22 Comments
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Rikard's avatar

"Oh, it’s all so depressing, isn’t it?!"

For an englishman, especially an elderly one, that is a rather strong emotional outburst, if I remember my cultural studies.

On a positive note, James O'Keefe among others are exposing Disney's racist hiring/promotion/casting parctices, something which is SOP all over corporate USAmerica.

And illegal. Very illegal. Do not be surprised if the combination of incoming class action suits, dropping viewership, dropping revenue, lowered quality (Boeing, f.e. since you're flying, is leading the way in showing what DEIESG-hiring leads to) and so on is what causes a real course-change, first in the US and then over here.

Corporations will lick whatever dictator and -ism that lets them profit, but one that causes losses and turns customers off (permanently in many cases)? No chance. No matter the incumbent in the White House either.

Presumably, it would be possible for nationalist parties/movements in Europe to cause a similar effect here.

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epimetheus's avatar

The one thing I'd add here is--oddly, on the three flights I took so far (I'm in Amsterdam right now), all of them required me to get out on the runway and take a bus.

I spoke to an oil and gas industry engineer a few minutes ago, he said the same.

'No-one knows why', but it's a noticeable change from, say, last year.

It's almost as if this is intended to make flying as uncomfortable as possible.

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Catherine Franklin's avatar

Depressing indeed, but in Spain and most places in the UK they still prefer cash.We keep getting scary suggestions thrown at us by mainstream media, alternative media and the crazy WEF but I think a lot of people are just ignoring all this stuff nowadays...Is it slowly just creeping in, under our noses, or are people, in reality, just saying NO with their actions....?

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epimetheus's avatar

My Italian interlocutors told me it's changing there, though, with a noticeable uptick of people who prefer the 'convenience' of cashless or cell-based payment 'services'.

Judging from my conversations, it seems that 'the elderly' have resigned themselves to this while the majority of 'the young(er)' find this all kinda o.k. (I think they are insane.)

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Catherine Franklin's avatar

Oh yes.Sadly most of the young are well and truly brainwashed into all the new agenda already

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epimetheus's avatar

Same in a conversation with Czech colleagues in late 2021: they were a few years older than me (I'm 42), and they complained that 'the young' would be 'following orders without thinking', adding that they apparently lacked their experiences in Communist Czechoslovakia…

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Catherine Franklin's avatar

Exactly

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Eva's avatar

Thank you for your travel observations most interesting! I fall into a strange category of since 2020 and UK lockdowns seeing “it” and knowing “it” yet still I have allowed my behaviours to be altered when it comes to travel.

I used to fly frequently (family in another country), now I avoid it, I don’t want the crowds, the hassle, the awful memories of apartheid and nastiness.

We’ve done road trips, I feel more in control that way. Lordy lordy.

On the plus side I ditto comment above, in the UK it’s still quite common and easy to use cash and I always have a quick word when I pay about the why it’s important.

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epimetheus's avatar

Same, same.

It's getting worse quite rapidly, and almost simultaneously, almost as if guided by an invisible hand…

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Eva's avatar

Yes funny that… 🙃

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

"Very soon, apart from large chains, cities will return to being non-production places one more."

Once more

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epimetheus's avatar

Thanks for spotting this!

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

"It’s all so odd, esp. as my card didn’t work... "

What card? A credit card?

". .. in Switzerland and here at the airport"

Here? Where is here? An airport in Switzerland?

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epimetheus's avatar

Brief answers: a VISA-supplied debit card.

In the train from Zurich to Milan, as well as at Florence Int'l Airport.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

"And thus passes what once used to a nice, even if not perfect, civilisation"

Oh please.

What fantasy book has your mind been buried in?

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epimetheus's avatar

Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday. It wasn't a 'perfect' place, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it was at least no less insane than our times appear to be…

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

What madness is pictured in the skies above Vienna?

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epimetheus's avatar

I probably should have mentioned this somewhere--it was a clear blue sky when I sat down in that Chinese restaurant. By the time the food arrived, the 'sky' looked like that…

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Candy's avatar

It’s the creep that’ll get us in the end. Slowly, so slowly that most don’t notice. Battlefield tactics

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epimetheus's avatar

I think so, too, and it's the equivalent of the slowly boiling frog, isn't it.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

What on earth does Disney's hiring practices have to do with this Intl Travel Update? Too much difused self-righteous resentment.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

Is very illegal worse than illegal?

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