Another America Rant

[cheesesweat]

Everything in USA just feels dead and decaying and lifeless. You go to Asia, have a sort of constant carnival any time you want any night at night markets, crowded mall food courts, and just seeing people everywhere all the time. Then you come back to USA and you have Wal-Mart, a couple dollar stores, and a mostly abandoned mall. You drive around alone to get to them all, you might have some friendly conversations with the cashiers or people in line, and it might be OK. But there's just no feeling of "life" with all the "for rent" signs everywhere there used to be stores and people and life. There might be one or two "sports bars" that have beer at $7 a can or something silly like that for night time entertainment. There's also the gym, where you can get jacked in preparation for the dystopian future that's either coming or already here. But most people decide to just be vegetables at home and use government subsidized streaming services like Netflix or other digital opiates, or maybe just take real drugs instead. Drugs are another can of worms entirely for socializing in USA, and one reason I hate being here.

I just miss buying a single cold beer at 7-11 for a dollar, getting dinner later, and just walking around and just... feeling alive, and feeling like myself again, and just at peace with the world around me, like I felt in Taiwan. I guess you can argue in USA you're working and in Asia you're on vacation, but in USA on vacation or if I have a week or two without work, it's just a melancholy like I described above.

Yep, it feels dead as hell in America. I remember when I last came back from Korea it I thought that it felt like death coming back to the U.S. Everything feels like it's decaying and rotting, like a society that's basically dead already but things are still running, BARELY, on fumes. I hated how bad it felt coming back. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted to go back sooooo bad. It was almost like a form of mental/spiritual/emotional suffocation for me coming back here.

I think you described life in your typical American town pretty well. Drive to the depressing gas station, get your chem snacks, stop by the dollar general in the depressing parking lot, stop by Walmart with the crackheads, up to no good, in the parking lot. Get your crap and look at the Walmartians. Everything is lifeless, boring and dead it seems.

In contrast, Asian countries are hustling and bustling. Asia feels like it's booming, like it's going places. Like you said, there's always some shops open and people doing stuff. You can feel at peace. I would say I feel peace, love, contentment, clarity, happiness. Development is constant and booming. Buildings and infrastructure are much better taken care of, sometimes even superb. A guy I know grew up in another East Asian country. He can not wait to get the heck out of here. He wants to go back so bad. I think he finally decided to and is working on his escape plan.

I think I need to have that mindset. Even if it takes a few years(bleh) I need to plan my escape. I've been studying Korean every day. I might need to up my study time an extra hour. Just made it through this Labor Day weekend, and it was awful. I honestly hate going to work, but for the first time I think I actually felt worse on the weekend. I swear the emptiness, negativity darkness etc. is so much worse on the weekend. I don't know what it is, but I have a theory.

Funny, Winston doesn't like East Asia very much. I've been to Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong so far. In all three I felt better than being in the U.S. Japan was a pretty cool place to be as well, I felt great there, not as good as Korea but still happy. I don't know how much I'd like to live there though for a few reasons. But if that was my only option I'd probably take it.

Honestly, I'd like to visit a few European countries and southeast Asian countries to make more comparisons. You mentioned that Vietnam wasn't that impressive. I'd like to visit Thailand once and maybe Singapore. I don't care much for tropical environments though, but would love to check them out. If I was rich I would have bought an apartment in S Korea like a decade ago and would travel all over Asia and Europe. I just feel like crap in America these days. Honestly, in the hypothetical situation that I could live in Korea for the next two months but have to scrub toilets 50 hours a week and live in a closet sized living space, I'd probably do it. I think I could do some pretty mundane jobs in Korea and still feel better than I do here.

[flowerthief00]

@cheesesweat
Meanwhile, according to this report, South Koreans are trying to get out of their country and into America.
Are you sure about South Korea?

[Contrarian Expatriate]

@cheesesweat
Meanwhile, according to this report, South Koreans are trying to get out of their country and into America.
Are you sure about South Korea?

Very interesting..... There is a global reshuffling going on. Many of us are going from the West to the East, and many from the East want to come westward.

In my experience, foreigners tend to base their perception of America on Hollywood media which tends to conceal from view the reality of life there.

The irony is that they find South Korea too culturally stifling, yet when they come to America, they cloister in communities of those they wanted to flee.

But a new crop of taxpaying drones who are low risk of crime and social welfare parasitism can't be all bad.

[onethousandknives]

@cheesesweat
Meanwhile, according to this report, South Koreans are trying to get out of their country and into America.
Are you sure about South Korea?

Very interesting..... There is a global reshuffling going on. Many of us are going from the West to the East, and many from the East want to come westward.

In my experience, foreigners tend to base their perception of America on Hollywood media which tends to conceal from view the reality of life there.

The irony is that they find South Korea too culturally stifling, yet when they come to America, they cloister in communities of those they wanted to flee.

But a new crop of taxpaying drones who are low risk of crime and social welfare parasitism can't be all bad.

I think something with going abroad, for anyone really, in any country (almost) it gives you a different experience and variables. Think for one minute now. Are immigrants coming to USA likely complete winners in their home countries? Likely no. If they were, they'd probably remain in their home countries. Mexico for example, has poor people, but a giant middle class and upper class as well. But going to USA is a surer chance of switching your social classes compared to say, going to Mexico City and learning to code (lol, fun joke.) This doesn't mean they couldn't go to Mexico City and learn to Java code and make a middle class income and move social classes, it's just that USA gives a bigger opportunity for them to move social classes much quicker, if you're starting from the bottom as a farmer or construction worker. If you're white and living in an economically depressed area and teach English overseas, it's basically the same situation, just a bit more nuanced. With this video, people talk about work. It's the same complaint people have toward whites that want to go to Asia. "Oh, you're just lazy and don't wanna work hard here, so you wanna go there and be lazy." Well, perhaps? Even if you're say, a coder (one of the supposed good jobs) in USA, a lot of times you are working 60-80 hours as you're getting paid salary and not hourly, and they just pop the hours on you and expect you to deal with it.

The other thing for any person in any new country, you're going to be much more motivated than at home. I think that's just something that happens. You have a different feedback loop with a lot more motivation and drive, because if you fail it means going back home. For any psychological issues or social skills issues, being an immigrant gives giant cover. I also somewhat think at least in the West people are more likely to hire a foreigner as they figure he took the initiative to come here, and it shows a lot of initiative in general to move to a new country across the world. (I don't know how to explain that initiative point better, but I think it's real.) With social skills and psychological issues, a Taiwanese friend of mine said he actually was better with girls in USA than in Taiwan. If you're an immigrant people are more likely to ignore slightly weird behavior because you're foreign. You're also seen as an outsider, but you're also not judged to the same social standard as the native group. This leads to less feeling of keeping up with the Jones, as the Jones just don't consider you part of their group. If you're an Arab guy walking around with robes on in USA, nobody will care, but you're still (to native white people) an Arab guy if you're wearing a suit and tie like them, I really don't know how well long term integration even ever happens if you're first generation in a country. Perhaps never. Lastly too, being an immigrant does give you a social network of other immigrants, in that video it shows a Korean church meant specifically to help out other Koreans. In your home country you are competing with other people like you, in a foreign country to some extent you end up as team mates and not competitors.

It's what I think. It's not so much how good or bad a country is, it's your relative experience there.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

Think for one minute now. Are immigrants coming to USA likely complete winners in their home countries? Likely no. If they were, they'd probably remain in their home countries. Mexico for example, has poor people, but a giant middle class and upper class as well.

I have to disagree with you here. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Legal immigrants to the United States tend to be more educated and credentialed than average Americans and average citizens of their home countries.

The example you used was Mexico which has a majority of very low status ILLEGAL immigrants in the USA. The majority of legal Mexican immigrants to the USA are generally middle class and upwardly mobile. They just happen to be outnumbered because of the numerous illegal border jumpers.

Legal black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean have higher average incomes than white Americans even(Google it). That is because the qualifications for legal immigration are steep (apart from the tiny Diversity Visa Program) and only the most motivated and sophisticated individuals from developing countries qualify.

[E Irizarry R&B Singer]

Think for one minute now. Are immigrants coming to USA likely complete winners in their home countries? Likely no. If they were, they'd probably remain in their home countries. Mexico for example, has poor people, but a giant middle class and upper class as well.

I have to disagree with you here. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Legal immigrants to the United States tend to be more educated and credentialed than average Americans and average citizens of their home countries.

The example you used was Mexico which has a majority of very low status ILLEGAL immigrants in the USA. The majority legal Mexican immigrants to the USA are generally middle class and upwardly mobile. They just happen to be in the minority because of the numerous border jumpers.

Legal Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean have higher average incomes than white Americans even. That is because the qualifications for legal immigration are steep (apart from the tiny Diversity Visa Program) and only the most motivated and sophisticated individuals from developing countries qualify.

Trump adamantly announced a couple of months ago the he will work hard to only immigrate the upper echelon of such worthy immigrants by closely slowing down the lower echelon ones coming into SFO, ORD, and LGA airports even.