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3 years agoIt fucking floors me every time I read stuff on travel that’s usually written by westerners (not necessarily anglos, though I am unfortunately one) on some poorer places, and people write about how to avoid scams and avoid overpaying, but then you run the conversion to the local currency and it’s like a fucking dollar at the most. Absolutely no skin off the traveler’s back, but can mean a good day’s wages for whoever’s involved. Fucking wild.
It’s what happens when you grow up in a country where you’re told that FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY and all that is paramount, but then you start to realize that, even in a society full of FREEDOM there’s rules to be followed, and those rules suck: you gotta pay fees to get a licence, and then you can’t do some stuff, and maybe you get a fine for some neighbourhood bylaw and now have to go to court. It’s the freedom fetish of American civic religion coming up against the reality of living in a modern society.