Living the ex-pat life in the Trump era
I moved to France during President Obama's first term as President. I was proud of having elected him, but dismayed to find that upon meeting me, many French citizens immediately wanted to me to explain what had been up with George W. Bush. My nation's embarrassing, belligerent recent past followed me across the Atlantic. This is a million times worse. Last night I wanted an Aussie rules football (Australian Football League, AFL) match. During the 2.5 hour broadcast, there were no fewer than three advertisements centered around Trump jokes. Trump and his party have made us such a laughing stock they're using casual Trump jokes to sell fried chicken, among other things. The idiocy of our leadership and the cruelty of our economic and social welfare policies come up often. Yesterday at lunch, I was talking with coworkers about the interaction between cultural evolution and geography. For instance, countries as large as Australia or USA have very consistent cultures acr...