Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Travel locally, where you are

ssp.sh

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 81 posts

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#71

Post by oulipo2 »

graemep wrote: post #66
fluoridation wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it is quite literally a conservative position (a refusal of change), and the right is typically conservative.

I think right equals conservative has not been true for a long time. It is the right that promoted globalisation. In many countries it was the right that privatised formally state owned industries. In the UK in the 70s the right wanted to join the EEC (and Conservative Party governments supported greater integration for decades afterwards), and the left opposed it. All big changes. The current US government seems to…

Right = "let me do this thing for myself to get ahead, and then forbid everyone else to do the same"

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#72

Post by TFNA »

oulipo2 wrote: post #70
TFNA wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that that diversity you claim for Europe has declined greatly in the last couple of decades. Wherever you go, local young people have been following the same global social media for long years now, which has had a leveling effect. Even among the language diversity, what people are saying in their own languages is often calqued on English. In the 1990s and early millennium, opposing globalization (especially…

That's a global problem everywhere. But when you're traveling locally, you go there for the landscapes / buildings / history / cuisine. Not necessarily to hang out with people on TikTok

People travel for different reasons, including to interact with local people. For the last decade-plus, I have spent about six months a year traveling the world in a way (bicycle, off popular routes) that involves a lot of conversations with locals and practicing the local languages. So, I have seen firsthand how those conversations with local people across Europe and the world have increasingly involved the same global phenomena from social media as anywhere else – and, disturbingly, a lot of young men want to talk about Andrew Tate or other English-language manosphere stuff.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#73

Post by fluoridation »

TFNA wrote: post #69
fluoridation wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it is quite literally a conservative position (a refusal of change), and the right is typically conservative.

Depends at how you look at it. You can also see cultural diversity as sticking up for the little guy against corporate behemoths and as decentralized bottom-up organizing, i.e. things the left has often claimed to pursue. Peoples being encouraged to maintain their own language in a purist state and develop culture from their own internal resources, was a notable feature of first-generation Communism in the USSR (befo…

The right/left distinction is less meaningful in authoritarian single-party regimes. The Soviet Union and Maoist China were obviously economically leftist, but politically, authoritarian regimes often align in similar ways, regardless of their economical policies. Pro-nationalist policies are favored by them because they're useful to their purposes; you wouldn't want your influence being diluted by outside cultural and economic forces.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#74

Post by ericmay »

oneneptune wrote: post #59
ericmay wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are generally correct, despite the rebuttals in the reply comments to yours. But I think the challenge here is that we can have great places if we do the following: 1. Focus on transportation and ways of living that focus on walking or taking a tram. 2. Create and support medium-density, mixed-use neighborhoods 3. Require good, sound architectural principles. When you think of Paris and those narrow streets or th…

I'd love to do all 3, and actively push my city council to prioritize rezoning for mixed use + medium density.. and eliminating parking minimums. I previously lived in NYC and it was true like the author said; I could have boundless weekend trips to a variety of places with Amtrak + Bus service.

I do as well here where I live. The one battle I will unfortunately always lose because of upfront cost and because people stopped caring about Western civilization is the quality architecture battle. I get it we should build build build, but I do wish we could build build build lasting, high-quality, architecturally sound buildings which would raise property values and lived experience wherever implemented.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#75

Post by TFNA »

fluoridation wrote: post #73
TFNA wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends at how you look at it. You can also see cultural diversity as sticking up for the little guy against corporate behemoths and as decentralized bottom-up organizing, i.e. things the left has often claimed to pursue. Peoples being encouraged to maintain their own language in a purist state and develop culture from their own internal resources, was a notable feature of first-generation Communism in the USSR (befo…

The right/left distinction is less meaningful in authoritarian single-party regimes. The Soviet Union and Maoist China were obviously economically leftist, but politically, authoritarian regimes often align in similar ways, regardless of their economical policies. Pro-nationalist policies are favored by them because they're useful to their purposes; you wouldn't want your influence being diluted by outside cultural a…

That’s an overly cynical view in the context I mentioned above. Lenin was advocating for more language rights and cultural self-development opportunities for the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire years before he had any glimmer of hope of seizing power. At that time, the “authoritarian single-party regime” that leftism in Russia opposed was the tsarist rule, which didn’t permit any local autonomy until after the 1905 Revolution, and even then only grudgingly.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#76

Post by fluoridation »

TFNA wrote: post #75
fluoridation wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right/left distinction is less meaningful in authoritarian single-party regimes. The Soviet Union and Maoist China were obviously economically leftist, but politically, authoritarian regimes often align in similar ways, regardless of their economical policies. Pro-nationalist policies are favored by them because they're useful to their purposes; you wouldn't want your influence being diluted by outside cultural a…

That’s an overly cynical view in the context I mentioned above. Lenin was advocating for more language rights and cultural self-development opportunities for the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire years before he had any glimmer of hope of seizing power. At that time, the “authoritarian single-party regime” that leftism in Russia opposed was the tsarist rule, which didn’t permit any local autonomy until after…

Sounds like it's just something he personally believed in, then. Using a communist rationale I could argue that actually no, the proletariat of Russia and of Patagonia are one and the same, and should speak some common tongue (even if one besides their native one) to foster cooperation and solidarity.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#77

Post by graemep »

oulipo2 wrote: post #71
graemep wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think right equals conservative has not been true for a long time. It is the right that promoted globalisation. In many countries it was the right that privatised formally state owned industries. In the UK in the 70s the right wanted to join the EEC (and Conservative Party governments supported greater integration for decades afterwards), and the left opposed it. All big changes. The current US government seems to…

Right = "let me do this thing for myself to get ahead, and then forbid everyone else to do the same"

Examples? Preferably European given the context of the thread. Ideally UK. Anywhere OK if you are struggling for European examples though.

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#78

Post by PaulRobinson »

oneneptune wrote: post #10

This is great unless you live in an area of almost absolute geographic and social homogeny in a 100 mile / 160 km radius. "Yo friends, want to drive an hour and see if the fast food in a strip mall is the same as our fast food in a strip mall" just doesn't quite land or "Want to drive 45 minutes and walk in a park that was built in the early aughts and lacks proper shade and had all it's benches removed just like our…

Maybe try and get away from the strip malls. :)

I bet there is a river somewhere near you. Explored all of it? What about a hill? Is there a road you've never driven down? It might have some stuff down it you've not seen before. Have you explored all the flora and fauna around you? Obviously you need to stay off private land, but I would be amazed if there is absolutely zero variation in any topology, geology, animal/plant life, or other factor within a 100 mile radius of you.

If that is the case, can you tell us where that is? I want to visit exactly once and never go there again. It sounds both magical and terrifying in one instance, and reminds me of a friend who drove down Route 66 and found the expansive empty plains "the most claustrophobic thing I've ever experienced in my life".

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#79

Post by qurren »

daemonologist wrote: post #33
legerdemain wrote: post #13

Notably: > here in Switzerland

I admit I snorted when that was mentioned. It's frequently ranked as the most desirable place to live on earth. Not to say the message of the article is completely without merit - there are things to see and do almost everywhere. But if I just get in the car and start driving I will 95% of the time find only strip malls and cornfields. Perhaps a suburban park with some trees.

Switzerland is not unique in that aspect.

Pick any mountainous, desert, or coastal part of the world and you are guaranteed scenery for ~95% of the drive.

Pick any historic part of the world and you are guaranteed nice-looking buildings anywhere you walk.

A sizeable fraction of the world fits into either of the above. Yeah, if you live in cornfields and strip malls, you aren't going to find much interesting. But in fact, most of the world isn't like that. Arguably the cornfields and strip malls are the minority.

Throw a dart anywhere on Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Indonesia, Norway, China, India, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Namibia, the southwestern US, northwestern US, or Mexico. You'll find lots of interesting things wherever your dart landed. These aren't very cherry-picked countries, I just named a few off the top of my head that come to mind where the "dart anyhere is interesting" is true. My point is that the world is full of "Switzerlands".

Re: Travel locally, where you are

#80

Post by geekasm »

snicky wrote: post #14
zazuke wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it also much more relaxing if you just go, with less planning, and more surprises. Travel as the wind takes you, that's it.

I usually prefer to make a detailed plan for my trip, but I allow myself to break free from it anytime I find something more interesting to do. This way I'm more sure that I won't waste too much time or money staying in wrong places, choosing wrong means of transport and falling for some tourist traps or common scams.

+1. failing to plan is planning to fail
Post reply on HN