Special Essay: This Is Not America, But Here’s What We Can Do About It Today
My Arctic journey continues, but I must turn inward for a moment. There’s something deeply personal here, something I can’t look past. Loss and disappearance come in many forms, and right now a form of America I’ve carried in my memory is disappearing too.
For the past two weeks, I couldn’t write. Not a single word. I needed to process, deeply, everything that’s happening in this country. I am angry. And I want to start at the very beginning.
I grew up in Austria, in Europe, with a fascination for the United States that tugged at me as early as I can remember. We had family who immigrated to Chicago, and during their visit in the 1980s they gave me my first Blackhawks jersey. I wore it until it literally could not be worn anymore. A kid in Europe playing hockey, and loving the NHL from afar, going to a live game was something I thought would never happen. But that jersey was my dream.
Another early memory, from 1985, was “We Are the World.” It opened a door to music and to this country for me. It showed America at its finest, its diversity, generosity, and capacity to come together for something bigger than itself. I became obsessed with Bruce Springsteen, so much that I wore his T‑shirt in my school yearbook; Tina Turner, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston; or how about Holly Johnson’s “Americanos” I loved that song and even Don Johnson. Yes, I sat through episodes of Miami Vice without my parents noticing (below their line of sight) because I loved the music, the light, the feeling of possibility. Remember Don’s song Heartbeat? Classic!
This is the America I fell in love with. Photo: “USA For Africa 1985 (US Press Kit 001)”, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
It wasn’t until 1996 that my uncle finally brought me to the United States for the first time, to Florida of all places. It was warm, in every sense, and for the first time I met Americans beyond my Chicago family. Friendly, open, inviting, talkative: exactly as I had imagined them.
A year later, in 1997, I came back by myself, first to San Francisco. I arrived with nothing but my skydive license tucked into my passport, then made my way down to Perris Valley near Los Angeles to learn Skysurfing. Skydiving brought me back again in 1998 and 1999, and by the early 2000s I was working for ESPN at the 2000 X-Games and interviewing at Yahoo, because who wouldn’t want to be part of the dot‑com boom?
Twenty‑six years later, and, probably the subject of a book I will one day write, I have two American kids of my own. They are grown ups now and Austrian citizens too; we just got their passports last summer. I am dual citizen, American and Austrian. In America I will always be the Austrian, and in Austria, they call me “the American.” It’s the strange feeling of never having one true home anymore. And in that space between, California, the Bay Area, became mine.
But this isn’t just my origin story; it’s the weight behind what I’m about to say, because this does not come lightly.
I am not going (much) into politics here, but one song keeps looping in my head for quite some time now, David Bowie’s This Is Not America. That refrain, haunting and uncertain, captures how I feel right now.
This is not (my)America
Here’s what that means to me today:
• This is not America where people get murdered exercising their First Amendment rights
• This is not America that wants to annex friendly countries
• This is not America where the masked wannabe-military turns on its own citizens
• This is not America where there’s a concerted attempt to overturn elections
• This is not America where billionaires and celebrities are quietly protected from accountability on the Epstein list
• This is not America where racist propaganda is shared, depicting former presidents and their spouses as monkeys
• This is not America where journalists are arrested
• This is not America that pulls out of the Paris Climate Agreement
• This is not America that disengages from major United Nations climate institutions and funding that helped poorer nations.
• This is not America where federal climate science advisory groups are created in secret in ways that violate federal law.
This is not the America I immigrated to 26 years ago. This is not the America I have known, consciously, since 1985. The America I knew was imperfect, yes, but it was heroic in its ideals, a partner and ally, full of opportunities to so many Europeans and European nations; a place that believed in itself and believed in possibility. That America feels lost right now.
So what can we do?
Protesting matters, Minneapolis showed us how it can be done. But I believe the deepest impact comes not only from what we shout in the streets but where we spend our money. I’m not talking politics in the tribal sense; I’m talking about the economic infrastructure that supports our digital lives. We have seen every major tech CEO at round tables with no backbone, no resistance to power, no accountability. So here is what I’m doing, and what you can do too. I am changing my digital tech landscape for good. No more excuses. No more convenience.
Scott Galloway urges Americans to fight “techno‑fascism” through a strategic economic strike by cutting spending on powerful tech companies (resistandunsubscribe). You hit the CEOs where it matters most: in their wallets.
Here’s what I actually switched to, or am actively moving toward. These are real alternatives, not just a list.
From → To
• Google Mail → Proton.me (Swiss email and privacy service)
• Apple MacBook → TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro (Linux, German company, customizable, I was with Apple since 1995)
• Apple iPhone → Fairphone (Netherlands, ethical hardware, customizable, No Android, No MacOS, no one tracking you for ads)
• Apple storage → pCloud (Swiss cloud, lifetime option)
• Apple TV → Canceled (Tim Cook allegedly appears in the Trump-Epstein files Source: The Verge)
• Spotify → OE3(Austrian Radio - free & amazing) / Soundcloud / Real Vinyl & CDs (intentional listening)
• WhatsApp → Threema (Swiss, one‑time purchase) Signal is also a solid option. It is a non-profit but American-owned.
• Amazon Prime → Canceled (Jeff Bezos allegedly appears in the Trump-Epstein files Source: Wired)
• Amazon Grocery → Canceled
• Whole Foods → Trader Joe’s, Farmers Market
• Instagram, and all social media → Canceled (Let’s face it: it’s one big machine pumping ads, AI slop, and division, benefiting only billionaires, some of whom appear on the Epstein list. Is that really worth your “300” subscribers? ) (Mark Zuckerberg allegedly appears in the Trump-Epstein filesSource: Wired)
• YouTube Premium → Canceled
• OpenAI paid versions → Never subscribed
• Anthropic → Never subscribed
• Microsoft → Never subscribed (Bill Gates allegedly appears in the Trump-Epstein files Source: Wired)
• Musk ecosystem → Zero participation (Elon Musk allegedly appears in the Trump-Epstein files Source: Wired)
Why so many Swiss/European companies? Because Switzerland has some of the strongest privacy protections, aligned closely with GDPR and enshrined in national law that limits how personal data can be collected and shared.
Spotify aired commercials recruiting for ICE. So there are other options now. Or choose music again, vinyl and CDs are not just nostalgic; they make listening intentional. You engage with the art because you want to, not because an algorithm keeps you in a background loop. You also break free from the subscription scam of constantly paying without ever truly owning anything.
Don’t get locked into a single ecosystem again. For example, Proton.me offers a bunch of storage options for a small monthly fee too, but I consciously chose pCloud. I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake I made with the Apple or Google universe, and I also wanted a lifetime plan, I’m done with monthly subscriptions.
Speaking of Apple, don’t rush to buy a new, expensive laptop. If you’ve got an old Mac lying around, preferably with an Intel chip (some M1 and M2 models work too) you can install Ubuntu quickly and start using Linux right away. As Apple said in the famous 1984 commercial: “The power to be your best.” Show them why 2026 doesn’t have to be like 2026 anymore.
This is what I can do now. This is what I am doing now. I am not insisting that you must do everything I do. But it’s worth noting that the billionaires behind the tech tools you probably use, Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates, Bezos, Cook, all allegedly appear in the Trump-Epstein files. I don’t have to spell out what happen on that island right? Are these really the people you want to support and give your money to moving forward? I know this can be overwhelming. I simply hope you will consider it. Maybe some of it, maybe one change. But this hits them where it matters, at the money.
I have been tied to the Apple and Google ecosystem since 1995 and 2002, woven into my routines and my work, yet extraordinary times call for extraordinary choices. What is a loss of convenience compared to those who risked and gave their lives for justice, truth, and exercising their First Amendment rights?
Because protest is powerful, but movements that withdraw economic consent are unforgettable. Change never comes from the top down. It always begins from the bottom up, with ordinary people making extraordinary choices. Yes, this is an extraordinary choice! And right now, YOU can make that choice too. The future of America is truly and literally in your hands.
Remember the lyrics:
There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of God's great big family
And the truth, you know, love is all we need
We are the world
Speaking of world. To my European family and friends, don’t sit on the sidelines thinking this is just America’s fight and “what does it have to do with me?” It’s not a good time for “Schadenfreude” and if you use any of the above mentioned tech you are also supporting people in the Epstein files. I also want to be clear because there is a lot of confusion around this. Out of 341.8 million Americans, about 158 million voted in 2024, with 77.3 million (23% of all Americans) for Trump and 75 million for Harris, a difference of 2.3 million votes, so by no means was the country split 50‑50 on him it only was a mere 23% of Americans. A stronger America isn’t just good for the U.S. We all benefit from a functional, and generous society, wherever it is. F*** Mars - We are the world.
Now you know. What are you going to do about it?
Welcome to the resistance! We need you!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
