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The article sounded like self-indulgent dreck. I see so much romanticization of travel and “broadening one’s horizons” but most of the time I see that the trav
by efitz 4y ago
The article sounded like self-indulgent dreck.
I see so much romanticization of travel and “broadening one’s horizons” but most of the time I see that the travelers focused entirely on the surface and missed many truly significant details.
My wife is from Thailand so we travel there often. Every time we go there I am reminded how lucky we are in the US. Not just in the economic sense- that’s more superficiality. Natives of many Asian countries are usually very racist by our standards, and homophobic, and you name it. Not in the trivial “disagree on policy” way that the epithets are thrown around in the west. If you spend a lot of time around people you’ll find that they dislike dark skinned people and favor light skinned people. Gay people are socially held up to ridicule; in popular culture they usually play the role of comic relief.
You can’t go two blocks without seeing a picture of the king. There are propaganda videos playing on displays in the airport extolling his virtues. Again, real propaganda, not just political speech that you might disagree with. Don’t get me started on lese majeste laws; you have to know people really well before they’ll open up to you how they really feel.
I say all this because all I see from these wanderlust expand-your-horizons types is trivial - the beauty of the scenery, how good the authentic food was, how nice the people were (did it ever occur to you that being nice is a strategy to extract money from rich western tourists)?
They never bring home the perspective that things in the west are way better than they are in much of the world because of our values.
- 908B64B197 4y ago> Every time we go there I am reminded how lucky we are in the US. Not just in the economic sense- that’s more superficiality. Natives of many Asian countries are usually very racist by our standards, and homophobic, and you name it. Not in the trivial “disagree on policy” way that the epithets are thrown around in the west. If you spend a lot of time around people you’ll find that they dislike dark skinned people and favor light skinned people. Gay people are socially held up to ridicule; in popular culture they usually play the role of comic relief. > You can’t go two blocks without seeing a picture of the king. There are propaganda videos playing on displays in the airport extolling his virtues. Again, real propaganda, not just political speech that you might disagree with. Is that luck or a conscious choice by Americans to evolve our culture? After all, the territories which ended up forming the United States and the first few presidents to rule it democratically once were themselves ruled by a king and certainly had no free speech.
- traceroute66 4y ago> Natives of many Asian countries are usually very racist by our standards, and homophobic, and you name it. I seem to recall there are parts of the US where if you go around waving a rainbow pride flag at best you'll get verbal abuse and at worst you'll get shot. There is also the sort of thing Trevor Noah highlights on occasion, the veiled racism in the US. (I can't locate in on YouTube but there was a video doing the rounds of him answering a question from a school teacher in the audience on the subject, he cited an example of getting a mortgage for a house). Racism is everywhere. Sure in some countries it may be more "in your face", but ultimately if you go looking for it you'll find it everywhere.