Saw someone talking about moving that reminded me to ask this. I really want to stay in the U.S. to build socialism but sometimes I fear it is past the event horizon, that things will only get more gruesome, and I want my loved ones to live.
I have not the slightest clue where I would move to. Obviously the one we all think about sometimes is China, but I know next to nothing about the language, culture, history, values etc. and don’t know how I would adjust. It also seems it would be difficult as someone with no education or marketable job skills in respected fields.
Sometimes I think about places like Cuba because it is much more familiar to me culturally, linguistically etc. but then it seems an area like that is going to get a bad hand dealt to it with climate change.
Western countries would be the most familiar, and I do think perhaps they have a greater capacity for positive change than the U.S., but this also seems like it would be moving somewhere just 5-10 years behind collapse of America. Who’s to say which of these societies will jump ship to the new world order, if any?
Sometimes I also fear people across the world slowly (and understandably) becoming vehemently anti-USian, whether the US empire dies or clings on. Many older generations across the world seem to still think very fondly of Americans and our country, but I do not think the younger generations seem as affected by the global pro-American propaganda. Perhaps this is American cynicism to think like this, but perhaps it is not too crazy to imagine an era of people hating Americans and resenting American refugees, even if we try to play the “But I hated America too!” card.
Regardless, obviously being a refugee sucks regardless if one leaves “ahead of the curve” or not. It’s not supposed to be fun to feel coerced into leaving your home to escape doom, as many a country has experienced under American brutality.
It also seems kind of impossible because moving is so expensive, although I understand that if the situation becomes truly dire many Middle Easterners and Latin Americans in the last half century have managed to make grand treks with little to no possessions…although of course, many then end up in terrible situations.
What about you all? What are your situations, considerations, predictions, and interest regarding this topic?
hey, sidebar. I have an opportunity to visit Italy next year. I’ve never been before. Any recommendations? I know all the tourist-y places, but I’m more interested in checking out things that might be historically interesting to communists and anti-fascists. I thought about trying to check out Gramsci’s home for example.
This is in to you in response to Frippa’s response, but I didn’t want to reply to Frippa and appear to be telling them how to navigate Rome! It’s not quite an answer to what you asked, but you could avoid the mistakes I made on a brief visit, so…
I found people in Rome to be very friendly. I was a bit surprised considering it’s size. But almost everyone I met there were very happy to encourage my Italian. If you learn a few words, they will be well received.
Carefully look at the map before arriving and try to get a clear picture of the city. It’s easy to get lost – or even to take the long way round – and if a tourist only has a limited time, it wants to be spent on fun things.
IIRC Rome is still divided into districts. So work out what you can see in each district, then plan a rough route, and work out which district the locals eat at (I think it’s Trastevere in the south curve of the Tiber – check with Frippa!) because this is where you want to go for evening food.
Don’t eat near the Trevi Fountain! The prices seem reasonable per 100g, but they’ll give you a kilo and call it a normal portion! And if you ask for a large beer, you’ll get a 2l stein rather than a 500ml glass. So ask for the size in millilitres! (How did I find out? I visited the fountain, then walked for about four hours, seeing other stuff, etc, thinking I’d got far from the touristy bits, but actually I’d walked in circles, then in more circles and more circles, and ended up in a restaurant that couldn’t have been closer to the fountain. If only I had looked to my right before entering the restaurant. What a plonker. The joys of travelling before having GPS in your pocket.)
The Rome card is a waste of money unless you want to see the big sights like the Colosseum and the Via Appia (is that the right name?). You get the first two museum visits for free. But most museums are a couple of euros. It’s only a bargain for the big sights as these cost tens of euros. But as soon as I saw the queues, I noped out and saw the smaller places instead. And although it includes all public transport within the city, the public transport was (a) not too expensive and (b) hard to work out, so I just walked everywhere. Plus, the airport is outside the city limits, so the card doesn’t cover that train, and that’s the expensive one. This was years ago, though. You might want to double check what’s included.
Maybe the Roman authorities have caught up with the advanced nature of Eastern European cities who offer ‘city cards’ that are well worth it – but then, they have Soviets to thank for actually installing infrastructure like trams and trains.
If you do get a train to the airport, be careful because there are two. A fast one and a slow one. Due to my obstinance and a terrible but fortuitous translation error, I got the fast train. If my Italian had been better and I had I caught the slow train, I’d have missed my flight.
You’ll see zebra crossings in Rome. Don’t expect cars to stop. At all. You just walk on them and the cars know to drive around you. Wait for a crowd and let them be your buffer lol.
Also, you probably heard anyway, but you can drink the water in the public fountains. I think they have a label that says ‘potabile’ (potable). I got very thirsty before I trusted drinking water from public fountains, but then I realised it’s good. So take a bottle to fill up. It gets bloody hot in the summer, if that’s when you go.
100% this
All the water is drinkable by default, when there’s a “non potabile” sign it’s better not to drink that water, also ye we have a lot of public fountains
That’s a cool district, every non-tourist district has restaurants (and we have a lot of them !) most are Italian and roman cuisine (stuff like carbonara etc) But there’s also other people’s cuisines too, Eritrean is really cool
Again, 100% this
Yeeeeeeeees, everyone that can affords it excapes Rome in August
I am from Rome so I can suggest:
Via tasso, it was the HQ of the nazi SS during the brief occupation of Italy, they did some sick stuff down there, you can look it up online.
Fosse ardeatine, when the Italian partisan resistance put a bomb that killed a nazi SS company, the nazis took 10 men for every man the partisans had killed and murdered them inside of the fosse ardeatine, my grand grand father,( who was in the royal army, that then kinda disbanded in most of Italy after the armistice, on the 8th of setmeber 1943) knew a guy that died there.
The a-Catholic cimitery of Rome, if you want to put a red flower on Gramsci’s grave
Edit: also you know the drill, avoid tourist places and only go in local restaurants, the food is cheaper and better, if you know a bit of Italian it’s best but hey, the magics of cultural imperialism, we speak English too
Wish I had this guide on my visit!