British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend • Hacker News Board

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#91

Post by hnarn » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:40 AM UTC

golergka wrote: post #67

hnarn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who, like you, was born in Europe, I feel like half of those points are open for debate and the other half are nonsensical. Are you saying that the nation that is the home of the Flint water crisis and has a weaker Environmental Protection Agency than ever is something you move to in order to get "cleaner air and water"? What do you mean when you say "diversity"? Have you been to the mid west? There are "u…

> I doubt that "friendliness" is really something you see drastic differences in around the globe So, you have never been to Eastern Europe or CIS countries.

Does your definition or "friendliness" assume that you speak the local language? Because if the answer is yes, I have no doubt you can find equally friendly (and rude) people in Eastern Europe as you can in Beijing, London, Cairo or New York. You may have a different opinion but I believe that there is a basic level of humanity anywhere in the world, and that this level often has an inverse correlation with material wealth.[1] That being said, if you can't use mutually intelligible words for things, people tend to become a bit reserved. That's something that's true everywhere in the world.

If you assume an English speaker traveling around, I would argue it's not a fair comparison to equate the friendliness of a stranger in Russia with the friendliness of a stranger in the United States, for example -- not only because of pure language reasons, but also for simple reasons of historical, educational, and cultural context. Not that finding a rude American is hard, mind you. I'm speaking from experience as an ESL speaker who has been there several times :-)

(But, to answer your question, no, I have unfortunately not been to EE/CIS -- but I have been to China, which I think is a strong contender.)

[1]: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/save/why-poor-pe...

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#92

Post by gambiting » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:40 AM UTC

neverminder wrote: post #68

gambiting wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to undermine your point, but the entire visa-granting process is based on a pre-crime action. I'm unlucky to be from a country that still requires visas to the US(Poland - despite the fact that our government is literally crawling up the ass of the American government and participating in every single conflict America engages in for no reason other than to say we are great friends), and yeah, basically to be allo…

It is interesting that Poland looks to be the only EU country that is not on the list of US Visa Waiver program - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#/media/Fil...

Good quote:

"The Adjusted Refusal Rate is based on the refusal rate of B visa applications. B visas are adjudicated based on applicant interviews; the interviews generally last between 60 and 90 seconds.[20] Due to time constraints, adjudicators profile applicants.[20] Certain demographics, such as young adults, those who are single and/or unemployed, almost never receive visas.[20] Adjudicators are evaluated on how fast they carry out interviews, not the quality of adjudication decisions.[21] The validity of B visa decisions is not evaluated."

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#93

Post by hnarn » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:45 AM UTC

avocado4 wrote: post #63

hnarn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who, like you, was born in Europe, I feel like half of those points are open for debate and the other half are nonsensical. Are you saying that the nation that is the home of the Flint water crisis and has a weaker Environmental Protection Agency than ever is something you move to in order to get "cleaner air and water"? What do you mean when you say "diversity"? Have you been to the mid west? There are "u…

http://maps.who.int/airpollution/

In the zoomed out view shown by default the air quality is visualized as almost identical in Europe and the U.S. so I'm not sure what you're trying to say. I'd also encourage you to think about the correlation between air quality and population density -- compare the Scandinavian countries for example with the large swaths of land in the U.S. that have excellent air quality: they likely have one thing in common which is the amount of people that actually live there.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#94

Post by n4r9 » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:47 AM UTC

burfog wrote: post #78

Aromasin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree if this were most other countries - but the man was British. The freedoms we get here, disregarding gun and drug law, are the same in my eyes. The only reasons I'd be able to think of moving there would be if I was keen on a big city life that doesn't == London, if I was looking to work for a FAANG company, or as in the case of the article, for a girlfriend. I feel much more free travelling and living in ma…

In your country, a guy got in trouble with the law for making a comedy video with a little dog saluting Hitler. You literally can't take a joke. Reporting on court proceedings can get you arrested. Rude comments made on the internet, not even involving actionable threats, can get you arrested. Orwell was British, but "Freedom is slavery" was supposed to be fiction. It was not written as an instruction manual. You've…

Your examples are at least semi-valid except for this one:

> Reporting on court proceedings can get you arrested.

I assume you're referring to the case of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He was charged with contempt of court for violating a blanket ban on broadcasting of the proceedings of a specific trial. The ban was imposed by the judge as it was "necessary for avoiding a substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice in these proceedings".

Does your adherence to freedom trump the right to have a fair trial?

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#95

Post by dhkxh » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

no1youknowz wrote: post #46

Nextgrid wrote: post #12

Just wondering as to why people even bother with the US at all? What does the US give you that UK doesn’t, besides a fucked up government (even more so than the UK - see who’s in charge of the FCC or the tax filing situation), crazy & unreasonable immigration policies, etc? This won’t change as long as people accept it. But if tomorrow tourism & business travel slows down to a crawl because of this you can bet you’ll…

Let me make a list: - Better TV. - Much Better Food. - Higher paying jobs. - Bigger cars, bigger roads. - Second Amendment. - First Amendment. - Lower Taxes (income and sales). - Ability to not talk to the Police and not have that used against you. - More likely to succeed if you start a business. Shark Tank > Dragons Den UK. - More likely to get funding if you decide to get an Angel / VC and higher amounts with lowe…

This list is so ridiculous that I can't bring myself to do a point-by-point rebuttal.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#96

Post by S4M » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:54 AM UTC

avocado4 wrote: post #29

kaisn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be joking or have never left the US for more than a few days.

I was born and lived most of my life in Europe.

Actually no European would say that, it would be (for example) "I was born in France and lived there, but also in Germany and Portugal".

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#97

Post by akmarinov » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:56 AM UTC

Tsubasachan wrote: post #11

Should have used WeChat. On a Huawei phone.

They can detain you indefinitely until you give up your password, so it doesn’t matter.

There are no laws at the border, even the constitution doesn’t apply for US citizens there.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#98

Post by foldingmoney » Wed, May 22, 2019, 10:59 AM UTC

zaarn wrote: post #57

foldingmoney wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, 'villages of people with wildly different customs and traditions going back 1500-2000 years' is basically the opposite of what's meant by 'diversity' today, which is a high population of newly arrived immigrants. The former exists precisely because people historically didn't mingle much.

The diversity of the US is largely imported, througout it's history starting from the first colonists, the US didn't have that much time to create it's own, cultural diversity to the extend that europe has yet. I don't think most people would qualify diversity as "lots of newly arrived immigrants", even those who champion diversity, they'll likely get closer to "people from lots of different life experiences".

I think the term is generally used to refer to a melting pot of cultures as opposed to a bunch of adjacent monocultures.

I'm not passing judgement on either.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#99

Post by n4r9 » Wed, May 22, 2019, 11:02 AM UTC

no1youknowz wrote: post #46

Nextgrid wrote: post #12

Just wondering as to why people even bother with the US at all? What does the US give you that UK doesn’t, besides a fucked up government (even more so than the UK - see who’s in charge of the FCC or the tax filing situation), crazy & unreasonable immigration policies, etc? This won’t change as long as people accept it. But if tomorrow tourism & business travel slows down to a crawl because of this you can bet you’ll…

Let me make a list: - Better TV. - Much Better Food. - Higher paying jobs. - Bigger cars, bigger roads. - Second Amendment. - First Amendment. - Lower Taxes (income and sales). - Ability to not talk to the Police and not have that used against you. - More likely to succeed if you start a business. Shark Tank > Dragons Den UK. - More likely to get funding if you decide to get an Angel / VC and higher amounts with lowe…

I live in London, have visited the US and have friends that live there. Almost all of these are wrong or simply things I don't value. The only one I don't dispute is the likelihood of success in business. To be fair I'd rather take the healthcare (and slightly more sane political environment).

- Better TV. Who watches normal TV as opposed to Netflix?

- Much Better Food. Dispute this. US food standards are demonstrably lower than in the EU. You might be able to get bigger portions and a larger variety of junk food but so what.

- Higher paying jobs. In SF maybe, but the cost of living is correspondingly much higher.

- Bigger cars, bigger roads. Why do you need this if you can comfortably get places via modern public transport?

- Second Amendment. Unnecessary in a country where no one has guns

- First Amendment. We have comparable laws

- Lower Taxes (income and sales). I'd rather pay taxes to get healthcare free at point of service and a safety net for people who lose their jobs

- Ability to not talk to the Police and not have that used against you. We have comparable laws

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#100

Post by n4r9 » Wed, May 22, 2019, 11:13 AM UTC

golergka wrote: post #67

hnarn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who, like you, was born in Europe, I feel like half of those points are open for debate and the other half are nonsensical. Are you saying that the nation that is the home of the Flint water crisis and has a weaker Environmental Protection Agency than ever is something you move to in order to get "cleaner air and water"? What do you mean when you say "diversity"? Have you been to the mid west? There are "u…

> I doubt that "friendliness" is really something you see drastic differences in around the globe So, you have never been to Eastern Europe or CIS countries.

I know someone that spent several weeks walking and hitch-hiking around Georgia. Everywhere he went, the locals welcomed him in, gave him a place to stay and invited him to dinners full of local food, local wine and raucous toasting. His single bad experience was in a hostel with another foreigner who turned out to be a racist arsehole.