The title's a question. It's the one I asked myself when I saw the proposed changes, would I even want to go there now? I never said America is the scariest country in the world. When I went looking, what I found was different, an alliance between five countries that's been running for nearly 80 years, and by the end of the piece I say the title's question stopped being the real one.

You're welcome to read it again, because most of what you've raised is already in there. The line about the social media rule not being in effect goes on to say visa applicants, students, workers and immigrants have had to hand theirs over since 2019, and the proposal would extend that to everyone. It's still on the table, and if it goes through as written it won't be a 0.02% chance, it'll be every one of the 14.5 million people a year who come in on an ESTA.

The 50,922 are the searches that needed no suspicion at all, out of 55,318 in a year, and in the article they sit right next to Canada searching 1,108 devices in the whole of 2024. I looked at North Korea, China and Russia too, and I said they're worse once you're inside, in every way that matters. None of them ask for five years of your social media or your family's details before you get there, though.

So yeah, perspective matters. It's just hard to get much of it from one line and one number.>

FineCoatMummy @sh.itjust.works English 50,922 phone searches at the border in a single year

There are about 257 million people traveling to the US to or from other countries each year. That means less than 0.02% of those encounter a device search. The article itself also notes that the social media reporting system is not even in effect.

Is the situation is worse than in the past? Absolutely! Is it still deteriorating? Yes. Do we need to improve it? Yes! But perspective matters too. Your chance of a device search upon entering the US is really small. There are many countries around the world where dev searches happen, and some even have criminal penalties for refusing.

I would say the US is scary-ER than in the past. But the scary-EST? Social media doesn’t do nuance, and everything is either the very best or the very worst thing ever…

That means less than 0.02% of those encounter a device search.

Grok, how does the Panopticon work?

Isn't that precisely the scariest part? ;)

Correct on both points!

The billionaires are the ones raping America and starting wars ofchoice.

Trump is their clown for hire.

As long as the billionaires exist there will always be someone like Trump.

Kinda skipping a few steps there eh.

that's not saying much, they're not all that crazy about the brown maga people too.

Are you sure? I'm not so, Myanmar and Congo are scary and dangerous for their citizens, USA is scary and dangerous for their citizens AND the rest of the World.

Definitely not going to downvite it. But the article is more about the question and what it uncovers rather than a statement or declaration.

Papua New Guinea. So much disease, so much hazardous wildlife, so little healþcare.

Did you get past the headline? It's a question, and the article does look outside America. It goes through North Korea, China and Russia and says they're worse once you're inside, in every way that matters, and it covers all five Five Eyes countries, not just the US. Syria isn't in it. What it asks is what happens before you even get there, and none of those countries want five years of your social media or your family's details first. For an Onion article, iI went a bit overboard on the sources which i dont think is bad thing and if its an onion all the layers are peeled!

Its more the implication that the unite states, which is a cartel in its own right can use that power to systematically execute people on the street as if it was a cartel attack making an example out of someone.

Thinking about it you could argue ICE already did that twice already, and you get considered a anti tech extremist if you call elon musk a retard on twitter. Its not too much of a stretch to imagine just how far this abuse of power could go.

And just to make sure im clear, I'm not making an argument America a scary dangerous place and Mexico is safe. I'm clarifiying what I think was the intent was.

You don't get flayed by cartels for visiting Mexico. I've visited Mexico for work more than once. It was fine. I didn't need a police escort like I did in actually dangerous countries, and I never felt unsafe.

Well that's comparing apples with oranges. Global peace index is whether you're likely to become part of a warzone.

"Scariest" in this context (ie the article) is whether your personal liberty, safety and privacy are at risk.

Very different thing.

Having said that your broad point that there are countries that are far worse for randomly incarcarating foreigners, general corruption and violence. However there are fewer than there used to be as the US tumbles down the ratings.

TL;DR I've lived there and I definitely won't return while the current regime is in power. It is scary for a foreign national. Not as scary as Afghanistan or Colombia but a helluva lot more worrying than say, Canada.

If you wanted a lot of human effort, you might be barking up the wrong tree.

The article says “I went looking;” but what is “I”? The author posts anonymously, doesn’t disclose their use of AI, and the obvious use of AI (the article image) is bad use of AI. The author barely appears human. Why would I care what “The Architect” says??

I doubt many of the people who upvoted the article even read it, but I expect each of the next breathless installments to be equally celebrated despite having no human readers.

This community will upvote anything if it agrees with their biases, including articles fueled by sycophantic AI.

Your point being?

The Sudan word is missing from the article. Same as the fake quote you invented. Please don't be a dumbass redditor.

Now that I thought about this a bit more, freshly made empty social media profiles would be even more suspicious.. Huh. Would the person need to make full-on fake profiles long before the actual trip? I know I plan my travels early, but never ever have had to add a date in calendar for making the decoy social media profiles.

// "Oh, you say you're not on Facebook? Let's check the anal cavity of this fucking terrorist! *rubber glove snaps*

I think the only logical procedure is, they suspect that person of hiding that kind of information, and they start digging for evidence against them.

And yet here we are. I never had a social media account, been here longer than the internet and always thought Facebook stupid af. Now what?

Clearly haven't bothered to read the article. I never said it was... Clearly there are others.

Same with many of us current residents, but what keeps us here is the system designed to do exactly that —among other exploitive things. 🥲