Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing American Expats going into election season. I think it is safe to say going into 2024, we are now in the thick of what we call election season back in the United States. Unfortunately, election season seems to drag on and on and they seem to just constantly keep coming, seemingly year after year although it doesn't exactly work like that. It seems like it kind of ebbs and flows based on a 2-year cycle between the midterm elections and the Presidential elections.

But in any event, the reason for the video, first off I want to be clear, I'm talking to American expats here. Tourists, whatever, come and go, that is a different thing. But one thing I noticed in the last election cycle and I am really worried about maybe being too big of an issue going into this next one was there was a lot of incivility, lack of civility amongst Americans I saw and politics; just discussing politics, whatever. I am not on one side or the other. Quite honestly I really am not; I have no idea who I will support; I'll probably know the day before the election just because it seems so fluid and quite honestly there is so many variables to consider when you are thinking about voting and things of that nature. 

But long story short, I.am not here to talk about one side or the other, it's just the civility in and of itself when you are having political discussions and things. I think it is worth remembering that yeah this is one, a foreign country. We are not in the United States folks, that's one thing to remember for true Expats, if you really have moved abroad. Again, I follow current events and politics and things in the United States regularly, daily; my wife probably would argue hourly I am keeping up with such matters but I like to try to just kind of keep it chilled out when it comes to having political discussions and I know that is going to be harder and harder because I do understand the country is very polarized and people's opinions are very polarized in terms of politics back in the United States although I sort of am noticing there does appear to be kind of an overarching desire for some level of change. Now I don't know if that has exactly been parsed out as to what exactly that change is, but it does seem that most people are, again in the American political context, most people are fairly ambivalent at best regarding the outcomes in terms of politics. 

But the thing to take away from this video I think is again there is a notion in Thai which is called "kreng jai" which loosely translated is civility, and I would argue it's the glue that holds Thailand together. It sort of holds Thai people together this notion of "kreng jai", civility. There is just a way that Thais interact with each other in a civil way. Regardless of if they agree or disagree with one another, they just treat each other civilly, they treat each other with a certain amount of respect and again tourists coming in, tourists are tourists. Expats though, this last election cycle I saw people, very good friends in fact, people that were friends of mine, groups or two different people and then I watched those two people have a falling out over politics. I just don't think it's worth it and moreover I think especially for expats if you live out here, again I am not saying it's not okay to get passionate about political issues or politics or parties or candidates but again we are not in America here, we're not in the United States and I think it is maybe a better idea to view such things as something akin to like watching sports or something where yeah, okay it matters to you but you don't get worked up because somebody else is rooting for a different team.

Again keeping it civil I think is something that American Expats should keep in mind going into 2024 because I saw, especially in 2020 and even going back to 2016 how that rancour can manifest itself in very negative ways in an Expat context and meanwhile it is kind of a shame because as I said, how topical is it to your day-to-day life when you don't even live in the country about which you are arguing.