Expats Share Their American Trauma After Living Abroad

It's very difficult for Americans who've never left the country or lived outside the country to understand just how insane this country is. I mean, we kind of know and we on this network remind everyone that it doesn't have to be this way, that people don't live like this. But now, Americans living abroad, American expats in different countries are taking to take talk to air all of

the ways that where they live is incredibly different and all the ways that almost PTSD or remnants of what it was like to live in the United States. They're caring that with them into their new home lands. So let's first start with the video that started this trend back in 2021. Take a look. When someone opened fire on a bunch of concert goers and it was

very tragic news, but that day I also went to the movies. So I was already in a kind of weird mental state. And when I left the movies, I got on the tram again in Warsaw and I saw this guy kind of being sketchy and acting weird in the last seat. I like, I kept eyeing him the whole time and he had his jacket open and

he was holding something inside. He was hiding it. And I thought my first American thought was it's a gun or a knife or some kind of weapon and I need to move away as soon as possible. So I kept looking at him the whole ride. And then he takes it out and it was a beer can. He was sipping it and hiding it during the tram

ride. That's what happens in Poland, not guns, not knives. And I started crying and laughing at the same time because that's when I realized, wow, that's messed up. Right. That's messed up. She immediately feared for her life. Just guys sipping on a beer. I didn't think that's necessarily what he was going to reveal out of his jacket. Have you been on public transportation in the United

States? Sometimes something worse, a lot worse than beer. But similar experience to an American living in Australia in terms of their fear of gun violence, take a look. One of my first couple of weeks here, it was May of 2023. And I don't know why exactly, but some local event thing was shooting off fireworks. You know, in the distance I used to be. If you're an

American, you sit up straight, you start looking around and you wait to hear more. Do you hear more fireworks? Or do you hear screams? Because that sound is either gunfire or fireworks. And I realized that that conditioning in the sea, it still happens. So there he is, the next patent, Australia, getting pretty emotional about the fact that he was thinking that these could be gun shots,

I mean, I'm also thinking of John veterans, American vets, who've been a war, who are also, you know, sort of traumatized, of course, by that and have PTSD. And so when they hear fireworks are also thinking, you know, what is this, is this, are these bombs? Are these guns? Is it gunshots? And so, etc. So it's not just gun violence though, but thoughts on that. Yeah,

look, it's easy to forget, you know, we report on a lot of these mass shootings at schools and all that stuff at bars, at Vegas, at concerts, churches everywhere. And you know, eventually the media moves on. But it leaves an entire community, the direct people who are affected by it, those who are worried that they're going to get a call that a loved one is in

danger. And those things are scattered across the country and ever growing list of those sorts of experiences. And I love that the guy made the video, and it's so raw, I can only imagine how he would be attacked by conservatives for daring to care about needless violence. Like the sort of conservatives who believe that they're the ones who really get what's going on, everyone else is

sheep, but they have been lulled into not caring about constant massacres. Like they have accepted that these massacres happen. They don't believe that anything should be done about it. And they think that that is the same response to this bloodshed. Yeah, and the fact that their countries have been issued, issuing travel warnings to the United States because of the amount of gun violence that we have.

We're not making, I mean, that's just insane. We're not making this up as not in our heads. And part of, look, I actually think that gun violence is one of a very good reason to leave this country. A very good reason, as the parent of a little baby who's going to grow up and go to school, like, no, I don't want that. And you could say,

oh, you live in a blue state, you can say they're stronger gun laws. That's not necessarily true. That's not going to save you. People like we have open borders. I'd like a wall between states that have lacks gun laws and my state, but that's not going to happen. So it goes beyond just gun violence. Here is, this is a great, great account from someone who's living

in the UK and talking about ambulances and her hesitancy to call an ambulance. Take a look. So I moved to the UK about 10 years ago for University and literally in my very first night there, I was fresh off the plane. It was freshers night, which is like the whole first week of University in the UK. You like go out drinking at like different bars. Whatever.

And we went out drinking and this one girl that I was with got so drunk that on the way back home to our student accommodation, she was like, oh, I need to sit down and she sat down and she just like passed out and we could not wake her up. Like, the girl was just like dead to the world. It seemed like. And immediately the people

I was with was like, we need to call an ambulance. And being an American, I was like, we cannot call an ambulance. Like, I had just met this girl. I had no idea if she could afford an ambulance. They called an ambulance. The ambulance came, they like checked her out. Like she was, you know, alive or whatever and they took her to the hospital. And like,

they brought me home. They sat me down and they were like, what are you freaking out about? And I explained what I was doing. I was so worried about. And they were like, ambulances are free. Hospitals are free. What is wrong with you? And like, I hadn't realized until that point that health care in the UK was completely free. That's just devastating to me. I mean,

I, I can't say that I have worried about calling 911 or an ambulance on somebody. I mean, I think I have that fair, I would say I'd have that privilege where I would call an ambulance. I would call like the fire department or whatever hospital. But the fact that that was her immediate reaction. I mean, maybe a John, my first reaction would be let's get an

harder because you knew that that would financially break you if you needed to call that. And that's such a weird way to live. And again, it's another thing that we have just been trained to accept as normal that other advanced countries can do better. But we so many of us have no expectation that our country should ever be as good as them. Yeah, there's two more.

But this one I really, really like. So here is someone talking about the criminal justice system. I'm just like a fond little like, you know, thought exercise. I think a lot of Americans, we all engage in take a look. Most American sentence I've ever heard. And I totally didn't get why I had no concept that the death penalty just like didn't know, like did not exist

anymore other places. Yeah, except haven't you seen the Green Mile come on people Oscar nominated. Probably a lot of winners as well. Anyway, yeah, the last meal on death row is very more, at least specific to the United States. Very specific. But the idea of a last meal on earth. That I think everyone is thought about. Yeah, I do feel like I get there. They're not

having to think about incarceration. The way that we do and capital punishment all that. But like, for your mind creatively, like, you've never thought about the last whatever you would do. There are other ways to die than lethal injection. Start to plan ahead. You never know. No, but it is true though. It's like an incredible like, you do get a last meal. Like that's something that,

you know, people who are about to be put to death by the state. Which again, what are we one of three countries that still does this like Iran. Some like Saudi Arabia, I think, and maybe that's about it. Maybe one of like six or maybe I forgot. But what kind of amazing that they still do that. I know that in Texas, they tried to like sit

early limit that last year. But like considering how easy it is for public and politicians to say, you know, prisoners are cockroaches. They don't deserve any of your empathy. It's weird that they still give them any kind of special meal. I mean, let's not even get started like on the entire like, oh, remember, you know, the idea that like, this is my favorite that like. The

fetus it or that that zygotes can feel pain, right? Before like death, you know, and it's just like, what about the actual people? You're putting to death in the most horrific ways who definitely absolutely can feel the pain of a lethal injection. No, they don't care. My thoughts on this, John, are that when I was living in Argentina, because I have to mention I was living

in Argentina. I thought it was fascinating that when we would protest, so I'd go to like different street marches, there were no cops. Now it was because of the president who was in power at the time, who was more left leaning. But the because there had been so much police brutality against protesters in years prior, they had a no police at protesters rule. They were around,

but they were not swarming us, coordinating us. Like we would stop traffic, like protests and strikes regularly stop traffic in Buenos Aires. And they would allow to do, be allowed to do that because there was like this, we're not going to crack skulls policy. And that was like, fascinating. I've never felt more free being part of a protest than when I was there in Argentina. To

say nothing of like so many things like last minute plans, your life not being based around your work in other countries, people are so much chiller. Like it's not, you never open a conversation with, hey, what do you do? It's like, what do you do? What do you mean I breathe air, I eat food, get off my sack. Yeah, I've never had a problem with that.

I think a person's like, chosen career is a big part of their life. I don't think it has to be unhealthy. But yeah, it's been forever since I spent significant time abroad, so it's hard for me to even remember. But yeah, the food culture, very different, obviously work life balance, very different. There's a lot of bad stuff about like TikTok and everything, but I like this

trend. I love, I mean, my latest thing is like moms and dads who are raising kids abroad, and they're comparing how like baby friendly and kid friendly, other countries are compared to this country. And I'm like, thank you. Yes, there should be beer in the park. Hello. But I also think it's really interesting to like Americans, do you think that like Trump voters know we're not

the greatest country? Do you think like deep down they know, or they've been trained to like the trash and the violence and the awfulness and the sickness and the expensive ambulance rides? Because it's like they've been told that if they criticize it or that they are suddenly like they're a traitor. Yeah, I think that there's definitely a lot of things to do. Yeah, I think that

there's definitely a part of that. I mean, look, obviously they will criticize America when a Democrat is in charge. So there are things that they could identify that are bad. But it's also, we've probably talked about this. There was an old Al Franken book where, I think it was Al Franken, where he talked about love for your country and how liberals and conservatives do it different.

And he used an analogy to like your mom having like a drinking problem. Like a lib loves their mom. So they do an intervention. Try to help her with her problem. A conservative loves their mom by saying, how dare you say my mom has a problem. Like it is a problem. You should do something about it. I think that they would identify those things, but they

also, deep, they love the idea that basically conservatives love anything that makes them automatically superior without effort. And the fact that you were born into the best country in the world, they love the idea of that. They don't want to give up that concept. And I think they are being told that they to embrace the trash. They're like, nope, that's just part of it. It's part

of our freedoms, all those dead children and all the mass shootings, that's just part of our freedoms. And it's just like, is it though? Is it all worth it when the fireworks and the pigs butts get served on July 4th? Is it? Because that's like the one moment where I'm like, yeah, America, because I like fireworks. I'm like, oh, that's cool. And then it goes back

to like, we could be so much better. But I like to run before I lay with their little bit of control. Thanks for watching the Young Turks. Really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You got emojis of me, Anna, John, JR. So those are super fun. But you also get

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