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this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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How people have grown up and lived their entire lives in a small town. Aka proudly only being in one area of our very large world, and it shows with their views how narrow minded people can be.
< 50% of Americans have a passport. Even fewer have actually used it to travel outside of the country.
Not saying you have to take a lavish European getaway, but maybe instead of going to Disney World for the third time, go to minimum Canada or something and experience something different.
Your false assumption is they have the choice of not doing that.
I grew up in such a place. Very few people made it out, physically or culturally. They are like black holes, and honestly, a lot of people who try to get out, get punished, harassed, and bullied into going back to those places.
I got out of my small town, but even to this day, 30 years after I have gone, people still use that fact about my life to harass me, bully me, and dismiss me as a terrible person who they should not have any respect for because they grew up in a sophisticated urban/liberal area. It's INSANE. I have had dozens of people in my life scream insults, tell me I should have just died/been born, and how I 'stole' my education/job from someone MORE DESERVING than myself. To this day people find out where I grew up and they just totally refuse to socialize with me anymore because of their incredibly hostility/bias towards those of us who grew up in small conservative minded towns.
I think you might have a bias in there as well then, because I got out of my small town, and I agree that very few make it out physically or culturally, and they are like black holes.
However I was never punished, or harassed. I had people make fun of me, question me, give me weird faces as to why I would want to leave, but never anything extreme like you're saying. I think you may represent the other extreme side.
Yeah, I do. I went to Harvard. There is a intense hatred of working-class small town people in places like that and the social class that dominates it.
The 'liberal/worldly' perspective is it's own intensely insular and smug/superior bias that sees anyone who can't afford to go on international vacations as inherently inferior and stupid to those who do.
I think the problem is that you went to Harvard. I get what you’re saying, but the non-elite don’t really care. We can’t afford international vacations and yacht clubs either. Don’t get me wrong, liberalism is its own disease, but you met it on a whole other level.
My beef with rural people has nothing to do with them being poor, and everything to do with their ongoing fascist temper tantrum.
I think rural culture should be generally marginalized and mocked until it stops doing fascism. Pretty simple tbh.
A counter point to the passport thing is the size of the us. You can travel the same distance as Spain to Finland to Ukraine without a passport. Go to la, ny, boston, Dallas, Miami and Seattle and tell me they have the same culture.
The difference between Finland and Spain is greater than the difference between Seattle and Miami.
Anyway, a passport is not required in either case.
As someone else already tried that argument, I'll say the same thing. We do have the same culture. Sure there are minor differences, but we all celebrate thanksgiving, christmas, there's always a Target nearby and there's always an auto mile. It's all the same. Nowhere in the US, except I would consider Hawaii as a maybe, do you actually experience fully a different culture, to be in complete culture shock, where things you know as concrete and rigid are thrown out the window.
I mean within America we have a huge diversity of locations/cultures/biomes/travel destinations.
So we don't NEED to leave America to see different things. I've visited Hawaii, Washington, New York, Florida, California, and several others. From fishing, to seeing the redwoods, to a swamp tour, to the beaches of Hawaii.
I would like to see Europe but that's expensive.
All of them (save Hawaii in my experience, and I've been to each of those locations except Florida) have the same culture though. Americanized culture. You don't go only to see things, but to experience how other people live. Experiencing their way of life, their daily patterns and ways of doing things. Hawaii you get barely a taste of that, but you don't see it until you actually get out. Canada even has a slightly different culture and worth seeing, and then it only grows from there.
As for cost I chose my wording based on Disney World for a reason. A week's trip to Disney World is wildly more expensive than going abroad. My (mid-sized American city) plane ticket to London was $800 for the round trip. Hotels about 150 a day. Food was cheaper than eating fast food here in the states. It takes less than you'd think, especially if you're doing it your own way.
I mean sure to an extent. But there are still different cultures. Going shopping in a filipeno grocery store and having to duck every 6 steps so I don't hit my head on anything. Eating authentic Filipino food. I think that is just as culturally different than eating gator in the swamps and tasting soul food.
That being said, I don't REALLY care about cultures. How the live their lives, daily patterns, and way of doing things don't matter to me. Just not interested but camping, seeing nature, and just being out and about that is a lot of fun. I can do all that without leaving the US.
You would be my prime example of someone then who should, because I also thought I didn't care until I was fully immersed. And no, going to a grocery store is not immersing yourself.
Lol it was an example, I actually stayed with the family for a week. They are the family of my best friend and I was invited to go to one of the family members Debut. As a rather tall person going shopping with Grandma was a treat and stood out for many reasons.
This. So much this.
I happen to have a job that takes me to all corners of the world. And my coworkers are the same. But the amount of them who have spouses that barely see anything else in the world is baffling.
And I grew up on a dairy farm in rural scandinavia ("town" would be an exaggeration), and as much as I like having that as a background, I think I made the right choice when I started exploring the world just because I could. Of all the xenophobic shitheads I've met, what they've all had in common is that they barely move.
I think that initial fear keeps many people from trying, but once you try it you want to see more. I've only scratched the surface with a few countries, and already it's just amazing how other people live. I think it's stunning how people can assume that the way they were born inn that town and with those morals are the "right" way to live. If I was born in the exact same family but 5000 miles away, I would have been completely different, and who knows what "right" would have been.
Yawn, everything is about America. How many people in North Korea have passports eh? ;)
I live in America, so naturally my experiences with this are going to be American. I'm sure if I lived in another country it would be focused around that one.
100% passport rate but nobody ever wants to leave Best Korea (according to a DPRK spokesperson).
Fun fact, Japan has the lowest percentage of passport holders among the first world countries, hovering around 17%.
Fun fact, India has 5-10% and China has 10-15%
Also fun fact, Norway and Sweden have nearly 90% which is just crazy high.