"Too risky": Scholars who study America say they won't visit

[marmar]

“Too risky”: Scholars who study America say they won’t visit
At a recent panel in Vienna, academics who study America said the country has become similar to Russia and China

By Charles R. Davis
News Editor
Published October 9, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) VIENNA — It can be a maddening experience, living in America and not supporting Donald J. Trump.

In what has been billed as the greatest country on Earth, democracy is being unraveled because a majority of the nation’s white inhabitants voted for a 79-year-old man who is temperamentally unfit for any public office, much less one that comes with nuclear weapons. A once-proud nation of immigrants is being subject to military occupations because a man, in a marriage to an immigrant, says that foreigners are “poisoning the blood” of the nation, and that they are to blame for all that one finds wanting in life.

....(snip)....

At a packed Oct. 4 forum in Vienna, Austria, academics who have taught thousands of students about the culture and history of the United States expressed shock and dismay at how quickly the liberal future imagined, if not realized, with the election of Barack Obama has given way to the ugliest form of American reaction.

“We’re all also overwhelmed by the situation,” said Alexandra Ganser, a professor of American Studies at the University of Vienna. A former Fulbright Scholar who studied in the U.S., she lamented that the country’s descent into authoritarianism was “all pretty new” and required rethinking how academics approach their work.

....(snip)....

Already, she noted, those thinking of heading to Trump’s America are being warned not to bring their own phones and to “get other computers when you travel.” .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/09/too-risky-scholars-who-study-america-say-they-wont-visit/

[yardwork]

1. I recommend reading the entire article.

Very interesting and informative. One of the Austrian scholars notes that she now has students - especially young students - who admire Trump.

This is going global.