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Comment by kyrre | Hacker News Reader

Judging by the narrative the media is putting out one would think that Poland is a nightmare patriarchal state where rape victims are denied abortion and politicians agree that woman should be paid less because they are too 'small, weak and unintelligent' for equal pay.

Be more critical. Traveling to the US is a breeze for Europeans.

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> Traveling to the US is a breeze for Europeans.

No, it isn't. I am European, travelled twice to the US last year. Each time multi-hour wait for the USCBP check. From take-off in Brussels to landing in NYC took less time than getting from JFK to Manhattan.

If I can avoid it, I will not be travelling to the US any time soon.

Really? Since they installed the new machines that you can use with ESTA, I haven't waited more than 10 minutes for the machine, plus another 5-15 min for the final check. No extensive questions anymore, maybe 1-2 in total.

Waiting times entering the UK (even with passport machines) can easily be as long.

Yes. The first time they didn't have the new machines yet. The second time, they had the machines, but they didn't work for my passport. That didn't matter (except for some stress that they might turn me away), since you still had to queue afterwards anyway.

Yeah, I'm going to call bullshit on your 8 hour wait to get through customs.

I never said 8 hour wait to get through customs. I said multi-hour wait to get through customs. 7.5 hours from touchdown to Manhattan. That includes waiting on the plane to get off, customs, AirTrain and metro (no more shuttles running due to customs delay, a taxi queue of about 50 people). On my second flight it took about 4 hours in total.

By comparison, in the opposite direction, in Brussels it took about 1.5-2 hours to get home (about the same distance, public transportation, my companion, a US citizen, had to go through customs). The US has many great things; welcoming foreigners at their airports (at least at JFK) and public transportation are not among them.

Traveling to the US is a breeze for white Europeans.

FTFY

A breeze for white Europeans who do not mind all the privacy intrusions and indecencies they have to go through if they so much as blink their eyes or make a face at the wrong moment.

Why would anyone want to go to a country like that right? Unless they wanted to work in Texas or something.

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