Thread: Leftist Planet

Me too, but just because I don't like them doesn't mean their point of view is invalid.

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

Lonely Planet's Wheeler now says he feels guilty about traveling because of the airline industry's contribution to global warming. And Ellingham, who has published The Rough Guide to Climate Change, says his business "must encourage travellers to travel less."
Sounds good to me. Stay home and watch the idiot box. You know it makes sense.

So no one traveled before the Wright Brothers? Wheeler wasn't a traveler ... he was a passenger.

Originally Posted by tomcat

...you can extend this non sequitur by declaring he was a vegetarian...not a vegan; he adored low-hanging fruit...but not tomatoes...

... or "You're gay ... but humourless"

Incredible.

Originally Posted by zeusbheld

that's about as interesting and insightful as saying "everyone's entitled to an opinion."

I'd say it's as interesting and insightful as you telling us "American suburbanites are a large part of why i have no interest in living in American suburbs."

it's like saying "u americans are mostly dushbags"

The "careful management" of the sterile streets of Vancouver is one of the reasons I prefer the "mismanagement" here.

Originally Posted by zeusbheld

political mismanagement maybe, but i've seen a lot of Mercedes and BMWs at good street stalls, and not just the owner's.

i know many academics like this. because they read lotsa boox they feel this false authority over all manner of subjects they have no biznet expounding on. what's happening here is dood is grossed out by street stalls, and dresses up this idiosyncratic pissiness in some pseudo-intellectual theorizing about the nature of poverty, all the while having about as much insight into the nature of anything as a geriatric carp in a too small murky tank that is in desperate need of cleaning.

i notice it in other threads too, where he gives advice to all and soundry about living and working in a country/region he has never lived or worked in.

more 5anuk! less toac!

Originally Posted by 3leggedkitty

more 5anuk!

His newest:

http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/the-vir...l-part-ii.html

Originally Posted by 3leggedkitty

and dresses up this idiosyncratic pissiness in some pseudo-intellectual theorizing about the nature of poverty

All he suggested is that street-stalls are not so much "cultural" as they are "economic". I suspect if there were more jobs around that paid a living wage to working-class people in cities like Bangkok, there would be fewer street-stalls. If the economy was such that it supported better social programs, like unemployment insurance and pensions, there would be fewer street-stalls around.

So much of what people from the more developed economies celebrate as "culture", especially the more colorful and exotic varieties, is little more than poverty dressed up by the imaginative refusal of said folks to see what they are looking at.

"Strike a pose."

But then I've read books and don't buy into the faux-authenticity crap denoted by gruvy spelling and other noble savage posturings.

well as long as you lot are defining the terms, far be it from the proles to have an outlook worth considering of their own milieu.

i don't celebrate a street stall as culture, this is where we diverge. i see someplace to eat. the situation that fosters food stalls is neither here nor there. just eat it man. i doubt that most people see it as a 'problem', or a consequence of a degenerate society.

---Update---

Originally Posted by manned-rake

So much of what people from the more developed economies celebrate as "culture", especially the more colorful and exotic varieties, is little more than poverty dressed up by the imaginative refusal of said folks to see what they are looking at.

well you did say 'so much' so you aren't generalizing to the hilt, but it does sound as though the world is divided into cultural theorists who really know the real world and the rest who know nothing but pavlovian response to the sight and smell of a noodon moo daeng. i take it like your friend here you'd never be caught slurping noodles on the street with the backpackers and shopgirls, dogeared foucault sticking out of your dusty satchel.