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"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime."
- Mark Twain
Source: Zen Pencils #73 - 'Journey'
https://www.zenpencils.com/comic/journey/
MarioBoon
Was that guy masturbating to a picture of Hitler in panel 2?
DrankTooMuchMead
Never had the money. At least I've been lucky enough to spend my life in a cosmopolitan place.
drgonzo67
Lesson learned: A great booty can make even the most racist person tolerant (2nd frame, 4th row).
Seriously though, my eyes swell up a bit every time I see this comic. Love me some Zen Pencils!
muuaaddib
It's true and diversity and exposure will change you, and of course Brazilian booty.
mbq7
Bad for global warming, though.
rayleon0702
Always love this comic. Funny sidenote, gramps truly smiles first once he sees that brazilian ass. Booty saved his soul.
BumroyV2
This comic is well intentioned, but I hate it. First, KKK-level racists are not rational or open minded. Nick Fuentes doesn't need to be convinced; he and his ideas need to be defeated. It is not the purview of the oppressed to be nicer to their oppressors. Second, even if this did work, it's not scalable. We cannot give every racist a world tour just so they stop being racist. If deconverted white nationalists are any clue, they'd still be bigoted in other way.
Someshithead241
It's why I don't particularly go for the "X people are irredeemable" because it's just a cop out. Sure it would be hard and not as instant as you'd like it, but education and integration *far* out performs mindless violence as a way of removing racists and other such mindsets from society *and* they also have the effect of making sure they don't come back which the latter method doesn't do. Infact it makes it *increase* as it feeds the methods they use to grow.
DoakMD
I've long thought that our countries should have national service. And that service is a compulsory trip, for 6 months to a year to the country of your choice. The only stipulation is the native tongue must be different than your own.
rockdoctor
Ah yes, money... the solution to so many things.
DTNemes
If you're racist, and you travel to another country, you'll still be racist, just somewhere else.
jaijaikali
It really is amazing when you get a glimpse of just how much "people are just people." Its humbling and wholesome and warm and also sort of sublime.
Noevilgifs
That brazilian booty got him thinking differently
tsiyeria
If only it was more accessible.
Jattetont
This is why the British Empire was never racist. /s
BehGehBeeeehh
This is why I want the airlines nationalized. It's TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE to travel for most of the people who want/need it most. The millionaire and billionaire sociopaths won't be changed by it because they're way past giving a fuck.
Timpani
Wow, zen pencils. I have two of their prints. It's been a while.
whatthefuck9999999
This is BS. How many people actually go on vacation and interact in a meaningful, non exploitative way with the locals? (And that exploitation can go either way)
Xenarion
That's why rural areas tend to be more racist and big cities less. When you meet and interact with other people, it's hard to imagine all of them as the stereotype racists portray them as.
greyghost714
That is the true divide in our country; rural vs urban.
Primatebuddy
It is, but damned if the stereotypes I had in my head of Mexican families was true to some degree. I dated a "straight out of Mexico" girl in high school. Her family came here together to live in a nice house in a nice part of town. They all lived in the same house, three generations. And they had like 7 cars, all worked. And the food, oh my gawd. I loved those people.
GlobalImageServiceCat
While kudos to the sentiment, the artist clearly hasn't dealt with Americans tourists on foreign soil.
ruint
in the UK, American tourists are always the kindest, happiest, and loudest people in the room.
Hexrowe
Exposure breeds tolerance.
LjubljanaJeNajlepseMestoNaSvetu
Ppl in Kočevje are exposed to 'brazilci' all the time, and the tolerance has gone down as the result.
albester
Which is why anti-immigration parties get most of their votes from regions where there is less immigration.
DulothX
Ehhhh..... Depends on the exposure. Sometimes cultures deliberately create exposure tuned to bias you against outsiders, or bias outsiders against them.
cuddleskunk
I didn't even know this was the original version of the comic. The version I saw didn't have the logo for the origin and was passed around 4chan. That version of the comic has the whole version of this comic be overwritten by guy getting gridlocked and shellshocked by urban sprawl in every country and coming back the same. The "moral" to that version was a ridiculous colonialist idea that every culture except "Western" ones should be idyllic past versions of themselves.
ruint
the quote is from 1869, when the depicted stuff would have been true. idk about the plane tho?
cuddleskunk
I'm not 100%, but I think 1869 also predates the KKK
herzatz
what a fucking naive comic
TheBigBadBonerBiter
Zen Pencils is kind of a hack. Most of his stuff is surface-level inspirational poster tier schlock with misinterpreted feel-good quotes. At one point, in response to online criticism, he made a 4-part comic where fucking Miyazaki assembles a crew of artists to build a giant mech to fight a giant slime monster that's supposed to be an amalgamation of internet trolls.
Sheadog369
How about the one that suggested children should bring a hammer to school to deal with bullies?
NergalJester
It's a lot easier to travel when you aren't poor as shit. Not a huge struggle to connect racism and being broke.
greyghost714
So many rich racists in the US
Prometheusblu
You gotta be rich enough to encounter more people then grew up in your home town but not so rich that you can use your wealth to isolate yourself
emptyother
I been vegetating right here in this tiny country for most of my life, and that didnt turn me into a bigot. A bit naive, maybe, hard to tell.
Primatebuddy
Same. Never really been anywhere except some places in the US on business, and I've never had much desire for travel. Still I learn a lot about cultures across the world, I think I have come out of it not like my parents at all. That is to say, not a bigoted shitbag Trumper.
Couchwarrior1337
I blame my lifetime of reading books of people's diverse experiences and views. Even in fiction people's writings reflect the kind of world they either wish to live in or hope to avoid, depending on the setting.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
You have internet access, so chances are you already know more about the world than the average person in Twain's times.
astrangehop
They had to go to webcafes
PapaUbu
That's getting less true unfortunately. Tourist enclaves where you basically have no genuine interaction. I read about some Brits that went to Spain (obviously 🙄) and tried to claim a refund because " it was full of foreigners"
candar
i was at a beergarden in austria and there was a stag party going on. terrible racket, made a mess, super rude, didnt speak a word of german. they finally left and the table sitting next to me says "fucking americans"
dashers
There is a perplexing view here that we have a god-given right to holiday in Spain, get drunk, and generally take advantage of the local environment. But heaven forbid that there is anything there that isn't culturally British.
IKnowWhereSydBarrettLived
That’s just a product of the terrible education system in the UK. We still teach kids as if they’re heading for a job in a Victorian factory. We’re anti-science, anti-art, anti-language and anti-effort. It’s a miracle we have any literate people. These are the same cretins that are rioting because we didn’t provide them with anything useful at school.
topscienceb
Uk education is so weird im a trans, austic and dsylexic with a history of mental health problems. i work in a school and have many times told the higer ups i would be more than willing to talk to staff about my expences so they can in turn help our students but they never do and i cant understand why.
ali4z
Maybe they are too busy doing the bare minimum after all the budget cuts.
MarioBoon
The whole expat thing Brits do, is to literally live in a foreign country without interacting with the indigenous people there.
PapaUbu
And I love how they call themselves "ex pats" not immigrants lmao
TeaOverdose
don't you know, immigrants are brown /s
MarioBoon
I know right ;-)
timmargh
I read somewhere that Ian Botham, an old British cricketer, voted for Brexit whilst living in Spain. Just about sums up the common mentality.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
Many tourism hot spots are moving to a "class instead of mass" strategy. Which in many cases will just end up locking out poor people.
PapaUbu
Having had to deal with paralytically drunk and sociopathically violent brits on cheap flights, and embarrassingly xenophobic self entitled brits once I got there... would that really be such a bad thing? I've been ashamed to be British when I've been abroad at times, the way brits on holiday act.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
Those people don't vanish from public life though, just because their list of travel destinations grows a bit shorter.
Probably the opposite actually. In the places that will take them, there'll be even more of them.
PapaUbu
Oh I know that, but I know where to avoid, I'm not going to some mega resort in Benidorm for that exact reason. But further afield, previously un touristy places are getting easier to get to.
Lontri
Yup. I was raised by 2 racists, my first boyfriend was a "national socialist", so no wonder I turned out to have shitty opinions. But then I started encountering people from all over Europe while playing WoW. Dated a couple of guys from a different country, fell in love with a guy from Turkey, ended up moving to another country for a while, moved to a bigger city when I came back to my home country, encountered more people from different backgrounds. I'm pretty far on the left now.
Lontri
Funny thing is, my parents didn't approve of me being in the extreme far right, and these days the things they say are much much worse than the things I believed in 15-20 years ago.
JohnSmithterms
The opposite of this comic also holds true. I have lived all over the world and there are definitely cultures I prefer and cultures I do not like having visited them or lived with them. People are generally cool everywhere. But nationalists and religious fundamentalists the world over can kiss my ass.
Nakika
Yea, the comic might be depicting the only person who's ever had a good time in Egypt. Seriously, don't go to Egypt.
JohnSmithterms
Yeah i would prefer not to get blown apart by an attack helicopter because the army assumed i was a bus load of terrorists without checking first.
CocaineAndSelfPleasure
I had a great time in Egypt. So did everyone in my group. Personally though there are countries I wouldn’t travel to without being part of a larger tour group. Egypt being high on that list.
I do work in travel so I kinda know what works for me. HMU if you ever want to chat options.
greyghost714
It's my biggest problem with India now. Chauvinism has always been out of hand but their rape culture is out of control and Modi has turned a lot of Indians into blind Modi fans with nationalist beliefs. India is far from western liberal democracy standards.
JohnSmithterms
I have never visited india. But living in the UK i have worked with some fantastic people from india. I am sure there are great parts of india but i have heard horror stories from people who have visited also. Especially the food hygiene and guaranteed diarrhea from eating or drinking anything. Also the higher than average rape culture and caste system does not draw me to visit when i could visit the Mediterranean instead.
Eddi3v
Or have an experiance like my friend who did a year travelling and got pickpicketed twice in egypt, spat on from second story windows while being called a "white monkey" in china, mugged in south africa at knife point ... but he's still not a KKK member though. lol
smellsmiketeenspirit
Yeah, that comic is awfully bad.
SalsaBeard
All in how you look at the glass. Definitely some bad experiences, but I’m guessing there were more good experiences.
torbtom
What can you expect if Twain is correct: the people in those countries travel far, far less than Americans/Europeans.
FrancsTireur
Dunno why you're being downvoted, at no point in this quote or meme does it qualify the message with "life lesson only applies to white people".
Racism is very much a human disease, not a white one.
Typhii
I went to China a few weeks ago and I'm so glad I didn't had that experience. Most people were very kind and helpful and I had no feeling I got discriminated against.
ReverseSyzygy
I've been there twice. First time I was invited into the home of a family none of whom spoke any English - I speak no Mandarin - and they welcomed me. Served tea, showed me (heirloom?) family instruments - their hidden Buddhist shrine with photos af the Dami Lama.
We didn't speak in a common language at all.
QuitLookinAtMineAim
Spat on huh? I wonder what jail is like in China?
PrincessWasabi
You get really good at assembling electronics !
ThatLoserTheFourth
Ask the Uyghurs
emptyother
So he learnt that assholes exist in every culture. Same result.
MrPengy
Get mugged by a black dude: Decide that black people suck
Get mugged by every race: Realize that *every one* sucks
Ijustsigneduptoupvotethis
South African here. Sorry to hear about the migging. If it makes it any better, cringe is not race motive as the media might make it out to be, everyone here suffers from it and people get fed up. That's why you will get the occasion mob justice vid from here pop up on live leak. Last week they burned down a pastors church.
Ijustsigneduptoupvotethis
Mugging* crime*
Thanks auto correct.
SterlingArcherSecretAgent
It's true - experiencing the world makes it nearly impossible to be racist (at least for sane people).
rusrsdude
I'd say being racist is inherently a conservative trait. It's not about being sane or insane. We can't dismiss human traits like that. I'd also add that people in general are on a spectrum of conservatism/liberalism, and the more conservative you are, the further you delve into racism.
RuBisCO1
Oh but there are a whole lot of insane people, that said they do want to stay "un-wordly" as they call it and keep their children that way to.
shitheadtookmyname
But if we're talking about white ppl in the usa, the travel has to be to Asia or Africa, which means 17+ hours in an airplane each way, which is two days of your one week of vacation wasted on a plane. So you aren't gonna "see the world" until you are 65+ years old, on a fixed income.
Ree81
What if I travel in order to destroy countries near the equator from climate change?
Nakika
It's not true that encountering poverty, pollution, and corruption will invariably lead you to have more respect for a culture.
Waaaaaaaaaaaagh
It's a real shame that most people like that are far too poor to even ever think about that kind of travel. Almost like if resources were freely shared amongst ourselves, there would be no need for hate in the first place. But I don't expect a bunch of capitalist whores to understand such a thought.
SalamiMitKetchup
Yeah but only nearly... I know people who regularly spend their cheap all-inclusive holidays in countries like bulgaria, turkiye, egypt... but at the same time not wanting to see these people in their own country.
SterlingArcherSecretAgent
That is travelling the world - not the same as experiencing the world. Significant difference :-)
Crazycoke1994
Or just growing up in a stable and non racist home also helps.
Kreviathan
Somehow my mom travelled in her 20s and ended up a racist Trump supporter. According to my dad she really changed over the years and we all think it's some kind of psychological disorder. She of course refuses to talk to a doctor.
SterlingArcherSecretAgent
Could be a mild stroke or blod clot in the brain. Happens to many people without them knowing, but it can really change their personality. It often reduces or even removes their sense of empathy. Happened to my biological father - not a good combination when he was already a psychopath.
hsalonen3000
Yes, but that kinda of travel costs money. If you are an uneducated bigot, no woman is going to show up and give you expensive travel tickets..
VictusVonGuyver
bigots cannot sanitize their message for their needs overseas. Some can still be racist even after a trip, but it's harder for the majority of people to not understand other human beings are people and not just skin and language differences.
That being said, it depresses me when I see someone still process racist views despite themselves being a minority. Friend is Puerto Rican, joined the corrections department and has slowly come to believe minorities are irredeemable.
JokeDestroyer
The prison system is atrocious and breeds evil on both sides of the bars. I had a former friend tell me he'd been working as a correctional officer for years and couldn't see prisoners as human anymore.
AdmiralLightningrod
They stared into the abyss and blinked.
uden10
Tracks with someone I debated with online. He pretty much lost his faith in minorities being able to change or something like that, also worked in correctional. It didn't really occur to him that he is hanging around literally the worst of humanity short of a CEO, of course he'd have a biased and cynical view.
VictusVonGuyver
Exactly this. He complains that we are wasting money on trying to reform them.
I told him that prisons shouldn't just be for punishment, a hell on earth, they should also be trying to reform people into productive members of society.
Thing is the culture here in the United States feeds into making our prison systems worse and our healthcare broken. A very bad combination for our society.
shitheadtookmyname
It's actually quite easy. If you're white American and fly to a nearby country that is not majority white (ie, Jamaica) you will probably take tours and stay at a resort or hotel catering to other white tourists. My parents spent a week in Jamaica after my day retired. They're blue collar. I didn't think I saw a single non white person in any of their pictures. All white tourists with guides who are tacitly steering them away from black ppl
shitheadtookmyname
Also you hear stuff like "Jamaican work hard, the blacks in America are lazy"
shitheadtookmyname
"spoiled by the welfare system. It keeps them down and teaches them to be lazy"