I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate.
However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your place". At least, not as much as Italians and Koreans. Americans have simple rules they abide by, like general etiquette and the constitution. And Americans are brought up to neither refrain from nor judge others acting within that boundary.
So I don't agree Americans are "tasteless". I find Americans to be more tolerant and accepting, at least compared to cultures with longer history. And that is the American "taste" in my opinion. This has its cons, one of which is someone from my culture thinking they are oblivious to others around them.
Failure to read the room might explain why the tourists persist in the questioning beyond politeness, but not why they embarked on the quest to interrogate the worker to begin with.
My family does this and I can barely go anywhere with them for the embarrassment. Everything is an interrogation. They actually take delight in the waiter not knowing the answer to where the seafood was caught, and then lecturing them about the importance of knowing such things (this is the most common one they pull). That's not just failing to read the room.
I feel like in countries which are mostly ethnostates, there is a tension around remnants of tradition and the business world trying to open up the culture to gain some new market opportunities (Unsure how to state this more neutrally). I think this tension is interesting and I think that in the U.S it feels like the market systematically has the upper hand.
I am not sure this holds scrutiny so I'd love to read a counter
This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well.
BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), and they've been popping up everywhere even in totally non-touristy places. There are fashions and trends in the food business, and many Italians look at that with disgust and take refuge in tradition, but it is often not the tourists fault, it's Italians spending their money there.
I'm not sure if I like this piece but it's interesting. I just come away with the sense that the author feels something is off and did the best he could to articulate it but didn't quite put the finger on why things are off.
I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they find it, then too many people find it. Some kind of Goodhart's Law for tourism: once a place is deemed an authentic experience it ceases to be an authentic experience.
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee. It's not just a Pinterest fever dream for people? People do want to experience different cultures but of course there's really no way to do that without some kind of friction.
I think there are two distinct type of "touristy" experience.
1. Culturally important experiences lean towards the prescriptive side. You enter, you are observing or being challenged in something, and it leaves an imprint on you. It is usually a bit discomforting in an exciting way that transforms a part of you in a infinitesimally small, but distinct and permanent way.
2. The unimportant experience is the conforming one, where zero friction is the preferred method of interaction, but it is universally loved in the way high-fructose corn syrup is; it's an economically sound decision to at least try and profit from it.
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee.
I understand the latter, but just as one datapoint, I would not think you sound like an idiot for asking "what exactly is this that you're selling?"
The homogenization, and subsequent impoverishment (at least with regards to the quality and diversity) of the world appears to be, sadly, inevitable. It takes real, constant effort to maintain "the old ways" while tradition is so easily erased through globalization and, ultimately, technology.
I don't think we'll lose _all_ diversity of culture, as there will always be stalwarts to uphold institutions (even espresso bars) but as generations transition I think we'll be shocked at how much we've lost just a few years from now.
This isn't strictly a bad thing, as there are many traditions which have been laid by the wayside over the centuries, but I have to admit: I am not impressed at the things we've been replacing them with. Phones, social media, selfies, a constant sense of connectedness, influencer tourism -- it all feels so terrible, and it feels like only now are people around me recognizing that we may have dug too deep.
It seems to me that 2020 was the turning point (do you remember what it was like to be a tourist before then?) and that we're deeply nestled in the jaws of the Balrog now.
I'm really not sure what it looks like to climb back out.
This homogenization is merely a continuation of a trend since the beginning of human history.
Tribes homogenize into villages, villages into cities, cities into states, states into nations, and now we’re witnessing nations beginning to homogenize.
The whole way, it’s being driven by technology (farming, writing, metallurgy, printing, telecommunications, and so on).
Most Europeans can separate Americans from their government, but a person's views and behavior matter. Paying customers are always welcome but obnoxious ones, regardless of culture, might get an eye roll or worse.
Yeah but that doesn't mean we also don't dislike people from the US. It's a shock to many but there are Europeans who dislike both US politics and the average US citizen who flashes cash, doesn't learn the language, doesn't research where they're travelling, shouts all the times, spends 1 night per city, and is the kind of traveller in the article, etc etc.
Loudly proclaiming you're anti Trump is not a skip-the-line ticket to acceptance with us all. We also know a lot of people lie about their politics
> The cold brew order is no new behavior. We know what it is. The American empire is just the fourth incarnation of what started as Roman, became Christian European, and then predominantly British. We know what it is. We still have it in our veins, the disdain these tourists are showing. Their carelessness and abstraction. They are the rulers, the ones who believe they are giving meaning to reality for the first time.
When it's your time it's your time. And in comparison to the empires of old, the American empire is far more humane to it's subjects. The biggest mistake our nation has made in the last 100 years is being merciful to the war mongers; Perhaps if they received justice instead of undeserved tolerance they wouldn't be so insolent to complain of what is put in their bowl.
I think ultimately the conclusion the author reaches is an interesting one, that the real "disease" of tourism is like sepsis. It comes not from without, the tourists themselves, but from within, the changes made by locals to try to capture the opportunities for wealth that the tourists create.
The paradox of the tourist is fascinating. All at the same time, a locality experiencing a flood of tourism will welcome the sudden wellspring of foreign currency pouring forth from the rock, and loathe the disruption the flood causes to the steady pace of life. Anyone who has been a tourist knows what the tourist wants, a break from the monotony of their own culture, a desire to know the other and tread in their footsteps, in some cases a wholesome longing to break down cultural barriers and prejudice. And yet anyone who has been on the other side of the interaction with a tourist feels the heady mix of emotions that comes with the experience of being the toured. The discomfort that comes from the wall being torn down unexpectedly. The inconvenience of disruption in routine. No tourist wants to do harm, but even the most sensitive and well-meaning tourist creates a breach in routine that is disruptive. Nobody likes change.
On formatting: having the big-text snippets occur before they do in the main body was jarring. I think it's more normal practice to lift out specific quotes after they have occurred in the text, not before.
On content: if it's any consolation, America is doing this to America as well. Locals everywhere are wringing their hands over stylistic homogenization, Instagrammability-driven design choices, and rapidly increasing prices.
The people the article describes are a very small subset of the American cultures: the ones with intellectual curiosity and money to travel to another country.
For each American tourist you see in Europe there are at leas a dozen, back in the U.S., that don't travel, don't have curiosity for a foreign culture or don't even have any curiosity at all.
And, then, what moral grounds do Europeans have to talk about "invasion" or "imperialism"? The golden eras of Europe where built on exactly that. At least they're conquering you with dollars, not guns. The 3rd world European colonies of 19th century weren't that lucky.
You know what this article smells like? It is typical European insularity. Europe is still a continent with people that spent the last 3000 years in wars among themselves. Actually, Italians only stopped wars against other Italians on the 19th century, after unification.
But seriously, why is it such an impossibility to get an iced coffee over there. You have affogato! You can take a caffe americano and pour it over ice!
> When Americans analyze a small shop in a foreign country, time stops counting itself on clocks and pondering its own dull finiteness. Now it can pleasurably yawn into the holy hollowness of the 30-plus questions the tourists are asking. Now, everyone around the American family is swamped in the buttery goo of the present, stretched. The other people in the gelateria can’t name the feeling that wraps itself around them. The feeling that time is purring, that time is on the American family’s side.
This is absolute art.
> Their job of giving value and meaning to our city is so important to them; they don’t seem to realize we are not as excited as they are about their discovery of gianduia.
What a bunch of drivel. The author should come observe how the Chinese are when visiting the US, its the exact same situation just different nationalities playing the various roles.
It’s humorous in its own right. It’s almost as if they’re on safari or visiting another planet. They arrive in a caravan of coach buses, disembark, walk around in a crowd lead by a guide, take their pictures in front of whatever the attraction is then load up and disappear at once.
In a way it’s not really that different or unusual than any other tourists, but there’s something that feels so choreographed about it that stands out to me. Maybe it’s just how large the tour groups are.
If you're taking offence, then you might be missing the point:
> The American tourist used to be regarded as the most obnoxious creature in the world. Loud, naïve, ham fisted, needy. The reason I told you about the opening of this borghetto di merda is that it made me realize: Now we are all American tourists.
In my experience, people on vacation act like they're on vacation. People on vacation paid a premium to be where they are. They have high expectations. I've noticed this living in big American and Canadian cities. I've noticed this while on vacation myself. Vacationers are generally similar no matter where they are or where they're from.
I would love for the author to interact with vacationers directly instead of making up this back story about them in their head. To let them know, no, this place doesn't have cold brew, but buddy, wait until you try a shakerato.
This article fit's perfectly in the middle of the midwit meme explaining the cause/effect of tourists, with the dumb/big brain text being "(american) tourists are dumb and ask dumb questions"
I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate.
However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your place". At least, not as much as Italians and Koreans. Americans have simple rules they abide by, like general etiquette and the constitution. And Americans are brought up to neither refrain from nor judge others acting within that boundary.
So I don't agree Americans are "tasteless". I find Americans to be more tolerant and accepting, at least compared to cultures with longer history. And that is the American "taste" in my opinion. This has its cons, one of which is someone from my culture thinking they are oblivious to others around them.
Failure to read the room might explain why the tourists persist in the questioning beyond politeness, but not why they embarked on the quest to interrogate the worker to begin with.
My family does this and I can barely go anywhere with them for the embarrassment. Everything is an interrogation. They actually take delight in the waiter not knowing the answer to where the seafood was caught, and then lecturing them about the importance of knowing such things (this is the most common one they pull). That's not just failing to read the room.
I feel like in countries which are mostly ethnostates, there is a tension around remnants of tradition and the business world trying to open up the culture to gain some new market opportunities (Unsure how to state this more neutrally). I think this tension is interesting and I think that in the U.S it feels like the market systematically has the upper hand.
I am not sure this holds scrutiny so I'd love to read a counter
As an Italian, I feel the exact same.
This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well.
BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), and they've been popping up everywhere even in totally non-touristy places. There are fashions and trends in the food business, and many Italians look at that with disgust and take refuge in tradition, but it is often not the tourists fault, it's Italians spending their money there.
Well cheeseburgers taste really good haha
Italians are posting about it on TikTok, and Italians are watching it on TikTok. It's not complicated.
I'm not sure if I like this piece but it's interesting. I just come away with the sense that the author feels something is off and did the best he could to articulate it but didn't quite put the finger on why things are off.
I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they find it, then too many people find it. Some kind of Goodhart's Law for tourism: once a place is deemed an authentic experience it ceases to be an authentic experience.
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee. It's not just a Pinterest fever dream for people? People do want to experience different cultures but of course there's really no way to do that without some kind of friction.
I think there are two distinct type of "touristy" experience.
1. Culturally important experiences lean towards the prescriptive side. You enter, you are observing or being challenged in something, and it leaves an imprint on you. It is usually a bit discomforting in an exciting way that transforms a part of you in a infinitesimally small, but distinct and permanent way.
2. The unimportant experience is the conforming one, where zero friction is the preferred method of interaction, but it is universally loved in the way high-fructose corn syrup is; it's an economically sound decision to at least try and profit from it.
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee.
I understand the latter, but just as one datapoint, I would not think you sound like an idiot for asking "what exactly is this that you're selling?"
The homogenization, and subsequent impoverishment (at least with regards to the quality and diversity) of the world appears to be, sadly, inevitable. It takes real, constant effort to maintain "the old ways" while tradition is so easily erased through globalization and, ultimately, technology.
I don't think we'll lose _all_ diversity of culture, as there will always be stalwarts to uphold institutions (even espresso bars) but as generations transition I think we'll be shocked at how much we've lost just a few years from now.
This isn't strictly a bad thing, as there are many traditions which have been laid by the wayside over the centuries, but I have to admit: I am not impressed at the things we've been replacing them with. Phones, social media, selfies, a constant sense of connectedness, influencer tourism -- it all feels so terrible, and it feels like only now are people around me recognizing that we may have dug too deep.
It seems to me that 2020 was the turning point (do you remember what it was like to be a tourist before then?) and that we're deeply nestled in the jaws of the Balrog now.
I'm really not sure what it looks like to climb back out.
This homogenization is merely a continuation of a trend since the beginning of human history.
Tribes homogenize into villages, villages into cities, cities into states, states into nations, and now we’re witnessing nations beginning to homogenize.
The whole way, it’s being driven by technology (farming, writing, metallurgy, printing, telecommunications, and so on).
I haven't been to Europe since before 2020. I assume we're not nearly as welcome over there now?
We know not to equate the governments' policies with people. Of any country. Don't worry about it.
I'd say as about the same kind of unwelcome as before. Fundementally the US traveller is the same kind of US traveller as before
But then I don't live in eg Portugal where the effect of US immigrants has been felt more strongly
Most Europeans can separate Americans from their government, but a person's views and behavior matter. Paying customers are always welcome but obnoxious ones, regardless of culture, might get an eye roll or worse.
Yeah but that doesn't mean we also don't dislike people from the US. It's a shock to many but there are Europeans who dislike both US politics and the average US citizen who flashes cash, doesn't learn the language, doesn't research where they're travelling, shouts all the times, spends 1 night per city, and is the kind of traveller in the article, etc etc.
Loudly proclaiming you're anti Trump is not a skip-the-line ticket to acceptance with us all. We also know a lot of people lie about their politics
> The cold brew order is no new behavior. We know what it is. The American empire is just the fourth incarnation of what started as Roman, became Christian European, and then predominantly British. We know what it is. We still have it in our veins, the disdain these tourists are showing. Their carelessness and abstraction. They are the rulers, the ones who believe they are giving meaning to reality for the first time.
When it's your time it's your time. And in comparison to the empires of old, the American empire is far more humane to it's subjects. The biggest mistake our nation has made in the last 100 years is being merciful to the war mongers; Perhaps if they received justice instead of undeserved tolerance they wouldn't be so insolent to complain of what is put in their bowl.
Your list is imcomplete I believe:
Too merciful to slaveowners before, too merciful to warmongers as of late and way too merciful to grifters for as long as this country has existed.
I learnt that you should never bet against the U.S but I don't know how much longer you will be able to waste that seemingly infinite potential.
Good times creates bored, ignorant men. Bored ignorant, men create bad times.
I think ultimately the conclusion the author reaches is an interesting one, that the real "disease" of tourism is like sepsis. It comes not from without, the tourists themselves, but from within, the changes made by locals to try to capture the opportunities for wealth that the tourists create.
The paradox of the tourist is fascinating. All at the same time, a locality experiencing a flood of tourism will welcome the sudden wellspring of foreign currency pouring forth from the rock, and loathe the disruption the flood causes to the steady pace of life. Anyone who has been a tourist knows what the tourist wants, a break from the monotony of their own culture, a desire to know the other and tread in their footsteps, in some cases a wholesome longing to break down cultural barriers and prejudice. And yet anyone who has been on the other side of the interaction with a tourist feels the heady mix of emotions that comes with the experience of being the toured. The discomfort that comes from the wall being torn down unexpectedly. The inconvenience of disruption in routine. No tourist wants to do harm, but even the most sensitive and well-meaning tourist creates a breach in routine that is disruptive. Nobody likes change.
The author wants to be a writer and we all have to suffer
In other words: nothing has changed since Henry James wrote about Americans in Europe.
On formatting: having the big-text snippets occur before they do in the main body was jarring. I think it's more normal practice to lift out specific quotes after they have occurred in the text, not before.
On content: if it's any consolation, America is doing this to America as well. Locals everywhere are wringing their hands over stylistic homogenization, Instagrammability-driven design choices, and rapidly increasing prices.
Quite a few publications do this and it's really annoying, yeah.
For the confused: gelateria is some foreign word for an ice cream shop.
In a sense "Americans" don't really exist.
The people the article describes are a very small subset of the American cultures: the ones with intellectual curiosity and money to travel to another country.
For each American tourist you see in Europe there are at leas a dozen, back in the U.S., that don't travel, don't have curiosity for a foreign culture or don't even have any curiosity at all.
And, then, what moral grounds do Europeans have to talk about "invasion" or "imperialism"? The golden eras of Europe where built on exactly that. At least they're conquering you with dollars, not guns. The 3rd world European colonies of 19th century weren't that lucky.
You know what this article smells like? It is typical European insularity. Europe is still a continent with people that spent the last 3000 years in wars among themselves. Actually, Italians only stopped wars against other Italians on the 19th century, after unification.
modern man wanted "it's a small world after all" and now we are getting it, good and hard
But seriously, why is it such an impossibility to get an iced coffee over there. You have affogato! You can take a caffe americano and pour it over ice!
> When Americans analyze a small shop in a foreign country, time stops counting itself on clocks and pondering its own dull finiteness. Now it can pleasurably yawn into the holy hollowness of the 30-plus questions the tourists are asking. Now, everyone around the American family is swamped in the buttery goo of the present, stretched. The other people in the gelateria can’t name the feeling that wraps itself around them. The feeling that time is purring, that time is on the American family’s side.
This is absolute art.
> Their job of giving value and meaning to our city is so important to them; they don’t seem to realize we are not as excited as they are about their discovery of gianduia.
And this
What a bunch of drivel. The author should come observe how the Chinese are when visiting the US, its the exact same situation just different nationalities playing the various roles.
The conclusion of the piece is that this is no longer a uniquely American phenomenon.
It’s humorous in its own right. It’s almost as if they’re on safari or visiting another planet. They arrive in a caravan of coach buses, disembark, walk around in a crowd lead by a guide, take their pictures in front of whatever the attraction is then load up and disappear at once.
In a way it’s not really that different or unusual than any other tourists, but there’s something that feels so choreographed about it that stands out to me. Maybe it’s just how large the tour groups are.
I regret I have but one upvote to give you.
If you're taking offence, then you might be missing the point:
> The American tourist used to be regarded as the most obnoxious creature in the world. Loud, naïve, ham fisted, needy. The reason I told you about the opening of this borghetto di merda is that it made me realize: Now we are all American tourists.
The author seems to agree with you.
In my experience, people on vacation act like they're on vacation. People on vacation paid a premium to be where they are. They have high expectations. I've noticed this living in big American and Canadian cities. I've noticed this while on vacation myself. Vacationers are generally similar no matter where they are or where they're from.
I would love for the author to interact with vacationers directly instead of making up this back story about them in their head. To let them know, no, this place doesn't have cold brew, but buddy, wait until you try a shakerato.
What the hell did I just read.
This article fit's perfectly in the middle of the midwit meme explaining the cause/effect of tourists, with the dumb/big brain text being "(american) tourists are dumb and ask dumb questions"