Yes, I already did, even before this particular news broke out…

I tried to individually tell every one I know IRL (which is not too many ppl sadly), basically told every single one of them to consider back-up career options… There are a couple of 1-year exchange students from Europe in my floor and I have not-subtly hinted at them to make contingency plans for PhD training back home. I’ve been following the news very carefully recently so I can share relevant items as soon as possible… The people need to know. I’ve even considered making know-your-rights printouts before they claimed they’re doing an ICE raid in Chicago, but realized how little resources I have for that… I absolutely will do something. Not sure what it is but I can’t see society go this way.

I just feel bad that as a non-US citizen there is only so little I can do… I don’t even know if I could join a protest without being considered for deportation at this rate. Am planning my leave as well so there’s that.

Funny incident, I blurted out to my family 2-months ago that Trump will probably build a concentration camp and was told to shut the F up… Murphy’s law I suppose

I currently work as a postdoc in biomedical research, so my line of work was directly in the line of fire of recent Trump administration nonsense… Not great.

Beyond this though, I’m just impressed at how almost delusional my boss and some of my lab members has been. Lab PI/group leaders are responsible for bringing in grants, yet they don’t seem to even care about the fact that almost all grant reviews are paused (and some of their grants are due early Feb!)… Not to mention they seem almost happy about RFK and Bhattacharya; I do not approve of such behavior as a researcher… Especially since another student in the lab is fucking suffering from long COVID-induced chronic fatigue. I don’t understand how could some other ppl in the lab be so insensitive

To be fair, I’ve been essentially “fired” from the lab anyway. Not actually fired, but was on an 1-year contract and PI refused to renew (and it’s more difficult to fire someone than not renewing contract in Illinois law anyway). Pretty shitty behavior but I guess I should have expected a newer PI to not know how to properly lead a lab… Partly due to that, I’ve started applying for jobs in Europe two months ago and have just recently started getting interviews. All of them are scheduled early morning for me, I’m not a morning person, and at least one or two have been somewhat disrespectful so… At least I’m hoping to get at least one offer I hope?

Also am worried about selling some large possessions (furniture, hobbyist items) since I’m probably leaving the US soon. So a bit stressed recently between work and personal matters

All in all, I’m… surprisingly calm for the amount of bullshit I need to deal with. No ideal why. Maybe it’s just the power of video games lol

I guess if I am nit-picking, it’s very hard for a statistician to claim anything as having a zero possibility… of course a statement like that helps no one. These are my actual thoughts:

non-zero possibility

It is technically possible that Musk’s gesture was not a Nazi salute but rather something that looks similar. Fun fact, this is something that happened with S. Korea’s Megalian hand gesture issue (for example see this case: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2621gzvkdo), where ppl found the gesture in a lot of unexpected places. However, the Megalian gesture is a pretty common hand movement, whereas the Nazi salute… I mean I guess it could happen due to a really bad out-of-context dance choreography?? But that clearly wasn’t Musk’s case

“But I am just wondering if everyone else sees this that way with no room for it being a result of autism and definitely that.”

… I mean maybe?? I have weird Autistic intrusive thoughts sometimes but even then this is a bit… Honestly though, I don’t know if I should put any respect to someone who willingly know what a Nazi salute is, and then choose to do it in front of one of the most important political events in the world, twice in a row nontheless. I find it hard to believe such an act to be a faux pass and non-intentional. Heck even if it is completely unintentional, this would be ground for job termination and put on a blacklist for life for most job positions I know

“Is this where we are? I feel more scared to be in America now.”

Yeah I know… I seriously wonder why I am still in the US as well.

Well the bigger question is, would you buy it? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Jokes aside… Not attractive enough. Even if I’m attractive, OF creators are quite competitive as it’s kind of a “winner takes all” market. So probably not worth it… Besides, for conventionally attractive people shouldn’t there be easier ways to make money off looks? For example landing a modeling gig that has a more steady pay or something like that