Why I Left The US

Transcript

Hi, it’s Tuesday, June 23, 2026, you’re tuned in to Why, America? I’m your lawyer friend Leeja Miller coming to you on the ground in Dublin, Ireland. Where I now live. Surprise? Today we’re talking about why I left the United States, why Ireland, and how I did it. Just so we’re clear, nothing changes about this channel or my work going forward, in fact I think my work here will only improve because of this move, but we’ll get into the details of the future of this channel a little later.

Now I have been nervous to make this video, I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to say for literally months. I know people are going to have a lot of opinions about my choice to leave and we’re going to get into the nitty gritty so I can hopefully answer any questions you might have. And if I don’t manage to answer all your questions today, I am hosting a fundraiser livestream THIS FRIDAY at 10am eastern right here on YouTube that will be Ask Me Anything style where you can tune in and get whatever questions you have answered. I will be fundraising, in honor of pride month and this move, for Rainbow Railroad, an international human rights organization that creates pathways to safety for at-risk LGBTQI+ people and strengthens policies and systems that support their protection and integration. They have helped thousands of at risk LGBTQ folks access resources to relocate, either within their country or to another country abroad. They assist with asylum seekers, relocation expenses, mental health support, and other necessary referrals, so that LGBTQ folks who need assistance finding safety can find the help they need. The organization also advocates for pro LGBTQ policy around the world. It felt only fitting that if I have the privilege of leaving, and yes it’s a privilege and we’ll talk about it, that I should help hold the door open for others, so I’m excited to host the fundraiser and excited to chat with you guys further on Friday at 10AM eastern, including answering whatever questions you might have about my move that I don’t answer in this video or if you’re thinking about relocating yourself. Again that’s this Friday from 10am to noon eastern time.

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My choice to leave the United States was not an easy one. I have been thinking about it literally for years, and I think if you’ve followed this channel for a while you probably got that impression. I’ve made more than one video basically asking the question “haha but what if we just left?” So please know I did not make this decision lightly. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys sooner, I wanted to share a bit more of this journey but I ultimately decided against it because I didn’t want to use it as a content slop generator like this is my life, you know, I don’t want to turn all of it into content, but also because I was honestly nervous about getting physically out of the country first before talking about this. I’m not sure if you heard of or remember the story from last year when Turning Point USA began targeting a researcher and professor at Rutgers who wrote a book almost a decade ago now about Antifa. They made his life hell, and then one night when he was relaxing in his home watching a baseball game, someone sent him a threatening email mentioning the game–like they knew what he was doing, like they were watching him at the home he shared with his wife and small kids. That’s when he decided to leave. So he bought tickets to Spain and packed up his life and his family, and as they were at the gate waiting to board their plane to Spain, as they tried to scan their boarding passes to get on the plane, they were stopped because their tickets had mysteriously vanished from the system. They had to spend the night in a hotel and ultimately were able to book tickets for the next day, and I don’t know it could be that it was genuinely just a glitch but that story made my fucking blood run cold. Like I am a public leftist on the internet lord knows I am probably on some government watch list somewhere, I was not risking losing my freedom of movement until after I and my family were safely outside of the United States. Luckily I didn’t have any problems and I have not been personally targeted by the government at this point like I know some other leftist creators have been, but I didn’t want to risk it. So I’m sorry to be springing this news on you like this, but I’ve been in Ireland for about two weeks and this is my first video I’m posting from here, because I didn’t want to lie to you and pretend like I was still in the states.

Here’s why I ultimately decided to take the leap. And of course I could just gesture broadly and say I mean obviously I wanted to leave, but joking about “haha it’s awful in the United States I want to get out” and actually following through on it are two very different things. So the reasons had to stack up to finally push over the edge into “okay wait I’m actually doing this.”

First is that I genuinely enjoy traveling and my initial desire to live abroad was not based in fear or survival instinct but instead based in curiosity and a desire to experience living somewhere outside of the United States. I studied abroad in college for 10 months, first in Chile and then in Peru, so I have the experience of living for an extended period in other places, but not of a permanent relocation. Having a base in Europe means I can travel to a ton of new countries more easily and affordably than I could while living in the United States. Living in a country outside of the US also gives me new perspectives both on life but also on politics and history in a way that will only help me grow as a human and in the work that I do here in this space. I think the United States would be made better if more of its people were given the opportunity to travel and live abroad.

Another reason why I left is because there are a lot of elements of the culture in the US that are just icky to me. The soulless consumerism and the car dependency, specifically. And yes Ireland is not a drastic change in this realm but we’ll get into why I chose Ireland in a minute, hold your horses. This is a bit of a global phenomenon, that so many spaces these days feel manufactured and soulless, meant to provide an instagram post but not any feeling of fulfillment or connection. But it feels particularly acute and inescapable in the United States.

I also left because I’m sick of paying taxes in a country that is using that money to bomb children, commit human rights violations against immigrants and activists, and cut social safety nets. My personal choice for how I am choosing to engage in federal tax resistance is by opting out. As a US citizen you have to file a tax return with the US government every year no matter where you are in the world, but thanks to various tax treaties, there are many countries where if you live and work and pay taxes there, you can claim whatever taxes you pay in that foreign country as a credit on your US taxes. So essentially the taxes you pay in that other country cancel out the taxes you’d owe in the US. And Ireland’s taxes are so high that I will likely never have to pay taxes to the US again after this year on my income from this channel. That brings me a sense of relief. Just living in and paying taxes to a country that doesn’t fancy itself the leader of the free world, that doesn’t engage in acts of aggression for the sole purpose of gaining more power or control, is a fucking relief.

I also left because the pervasiveness of guns and gun violence in the United States seeps into literally every aspect of your life there. The fear is always at the back of your mind. I found myself avoiding crowds, hesitant to go to music venues, checking every exit when I did, picturing if a gunman entered this movie theater who would he shoot first.

And relatedly and most importantly from a day to day living standpoint, I left the United States because of safety concerns. Living in Minneapolis over the last year has been fucking awful. And I love Minneapolis. Minnesota is my home, Minneapolis is my home. It is fucking awful to be made to feel that your home is no longer safe. And I recognize I’m saying this as a cis white woman, I was not being targeted by ICE agents on the streets or in my home in Minneapolis the way that others were and continue to be. My level of relative danger was much much lower than my immigrant neighbors. And yet. If you talk to anyone who was paying attention this winter in Minneapolis, and everyone was, everyone experienced a level of trauma while living under federal occupation. We were in fight or flight mode for months. Leaving the house required constant vigilance of everything going on around you. It makes literally every aspect of existing harder, going to the grocery store could turn into getting caught up in an ICE raid, going to the gym meant passing the site of Alex Pretti’s murder, driving a loved one to the ER meant having to navigate closed down roads due to ICE activity while panicking, I can attest from experience, hell just walking down the street meant keeping your ears peeled for the sound of whistles nearby and keeping an eye out for speeding vehicles. And it’s not over in Minneapolis, ICE is still there abducting people, and now the federal government is targeting activists with criminal prosecution, which deserves its own video. Living in Minneapolis has become incredibly difficult. And living under that constant strain, the threat level, but also the strain of existing in a country that is actively crumbling, that is actively targeting people for their gender or their sexuality or their race or their immigration status or their disabilities or their political beliefs, is so fucking awful for your wellbeing. And you don’t have to live in Minneapolis to know that, you all know that, I’m preaching to the choir, I see you in my comments sections talking about this every day. It has been taking a toll on my physical and mental health. Living in the United States right now is not conducive to human thriving, and that’s by design.

But the moment I definitively decided it was time to leave was when Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman was murdered at her front door a few miles from my house last summer. Political violence in the US has gotten completely out of control. And while I know I am small potatoes compared to larger leftist creators on the internet, and my content is not the most subversive out there, prior to her murder I wouldn’t have considered Melissa Hortman to be particularly subversive either. That and the murder of Charlie Kirk a few months later made it very clear to me that not only is the government keeping an eye on those who speak out against the regime online but people are getting murdered for their political views in a way that makes me, a person who is very publicly outspoken about her political views, very uncomfortable. But it was Melissa Hortman’s murder that sealed the deal for me largely because it wasn’t just her. She wasn’t the only one who died that night. It was also her husband. It was also their dog. While their children stood by and watched. My choice to move was about more than just me. I have a husband. I have a dog. I have a stepchild. A stepchild whose various identities also make THEM an active target of this administration. So by leaving not only am I removing myself from possible dangers–dangers that you my audience identify all the time, I just took a two week vacation and I had many of you reaching out to check if I’m okay, wondering why I haven’t posted for a while, afraid for my safety. I don’t want to live in a country where I have to fear for my safety because of the act of speaking about my beliefs. But I’m also protecting my family and providing a young person the opportunity to live somewhere that gives a shit about their wellbeing. And so for me personally I just reached a point where I was like I’m fucking miserable, I feel unsafe, my family could be impacted by it, my friends and family are worried day to day for MY wellbeing, I don’t want to be here and I don’t have to be. So why the fuck am I staying.

And when I tell you I’ve been thinking about this for YEARS, I have been working on a way out for YEARS. The reason I was able to say “I don’t have to stay here, so why would I?” is because I started the process three years ago of getting EU citizenship through ancestry. I have a great great grandfather who immigrated to the US from Luxembourg 160 years ago. His children, because they were born to a native-born Luxembourger were automatically also Luxembourg citizens as well. Meaning my mom’s grandma was a natural Luxembourg citizen. So my mom was able to go through the process of obtaining citizenship in Luxembourg, as the grandchild of a Luxembourg citizen. And once my mom had it, I was able to get it. Not only that but my sisters and their children are also able to get it, because it depends on having a parent or grandparent who is a citizen. I started the process with my mom in 2023, I got notice of my own citizenship being accepted the week before Trump was elected, and due to processing times and other bureaucratic details I finally got my Luxembourg passport a couple months ago. And with a Luxembourg passport I can live anywhere in the EU. So then of course the question becomes why did I choose Dublin, Ireland?

I fully recognize that there is no perfect country, there is no country you can move to that is going to have zero problems, zero inequality, zero corruption, zero government inefficiency, and also wherever you go there you are, your personal problems will follow you wherever you go. And Ireland is no exception to that. The housing crisis in Ireland, and Dublin specifically, is abhorrent. The fact that the government isn’t treating it as an immediate national fucking emergency is unconscionable. I can attest as a newly minted renter in Dublin that young people here have absolutely no hope of finding a rental they can afford, let alone ever owning their own home. It’s fucking abysmal. Please know I will be supporting local initiatives for affordable housing and other activist movements here as a means of counteracting what I realize is my problematic presence as a gentrifying American in Dublin. I honestly wouldn’t know how to move here and NOT be a gentrifying presence because the rent is so fucking out of control and I have pets which makes it nearly impossible to find anything unless you’re willing to pay through the nose. It is through sheer stupid luck that the very job that makes me afraid for my safety in the US is also what allowed me to afford this move for my family, so I’m truly eternally grateful for your support. All that to say, I understand Ireland is not a perfect country, please take a look at what I do for work and trust that I did my damn research. There’s always going to be a certain level of rose colored glasses when you’re moving to a new place but I’ve tried to do my best to understand the place I’m moving to, including its politics, culture, and history.

And Ireland’s politics and history are a major draw for me. As I said earlier it is refreshing to live somewhere that doesn’t fancy itself a major world power. Ireland’s history of British occupation and colonization means there is a lot of solidarity with Palestine here. The Irish president’s own sister was on one of the Gaza aid flotillas and was abducted and arrested by Israeli authorities. That doesn’t mean everyone or every politician is pro Palestine, but there is certainly greater support for the Palestinian cause here. And even though Ireland is one of Israel’s largest export markets, it doesn’t even come close to the US and there are rumblings of divestment in the Irish government that wouldn’t even gain traction in the US. Again, Ireland isn’t perfect, but it’s all relative, and when you’re coming from the US pretty much anything is an improvement, frankly. It’s also been fascinating watching a country at least attempt to implement more progressive, democratic socialist style policies, the kind we can only dream of in the United States, because frankly a lot of the time those policies backfire, they don’t work they way they were intended, or big business just finds a way to work around them. But fuck man at least they’re trying here, I’ll give them that, I haven’t had the chance to ever see true progressive policies even attempted to be implemented in the US.

Okay so why did I choose Ireland, interesting politics and history. Also it’s fucking gorgeous here. There’s so much to see just on this one little island. It’s also second to none in terms of per capita creativity like for such a small island the amount of cultural capital is astounding, the number of writers, poets, artists, actors, musicians, I was RAISED on Enya and The Cranberries, it’s just a cool environment to be in. The Irish people generally I have found to be so unbelievably friendly and kind and welcoming but also so funny and clever. There are aspects of Irish culture that remind me a bit of the midwest, I find I’m settling in pretty easily with my neighbors here, our social customs have a lot of overlap. I also have two friends here who moved here a few years ago from Minneapolis and so having a bit of a community already here when I landed was a HUGE draw. Because it was leaving my community in Minnesota that was by far the hardest emotional aspect of this move and the reason why it took years to finally take the leap. I have so much love in Minnesota, that truly is my home, and it is not easy to walk away from that, to say goodbye to friends and family and move to a place that is completely new and foreign. So to know I had two good friends waiting for me on the other side made all the difference. And then of course Ireland was an easy choice because culturally it’s not THAT foreign to the US. Not that I’m not up for a challenge but I knew moving abroad would be hard enough, having a place to land with my whole family in tow that didn’t give us all cultural whiplash was a big draw. I lived in South America for the better part of a year after having studied Spanish for 8 years prior to moving there and I can say it is EXTREMELY hard to live somewhere where you have to speak a language that isn’t your primary language. Even when you become fluent, which I am in Spanish, it is hard, every single day it’s hard. And while I’d love to learn a bit of Irish, Ireland does ultimately primarily speak English, and that was also a huge draw, just being realistic about day to day life somewhere new I knew it would be easier for me and my family to settle in and feel at home if we landed somewhere that speaks English. And yes everyone in most places in Europe CAN speak English, but it’s not the same thing. It’s just not. And being in Dublin close to the airport means we can go anywhere in Europe easily and cheaply. So that is why Ireland and that is why Dublin specifically.

Like I said I’ve been here about two weeks and so far it has been going really well. The move itself was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done before. Like on par with law school or studying for the bar. Logistically it was a nightmare, emotionally it was draining, physically it was exhausting. But I think I was right in choosing Dublin because now that I’m here it feels like a really perfect fit. I’ve heard there’s a bit of a dip after the novelty and the honeymoon period wears off around six weeks in after relocating, so I’m still definitely in the honeymoon period but so far I’m loving it. Most of the last two weeks have been just settling in, getting paperwork filed, setting up bank accounts, getting the day to day necessities for life, getting this studio space set up, which is still a work in progress. There’s still so much of Dublin and Ireland I haven’t experienced and so much settling in to do. But I will say that despite the fact that this has been one of the hardest experiences of my life I have also come into this experience with an extreme amount of privilege. The fact that I had a bit of money to throw at problems made the entire experience easier. The fact that I didn’t have to pinch every single penny and go the cheapest route possible made this entire experience easier. The fact that I am white has made this entire experience easier. There is a lot of anti-immigrant hatred in the world right now and Ireland is absolutely no exception, there was literally just a pogrom in Belfast spurred on by anti-immigrant racism, fomented by Elon Musk tweets, and the fact that I’m white protects me from that. The fact of my EU citizenship makes my status as an immigrant incredibly secure, as far is immigration goes. When you are an immigrant typically you are asking permission from the government to allow you to stay there. That puts you in a very vulnerable situation because the government gets to decide whether you can exist in their borders or not. But as an EU citizen, I have treaty rights. So I’m not asking for permission, I am exercising a right that I have as an EU citizen to enter Ireland and live and work and pay taxes here. And my status makes it much easier for my family to immigrate here as well. Every single aspect of my immigration experience was made easier and more accessible because of the color of my skin and my socioeconomic status. Which is why I am doing this fundraiser for Rainbow Railroad on Friday at 10am EST because I believe in freedom of movement I believe that anyone who wants to leave should have the ability to do so, and it is often the most vulnerable people that have the least ability to leave. That is a grave injustice that I as one person cannot fix but I will do my part to, like I said, hold the door open for others if they want to leave.

I totally understand, however, if that’s not you. Like I said I have been nervous about making this video because I know some people hold incredibly strong views about whether people should leave or stay. And there are people who think it’s cowardly to leave or like I’m abandoning the United States or like everyone should “stay and fight” whatever that means. Which is why I want to stress that I did not make this choice lightly or flippantly, and also that nothing about my relocation means I will be taking my eyes off the United States. Another motivation for this move is because I firmly believe that I will be able to do more work and better work from abroad than I ever could in the United States. I will continue to speak truth to power, to provide education and access to resources, and I will do so outside of the jurisdiction of the United States. I will do so while not also living under the restrictive oppressive forces I am criticizing. I mean, to a certain extent, you can’t escape capitalism, as I’ve acknowledged Ireland isn’t perfect, but you know what I mean. It is really hard to sit down and think critically about the burning building while you are still inside the burning building. I will gain new perspectives from outside the United States that can help inform my work. I will have greater access to further education if I want it–I can get a masters degree for like a couple thousand euros once my EU tuition status kicks in after 3 years. There is nothing about the work I have been doing that I cannot do the same as or better from here in Dublin. And that was really important to me going into this and something I thought a lot about prior to leaving the US. So please know I am not abandoning the US or my community in Minneapolis, there is still a lot of work to do from afar and we all have a role to play.

I also asked you my viewers, right before I went on my 2 week “vacation” aka moving spree, what it is you want from me. I have been noticing a general fatigue on my part and your part for the day to day grind of the constant daily 24 hour news cycle headlines. My numbers have been down, and I think part of that is due to the fact that I have been operating on fumes leading up to this move and just going through the motions and I’m sure on a subconscious level that came through in my videos as well. So I think they’ll naturally get better as my capacity is restored and I recover from a bit of burnout. But you guys were quite clear in the poll that I posted that you want more political and historical deep dives and less of the daily headlines, which makes sense. That’s kind of historically been my bread and butter, the deep dive video essay style, and so I’m excited to get back into that. I will not be ignoring the day to day headlines, but I’ll be providing greater context, answering deeper questions, and providing some historical and legal and political analysis that is related to the day’s headlines but hopefully a bit more accessible and digestible because it won’t just be a list of daily atrocities, which I know we’re all exhausted from. And I have a bunch of new ideas swirling as well for the work I want to do, my creativity is already feeling more active just from being out of the US for two weeks, so I’m really hopeful that I’ll be able to do more and better work serving you guys now that I’m settling in in my new home. So thank you for your understanding that this was a really difficult decision, that my work and my resolve remains the same as ever, and that I’m still in the fight, this move changes none of that. Thank you for your continued support. I’ll be back with a new video on Thursday and then Friday at 10am eastern time until around noon I’ll be live right here on YouTube where I’ll answer all your burning questions about my move or if you want to move hell we can brainstorm the best ways to do it, because I think everyone who wants to leave should be able to.

To support my work, please consider joining on Patreon to get all these episodes completely ad free as well. Thank you to my multi-platinum patrons Christopher Cowan, Evan Friedley, Marc, Sarah Shelby, Dennis Smith, Art, David, L’etranger (Lukus), Thomas Johnson, and Tay. Your generosity makes this channel what it is, so thank you!