shark_phenomenon

Autistic guy here and sorry for the political rant. There is a lot of intense and horrific things happening all over the world like the recent war with Iran. But let me say this. If you voted for Trump and your friends and family cut you off because of it, then I do not feel any sympathy for you.

Especially if you have a loved one who is neurodivergent or is special needs. The amount of grief and hopelessness this administration is bringing to thousands, if not millions, of families in the USA is indefensible. Families have been torn apart because of his draconian policies towards immigration. Legal immigrants and regular tourists are being jailed because they committed a minor infraction. Education and social safety programs are being gutted, while the ultra-wealthy keep getting richer and richer.

Canada, Australia and Europe, which we have seen as friends for the previous couple decades, are moving away from the USA after Trump's annexation threats of Canada and withdrawing from several agreements. And I don't fault them for boycotting the USA as there are other friendlier countries to travel to and buy products from. Compared to Europe or Asia, the only good things we have going for us here are the universities and the national parks. Yet Trump and most of his cabinet want to dismantle the national park system and remove all federal funding from these universities. I'm not sad that Canadians and Europeans (and Australians) are boycotting the USA, and at this point, I would happily boycott the USA as well if I didn't live here. I'm sad because I really enjoy talking to international people. Plus many of these cultural ties between certain states and certain provinces (like BC and the NW USA, or Quebec and the Maritimes with New England) have been severely damaged and will be very difficult to repair. What makes traveling fun for me is having fun conversations with international people from all over the world.

All of this to make the USA safer?! Really?!

Now that Roe v. Wade has ben overturned and many states are implementing harsh laws preventing women from getting abortions, the USA will very likely its own Mahsa Amini. And when that happens and another wave of nationwide protests happen, Laken Riley will really be turning in her grave when she finds out her death was used for far-right authoritarian policies to dismantle healthcare for millions of women.

Safer from school shootings and gun violence since Republicans want to ease all gun restrictions? Safer from diseases since there is an anti-vax skeptic who is the secretary of the US health and human services and wants to remove all vaccine requirements? Out of fear that vaccines cause Autism which has been debunked countless times by countless scientists? Safer from pollution now that several environmental regulations have been eased? Safer for plane travel now that majority of the FAA has been fired? Safer traveling out of the country because American citizens (who even have Global Entry) are being put into waiting rooms for hours.

You voted for him to lower the cost of groceries and gas prices?! How is $2.80 per gallon of gas expensive, unless you casually drive a large pickup truck? Due to the tariffs and now the war in Iran, gas and gadgets are going to become A LOT more expensive. People in Oklahoma are going to be in for a very nasty shock when they are suddenly paying Massachusetts prices for utilities and food in a matter of time, unless the entire world can forgive the USA at this point.

If you voted for Trump in 2016, I would still think you have a good heart, even if our political opinions are different. If you voted for Trump in 2024 after Trump proved to the entire world that he has no respect for his political opponents, the constitution and law by putting members of the entire US cabinet in danger on 6 Jan 21, then I don't think you have a good heart and you deserve to be ostracized.

This is why I have such a heard time sympathizing with those who lost friends and family connections because they would rather die of heart failure or cancer than have a well-qualified woman be president, and instead sympathize with those that did cut off friends and family if they voted for Orange Man. I hope everyone who voted for Orange Man will financially suffer. Because we don't have a difference in political opinions. We have a difference in morality and ethics.

I apologize if I sound like one of those typical “loudmouthed” Americans here. I’m Autistic and planning to visit Vancouver Island for my 30th birthday trip with my family this July because I want to visit Canada and help support Canada with my tourist dollars (Elbows Up!) and still support that Pacific Northwest connection. Canada for the most part is an incredibly safe and friendly travel destination. I am purposefully choosing to visit Vancouver Island over anywhere in the States. For me, British Columbia feels extremely similar to the US West Coast... minus all the anti-intellectual, anti-science and religious fundamentalist people of course. I might not be able to buy many Canadian-based products here in the States, but traveling to Canada is a fantastic way for me to make a great contribution to the Buy Canadian movement, “help” support our northern neighbors against our horrendous government, and protest against "American Exceptionalism".

I am coming from Washington state. We have so many cultural and geopolitical similarities. When I visited the “big” Vancouver city back in 2018, most of the locals were incredibly friendly and I had so many wonderful conversations. Unfortunately with our current government as well as a sizable portion of the American people who are completely out of touch with the rest of the world, majority of Canadians are boycotting most US products and all travel to the USA. And let’s be real, we deserve it after all the sh1t Trump and many of his supporters are saying about your awesome country! Unless an economic catastrophe happens, most Americans who still support Trump will never learn. They will continue to think that their country is the best in the world. The worst part about all this is that even after Trump is gone, the damage has already been done. Majority of Canadians will view the USA as an acquaintance and not a good friend. Growing up as a kid in the Portland area, I remember that many of the most popular and well-liked kids in my school were Canadian immigrants from the Greater Vancouver area. Nowadays, it makes perfect sense that people in BC are canceling all their Washington state trips while opting for much more friendlier places such as the UK, Portugal, Netherlands, France, Japan and even Mexico.

With all of this being said, how are regular American tourists and especially tourists from the northwest USA viewed here in BC in general? Especially Americans who spend money on Canadian businesses and stay in hotels or regular B&Bs while avoiding Airbnbs at all costs? I am planning to visit Vancouver Island with my immediate family. We plan to stay for 3 days and drive all the way to Sproat Lake and do some hiking and sightseeing before coming back to Victoria and catching a ferry back to Port Angeles. I wished we could go all the way to Tofino and Ucluelet, but all the lodging situation there is precarious during the peak season. We’re exploring Victoria and some of the popular nature sports in the southern and central parts of the island.

Sorry if I sound like one of those "loudmouthed" Americans here. I'm planning to visit Vancouver Island for my 30th birthday trip this July because I want to visit Canada and help support Canada with my tourist dollars (Elbows Up!) and still support that Pacific Northwest connection. I am purposefully choosing to visit Vancouver Island over anywhere in the States. For me, British Columbia feels almost the same as the US West Coast minus all the anti-intellectual, anti-science and religious fundamentalist people. I might not be able to buy many Canadian-based products here in the States, but traveling to Canada is a fantastic way for me to make a great contribution to the Buy Canadian movement and "help" support our northern neighbors against our horrendous government.

I am coming from Washington state. We have so many cultural and geopolitical similarities. When I visited the "big" Vancouver city back in 2018, most of the locals were very friendly and I had so many wonderful conversations. Unfortunately with our current government as well as a sizable portion of the American people who are completely out of touch with the rest of the world, majority Canadians are boycotting traveling to the USA. Let's be real, we deserve it after all the sh1t Trump and many of his supporters are saying about your awesome country! Unless an economic catastrophe happens, most Americans who still support Trump will never learn. They will continue to think that their country is the best in the world. The worst part about all this is that even after Trump is gone, the damage has already been done. Majority of Canadians will just view the USA as a distant acquaintance. Growing up as a kid, some of the most popular and well-liked kids in my school were Canadian immigrants from the Greater Vancouver area. It makes perfect sense that people in BC are canceling all their Washington state trips while opting for much more friendlier places such as the UK, Portugal, Netherlands, France, Japan and even Mexico.

With all of this being said, how are regular American tourists and especially tourists from the northwest USA viewed here and in Vancouver Island in general? Especially Americans who spend money on Canadian businesses and stay in hotels or traditional B&Bs while avoiding Airbnbs? I am planning to visit Victoria and the rest of your incredible island with my immediate family. We plan to stay for 3 days and drive all the way to Sproat Lake and do some hiking and sightseeing before coming back to Victoria and catching a ferry back to Port Angeles. I wished we could go all the way to Tofino and Ucluelet, but all the lodging situation there is precarious during the peak season. We're exploring Victoria and some of the popular nature sports in the southern and central island.

EDIT: Fixed some wording and typos.

Bit of a long post here.

I am an 29 year old Autistic guy from the northwest USA who started developing a serious addiction to Instagram and TikTok during the COVID pandemic. It got worse around 2022 when I lost my job. TikTok, like Reddit, does have lots of very informational and interesting content on there and I enjoyed watching lots of travel videos as well as many math and science related videos. What made TikTok a very attractive platform for younger Americans was how it tapped into a niche market very well. TikTok was mainly good for short form video content and especially videos that were under a minute. There were lots of interesting information on TikTok and interesting features that made it much more interesting to use compared to Reddit. Since TikTok is a very international platform, we could see lots of news and travel content from all over the world. I loved watching travel and international videos on TikTok However even those “educational” travel videos can become toxic as it’s mainly travel influencers who travel all over the world to visit nice places and make give us FOMO. In reality, they most likely come from wealthy families, have an abnormally high carbon footprint flying to all sorts of different places, and likely staying in Airbnbs instead of hotels to save up on any accommodation costs.

Unfortunately like Twitter and even Reddit, TikTok does have some major problems when it comes to toxicity and trolling. Especially if users are relatively anonymous by having some obscure username and profile picture. Most of these problems started when I got into some problems with some younger women on TikTok I didn’t know but made me very angry for some reasons. I made some nasty messages about them until one of them called me out. Thinking about it now, I very much regret it now and I wished I could apologize. After this, I’ve been contemplating about deleting TikTok. I already uninstalled Instagram but I still don’t want to delete it completely as I have lots of great material on there from the past.

TikTok, and social media in general, has became a massive scourge for younger people. It has made marginalized men significantly more misogynistic and chauvinistic. It has made marginalized CIS heterosexual people significantly more homophobic and extremely transphobic. It has made people in general much more racist towards people of other ethnic and racial backgrounds, and much more bigoted towards people of other religions.

Nowadays, TikTok has suddenly became an extremely vile place for anyone who is Indian. Many of these incredibly racist and hateful comments are being made by non-White people of color and sometimes Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who share the same racial background as us. TikTok a Chinese social media giant that was banned in India for some bizarre reasons, but this means that India has become the punching bag for jokes. I don’t mean playful jokes. I mean genuinely disgusting and racist comments. I am of Indian-origin (born to Indian immigrant parents) and right now there is a conflict going on with India and Pakistan. On one video, there is a comment made by an anonymous user that has over 3,000 likes that said “I hope Pakistan nukes the sh** out of India and cleans the entire world of this plague!” On another video, another comment with almost 50,000 likes said “The smelliest war in the world!” India has a myriad of problems, especially when it comes to public safety and corruption. However after reading some of these comments, I am ready to pull the plug on my TikTok account and say “Bye Bye” to TikTok forever. I hate how Google also uses TikTok for many videos as well.

I am an autistic 29 year old guy who started developing a serious addiction to Instagram and TikTok during the COVID pandemic. It got worse around 2022 when I lost my job. TikTok, like Reddit, does have lots of very informational and interesting content on there and I enjoyed watching lots of travel videos as well as many math and science related videos. However even those “educational” travel videos can become toxic as it’s mainly travel influencers who travel all over the world to visit nice places and make give us FOMO. In reality, they most likely come from wealthy families, have an abnormally high carbon footprint flying to all sorts of different places, and likely staying in cheap Airbnbs instead of hotels.

Most of these problems started when I got into some problems with some younger women on TikTok I didn’t know but made me very angry for some reasons. I made some nasty messages about them until one of them called me out. Thinking about it now, I very much regret it now and I wished I could apologize. After this, I’ve been contemplating about deleting TikTok. I already uninstalled Instagram but I still don’t want to delete it completely as I have lots of great material on there from the past.

TikTok, and social media in general, has became a massive scourge for younger people. It has made marginalized men more misogynistic and chauvinistic. It has made marginalized CIS heterosexual people more homophobic and extremely transphobic. It has made people in general much more racist towards other ethnicities.

Nowadays, TikTok has suddenly became an extremely vile place for anyone who is Indian. It’s a Chinese social media giant that was banned in India for some bizarre reasons, but this means that India has become the punching bag for jokes. I don’t mean playful jokes. I mean genuinely disgusting and racist comments I am of Indian-origin (born to Indian immigrant parents) and right now there is a conflict going on with India and Pakistan. On one video, there is a comment made by an anonymous user that has over 3,000 likes that said “I hope Pakistan nukes the sh** out of India and cleans the entire world of this plague!” On another video, another comment with over 10,000 likes said “The smelliest war in the world!” India has a myriad of problems, especially when it comes to public safety and corruption. However after reading some of these comments, I am ready to pull the plug on my TikTok account and say “Bye Bye” to TikTok forever.

I am an autistic 29 year old guy who started developing a serious addiction to Instagram and TikTok during the COVID pandemic. It got worse around 2022 when I lost my job. TikTok, like Reddit, does have lots of very informational and interesting content on there and I enjoyed watching lots of travel videos as well as many math and science related videos. However even those "educational" travel videos can become toxic as it's mainly travel influencers who travel all over the world to visit nice places and make give us FOMO. In reality, they most likely come from wealthy families, have an abnormally high carbon footprint flying to all sorts of different places, and likely staying in cheap Airbnbs instead of hotels.

It started when I got into some problems with some younger women on TikTok I didn't know but made me very angry for some reasons. I made some nasty messages about them until one of them called me out. Thinking about it now, I very much regret it now and I wished I could apologize. After this, I've been contemplating about deleting TikTok. I already uninstalled Instagram but I still don't want to delete it completely as I have lots of great material on there from the past.

TikTok, and social media in general, has became a massive scourge for younger people. It has made marginalized men more misogynistic and chauvinistic. It has made marginalized CIS heterosexual people more homophobic and extremely transphobic. It has made people in general much more racist towards other ethnicities.

Nowadays, TikTok has suddenly became an extremely vile place for anyone who is Indian. It's a Chinese social media giant that was banned in India for some bizarre reasons, but this means that India has become the punching bag for jokes. I don't mean playful jokes. I mean genuinely disgusting and racist comments I am of Indian-origin (born to Indian immigrant parents) and right now there is a conflict going on with India and Pakistan. On one video, there is a comment made by an anonymous user that has over 3,000 likes that said "I hope Pakistan nukes the sh** out of India and cleans the entire world of this plague!" On another video, another comment with over 10,000 likes said "The smelliest war in the world!" India has a myriad of problems, especially when it comes to public safety and corruption. However after reading some of these comments, I am ready to pull the plug on my TikTok account and say "Bye Bye" to TikTok forever.

I'm an Autistic 29 year old guy who can do everything normally, but I can really struggle with finding a job and keeping a job. Hearing what RFK Jr. had to say about the Autistic community, we need to show up on the streets to show that we can stand up on our own have our voices be heard loud and clear. The Trump admin wants to make it sound like they have good intentions for us, but that is not the case! We already live difficult lives fitting into society as we can do just about everything by ourselves but still be socially different. It's not supposed to be a curse, but it is. I didn't go for the April 5th or April 19th protests. I also feel left out not attending any of the BLM protests back in 2020 while all my other family members got to attend one. I live in Portland, a very politically active city.

I visited your awesome city in February of this year. Despite the Boston stereotypes, I found the people very outgoing and friendly. I'm from Portland where I wanted to explore the NE USA since I love train travel and walkable cities. During my travels in Boston, I carefully chose to stay in an Airbnb room near MIT since hotel prices can be absurdly expensive and I wanted to be ethical. From there, I walked across the Longfellow Bridge to Back Bay and made my way to Beacon Hill where I checked out Quincy Market, Newbury Street and Seaport.

I hoped to escape the dark and dreary PNW weather in exchange for colder but much more sunnier weather. Little did I know that this winter would be a difficult one. It snowed on my first day Temperatures hovered around 22°F (-6°C), but the lack of wind and dry sunny weather made it feel similar to a dreary 40°F (4°C) day back home.

The old-world British architecture and layout made the city feel very vibrant and inviting, even in the difficult winter months. I was impressed seeing so many people outside and enjoying the vibrant ambiance on Newbury Street. Thank you Boston!