If you’re a frequent traveller or a reader of the “Travel” section of your local paper, you may have read the name Rick Steves. I have, his stuff in published in at least one, if not both, of the Seattle dailies.
If you have any of his large number of books, you may want to think about buying another writer at your next purchase, because he is the subject of today’s installment of “The Dumbest Thing I’ve Read All Day”.
“I think we’re 300 million people and if we lose a few hundred people a year to terrorists, that doesn’t change who we are and it shouldn’t change the fabric of our society. Frankly I think we should get used to losing — as long as we’re taking the stance in the world of being the military superpower, you’re going to have people nipping at you. And if it’s hundreds or thousands — we lose 15,000 people a year to have the right to bear arms and most people think that’s a good deal, year after year. We spend 15,000 people for the right to bear arms. What do we spend to be as aggressive and heavy weight on this planet? We’re always going to have terrorism.”
That may just well be the dumbest thing I’ve read all week, and it is only Thursday morning. In just one paragraph I’ve found a guy who is a BDS sufferer, apathetic to terrorism and a gun bigot.
There is more where that came from. Put your knee boots on.
The simple truth is that the Backdoor guides suck. I took one to Europe in the late 90s and I gave it away after three weeks when it was clear that it was useless. While much of my criticism stems from the nature of travel guide, i.e. by the time they are published, purchased, and utilized, much of the information will be outdated or of no use, there was also too much whiny “Americans are ignorant” commentary. Not being a self-loathing type, and fairly well-travelled, it has been my experience that MOST people are ignorant about many things, so why do the whole white, American, middle-class guilt thing? To feel superior to other Americans? To brag about how enlightened and hip you are?
But anyway, they suck. For a young person on a budget much smaller than Steves’, his “budget picks” were regretted. I stayed in a lot of really crappy dives thanks to him. The places he really recommended, I couldn’t afford. Once I jettisoned his garbage and started talking to other travellers, and using some other guides, I did just fine.
I think he’s simply Euro-centric, and in the typical American leftist snob clown fashion identifies more with Europeans than anyone else in the world. My tastes run to the Asian. Travel in Europe is easy and accessible for Americans, and it’s fun. But while he may have, at one time, legitimately known a thing or two about budget travelling, those days are long gone, and he’s simply a pampered American leftist.
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