system that is way above average, and definitely aware that it's an insane privilege to be able to easily pick a country to live in.

But mostly what I'm referring to are surveys of public opinion and statistics. I'm feeling too lazy to dig any up, but google around for surveys of homophobia/racism/sexism/etc. and compare there results of say, Kansas, to a classically "blue" city like NYC. The differences are stark. Obviously racism exists in NYC, but degrees matter and degrees are what we're talking about here. Look at the rates of school shootings in the US vs. school shootings in the UK, Germany, etc. etc. Sure you can 3D print a gun, you can make acid in your kitchen. But degrees matter, and making it harder to hurt people makes it less likely people are hurt. Every study shows this. Look at the rates of maternal and infant mortality in the US vs. EU countries. Look at the rates of educational attainment, the Global Gender Gap index, etc. etc.

I do want to drill down into abortion for a second, because there's a lot of information people just don't know about it. Generally the argument goes, "OK well, if Texas outlaws it it's no big deal, you can just drive to a surrounding state". First of all, that can be a pretty long drive depending on where you live. Second, that presumes a neighboring state also hasn't outlawed abortions, or has a reasonable abortion regime--there are some restrictions that require an examination before getting an abortion, and you can't have both on the same day, so you're making multiple day-long trips. For many, many women that's practically impossible. Abortion is also not always purely elective, it's often the case that women need abortions to stay alive, or they miscarry and an abortion is simply removing the dead fetus.

The current state of abortion policy in the US is really terrifying [0], but the fact that it's happening in a country where a strong majority (60%!) support a right to an abortion honestly terrifies me more.

These differences aren't happening by accident, they're happening because the EU isn't encumbered by a moribund government and a powerful proto-fascist political party. Like, I'm glad it's easy to bike where you live, but I'm tired of Mitch McConnell trying to disenfranchise people of color so the American right can (re)build a white chauvinistic corporatist theocracy.

Which brings us to guns, my favorite least favorite topic. You're never gonna convince me that a populous armed with AR-15s and the odd SAM will be a defense against the US military, who are armed with unimaginably sophisticated weaponry and have the ability to completely strangle our society. You'll never convince me that the people who are armed (largely right-wing) will even be the ones defending us from the government (you can imagine a Trump presidency in 2024 going pretty sideways, and the pro-2A people welcoming a "change in government structure to save our country"). In no way am I reassured by the prospect of an armed resistance against a tyrannical government--that sounds like a complete failure case with global repercussions. It's an absurd position to take. The US has a staggering nuclear arsenal, space weaponry, and still leads the free world. The very idea of it collapsing to the point where it would be comparable to situations like Paris in WW2 or Chechnya is horrifying and probably precipitates a protracted period of darkness for all of humanity.

But you'll also never convince me that a violent military coup is how it'll happen. If there were some power that invaded and conquered the US, rounded up millions of LGBTQ people and people of color into forced labor camps, prisons, and psychiatric facilities where they're subjected to constant violence and sexual abuse, stole all our wealth for themselves, forced their religious beliefs on us, propagandized us through talk radio, cable news and internet news sites, and militarized our police force, we all think that'd be pretty bad. But it's also the modern Republican party so, some amount of frog boiling is happening here.

[0]: https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion