Only white people appreciate nature, ya'll

[antares]

From (now dead) Lawrence Auster:

Scroll down for CO. Being awestruck by nature is primarily only a feature of white people. As well as climbing mountains and being adventerous. :wtf:

amnation.com/vfr/archives/022300.html#may3

Paul K., you are right. In general, Asians appreciate and cultivate aspects of Western culture more than any other non-white group. My Indian friends went to British schools and they read all the same books I did growing up, even American authors like Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I listen to a classical music station daily and most of the hot young classical artists these days are Chinese.

But in the time I spent abroad, among other things, I became convinced that the idea of adoring nature is a product of the West. Before Edmund Hillary made his summit of Mt. Everest and made the Himalayas into a world-class destination for mountaineers, Nepali and Tibetan ethnic people did not go mountain-climbing. They regard it as dangerous and foolhardy. They only do it nowadays days if they are working for the tourist industry. They make magnificent trekking guides. They will risk their lives for you. But trekking is never something they would do for recreation.

If you get stranded high on a mountain and you’re a foreign tourist, they’ll send a helicopter rescue for you. If you’re Nepali, they’ll leave you up there; you were supposed to have sense enough not to go there in the first place.

The majority of trekkers who visit Nepal come from the United States, Europe, and Australia, with a small percentage from Japan. White people of Northern European extraction have a solid reputation for being the only people who would spend big bucks on a vacation where you will most certainly get dysentery, pick leeches off you, and possibly even get killed.

I’ve trekked in remote areas of the Himalayas, which is as close as you can get to outer space without leaving the planet. The ethnic people there are very suspicious of foreigners. Unless you’re a scientist or a missionary, they can’t make sense of why you’re there. Why would anyone go out of their way just to look at beautiful scenery? My brother-in-law once made a cross-country road trip and drove 100 miles out of his way to visit the Grand Canyon. Afterwards he said, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a big hole in the ground.â€

Most definitely all Asians are not like him. But I used to think that being awestruck by nature was something hardwired into human beings. Now, I think of it as primarily a feature of white people and my experience has consistently borne that out.

My in-laws immigrated to the U.S. from Nepal. For the past 20 years, I’ve known a great many South Asian immigrants. I am closer to them than I am to Americans.

They are the most decent, upright, pleasant, and courteous people you could ever hope to meet. Exactly the kind of people you enjoy having as friends, coworkers, neighbors. They work hard, and they are always successful. They do well in school. They start businesses. They raise beautifully well-mannered kids. They are devoutly religious, devoted to family, conservative in every way.

They are completely indifferent to American history, American folklore or American culture. They think they learned everything about America before they got here, by watching television. As long as they have a good job and a nice house, they think they know everything they need to know.

They are primarily interested in one thing—shopping. They couldn’t care less about American monuments or museums or parks. They don’t even stop to admire things like a beautiful sunset. If America were paved over from coast to coast with parking lots and strip malls, they’d be fine with that.

They love America the way you’d love it if you struck oil in your backyard. You’d enjoy the status and wealth and prestige it brings. You wouldn’t admire the black smelly substance itself.

Since I know a lot of them personally and have some influence, I have tried desperately over the years to get them to take an interest in America—begged, cried even. I’ve discussed with them events like the battle of Gettysburg. They aren’t interested. I’ve taken them to places like Yosemite. They get bored after 20 minutes.

They do visit famous attractions of course—primarily to take pictures of each other. Next time you spot a bunch of Asian tourists, check and see if they aren’t paying more attention to the camera than they are to the scenery.

The most horrifying part is watching the invisible hand of political correctness start sliding over their mouths once they get here. They believe everything they hear on the mainstream media like it’s the word of God. On 9/11/01, they were the ones standing in front of the TV set going, “See? This is what you can expect from Muslims.†Since then, they got the memo that you’re not supposed to criticize Muslims, so they don’t do that anymore.

There’s this perception, especially among conservatives, that everything will be fine as long as we only import the “good†immigrants. Nothing could be further from the truth. Defending American traditionalism is up to us. No one else is going to do it. The concept doesn’t even register with them.

I found it through some reactionary Asian dude's blog. Honestly, I can't pinpoint why, it's a bit depressing that in reactionary spheres, if you ever find non-white bloggers in it it's probably Asians. The reactionary sphere seems to attract some Asian men(women not as much), for some reason.

http://wongchowmein.blogspot.com/

[GeoBQn]

What about all of those centuries when white Europeans felt they had a right to other people's land because the natives "didn't do anything" with it, like farming or ranching?

[super skeptic]

Yeah, Native Americans (from Canada all the way to South America) having nature-based beliefs and religions meant they didn't appreciate nature at all.

Effing racist jerks.

[PennySycamore]

Sir Edmund Hillary could not have summited Mount Everest if not for Tenzing Norgay, his Nepalese Sherpa guide. Norgay was considered so important that he was named one of Time magazine's Most Influential People of the Twentieth Century along with Sir Edmund. When asked which man was first at the summit, Sir Edmund always it was both of them together. The news that they made it to the top was announced on the same day of Elizabeth's coronation.

Perhaps the Nepalese and Tibetan people aren't all avid mountaineers because the mountains are always there. That's like saying that everyone that lives near the Blue Ridge or the Sierras has to interested in rock climbing. Well, some of us are, but not all of us. It doesn't mean we don't love the beauty of the mountains.

I don't think we can get much more appreciative of nature that what you find in Japanese gardens which are heavily influenced by Zen Buddhism.

[cindyluvs24]

Jeez, no wonder Kidist has links to him on her blog.

[ari_belle]

Words escape me. No, wait - holy fucking shit, what a BEYOND ignorant fucking thing to say. Yeah, that's it.

[C Potter-Pirbright]

Could it possibly be that the Himalayan region is quite poor and life isn't easy? So maybe people are just so busy , tending crops, lugging water miles to their homes, getting by that they don't have the time to just sit there and think , you know what this really is such a pretty place. It takes privilege to be able to have holidays, be a tourist. Further more, augh fucking hell that is messed up. I'm not even going to pretend to have anything to say to the - they don't appreciate American history etc crap.

[Evilbad]

This is such a dumb, weird POV that I'm just not even going to say anything beyond WTF.

[Clementine]

I think it is the privilege of people who don't have to conquer the nature and elements every day just to stay alive to admire nature without any negative thoughts.

It's easy just to see the beauty when you go somewhere, look at the scenery and then can go home.

I love snow, it's the most beautiful thing I can imagine. Big white fluffy flakes falling from the sky and embedding the whole world in white.

My dad hates snow. Snow means he must be outside for hours to shovel, it will be difficult to get to work and the cost of heating the house will go up. Yes, he can appreciate a snowy landscape, but beauty is not the first thing that comes to his mind when he sees it, but sweat, back pain and bills to pay.

[Evilbad]

I'm not even going to touch on the part where the rich white people "vacation" in these areas where those poor, unappreciative of nature brown people live. You know, where they work and stuff for the white people who are there vacationing.

Douchebag.

[Vex]

No words for this ignorant, racist fuckwit. I just can't even begin to comment on the stupid. I am dumbfounded.

[Conuly]

They regard it as dangerous and foolhardy

And given how many people die on Everest every year, who are we to say they're wrong?

[2xx1xy1JD]

And given how many people die on Everest every year, who are we to say they're wrong?

Yeah, I regard it as dangerous and foolhardy too, and I'm white.

Ironically, one of the Everest deaths that I know the most about involved a women who was originally from Nepal:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/05 ... scent.html

The rest of the argument is just as WTF.

Most people are interested in things that are different from where they live. It's not a racial thing. As a Canadian, I tend to jump into water when on holiday, even if the locals think it's freezing. Hot weather is not a novelty if you live in Florida. Our Israeli relatives always want to see Niagara Falls, and can't understand why we don't get excited by it and pay more attention to the casino. Water is more of a novelty to them. I see plenty of Asian tourists who are fascinated by squirrels, while the Canadians around them couldn't care less. Plenty of cultures around the world also revere or honor aspects of nature. Has he never heard of a Japanese garden, for example?

[GolightlyGrrl]

I'm so glad this racist piece of shit is dead.

And only white people can enjoy nature? WTF?

A while back I was doing an annual clean up along the Milwaukee River when I ran into some people with our local Urban Ecology Center (UEC). The people from the UCE are big on mentoring city kids, many of them minorities. On this field trip the mentors from the UEC were teaching the kids how to recognize edible plants found in nature, and the kids were enthralled. You could tell they were really excited to be connecting to nature and how nature could be an active part of their lives.

[penguinagogo]

many of the mountains in nepal are regarded as sacred, and there are some that have not been climbed, even by western tourists due to respect for the resident nepalese beliefs (om parhat, manchapuchare and a few others, if my memory is correct.

[antares]

Btw, he found free jinger before he died:

amnation.com/vfr/archives/024077.html

To look at the comments lol. Ya'll are paranoid and on anti psychotic drugs

I just came upon a blog discussion from September 2011 in which most of the participants believe that Laura Wood does not exist, that she is my creation, that I am the real author of The Thinking Housewife. One commenter, citing Laura’s and my similarities and agreements and mutual quoting of each other, writes:

We are all kinda likeminded people here. Anyone out there agree with everything I write? Every single word? I can’t think of a single person who I agree with all the time. Either they are similarly named soulmates, or they are the same freaking person.

Another commenter writes:

Yeah that does seem like an obvious similarity.

So Occam’s razor, why does Lawrence feel the need to blog as a female persona? Trying to reach a wider/diverse audience? Maybe he has some sort of latent cross dressing desires and gets his jollies pretending to be a middle aged mom?

And another:

I think part of it is that he wants a more credible voice for his misogynistic crap. He is a never married man, so who the f*** cares what he thinks about women? As Laura Woods, he can spew all that garbage about how women deserve rape.

Leave aside the point that these people fail to realize that Laura Wood, notwithstanding that she shares my worldview and agrees with me on most issues, obviously has a different personality, background, and writing style from me.

Leave all that aside. Instead, think of what these people must believe in order to believe that I am Laura Wood. They believe that I have the ability to invent an entire female human being, with her background, her personal history, her family, her experiences, her personality, her home, her gardening and cooking experiences, her interest in art. They believe that I could invent all that, and also have the time and energy to write and manage an entire blog in addition to my own. They think that I have the ability to interact with female commenters the way Laura does. In short, they believe that Lawrence Auster—this grouchy never-married misogynist bigot they despise—is a superhuman genius with an incredible sympathetic understanding of women!

This is like the “truthers†who believe that President Bush was a superhuman genius who coordinated with al Qaeda to fly planes into the World Trade Center at the exact time that a vast network of bombs, planted by Bush’s agents, blew the buildings up, so that people would think that the towers had been brought down by the planes instead of the bombs planted by Bush, and this plot, which had to involve hundreds of people, was so disciplined and well organized that no one ever leaked the truth. It’s like the people who believe that Bush was a Machiavellian genius who, when he embarked on the insane project of democratizing Muslim countries, really knew that it would not succeed, his real purpose being to discredit the idea of Muslim democratization.

There are all kinds of white idiots, on the right as well as the left, who are unable to think and who will believe any absurd and impossible conspiracy theory if it satisfies some emotional need of theirs.

It would not surprise me to learn that most of the people who believe Laura to be your own invention (and all that goes with that) are taking some kind of anti-psychotic drugs. (Obviously we would never learn that, but I’m just saying.) [LA replies: I think Terry meant to say anti-depressants, not anti-psychotics, and his (I assume unintentinal) attack on anti-psychotics mistake was part of what set off Patrick H.’s reply here.]

Years ago I had an employee who came to work “out of it†one morning. While we were out on a job working he began to talk gibberish about being “a general in my own army,†and weird things like that. I quickly whisked him away from the job and took him back home. That was his last day at work because he immediately went on a drink and drug binge that lasted the better part of a month and ultimately landed him in jail for several months on “resisting arrest†and related charges. My hope in taking him home was that he would sleep it off, but it didn’t work out that way.

But anyway, given the discussions at VFR and at TTH concerning psychotropic drugs in the aftermath of the Newtown school massacre, it occured to me, once I stopped laughing about the stupidity of it, that these idiots as you rightly call them are probably being rendered stupid (and paranoid, and idiotic) at least in part by use of anti-psychotic prescription drugs.

You can tell, I guess, that I have a very healthy fear of the power of such drugs to alter the perceptions of those (otherwise normal, reasonable people in many cases) who ingest them, rendering them stupid, paranoid, idiotic and psychotic. And these people are all around us all the time; they endanger us in many ways not necessarily physical. [LA replies: Again, it’s obvious that Terry really meant anti-depressants rather than anti-psychotics, because people who are otherwise reasonable and normal are not given anti-psychotics.]

[SayNoToMullets]

Jeez, no wonder Kidist has links to him on her blog.

Before I clicked the link, I thought this was Kidist.

[thoughtful]

If there is an afterlife, and if, in that afterlife, one can meet anyone who has died, I sure hope he is locked in a room with Hokusai, Huang Gongwang, Wen Zhengming, etc. so they can school him on the tradition of the landscape in Asian art.