I'm speaking as the granddaughter of two people who walked across minefields and fought their way through barbed wire to escape from Hungary to the West in 1949.

1. Go early, rather than late. If you can, take your money. If you can't, go anyway but make sure you have a portable profession: carpenter, plumber, electrician, doctor, vet, cook. Non-portable professions: journalist, lawyer, politician, writer, banker, marketer.

2. If running from a fascism (whether Nazi or Communist), get out first, then worry about where you're going.

3. Have as many passports as you can.

4. Gold and jewels can be useful. Humans like shiny sparkly stuff.

5. Portable things: languages, practical knowledge and experience, theoretical knowledge, international friends. Non-portable things: land, houses, furniture, tech, guns.

6. My grandparents got their 14 year old daughter out first, two years before they ran for it themselves. Do the same. Children are ultra-adaptable and learn languages quickly.

7. If you go late: Expect nothing when you get out; you will have used all your resources just to escape. You will have to build up again from nothing.

8. Always carry an emergency pack: passports, cash, jewellery/gold, a metal spoon, sewing kit. My grandparents had to leave within two hours.

9. Don't say goodbye. One of your friends will report you to the authorities.

I'm sorry to say, I think Umair is right. I think chances are worse than 50/50 that there will be a Second American Civil War, due to the collision of global heating with American Neo-Fascism.

Let's hope they don't take the planet with them.

PS. If you can't or won't leave, find a good city in a defensible place and go there.