People who are mad about talk of leaving the country before/if/when it becomes a dictatorship must think there is *some* legitimate reason for fleeing one’s country due to political terror (unless they think everyone who was in Germany in 1938 should’ve stayed and tried to make it work). So … (1/2)
… such people must believe that a) *they* have discerned an outer limit to how far a truly lawless presidency would go, and b) *they* know others’ identities and circumstances so well that they are certain those others will not be persecuted under a truly lawless presidency. Bold! (2/2)
Brain drain is a real thing and totally justified, even after weak signals, not to mention obvious ones.
There's a joke about Russians who fled after Feb 2022, that they were the optimists leaving — pessimists left already earlier.
Also, 'intelligentsia' is often the first to sense the zeitgeist.
