Right it’s scared white people who watch too much teevee, but of course it’s not just an international effect. I’ve talked to plenty of hillbillies that would be absolutely terrified to go to, say, Chicago and instead opt for places like Dollywood.
1 Like
Any place with brown people or where they don’t speak American is terrifying to them.
My parents are liberal and pretty normal people, but when it comes to travel, going anywhere that doesn’t speak English is basically a non-starter for them. SMH.
This may not be peak boomer, but it’s close.
This problem is entirely solved by smartphones.
1 Like
Luckily for them like half the world speaks some English even if it isn’t the primary language.
2 Likes
Fear of traveling abroad is correlated to being a Republican (see: Fox News on any given night). Being a Republican is highly correlated with being a racist.
No not 100% of it is racism and having some anxiety and fear of the unknown is normal.
So what would be their excuse for not going to say India or the Philippines?
I think they’d just feel uncomfortable
Was just about to make this exact point.
I don’t think there’s even a remotely touristy area of Europe where you couldn’t get by knowing solely English.
2 Likes
But they can’t claim that the problem is a lack of English? So what would they say is the reason for the discomfort?
I’m gonna nit you on bolded. I’d say at best it “might not be more sinister” and more likely “is probably more sinister”.
I think some people with that objection have at least a sprinkling of racism behind it.
I’m not sure if it is correlation or causation tbh. Certainly none of the people I know who have traveled the world are racists and all are lefties. Whether the traveling changed them or they were drawn to travel because of their worldview and anti-racism I am not sure.
I can explain to my parents all I want how they’d be fine with English in the vast majority of places, but it doesn’t mean they’re gonna take my word for it though.
And maybe it’s not just English speaking, but also cultural familiarity. My parents know very little about India or the Philippines, and I think it would be intimidating for them being in a totally different culture. Plus in the US people grow up conditioned to think that all this crazy fucked up shit happens in the 3rd world countries, so better to play it safe.
Obviously you know them better than I, but I think what you’ve posted here is the real reason, and they’re using “no English” as a proxy that plays better.
1 Like
I always shame people who stay stuff like this by comparing crime rates where they live to somewhere they perceive as dangerous. Also the US is very dangerous compared to most places when ranking by violent crime.
The nicer way to do it I suppose is to point out that of the millions of overseas trips we hear about in the states very very few end in disaster. The few that do we get hammered with news stories over.
Like your odds of being raped or murdered over a weekend are much higher in St. Louis than Bangkok.
Oh yea, I agree. I was merely noting that they’ve never traveled to non-English speaking countries, the non-english wasn’t meant to be the only reason!
Ok, so what about Italy? Would they go or not?
But at least in St. Louis you can have a conversation with the officer who is going to do approximately nothing about it.
3 Likes
I mean, probably?
But there’s only so much time and there’s a bunch of places in the US and Canada that would be higher on their list lol.