USA Culture Shock Part 5: Fear Porn!
I've been out of the USA for three years and I just got back. I'm feeling a bit woozy. Will somebody give me a pill? I haven't listened to US propaganda TV for years. I think they're trying to tell me I should find a rock and hide underneath it until I drop dead, because EVERYTHING seems fear based!
It's on the radio, it's on every news channel, pick up a magazine or a newspaper; it's everywhere. There's a boogie man in every corner of the globe and they all want to destroy America. Vladamir Putin, Kim Jung Un, Communist China, and especially our very own publicly elected president Donald Trump.
Here are a few excerpts from recent conversations...
"I think we're heading to war with China". My reply "do you really think you're going to see China dropping bombs over Saratoga New York? "Well, they could nuke us".
"I went on vacation to Cancun. I loved it. We felt safe. We all had a great time" a friend of the family explained. I commented "that is one of my favorite places and I'm looking forward to going back." She replied "Oh, we'll never go back, I read an article about the crime in Mexico and it just scared me too much. I can't go back there now."
"Putin can't be trusted, we'll be at war with Russia before you know it"
"This country could erupt into civil war, especially if Trump is killed or impeached"
"I don't even feel comfortable going out in public anymore, you know there's a terrorist training camp just north of here"
"I couldn't travel how you do, it's just way too scary"
Between bike helmet laws, a drinking age of 21 where the rest of the world more or less doesn't even care, and having to pick up your dogs turd in fear of getting a fine. It seems like everyone is walking on egg shells. Let's not forget political correctness and the fear of offending people just by having an opinion. The fear of police is big too. You don't want to accidentally commit suicide by cop!
The level of fear and ignorance I see is mind boggling. People are experts in TV and sports; and generally repeat what they hear. Everyone talks from a fear based position. Everyone is angry about something. Nobody seems grateful about anything.
Looking forward to getting to Thailand, but I need to make the most of my time here and be positive. I am happily getting this culture shock off my chest. Thank you my steemit friends! Any comments or culture shock coping advice is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
World Travel Pro
watching TV at my folks place is like putting the THEY LIVE glasses back on
your writing is sooo astute, and funny! Travel really is a wonderful education - my advice, eat your favourite things you can't get elsewhere and hunker down until you can get back to reality
Advice taken!
OMG
Here's the thing about picking up after your dog: If you don't do it the dog crap stays where it was dropped. If everyone doesn't do it you've soon got a city inundated with dog crap as pervasive as the 'fear' propaganda being pushed in every mainstream media channel.
There are poop wars in my old town in California. I still keep up with them and lately the townsfolk have been attaching light-up poop bag dispensers to various trees in town. with not much restraint. This leads to people putting the poop in a bag and leaving the bag on the ground for the poop dispenser buying person to gather each morning and put in the trash.
I used to walk that town in the dead of night taking photos and I am not in favor of light up poop bag dispensers but I would surely be photographing them if I was there. They each have a unique sign based on the person who put it up. I'm waiting on The City to step up and regulate this new practice.
I say - a world without dogs would be better for everyone but few agree with me.
After reading this "back and forth" I feel like my article must have been all bout dog sh*t! lol!
My old beach town is also up in arms about sand getting in storm drains, so be lucky if I don't give you details on that stupidity.
This analogy has gotten out of hand and I love it.
A world without dogs would be a world with a lot less love.
Most people agree with you, but I see how dogs are mistreated and cause controversy and make people sick. I do not think it evens out to the good side, but it does not matter because I will never win this argument.
I'm afraid of them, but I have had to live with them and take care of them for people. My eyes were opened as to how bad people treat their pets, most specifically - ignoring them, not walking them, not bathing them, and feeding them food that makes them ill if they remember to feed them at all.
But then they tell you they love them. It's a mystery to me.
Take it for what it is. For a short time you'll be living in modern day fear-based America, then you get to move on to bigger and better things! Take this as just another life experience, and spread a positive message where you can. Sound like the people around you need it.
I couldn't ask for better advice. Thank you!
f the cops
Thank you for the lunchtime laugh, cry, and walk down memory lane. Now you know why I feel like a refugee and after over a year I have not yet recovered. I warned you not to engage on any controversial topics but I forgot they are all controversial.
I'll be back to go over all these and get you (short lol) replies, but all I can tell you is to stay chill and try to ignore what you can. If you need any kind of pill, ask around and you will have it. Finally - do not eat regular chicken! Or anything else. Or drink the water. Or watch tv. No wonder I was such a mess.
You are super cool! I know what you mean feeling like a refugee. I simply wouldn't want to raise a family here, expose my children to all this, Just the vaccine issue alone is enough to run for the hills. Then finding healthy food cost a fortune and is like walking through a mind field!
I hear you! Especially where you come from now. I'm in a butt-ton of Ecuador groups and they are all happy as clams. Loja, Cuenca, Quito, Guayaquil, Manta, Galapagos - all groups filled with happy people thrilled with their luck. Ecuador was my second pick but Thailand won for public transport, medical and farther away from the us.
I am holding back on advice not to make it harder for you. I want my son out of there so bad. It's a nightmare.
Advise away! You are a plethora of good information! My second choice was Thialand, but I chose Ecuador because of the money deal, visa, same timezone to call home after years of 12 hour time differenc. But now that I'm secure with my investments in Ecuador I'm just committed to seeing the world, one adventure at a time. But hands down Thailand is my favorite country by far. An hour massage is still about 6 dollars right?
Yes, it is, and very athletic! I freak those girls out! They have never touched anyone in as much pain as me. I draw the whole crowd in with worried looks and everyone trying to think how to adjust their methods. I gave up after trying about 20 times. They want to help but it does not help.
You should have got the second passport. But good on you to have the stability. Did you buy apartments or homes to rent or something else?
Thank you. To get the second passport means I needed to stay there another year, and become a citizen. To be a citicen in Ecuador carries some strange responsibilities that I didn't want to deal with. I'm content with how it is. I've just got accounts, cards, and my backpack. I've done property before, it's way too much of a headache for now. I can't imagine the suffereing you've gone through with the autoamune disease. That painful..wow.
Yeah, it stinks. I was realizing today that my feet are really going south. I have to work on them but I hate doing it. It's like a Victorian torture scenario. You Tube shows all kinds of success but it always starts by saying it will hurt more than usual. By that they mean agony for days and weeks on end.
The Rx I used to take almost killed me a few times over the years and people die from them constantly in my groups so I'm not going back. We often get the notification of someone going to the hospital for infection and a day later they are dead. I am extremely fortunate to have survived my time on those drugs.
I've got stress out the wazoo recently and that is a no-no second only to bad food. My work tagline is "Be sure to fitinfun no matter what" for a reason.
Interesting you decided not to go for the passport. So many people push the idea in my Ecuador groups for a variety of reasons. I will pay more attention, but it's a big fiesta over there when someone succeeds in jumping through the hoops. Very few anticipate ever returning to where they came from unless they turn around and leave quickly. And you are the only one I know who is setting off for parts unknown after being there for a long time. Good on you.
Backpack or not, I need to offload some garbage possessions out of my life! I have so much stuff for someone rootless. I have no idea how this happens.
Man, you've been through a lot. Yes I realize I don't like to stay in one place for too long, I find myself sitting around doing nothing and getting bored. I love the adventure of seeing new places and doing new things. I'm like a culture junky. I love to experience different cultures and see how they live. If find it highly educational.
Hi! I'm Chris! @luzcypher turned me onto your page. I'm about to do what you're doing, well in general- I don't know what you're doing at this very moment. I'm leaving to go around the world for as long as I can make it last starting in September. Today I'm deciding whether to head west from Ohio to Australia first, or East to Europe... I'm thinking because winter will be coming in Europe, Australia may be better. Enough about me, I completely agree with your post. I just came back to Ohio to visit my family for a couple months before my newest adventure starts and fear mongering is all the rage. My parents have the tv on all day and all I see is "Feel bad about your life" "Buy this and you will feel better" "The world is a scary place" "You'll die if you walk out of the house." My mother's response when I said I was probably going to start in Europe was, "Don't you think that's dangerous with all that's going on over there?" ....? AAAAGHH! She's in more danger of dying in a car accident on the way to the local mall. It's a shame. I rode my bicycle across the USA in the late nineties. The number one response my riding partner and I got from people was, "Are you going to take a gun?" My response was usually, "No, we're going to take maps."
@luzcypher is a super cool guy. Met up with him in Playa del Carmen Mexico twice. There's a post about it on my blog area just down a week or two. I just gone done with a two month adventure from South Ecuador to up through central America and poppoing out of Cancun to spend 5 weeks in up-state NY area with friends and family.
Then I'm out to Thailand laos on the 6th of August- first week of December. Then to Florida for a week. Then Ecuador for and traveling South East to through Central America and flying out of Buenos Aires Argintina to Portugal and parts of Europe. That about 6-10 month plan at the moment. But it's hard to plan that far out.
I see you mention that you want to travel "as long as you can make it".....if you're talking about money running out; then I would highly not recommend Australia or Europe. Do you have a lot of travel Experience? Are you traveling alone. What parts of the world are you familiar with?
Yeah coming back to America has been a trip. I'm glad you found my post interesting. It's a bit strange that series of post and can perceived in a political light, or could be found offensive. I'm not really shooting for that on here. If you scroll down on my blog you can see "travel reports". They have earned the most money and up-votes. I plan to start sticking to that. I want you to read a couple of them and see the format, travel scale, style of writing.
If you can mimic/copy that style of writing using that scale. Assuming it's good and infomative. You can report on places you visit too, and I'll resteem them at my new handle @travel-report. I plan on building that up with follower and networking a crew of travel reporters to write no nonsense reports in that style. If you can do that I think only good things will come.
I just read your into. I've been traveling like 10 years. I see you're looking for advice. Not sure what your plan is, but if you have question or two I can answer. If you really new to this I could even meet you on skype and give you a little consultation on how you can more for less.
Don't have time to edit what I wrote. Hope it's ok. Thanks for checking in.- Dan
returning To Australia for me feels like going back to Seahaven Island - the town in 'The Truman Show'
F-in A! It is the Truman Show here. I'm having a hard time hearing about the latest thing people bought too. People here are all experts in products and propaganda. Instead of filling their heads with knowledge it's filled with propoganda and excitement over food and products. I don't recall it being this bad years ago.
Everyone loves to talk about the latest thing they bought, then they go off to work 50 hours a week to slave for the next item. I'm so far gone from that mineset I can't even begin to explain.
Everyone has a dream car, a dream house, a dream phone, a dream boyfriend/girlfriend, a dream counter-top, a dream oven, a dream sofa, a dream TV even. It's one endless shopping spree of never content with what they already have! Now we import "dreamers"! from all around the world.
ugh. Things make me sick. Things I have to care for or store away or get friends to care for, or things that make me stay stuck... things. Currently I feel tied down by a massage table and a crockpot
lol. My folks are so disturbed that I can fit all my belongings in a backpack, that they are taking me shopping for new clothes even though I don't have room for another T-shirt. We'll see what happens. So glad you enjoyed my articles. Going to find time this weekend to bang out a bunch more travel tips and reports for this coming week. I've been so busy since I've gotten to the USA, just going with the flow of the people around me, I'm busy busy busy. No time or anything! lol. Looking forward to getting back to a more simple slower pace of life in Thailand!
I agree man. Turn off the TV and think for yourself. It's the best way.
Yes it is the best way!