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Pasha

Defend Kebab

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joined 2022 September 05 06:58:22 UTC 

				
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Pasha


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Defend Kebab

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

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					joined 2022 September 05 06:58:22 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 481


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I love "backpacking". I have done many long trips to rather unusual parts of the world, almost always alone and "unguided". But lately I can't shake the feeling that it is becoming very difficult to find "real" information sources. With real I mean sources that will not shy away from saying it plainly when a city or area is shitty, ugly, not worth visiting, tourist trap etc but also will go out of its way to explore the unusual even when it is not always savory and entirely safe.


The typical guide books are just contend with giving a dispassionate list of every somewhat touristic part of the country, trying to be inoffensive as possible. I sometimes pirate the old Lonely Planets and the difference is day and night. If I buy a guide book it is because I want to be told the "insider" info which will be missing from the tourist office website. What use is it to produce a print version of everything I could find on google maps anyway?


Same goes for blogs. Perhaps this is more of an SEO issue but I used to be able to dig up plenty of amateur travel blogs or even forums full of people giving their unfiltered opinions and experiences. Now it is nigh impossible to sift through the "10 TOP EXPERIENCES" lists all regurgitating the same bullshit. Reddit is not a good replacement here, and Facebook backpacker groups are typically too inactive. I almost feel some nostalgia scrolling through some regional backpacker groups I used to be active in. They were great places to get up-to-date information and meet people. Now they are just dead. TripAdvisor and its forums are totally not a replacement here either. Why does every basic source about every random Colombian city keep going on about some graffiti street but not say a word about best clubs to dance with local girls? Is anyone actually going to these places for shitty graffiti?


But what is the culture war angle here? It is slight but I get the sense that the root cause of all this is the extreme global connectedness/homogeneity and disappearance of even the possibility of an adventure no matter how small. I can't escape the feeling that such "insider info" venues have disappeared because there is no demand for insider info anymore. Every remotely pretty place in the World has either already become dotted with a tourism infrastructure neatly exposed by airbnb/booking/tripadvisor/skyscanner/tinder or rapidly on its way. You can count on the locals drinking the same beverages, eating the same food, watching the same TV, dressing up in same fashion trends and living in same houses as you do. And if there is still a gritty or untamed side to it, it is considered almost rude to mention this. As if you are insulting the locals, as if you owe it to them to herd every foreigner to a couple carefully curated quarter away from anything interesting.


But then I have to wonder, what is even the point of traveling then? Were the decades between 1960s-2010s just a fluke or a transition period when most of the world became somewhat accessible through infrastructure development but did not assimilate into mundane sameness so completely yet? When you didn't need to be Lawrence of Arabia to see the world but it still took some self-selection of the risk taker personality? Should one consign oneself to using vacation time for skiing at resorts and hikes at well marked well frequented paths and just give up on the joy of discovering something genuinely foreign?


I realize fully that I am very incoherent. Perhaps I am just getting older and struggling to face up to the reality that I cannot just go to some forgotten part of the world with a return ticket two months later and "figure it out". I have responsibilities, vacation time is valuable, I can exchange money for convenience. I am writing this mostly to try to organize my thoughts and figure out if it is me that changed or the world.


P.S. please share with me if you know of any forums, bloggers, authors, publishers, youtubers honestly whatever that would prove me wrong and show adventure is alive and well at least somewhere. I really enjoy reading stuff like this


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I hear Africa is still pretty wild




Yeah a friend lived in Madagaskar for a couple months and the stories were wild. Perhaps I should give it a try. I am personally not a big fan of places where there is a real threat to your personal safety or health. Forces you to be a lot more cautious and timid, and stick to the well beaten path. Definitely learned my lesson in this regard after some nights out in Brazilian cities that I tried to act as if I am still in Istanbul.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It’s ironic in a sense because what I am personally doing (trying to find interesting nice places not well known) also means more and more places get used to my tourist income and transform into tourist parks. It’s a wonderful feeling to arrive at a cute town that doesn’t have a tourist info booth and locals treat you as a genuinely interesting oddity and not a cash cow.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks! Learned how to ski as a kid but haven’t done for years. I will pick it up again soon. Same with surfing. I like that it gives you a reason to find remote beaches and stick around for weeks just enjoying the area. Perhaps I will ditch backpacking and just accept this is what travelling means now.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sure but this is why google doesn’t give good hits. But the amateur spirit stuff still should be around somewhere right?


My favourite travel vlogger ever is c90adventures. It’s an English guy who started a youtube channel 10 something years ago for riding a Honda c90 moped through half the Asia and Europe. He is filming with a handheld camera on the motorbike so the content is hilariously low quality and he has like 10 mins of footage per country but it’s an absolute delight to watch. So unfiltered and humane.


Seriously check this out https://youtube.com/watch?v=mPne-q4ynts


He is still doing some travel content. This time with proper motor gear and a gopro but the fun and casualness is still there.


The issue is, I like watching travel youtube and seek out nice channels constantly but I have spent years doing so without coming across this channel. It was only when I was looking for some motorbiking videos someone on Reddit half jokingly recommended this and so I came across.


So I suspect there is still a lot of authentic content out there. Just not sure how to find it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don’t agree with this. Homogenisation is a side of integrating into the global market economy. However a lot of countries achieved this integration without getting richer and better off. I have travelled in plenty of poor but modernised places and plenty of poor but not so modernised places. It was very clear for me that the people generally had a nicer life in the second ones.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have travelled Latin America extensively and there is a very large disparity in safety between countries/cities/neighborhoods. Also some places are rife with crimes where only the gang members kill each other while in others randos on the street are also targeted. I have found Argentina/Chile/Peru to be very safe places for example. Brazil was overall horrible and Colombian cities seemed to have decent areas and very bad ones.


My advantage might have been that I am quite a Mediterranean looking guy so I don't stand out as a tourist. Most people by default assumed I was Brazilian or something. I am a bit apprehensive that in Africa I will be very noticeably a foreigner.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My ex-girlfriend had lived in India for a year so I heard a lot of stories. Even as a brown complexion short Kurdish gal she was apparently approached ALL THE TIME. Like almost every 10 minutes every time she was outside. Sounded like an exhausting experience. But I definitely want to see it at least once. Any suggestions for interesting parts? My biggest fear is to go to India for a couple weeks and spend the whole time shitting my guts out with heavy diarrhea.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Most of Africa, Latin America, Arab countries without infinite oil. Iran. Afghanistan. Don't know that much about Asia. Even much of Turkey is in this category in a way even though we are somewhat wealthier. Many of these places uprooted the poor, parochial but somewhat functional traditional lifestyle of their populations in a quest of modernization and industry. Tens of millions flowing into massive and honestly horrible cities as cheap labour force. The expectation was that industry would make everyone better off eventually, and these transitionary problems would be resolved through wealth. Just like in Europe.


However this obviously failed and many of these countries are actually actively de-industrializing for decades. Their connection with the global market economy turned into acting as resource extraction centers and cheap low quality immigrant labour breeders. They are dependent on commodity price super cycles, IMF loans, remittances, tourism and bare minimum of low efficiency industry for items difficult to import from China. Politics are at a total mess as the pie doesn't grow and the only way to lead a good life is to leech off the society somehow. All the millions who left poor but resilient lives in the country with strong traditional communities, honest labour, security, clean water and local food sources are now leading poor anonymous lives within crumbling city neighborhoods rife with crime and drugs, pollution, water you would rather not even brush your teeth with, and have to feed themselves with cheapest shittiest industrially convenient diets (sugar and grains). There are very few good jobs typically only in extractive industries such as mining or drilling if you aren't well-connected. The political elites have resigned themselves to steal as much as possible and send their kids to the first world.


P.S. I am not idealizing the traditional country life by the way. It was also quite suboptimal in many ways and people left for a reason, often voluntarily. I am simply saying that the replacement hasn't left these societies much better off.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That looks extremely dangerous, illegal and somewhat staged for social media sometimes. But still love me some post-industrial landscapes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nice tip! Not yet rich but planning to be doing much better soon and enjoy DINK life for a couple years before kids. Gonna definitely check it out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My "method" for more grounded traveling was learning basics of the language, and then hitchhiking and dating trying to be very open-minded about invitations. That doesn't work since I am not single anymore and have a full-time job with limited vacation days..


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Absolutely correct. This is where I was trying to get to when I was complaining how it is difficult to find good critical information. Fuck TOP 10 EXPERIENCES I want to know if the area has tigers/alligators/cartels/spider that instantly kills you/guerrilla groups.


It is a fun story to tell now, but I was pissed off big time at the time when I hitched up a mountain village in Central Colombia to see some interesting ruins and turned out the local guerrilla group decided to blockade the whole area for a week, blow up the power lines and threaten to attack any vehicle so nobody dared to drive around the whole time.


I would have definitely preferred any of the internet/book sources I checked to give some honest info so I would at least be prepared for potential problems lol


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Turkish passport is bad for first world, but quite top notch for any country on-par or poorer than us. Definitely understand the sentiment


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe he is right actually. Being near the common backpacker routes mean lots of cheap hostel infrastructure. If the country is not dirt poor, going off the route can mean your only option for accommodation might become more expensive local hotels (unless you are okay with bed-bug infested prostitution hotels)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 4, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It might be something I imagined or misunderstood because English isn't my native language and I only got good at it around 2015. But I always get the feeling that the construct of "amid " is almost exclusively used by leftie mainstream media to associate something with a bad slant.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 4, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not proud of this but I blocked him for a while. I enjoy dating related talk in motte and it is very annoying that he just comes and repeats same nonsense under every comments. Not sure if it is trolling or genuine mental breakdown. Gonna unblock and check back in a month if I remember


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 4, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lol. Why Southern?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Like, the kind of woman whose father gets arrested for molesting a disabled boy, who knows perfectly well that he is guilty, and who allows him to be alone with her children anyway.




That is weirdly specific


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And, while Eastern European women often drink too much, they are also very often good at not eating too much, and I like tall/slim women




If we are going full on with stereotypes, they also often tend to age very very badly. I guess it is a combination of dry skin, too much cosmetics, alcohol and unhealthy diets.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And many of those kids have relatives in Russia who are an obvious choice for adoptive parents. I agree that bullshit like this rings glaring alarm bells when I am reading other Western reporting about the war.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


when its northern border with Russia is reinforced on both sides and makes raids impossible




Were those raids ever anything other than PR for Western media and Ukrainian domestic jingoism? They generate lots of media attention and allows headlines in Europe to the tune of "partisans advancing into Moscow" which are always useful as average normie has lost all interest in the war other than seeing the occasional headline.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


we really should have made that incredibly clear




Why? What would the Americans and even the Taiwanese ever gain from this? Taiwan got very very wealthy from acting as the competent capitalist step-brother to China trying to explore capitalism. All this rhetoric about liberal democratic Taiwan against big bad oppressive China is quite new. Taiwan was also an oppressive military dictatorship for most of its history.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is the argument here that the US was upholding some important international norm when they kept ridiculous corrupt occupation governments in Iraq and Afghanistan for decades to the great detriment of their populations, and then left them as smoldering ruins refusing to take any responsibility?


Many observers in important positions around the World deducted from these events that American leaders don't give a shit about any of their rhetoric, are short-sighted, unreliable, agreement-incapable and live in their own media narrative where they are always right in the end. They will make up norms when it suits them and adjust them mid-game if it doesn't suit them anymore.


Unfortunately I believe Ukrainians are due to discover this as well after sacrificing their youth and their relations with their only important neighbor for drip-fed fickle promises.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


think I see some "citation needed" here.




There is no great mystery here. Russian conventional army is very mediocre because they are spending enormous amounts of their military budget (which isn't even that high) keeping up with the latest nuclear capabilities and missile delivery systems.




"Where is the Russian Air Force?" has been the millionbillion-ruble question in this whole war.




Yeah but no, again there is no great mystery. Their air assets were definitely present early in the war when they expected a quick victory with a small force. But Russian Air Force is small, and is not really fit for fighting against capable air defense. That is what happens when you have a limited military budget and spend it on very expensive nuclear systems. None of this was unknown.




Pre-war, every serious defense analyst I could find expected them to systematically dismantle Ukraine in something that looked like the US Gulf War 1




Because they expected an invasion with near full power of the Russian army rolling across the border. This is not the invasion that actually took place and so what is the point of taking attrition to your valuable air assets when it is not going to accomplish anything because the army is not suited for it?