The head bob thing is actually an Indian thing in general. You probably don't want to call something an entire culture does normally "obnoxious".
YouTube Video: "Dear White Beg-packers..." (See Staff Post)
- Thread starter Segafreak
- Start date
You know the old “millennials rediscover Friends and Seinfeld and find out they aren’t woke!” phenomenon?
I almost feel like this is “millennials discover hippies”.
Like for 40-50 years now we’ve had the implicit idea in our western culture that white people abandoning middle class suburbia for some kind of “real” life on the road is a perfectly normal thing. Noble, even. At least that’s how I always saw it through the lens of our post-1960s culture, that really glamorized those days. These were lefty conceits too. It was the right that would have told these bums to shave their sideburns and get a real job, in decades past.
Now if you had pointed out that it’s only white people doing it, I might have said “of course... it’s only middle upper class first world people who’ve reached the necessary state of post-modernism where they are so dissatisfied with the dead end of capitalist drudgery that they actually voluntarily abandoned it to go on the road... when other cultures reach upper middle class status they’ll surely become disaffected by it and go on the road too”.
But maybe that kind of myth of the hippie has grown a culture where it appears that some white folks with economic safety nets roleplay as downtrodden folks and take what they can. I also think today’s left is a million miles away from the sensibilities of the 60s and really isn’t captured by the same myths.
I almost feel like this is “millennials discover hippies”.
Like for 40-50 years now we’ve had the implicit idea in our western culture that white people abandoning middle class suburbia for some kind of “real” life on the road is a perfectly normal thing. Noble, even. At least that’s how I always saw it through the lens of our post-1960s culture, that really glamorized those days. These were lefty conceits too. It was the right that would have told these bums to shave their sideburns and get a real job, in decades past.
Now if you had pointed out that it’s only white people doing it, I might have said “of course... it’s only middle upper class first world people who’ve reached the necessary state of post-modernism where they are so dissatisfied with the dead end of capitalist drudgery that they actually voluntarily abandoned it to go on the road... when other cultures reach upper middle class status they’ll surely become disaffected by it and go on the road too”.
But maybe that kind of myth of the hippie has grown a culture where it appears that some white folks with economic safety nets roleplay as downtrodden folks and take what they can. I also think today’s left is a million miles away from the sensibilities of the 60s and really isn’t captured by the same myths.
I think what the average American makes is kind of irrelevant in this context, because I highly doubt any of these begpackers have jobs. I mean, what job is going to let you take a 3-6 month paid vacation so you can beg your way through Europe.
That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if these begpackers mooched off of family or exploited the welfare system. US welfare can be surprisingly lucrative, compared to the rest of the world, depending on your home state and circumstances.
lol i was being sarcastic homie, don't worry. my point was the thing i was saying - the inverse of the scenario described in the video - literally never happens.
I guess it's all the BS I see that make take your post the wrong way.
Then again it makes no sense to take it seriously considering you would have ICE up their ass in no time.
I just thought people here would be smart enough to realize that white privilege is something that can be benefited from even outside their home country, even if they didn't know that before.
User Banned (1 Day): Ignoring Modpost and Off-Topic Commentary
I take offense in this whole all white people are blabla crap. My skin may be white but I spent my childhood in a war torn Eastern European country and was lucky to get out alive and accepted in a western country as a refugee. The times were tough and my family had hardly anything to eat, every day was a struggle. Atleast try to differentiate and use terms like western European / American white people, cuz I sure don't want to be thrown into the same drawer as those colonialists.
It's a combination of American and European white privilege, orientalism, and the remanents of collonialism. You're not going to come across many (if any) non-white people doing this, simply because it's much less feasible. White privilege still extends to many non-white nations around the world. Us white people are treated differently.
If you don't belong in the drawer it's impossible for you to be in the drawer and people aren't referring to you
do they do it for the same reasons we would in the USA?
or is it more like when someone says "bless you" after someone sneezes where its just a reactionary cultural habit?
EDIT: just looked up some stuff on it, very interesting
just gonna post this little comedy bit from peters
Last edited:
I never understood those with no money and travel and expect to be handed money by sitting on the sidewalks. What, exactly, is stopping them from saving money, or possibly doing gig work in the places they visit? Like, what exactly puts them in a place where "I have no options but to sit here"?
It's much more than that, I suggest you look it up if you want to learn more, it's not my culture to explain. There are videos and articles on the subject.
Do these people not feel any shame anyway? Begging alongside substantially poorer locals who actually need the money when they're choosing a lifestyle they can easily dip in and out of as they feel so inclined?
It is cultural but it still seems more exaggerated for dramatic effect in this video compared to everyday conversation.
While I do think everyone should be able to travel. If you can’t financially support yourself and have to beg once you are in a foreign country. Don’t go you are a drain on someone else’s society
The issue isn't that they can't afford to it's that they choose to beg instead of financing the trip themselves.
because its a really compelling example for this phenomenon, because A) they hold the highest privilege of all, especially in poorer parts of the world, where they are still being looked upon as 'non-threatening', and 'living the lifestyle', ' and B) that this would not fly any day of the week if it were people of color 'begpacking' in a predominantly white/western country.
Gotta be honest, if you tasked me to come up with 10 great grifts to keep a dude safe from performing actual labor, begging on the streets of Thailand would not have been my first guess, and yet here we go.
====
====
Ever tried to take a greyhound from Oakland to Tokyo?
They travel "without money" to adventure on an exotic country and where the friendly locals will help them with their hospitality, money, food or lodging. Not at all related for when this same people complains about too much immigration in their countries and how that immigration are stealing their money. Ironically those people are almost always working and actually contributing to society and taxes.
It's not like $500 is some impossible sum of money.
I've even known white kids who were poor and pseudo-hippie enough to "sell all of their shit" for a plane ticket to Bali or whatever..... but then surely ended up as beggars when they got there. :P World travel isn't that expensive if you don't bring cash to pay for the whole trip :P
Especially from Europe it's possible to find even cheaper one way flights than that to south east asia. If you're flexible with dates it's not impossible to get to Bangkok for around 200 euro.
I still think most of these people probably have some money they just don't want to use though. Just to make their trip last longer and for less money. Or are they genuinely risking having no food/place to stay? (I strongly doubt it, just curious)
You think those are the same group?
The ones I talked too seemed pretty liberal, so I extrapolated that they probably all would be. Jusr made sense to me.
I absolutely have known hippie kids who take wild leaps to the other side of the world with no plan and no money.
I have always thought this was stupid, but I thought it was more like "idiot hippie with no plan stupid" not necessarily "gaming white privilege to get a free ride" stupid. I am sure in their own mind they just think of themselves as romantic travellers with no attachments or whatever. But maybe they are trading on privilege whether they think about it or not. No other groups seem to travel and beg so frivolously.
Yeah, poor choice of words, not exactly the same people, I was talking about on ideas existing in their home countries. They might be against that in their country, but don't see beg-packing it's just as bad.
Also, I'm a bit lost on terms when I'm talking politics outside my country. Is liberal considered more to the left and outside those against-immigrants speech you are talking?
That's what I meant by that term, yeah. Not conservative, in any case. In German, I'd simply call them "links", or "left".
As a white person myself who has been backpacking and intend to get back to backpacking, I know exactly what she means and it is very much a privileged "white" thing to do. It's quite disgusting to beg for money for leisure travel when there are homeless local people who need the money just to survive.
It's way older than hippies or the beatniks before them. There were the transcendentalists in 19th century America, for example, replete with Thoreau 'roughing it' in the woods. But I don't think it's really a good comparison for this subject—these 'begpackers' aren't so much practicing a alternate lifestyle as they are funding a mainstream one by begging. I imagine a lot of their instagram feeds are the same as those who pay their way.
Everything she said in the video is true, been hearing about these trends in places like Malaysia for a while. She explained the issue well too.
Exploiting people's kindness is always disgusting, especially when putting yourself in a place where you have more means than the locals have.
Exploiting people's kindness is always disgusting, especially when putting yourself in a place where you have more means than the locals have.
Last edited:
I guess I want to know what the difference is between someone genuinely practicing an alternative travellers lifestyle living off the generosity of others (a "true hippie traveller" in the vein of a Buddhist monk living off support from others), and a privileged white kid taking advantage of their privilege to scam a free trip off the locals.
I would submit... there isn't one. It's in the eye of the beholder.
I guess you're implying its what they spend their money on, perhaps...?
I'd accept calling it an alternative lifestyle if they live this way, without owning things. No money saved up, no home, no job. Nowhere to return and do the normal thing.
why are y'all so mad about a brown person calling out white people about doing things m
The fact that so many in this thread didn't do that and instead immediately went for "BUT WHY WHITE PEOPLE WHAT IS IS ABOUT US I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING BROWN PEOPLE DO IT TOO PROBABLY" and THEN wondered about why I had this "Meme" ready and felt newly attacked all over again is exactly the showcase of White Fragility I am talking about.
You not realising that this is not a "go to image" but part of the video that this whole thread is about when she specifically explains why she is talking about White People here (spoiler: it's because this is a white-people-problem) is more than a little funny, dude. Maybe don't wonder why the thread title is so specific and then make the thread about poor old white people getting attacked without reason and instead...you know...just watch the video where that point specifically gets explained at length.
The fact that so many in this thread didn't do that and instead immediately went for "BUT WHY WHITE PEOPLE WHAT IS IS ABOUT US I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING BROWN PEOPLE DO IT TOO PROBABLY" and THEN wondered about why I had this "Meme" ready and felt newly attacked all over again is exactly the showcase of White Fragility I am talking about.
Yeah. I mean there's still some privilege involved, in that a lot of these people still have college degrees/education that you can't really relinquish (or relatives that if things got *really* bad couldn't bail them out or assist in some way), but if they're actually committing to their lifestyle versus what's akin to poverty tourism and just being a cheapskate, there's a difference to me.
Doesn't mean I'd still give those people money (and I really dunno who especially in more economically-depressed parts of the world is giving money to people with signs like that in the video) but at least they'd be philosophically consistent.
I could see it was her in the image. I already explained that by "image" I meant the old hashtag splash, not what's behind it in the background!
Poor wording on my part.
Dude, stop making assumptions about my issues with this thread. I made it clear its the conversation stoping, drive-by posts done with no purpose other than hoping to piss off the "other side" and quickly setting the tone, that are becoming annoying.
There's very little "other side" over here! Instead you have some who might not understand or have opinions about this roundabout way of ultimately discussing white privilege, with indirect clickbait titles. But because thats the closest thing to a poster child ignorant white privileged bigot we get, I suppose these will have to do I guess(?), so here comes the wave of hashtag/meme/driveby-posts to wash these now snowflake branded fools down the river and make others want to not even participate!
I don't know, the term "white fragility" is pretty offensive if you ask me. Haven't heard of it before this thread to be honest.
White people are the grand majority of beg-packers. Maybe in time the hippie phe on will grow but for now white people are monopolizing. You see them in Vancouver too. There was this French guy near Granville station the other night asking for money to go towards a room and return ticket. He's all in shorts, crocs, giant ass sweater, bushy beard, a weird hat, and one of those giant backpacks. My friend was talking to him and I started Googling the location and number of the French embassy. Gave him the address and number. Yeah, that dude did not want that answer. I should have just flagged down a cop and told him he had no money to go back to France.
That's pretty baller honestly.One of those guys (with the leg condition) in the video is notorious for this:
Wait a minute. The issue is begging when you have no need to. When its dishonest. When its to see if you can get away with it just for kicks or some other dumbshit reasoning.
The true no home "hippy/nomad/free-spirit" lifestyle of living day by day wherever the fuck in the world, by your own witts is fair game. White or not.
The true no home "hippy/nomad/free-spirit" lifestyle of living day by day wherever the fuck in the world, by your own witts is fair game. White or not.
personally I cannot wait until we have a beg packing utopia of people of every colour and creed. some of the affluent Asian countries need to get up to speed with that shit already, clearly aren't sending their best
I wouldn't dream of doing this, even buskers in European city centres make me cringe. But if they are doing this and people are actually giving them money who's the real idiot here... A fool and his money are soon parted.
Haha damn this is pretty wild. Im from Malaysia (where that YouTube channel is from). Kinda proud it's making its round here in ERA.
But yeah this situation is pretty messed up. I had experience with this first hand kind of. My friend went to this meditation camp of some sort and met this German couple who then later crashed at her place for weeks because they didn't have money. And God knows how much money she had to spend to take care of them. She's a sweetheart and sometimes I think that south east Asian hospitality is enabling this kind of leeching behaviour from traveling westerners.
Please people! Your journey to enlightenment and self discovery doesn't need to be so desperate! Take your time and save up and travel comfortably. This mentality of seizing the moment and #yolo-ism that's been spread by Western culture (I.e: that corny ass Walter Mitty movie and the likes) just has to chill out.
But yeah this situation is pretty messed up. I had experience with this first hand kind of. My friend went to this meditation camp of some sort and met this German couple who then later crashed at her place for weeks because they didn't have money. And God knows how much money she had to spend to take care of them. She's a sweetheart and sometimes I think that south east Asian hospitality is enabling this kind of leeching behaviour from traveling westerners.
Please people! Your journey to enlightenment and self discovery doesn't need to be so desperate! Take your time and save up and travel comfortably. This mentality of seizing the moment and #yolo-ism that's been spread by Western culture (I.e: that corny ass Walter Mitty movie and the likes) just has to chill out.
