I'm one of them and it's rather hard to make heads or tails of it. First to define typical American in the context of today's dramatically volatile geopolitical situation. The vast majority of Americans oppose Trump's war of choice against Iran. The vast majority of Americans support Ukraine rather than Russia in the war there. The vast majority of Americans support South Korea rather than North Korean. The vast majority of Americans while recognizing the rise of China do naturally want their own country to hold on to a good amount of global power and influence So take that "typical" American and put him into Thailand. Americans in Thailand generally have good will towards the host country as far as their prospects for peace and prosperity even acknowledging that many benefit from geographical arbitrage between the costs of living between the USA and Thailand. Good enough so far but now it gets a bit sticky (rice). Thailand wants to have good relations with Russia, China, and the US. Thailand is neutral on the Russia Ukraine war. There is more than a zero chance that war will erupt between the US and China in a foreseeable future. Thailand is a land in Asia. It's not hard to imagine that it would be hard for Thailand to be neutral if that happens. Then what happens to Americans here, if anything? Recently to balance to supply chain problem directly cause by a war of choice by the American president, Thailand signed up for a deal to buy big supplies of energy from EASTERN Russia. That is viable as EASTERN Russia is currently out of range of Ukrainian drones and also the travel time from there to Thailand is close enough to be viable. Nobody could fairly blame Thailand for protecting their energy security in this way especially as they are blameless in the problem that pushed them to this. However, the typical American expat in Thailand supports Ukraine eventually hitting those very supplies (if it ever possible) and ALSO as any person living in any country wants to live in a country with a secure energy supply. On top of that typical Americans have to digest having a president who often looks to working for the enemies of the US rather than our allies. Enemies -- Russia, North Korea, Iran. Allies -- Ukraine, South Korea, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, etc. North Korea supplies arms and slaves for Russia to help kill Ukrainians yet the American president expresses love for their leader, and trashes South Korea. I don't have any answers for this. I posted this just as a matter of discussion about the curiously awkward geopolitical situation of American expats in Thailand.
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