Presumably every other country now ought to update their safety advice as it pertains to the US. Bleak.

Hanlon's razor. It's pretty clear some people can be stupid and malicious simultaneously, or will even feign stupidity to hide malice.

Yeah but I bet he's a 10x ninja

A good way is to find a meetup group with some shared interest. It doesn't really matter what so long as the crowd is good and you know enough to hold a conversation in the subject.