U.S. Patriots Flee To Asia
Generation Jones People. Peak age group to leave America!!
This is not a rant, but a reasonably well thought-out argument for leaving the USA. I’m not an American hater. I wore the uniform for 12 years, I pledged my life to this country, and raised a son who is now a young USMC Officer. I’m also a guy who still stands for the anthem when I hear it, and I’m going to layout my argument that loving America and living somewhere else are not mutually exclusive. Three years ago I moved to the Philippines full-time, and I’m much happier for doing so.
America is still the greatest country on earth, and there are a few important things to remember:
The United States is literally the only country in the world where “becoming one of us” is primarily a legal and ideological act, not a blood-and-soil ethnic one.
You can become an American in a few years by swearing an oath.
You cannot become Japanese filipino, Thai, etc.
Moving to Asia does require sacrifices and you will never be fully accepted by the families if you marry here
Stick around and you’ll see why I say it’s well worth leaving the USA and moving to another country (even if they will never full accept you) where people still respect their elders and their contemporary morals generally mirror our own.
I am not a boomer and I’m not a Gen Z - Those born roughly from 1960 -1965 fall in between and are becoming known as Generation Jones.
We didn’t go to sock hops or fight in Vietnam, but we were the generation of young adults that brought today’s technology to life. We played on hot metal playground equipment, ate dirt, drank from the garden hose, played smear the queer and settled arguments with fist fights.
When we failed a test, we got an “F” and were told to buck up and study. We didn’t hate everyone and we sure as hell didn’t try to force our point of view on others.
In fact, we were often admonished to not:
talk about politics
talk about religion
The Problem
In my eyes, the problem is apparent when looking at younger Americans (mostly younger Gen Z and Millennials). They really do fall into two very visible (and VOCAL) groups. This is inarguable and easily witnessed in everyday life and on social media. Why do so many young people think they can be an influencer without ever achieving a damn thing of note, and why the young (and not so young females) embrace only fans and then moan about no nice guys wanting anything to do with them. The culture is corrupt in the USA!
Hey are the two groups I see:
1. The “high empathy / high fragility” camp
They’ll cry about micro-aggressions, safe spaces, trigger warnings, and misgendering.
They want every workplace to have mental-health days, unlimited PTO, and managers who act like therapists.
They’ll block or cancel you for the slightest disagreement because it harms their “mental health”.
A huge chunk of them are on SSRIs or in therapy (or both) before age 25. Rates that dwarf every previous generation.
2. The “low empathy / high entitlement” camp (often overlapping with the first)
They’ll film TikToks in the middle of the sidewalk, scream at service workers over a $4 coffee, and think nothing of ghosting a job with zero notice.
They want six-figure remote jobs straight out of college, student loans forgiven, and universal basic income, basically adult life on easy mode.
They’ll say “OK Boomer” to any pushback, then turn around and demand respect for their pronouns and feelings.
There is a common thread? Both of the above groups were raised in the first era where:
Participation trophies were normal
Helicopter/snowplow parenting removed most natural consequences
Social media gave instant dopamine and validation for every feeling
Schools started prioritizing emotional safety over resilience training
The result is a group that is simultaneously the most “caring” (on paper) and the most brittle when things aren’t handed to them. They’ll riot over social justice but won’t show up to a 9-to-5 if the “vibe” is off.
Here’s what I see every time I go back to the States or watch the U.S. news now:
Kids who can’t handle the slightest pushback without a meltdown
A culture that treats grown adults like they need trigger warnings for life
Cities where basic respect “yes sir, no ma’am” feels like it died twenty years ago
An elite class that thinks expecting immigrants to speak English or follow the rules is somehow racist
Meanwhile, every other country on earth guards their language, borders, and culture like it’s sacred – and nobody calls them bigots for it.
The people still waving the 1960s counter-culture flag today are not the original hippies; they’re mostly their ideological children and grandchildren: tenured professors, nonprofit directors, people in HR departments, and the progressive vote seekers. This is the ideology that dominates elite institutions today.
What they actually did was take three core 1960s slogans and turn them into institutional power:
1. “Question authority” morphed into reflexive distrust of police, borders, military, and any traditional enforcement mechanism.
2. “If it feels good, do it” morphed into the therapeutic culture where feelings trump facts, duties, and borders.
3. “Imagine no countries, nothing to kill or die for” morphed into the open-borders, “no human is illegal,” and “nationhood is just a construct”
That’s why you now have federal judges, university presidents, and entire city councils who will lecture you that:
Enforcing immigration law is “xenophobic”
Using force to stop rioting is “police brutality”
Expecting immigrants to learn English is “linguistic imperialism”
The concept of an American culture worth preserving is itself racist
Meanwhile, every other country on earth laughs at that stance.
As far as I’m concerned, I’ve worked and fought long enough to tell them to kiss my ass and let them solve their own problems. Adios America!
Now, what do I see in Asia?
A 22-year-old Filipino or Vietnamese kid will work 12-hour days six days a week smiling, and send half their pay home to province to support the family with zero complaints
They’ll ride a motorbike in 100 °F heat with a smile because that’s just life
If they get offended, they’ll usually swallow it or laugh it off rather than demand the world stop turning until their feelings are fixed
20 somethings address me as “sir” without sarcasm
People work hard, smile, and don’t expect life on easy mode
My retirement income goes three times further
I walk at night without looking over my shoulder
The culture still believes adults should act like adults
And I didn’t have to give up being American to get it.
It’s not that Asians are saints (there’s plenty of pettiness, corruption, and drama), but the baseline expectation that life is hard and you’re supposed to deal with it without collapsing is still intact.
So when you hear expats say “I love America but I can’t stand what the culture has turned into,” nine times out of ten they’re talking about exactly this; watching grown adults in the U.S. melt down over trivial discomfort while teenagers in Asia (or even 1950s-80s America) just sucked it up and kept moving.
This gratitude and willingness to face hard times head-on are what hits a lot of retired Americans right in the chest. This is why we love and stay in Asia!
The Future of America:
Borders Language and Culture. If nothing changes, in ten years the America we grew up in (the one that turned anybody into an American if they just showed up and bought in) will be unrecognizable.
America, the only country that ever said “come and become one of us” is being told by its own educated class that the very idea of assimilation is toxic and that we are racist for expecting those who arrive in our country to do so legally, learn our language and respect our laws.
It’s not about wanting everyone to suffer, it’s about watching a generation that seems incapable of handling even mild adversity without a trigger warning, a therapy session, or a viral meltdown dismantle nearly everything that made America the greatest country in the world.
And yeah, a lot of retirees look at that and quietly book the one-way ticket to somewhere the culture still expects you to be an adult.
Remember:
You cannot become Korean (South Korea’s naturalization test is brutal and they still reject most applicants).
You cannot become Filipino.
You cannot become Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Saudi, Emirati, etc.
Bloodline and ethnicity are decisive in almost every other country. Only in America (and to a lesser degree Canada, Australia, and some Western European countries) is citizenship offered as an open invitation.
Learn the language, follow the laws, accept the Constitution, and you’re one of us; your kids will be indistinguishable from anyone else’s. Yet the modern progressive elites treat that uniquely generous offer as if it’s some kind of moral defect which we must apologize.
They act like insisting on assimilation is the real crime, while every other nation on earth enforces far stricter ethnic, linguistic, and cultural gatekeeping without a shred of guilt. That my friends is the contradiction that drives a lot of older Americans absolutely nuts, especially the ones who served in uniform or paid taxes for 40 years.
We look around and see:
Cities refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement
Schools teaching kids that expecting English fluency is oppressive
Politicians and academics openly saying “America is an idea” one minute and “America was never great” the next
Border security treated as a human-rights violation while every Asian, Latin American, and European country guards its own borders with machine guns and walls
So when guys in their 60s and 70s move to Thailand or the Philippines and say “I still love America, but I can’t live in what it’s become. The only country that ever said “Give me your tired, your poor and we’ll make them American” is now the only country whose elite class sneers at the very idea of turning immigrants into Americans.
Everywhere else in the world they just say “You can visit, you can work, but you will never be us.” And nobody outside the West calls that racist. Only in America is the most inclusive national identity on Earth being dismantled by its own educated class.
The Only Solution:
The solution isn’t to hate America. The solution is to love America enough to live the values somewhere they’re still practiced every day. Someplace like the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam or other Asian country and pray that the pendulum swings back for our kids and grandkids.
Proof
Gallup says that American retirees living overseas report higher life satisfaction than those who stay.
Cialdini’s 6th Principal of influence is “Social Proof” like a long line at a restaurant or 5 star Google reviews. I submit the thousands of veterans and retirees already doing this are are social proof of this phenomenon.
Here’s the bottom line:
You don’t have to hate America to leave.
You can love what the country stands for, and build an incredible life overseas where people still say “please” and “thank you,” where your money lasts, and where you’re treated with the respect you spent a lifetime earning.
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I’m still an American, I just found a better place to be one.
Until next time remember,
Better thinking does equal a better life
Joe out