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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1050 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Matt Lakeman is a blogger who reads books about a country, visits that country, and synthesizes this experience into a single article. He also has some type of crossover with SSC which might explain why his posts are memoir sized. The most recent post-Taliban Afghanistan travel post where he visits each provincial capital in Afghanistan I thought was fun. Fair warning, In This House Long Form Means Long Form. It is over 45,000 words, so clear your Sunday afternoon.

Lakeman writes throughout about the overwhelming positive attention, hospitality, and friendliness he received from local Afghans. He relays he wasn't bothered by most Taliban members he interacts with -- mostly they are bored security guards -- although notes at least one scary character. Norms of politeness, friendliness, generosity, and "sovereignty" are mentioned throughout the memoir. As I understand, he means sovereignty as shorthand for the likelihood of an individual of a culture to value a stranger's personal space, which Afghans most certainly do not. A real quagmire for nerdy travel bloggers! The positive attention he received was so great that Lakeman has dubbed Afghanistan the friendliest place on earth-- a title won from previous champ, Iraq.

Is this fun? Unsure, but I'm deleting all the other jibber jabber I wrote about it. General travel thread... and/or travel blog thread.

P.S. If you do read it consider evaluating this claim. "I think there is something to the idea that being – by Western standards – overly friendly and hospitable to strangers is indicative of a collectivistic and tribalistic mentality that in extremis leads to terrible conflict, often intranationally"

P.P.S. Bonus internet throwback Off-Road Trip Through the Democratic Republic of Congo series of forum posts circa 2010 (also long) This one is definitely fun.

Matt sounds like a social masochist to me. He hates interacting with people, but then insists on traveling alone to interact with as many different people as possible. I still enjoy his travelogues a lot.

Hah! I haven't gotten the impression he hates interacting with locals. He has a strong mind for independence, is somewhat guarded, but he must have higher openness than most to want to do what he does. His own personal hell is probably traveling to Hawaii or Prague with 3 other couples to bicker about the daily itinerary. Now that'd be fun.

Lakeman and other travel authors like him is a primary reason why I have decided against "adventurous" traveling myself. Few times I have traveled outside comfortable business/touristy districts of first world cities (hardly counts as "travel"), I have been stressed, generally don't get along with people, and I have been too busy to read extensively on the history of the place, thus no remarkable insights either. Any distilled report of travel experiences by Mr Lakeman is far more interesting and informative than most of the genuine travel memories I possess.

I half-liked The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux. A more "old-school" travelogue that focuses on the experiences and navel-gazing thoughts of the author, not the kind of critical deep dive to the local history combined with the straight reporting of events that Mr. Lakeman does. Coincidentally Mr. Theroux visited Afghanistan in the 1970s before the Soviet invasion. Apparently Kabul railway was popular with hippies traveling to India, and everyone's preconceptions of "Afghanistan" were quite different than today.

If someone can recommend other authors who focus on the "facts and events" style reporting, please do tell.

For anyone debating reading that off-road trip thread, do it. One of the best reading experienced I've had online.

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