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What's up with these youtubers going to asian countries and acting super disrespectful?

Taki

Taki

Attempt to circumvent a ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,308
When I travel, I have a rule: if you're in a foreign country, you're essentially a guest in someone else's house. And when you're a houseguest, you should be on extra good behavior and act in such a way that is better than how you would even normally act in your own house.

So when I see these youtubers like RiceGum and Logan Paul going to these reserved, polite east asian countries and taking advantage of people's hospitality and reservedness by acting in such a disrespectful manner that they would never dare act like in public in their own home countries, I get really irritated.

If these assholes treated people this way in public in america, they would get beaten up so fast. But these youtubers see asians as meek and easy to take advantage of.

I think East Asian countries should come down hard, legally speaking, on badly behaving tourists to discourage this type of behavior from rowdy tourists and exploitative youtubers alike.

This is a video recap (it's in english) on Ricegum's recent visit to Hong Kong. Worst part is that he himself is asian american but is making fun of Hong Kong residents' english ability and perpetuating stereotypes that asians like to eat dogs:

 

Holundrian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,166
I feel bad for the bad picture this throws on everyone that is a decent person. But on the other hand America doesn't exactly stand on a real moral highground to deny any stereotypes. Looking at what is happening over there like it's hard to be even surprised at this kind of behavior. There is an obvious big group of people that generally have no regard for their other especially when it comes down to personal gain.
 
Becks'

Becks'

User requested ban
Banned
Dec 7, 2017
7,480
Canada
Those are just attention-seeking YouTubers, they gain subscribers and views thanks to dramas and controversies. That is why they act like that. Plus, their fans love that (Dab on the haters, amirite? Right?). I'm sure a lot of YouTubers go to East Asian countries and act nicely. RiceGum and Logan Paul are outliers.
 
DigitalOp

DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,292
Holundrian said:
I feel bad for the bad picture this throws on everyone that is a decent person. But on the other hand America doesn't exactly stand on a real moral highground to deny any stereotypes. Looking at what is happening over there like it's hard to be even surprised at this kind of behavior. There is an obvious big group of people that generally have no regard for their other especially when it comes down to personal gain.
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It's the American way sadly.

It's what were taught. That no other country is important.
 
Bronx-Man

Bronx-Man

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,351
People that've been sheltered and spoiled their entire lives tend to react the worst when they're in another culture.
 

Randomly Generated

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,446
Part of it is probably that when you're in a totally saturated market like YouTube, one of the few ways to stand out is through controversy. So they see the views an idiot like Logan Paul gets on one of those videos and they try to copy it, thinking it'll help get attention.
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

Member
Oct 30, 2017
19,089
It caters to their shitty fans who like to watch privileged people treating the world like one big playground.
 
tokkun

tokkun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,413
There are countless videos of Americans being jackasses within the US, so I'm not sure where you get the idea that people would never act like that in their home country.
 
Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,108
China
I actually wondered, since my wife watched some monetized reaction videos to that, whether its morally okay to profit from someone being a racist and how many of those monetized reaction videos are made in good faith.
 

Shoeless

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,000
Hypocrisy if they're American? I mean, I know America prides itself--or used to--on freedom and stuff, but when you have people screaming at other Americans to speak English because "you're in America now!" or call the police they're eight years old and selling bottles of water on the street... Maybe they just view as payback. "You spit in my backyard, so I'll spit in yours!"
 
VB32

VB32

Member
Oct 27, 2017
93
Views
They act like total dipshits and there fanbase rewards them with likes and buying merch
 
Killthee

Killthee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,169
These idiots act like assholes in their homes too.

https://mic.com/articles/182398/soc...od-into-a-living-hell-and-war-zone#.Gm3s6PfEF

MjUyZmU1NWI0YiMvZDZVNjFobDVnVDREOEh1MFBpUXpYUjV1WTJBPS9maXQtaW4vNzYweDAvZmlsdGVyczpub191cHNjYWxlKCk6Zm9ybWF0KGpwZWcpOnF1YWxpdHkoODApL2h0dHBzOi8vczMuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9wb2xpY3ltaWMtaW1hZ2VzLzh0OXl4MG1ucHNxZ2dmZHFlcWozNnd0bjBkNzVub241c2p6bDR5aHJ3dmNndXd0Y2NlazVzczZ5eHMwMmNneXguanBn.jpg
 
Ratrat

Ratrat

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,867
Well, that was hard to watch. It's nothing new or unique to Youtube though. Shitty comedians like Tom green and John knoxvile were tdoing this years ago.
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,512
Indonesia
Dead Guy said:
I would change that to vloggers honestly. YouTube is full of really talented people that create everything from video essays to short films. Vloggers are bottom of the barrel though and I haven't seen one that has any kind of talent or is entertaining to me.
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There are some great vloggers that I enjoy. OnlyinJapanGO, Mikey Chen, Mark Wiens. Many food vloggers and tech youtubers are nice and respectful people (at least the ones that I watch :P )
 
Orin_linwe

Orin_linwe

Member
Nov 26, 2017
706
Malmoe, Sweden.
They're consciously taking advantage of cultures that - in a general, maybe stereotypical way - tend to not address issues of hurt feelings, anger, humiliation, or other complex emotional states in a directly confrontational manner.

Going to another country already gives most people a sense of unreality to their actions and conduct. You're a tourist, so any consequences of your actions are already diminished by the fact that you won't stick around for more than a week or so.

You've also (ostensibly) worked hard for this vacation - dammit! - so you might see people from another country and culture in a kind of "customer-service" context. Every minute that you're there is many times more expensive than staying at home, so any irritation felt, or (perceived) slight experienced, is going to make most people considerably less chill than they would be, at home.

Why people behave badly when going abroad is an interesting topic, and - when taken to the extreme - leads people to commit very serious crimes without necessarily feeling bad about those crimes, because it was committed in another country - in the realm of unreality - and thus does not count.

This is, of course, a bit beside the point that the people the OP asked about are garbage people who antagonize and humiliate strangers on video for profit precisely because they know the risk of any serious retaliation - or any retaliation at all - is very small.

As individuals, they don't deserve any kind of intellectualizing on why they specifically did what they did. That they've managed to monetize sociopathic behavior isn't interesting, and many more will probably end up doing the same, moving forward.

But, on some level, the mechanics I mention are still at play here, and sorta compound the issue. It's also further compounded by the way we've collectively agreed to give leeway to - or excessively punish - the behavior of individuals depending on factors like skin-color, expressed gender, perceived attractiveness, and a bunch of other things that are hard to pin down and address on their own (and you might feel silly for trying to do so) but that, in aggregate, leads people to have wildly different interpretations of reality.

When you see other people, and the context they live within, as less real than your everyday-existence, transgressions - benign or very serious - become easier to commit.

When you also move through this context in your own little story of unreality - aka, "I'm just going to be here for a little while, and nothing I do will actually seriously impact me back home, or mean anything in the way I perceive myself as a person" - acting inhumanely becomes even more easy to do.

A micro-version of this is the way we treat strangers on a discussion forum. It's all fleeting. They don't have a face; I don't have to interact with them if I don't want to. I don't know what they smell like, or what they love or fear, and I have no actual obligation to treat them as an actual person.

So, why be on my best behavior, outside of my own moral code (that might never be reviewed by anyone else but me)?

I have to think that a lot of these little micro-scripts of conduct are at play within people, when they do what they do, even if they might not be conscious of it. Or have the capacity to verbalize it. Or care about doing anything about it (which is, of course, a completely different topic).

Cheers.
 
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Pyramid Head

Pyramid Head

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,842
Logan Paul looks like an engineer from Prometheus in a wig. Maybe for his next prank he can ingest some black goo and dissolve.
 
Loxley

Loxley

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,623
If you want a better portrayal of a white foreigner visiting an Asian country, one of my favorite travel YouTubers - Karl Watson - recently did a documentary about his trip to Japan. I highly recommend it:



Arex said:
There are some great vloggers that I enjoy. OnlyinJapanGO, Mikey Chen, Mark Wiens. Many food vloggers and tech youtubers are nice and respectful people (at least the ones that I watch :P )
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Only in Japan is fantastic, I'd also recommend Abroad in Japan as well if you haven't seen it. It's by a young British expat who moved to Japan to be an English teacher. It's a really entertaining channel.

 
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Deleted member 4452

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,377
If you want to see a respectful white Canadian visiting Asia, I quite like The Food Ranger.

Simply Dumpling is great too.

(yeah, I like to watch foodie videos)
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
Perhaps because it is one of the safer options.

A lot of places, if you act like an asshole you may catch some hands.
 

ISOM

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,684
Dead Guy said:
I would change that to vloggers honestly. YouTube is full of really talented people that create everything from video essays to short films. Vloggers are bottom of the barrel though and I haven't seen one that has any kind of talent or is entertaining to me.
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There are some vloggers that purely do travel or travel eating and those are usually really good. The ones who do goofy shit are where you usually find the assholes.
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,512
Indonesia
Loxley said:
Only in Japan is fantastic, I'd also recommend Abroad in Japan as well if you haven't seen it. It's by a young British expat who moved to Japan to be an English teacher. It's a really entertaining channel.
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Yeah I watch them, food ranger too lol I love these Japan and foodie vloggers in general XD
 
R0b1n

R0b1n

Member
Jun 29, 2018
7,787
People who think they are famous get too over their heads and act like dicks? Say it ain't so!

Plus their viewers probably like them being dicks too
 
Mik2121

Mik2121

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,945
Japan
Because to get views you either are an interesting person who can speak about and show things that are engaging for the audience, or if you are lacking those skills, just cause drama or simply make fun at the expense of others.
I've clicked a few videos from vloggers but in general they're not my thing so I never watch more than a couple minutes, but there are definitely some that are simply nice people.
There's Johnny Harris on the Vox channel that travelled around a bunch and had a series of videos I enjoyed a lot called Vox Borders. I wouldn't mind seeing his travel vlogs on a more frequent basis:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8cMiYb3G5eYGt47YpJcNhILyYLmV-tW
 
Necromanti

Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,551
When a behavior is rewarded, there is very little incentive to stop. It's what brings in their views and makes them millionaires. Any collateral is irrelevant when money dictates morality.
 
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