On the horns of a dilemma.
This modern world, man, sure is a tough one to navigate. And excuse me for using the thoroughly gendered and un-chill “man” in the previous sentence but, boy, there are ethical pitfalls just about everywhere. Like, used to be whistling at a leggy dame when she walked down the street was a compliment. Now it’s assault. Or taking a surf trip to Mexico an appropriate, relatively easy adventure. Now it’s violent act of cultural imperialism.
Very popular outdoor enthusiast magazine, Outside, wrestled with the issue in a recent advice column with a mother, Wanting Waves writing in to the sage Sundog describing how she used drive to Mexico, surf a beach and eat tacos. Now the town is marked with “upscale sushi bars” and “yoga studios” and instead of driving down, she flies, renting a casita online, giving her the feeling “that just by being here, I’m fueling the gentrification and globalization I oppose in other elements of my life. Do I have to give up my favorite place and stop coming here?”
Sundog, declares he “feels her pain” as he, or she, too used to drive to Mexico, surf and eat tacos. His town has also changed getting fancier every year and “even though I didn’t necessarily long for a guy with a man bun to serenade me by playing ‘The Girl From Ipanema‘ on his trombone while I eat my plate of shrimp, I can’t seem to quit this place. Turns out I like buying half a kilo of freshly roasted organic coffee from the señor pushing a wheelbarrow down the cobblestones. Yet it raises ethical questions about cultural imperialism and the power we yield with the money we spend.”
A sticky morass, as it turns out, with various ethical responsibilities being explored and different sorts of ways to maneuver but, in the end, Sundog informs Wanting Waves, “if you’re committed to dismantling capitalist structures that perpetuate class inequity, then I’m afraid the vacation you’ve described does not make the grade. With more research—and patience—you might find locally owned accommodations.”
So, to summarize, apparently un-chill to fly to Mexico, use Airbnb and look at Japanese cuisine.
There you go.
If you enjoy the spot then go. Your money helps the spot and it’s citizens. If you want them to be POOR..then by all means do not go. If you want to oppose capitalism then stop working and move to a communist/socialist country and enjoy the human rights abuses there.
Psst, to the non-woketards here, the idea of calling white people colonizers is racist as all hell. All of our countries (European and NA) are openly multicultural and are colonized by a relentless flow of brownies 365 days a year. What of it? We like tacos and curry. Welcome to freedomland, amigos. Stoked to go to Mexico and find me a big tetonas catholic mama and spawn a little brood of mulatto groms. Let the Left fail to breed, their culture and ideology is dead set on making those NPCs ineffable. (That is what that word means, right?)
What a bunch of woke garbage this article
is!
Jen??? We need more Surfline man.
Inquiring minds want to know!
When they say they want to dismantle capitalism, what they really mean is they want to take away opportunities from nonwhite people. Capitalism isn’t colonization. Colonization is the byproduct of government actions. Capitalism has nothing to do with the government. These anti-capitalist are nothing more than white supremacists colonizers
The United states was built on capitalism and not much else. Anyone who is using their American privilege to “dismantle capitalism” at home is fueling the colonization and gentrification of less privileged countries. These people vote to make the US more unequal and more dependant on foreign nations, then go to places like Mexico, who have largely been oppressed by them, and destroy their communities also. White colonizers are the most destructive force on the planet. If you don’t believe in capitalism, you should go back to Europe where your people come from and where you believe that you belong
First world whiners with nothing consequential to think about in their empty little lives.
Pretty sure the internet and social media is making the world smaller and homogenous, not you, so go enjoy your surfing and eat sushi or tacos or hamburger with your Brazilian owned German beer.
Right on, dude. And it’s not just hot chicks doing it, either. Some bruhs are also woke a-holes.
God forbid that people who grew up in towns where a basic suburban house with a yard just big enough to let you turn your dog out to shit without a leash, goes for $1.5M, spend a little money so that the Mexican business owner can move up in the world and buy a nice 15-year-old pickup to replace the 30-year-old rusty Dodge sedan.
BTW that guy with the wheelbarrow does it for the tourists. He’s got a Porsche and a forklift. My ancestry is Austrian. You don’t think that people in the Alps always wear Dierndl or Lederhosen, do you? They just know the visiting skiers eat that shit up and buy more rounds of beer.
Hostels. – Didge Nomads, plenty new beautiful people *So, competing with money laundry & pre-captured online tourism, generations of locals lose their turn to compete fairly and no longer pay normal prices for products & services 😱🤳
Beach grit. I’m passing over you. Popups and word salad. Liberal whiners . Buh bye . I got waves to catch.
I think this article was meant to be sarcasm. I sure hope so.
Yes, my fellow woke gender fluid water muppets, we should all abandon surfing in Mexico. To the rest of the world we are like self-loathing locusts, we hate ourselves for gentrification if we don’t adapt to local customs, then we hate ourselves for cultural appropriation if we do adapt to local customs. Just stay away from Mexico you tedious depressing muppets. It’s the only way where everyone wins.
Yo soy old y no Rico. I just want to enjoy the beauty of the United States of Mexico!
Where they’re no school shootings or being pushed in front of subway train ! GBY’all
Wanting waves and Sundog can fuck off and build a wavepool for all I care.
There’s nothing gentrified or globalised in such inane pursuits.
These are only the flights of fancy of charlatans, or as they are more commonly referred to, clowns. Get your tacos and shrimp air delivered to your wave pools and grow a pair, Jodare Cono.
Spot on!!! Great article!!!! Yes you should stop surfing in Mexico.
Pretty sure there *is* an annual guide to Tokyo’s best Mexican food in the English language daily _The Japan Times_
Poor Mexicans in towns like that are considerably _less poor_ than they are in towns where there isn’t a bunch of money being injected by gringos.
Roll my eyes
Gentrif8!