Complaint

[poliphilo]

I've been on a drive to add more friends.

Here's a complaint: Too many American kiddies seem to think it's witty/ironic/Pythonesque to pretend they're blogging from some foreign country. I think, au contraire, that it's silly/disrespectful/patronising. And it makes a nonsense of LJ's grouping of bloggers by region. If I want to find a friend in Bangladesh I don't want to have to wade through half a dozen American high school teenies first. Listen up, guys- overseas isn't intrinsically funny and what you're doing is a dilute form of cultural imperialism.

Comments

[sovay]

I meant falsifying one's country of origin; that makes no sense to me. Is it supposed to be clever, or does it make you exotic and then your ratings go up, because nobody wants to read about a lifestyle they recognize, but everyone wants to hear about Bangladesh?

I see LJ as- potentially- a window on the world.

You may want to read schreibergasse, then. He's my current favorite ethnographer since Herodotos, and probably more accurate.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It would only make sense if you followed through, but these guys are just indulging in a one-off joke. The blog purports to be coming from Mongolia, but it's full of the usual stuff about what happened down the mall.

Thanks for the tip. I shall befriend schreibergasse forthwith.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Oooh an ethnographer! Great (says the wannabe anthropologist)