the Planet*

(US is not the only country is the world where people are suffering, less US-Centralism pls)

You can vote overseas…

Its actually ironic that people in Puerto Rico don’t even get representation but if you last lived in the 50 states and then go abroad, you can mail your vote.

Just use an app that force your screen to flip upside down (Android allows this)

Every time I hear the word “import” when referring to Human Beings, its always some far right xenophobic white dude complaining about “oMg tHeSe dIrTy iNdIaNs aRe tAkInG oVeR!”

it’s trading one capitalist place for another.

Funny enough, my family also did this, but reversed.

I was born in China and we moved to the US when I was 8 years old… my parents found more success here… I mean, not at the very beginning, but eventually… now they have more income and more time off vs back in China…

I can’t speak for everyone, but in my specific case, my mom had to work long hours and did not have the 1.5 overtime bonus she has now and have less breaks vs now, and then dad… well… he didn’t really have a stable job, spend a lot of the time looking for jobs…

social programs, healthcare, and such.

Not according to my parents. My parents were kinda shocked how much welfare American Citizens have, and at one point, my parents claimed that “Americans are lazy and just wanna not go to work and live on welfare”.

And in terms of housing, okay when we were in Brooklyn, NYC, that place was so expensive it was impossible buy a house, so they bount a house in Philly moved our family here… where we’ve been living ever since…

Okay it was like approximately $100k around 2014 but this place has very shitty schools :/

But both the Brooklyn place we rented and this house in this ghetto place called Philly, both looked nicer than the neighborhood where used to live in Guangzhou, a CITY btw… (okay to be fair there are a bunch of problems in this current Philly house but like that’s just parents being frugal lol)

As for the healthcare part… eh… my mom really don’t trust doctors in China (well she also doesn’t really trust healthcare people overall, but especially those in China). Mom told me about a lot of situations that she felt like she got scammed, I can’t remember all the anecdotes she told me, but at one point, she told me how she thought the doctors are trying to get her to do a C-Section just to make more money (cuz surgery = more expensive bill), she thought it was unnecessary and wanted to give a natural birth, but she doesn’t wanna risk it being that, in fact, the doctors told the truth and then us dying, so she just gave in and went along with the C-Section. And she told me they want to overprescribe medicine so they get a kickback from the pharma companies. Bascially, my parents say US quality of healthcare is better for those who can afford it. But even then, because of their experiences living in China for so long, they just became so skeptical of the medical industry which is why mom really don’t want me seeking help for depression, cuz: “yOu dOn’t hAvE dEpReSsIoN, tHe dOctOrs aRe jUsT lYinG tO yOu!” cuz she thinks they are just trying to get paid fot overdiagnosing people… so because of their experience in China, they now kinda grew skeptical of medical professionals overall…

Cuz there’s just so much sketchy stuff and scams in China, and on top of their own experiences, warnings about scams are always circulating throughout their WeChat.

So it can look cheaper… but you risk running into corrupt doctors because corruption is a very big thing there, I mean they could easily bribe their way into having a medical license when they shouldn’t be qualified…

“To to teach English”

Which is only possible because he happened to be born into the language

And English is only in demand because of British + American dominance in the world throught the past few hundred years

Most Chinese Citizens cannot enjoy the same lifestyle as him, WHICH IS WHY they want to learn English in the first place… so that they can find more opportunities in life

Like… this is not really “China good”, this is more like “English-Speaking white dude, who was lucky enough to grow up with the language, benefiting from Anglosphere dominance throught history”

I sometimes looked myself in the mirror… like I got so used to seeing my reflection in glasses, that if I ever like go without glasses… say if I get lasik, then I’d look so weird…

I literally had this thought earlier today… like… do people who get lasik still wear fake glasses so they look good aesthetically speaking? Or as you said, “to look smart”?

In the US, you go to a post office, and you have to hand over the physical, original copy of your proof of citizenship when apply for the first time so the postal worker can attach to the packet of stuff they send to the US Department of State… and they only give it back after they finished processing your passport application…

So while waiting… (takes a few weeks to process) you have:

-No Passport -No Certificate of Citizenship/Naturalization or Birth Certificate…

Meaning no proof of Citizenship…

Which means its kinda awkward if you get approached by government agents during this time… and have no proof of your claim to be a US Citizen…

Apparantly for people with birthright citizens, they can just get a birth certificate for like $10-$30, which I didn’t know before… TIL

But since I’m foreign-born and naturalized (or technically speaking, it’s Citizenship via Derivation under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, but its too complicated and I don’t wanna write a paragraph on that), I would need to file a N-565 to get a replacement copy of my proof of citizenship…

And it’s $500 for the filing fee…

Yea I don’t think people are gonna really wanna spend $500 just for an extra “backup copy” they statiscally don’t need, unless it actually gets lost in the system and then they’d have no choice but to pay $500…

And that also takes time to process…

(And before you ask: Yes it is night time here, but I don’t really feel like sleeping right now lol)

“Why would you light your passport on fire?”

-u/ripcord@lemmy.world

idk Gen Z slang has infected my brain…

(send help… I’m Gen Z 👀)

I’m not saying its an literal actual trap, its more of a colloquial/casual way of saying things that some people apparantly didn’t get… 🤷‍♂️

Its like you know people say “the cat showing the belly is a trap” thing? Even tho not every cat would scratch you.

Yeah, but they took the original copy to be mailed to the department of state, for Online Renewals it doesn’t need to leave your hands, but I’m not eligible for a renew cuz my last one was issued in 2016/2017 when I was under 16 (valid only for 5 years), and I don’t even have it anymore.

I have a printed-copy of the Certificate and digitized versions stored on my phone… but my point is, it feels “less legit” to present it compared to the physical original copy.

Your foreign birth certificate does not prove citizenship btw.

A replacement for Certificate of Naturalization/Certificate of Citizenship is $500

I have derivative citizenship…

N-565 costs $500 to file

not exactly cheap

Oh… I just googled it… didn’t even know birth certificated are that cheap…

Cuz people who do not have birthright citizenship have to pay $500 to file for a replacement Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of Citizenship…

kinda expensive ngl

The only reason why they had to do the plane crashing on the ground is because it’s #TooSoon… (cuz… you know…)

Alt Universe: “My name is Edward Snowden and oopsie I forgot to start the anonymization program and now CIA agents are waiting for me at the airport”

If you have no morals, and if you’re in USA, you can give them ads for your local gun shop 💀

(/joke, pls don’t do this lol)

Too late, I think the entire neighborhood might already know us as “Oh, it’s THAT family that always have arguments in the house”

The thing is, we’re East Asian so this just further reinforce their “Asian strict parenting” stereotype in their minds 💀

(or perhaps nobody cares that much since they’ve already expected this much yelling due to that stereotype)

Lol, I thought the walls were more noise-isolating…

unfortunately, Bose did not make these walls

Like I don’t hear neighbors often unless I really put my ears close to the wall outlet and hear their tv on the other side…

The only time I heard it when the parent was yelling at their kid next door…