Back from vacation

Last year, I visited Costa Rica, and there was a screw up on my return flight. To compensate for my inconvenience, Aero Mexico put me up in a hotel for the night, provided me some meal vouchers, and gave me a voucher for a round-trip ticket to anywhere in Mexico (from Los Angeles or any other near-border city) good for a year.

That’s why I chose Mexico for this year’s vacation. Mainly, I just wanted to get away from the rain and cold that’s Oregon in the winter, so I decided on Cozumel. I wasn’t disappointed; the place is as close to paradise as you can get.

Prior to my departure, I’d seen a YouTube video where a woman interviewed ordinary Mexicans to find out what they thought of Donald Trump. The video gave the impression that there’s a mix of opinions about him in Mexico. But I asked many Mexicans, at the airports, in restaurants, at my hotels and on the street, what they thought of Trump. My conclusion? They all pretty much hate him.

There was only one Mexican who was able to see the other side of the story: A receptionist at a hotel. She and I actually had some meaningful conversations. I pointed out that the average Mexican believes in things that, were he to suddenly be transplanted into the U.S., would put him firmly in the conservative camp.

When a Mexican woman gets pregnant, she doesn’t consider having an abortion; it’s assumed (barring some sort of medical issue) that she’s going to have the baby.

There are different dress codes for men and women at Aero Mexico. It’s understood that men and women are different, and should be treated differently. Nobody seems to have a problem with this. Men are happy to be men, and women are happy to be women. Not that there aren’t LGBT’s in Mexico, but this sort of aberration isn’t publicly celebrated as it is in the U.S.

The restaurant workers, at that same hotel, were required to wear Santa hats during the holiday season. Could  you imagine the uproar if a large hotel were to require such a thing in the U.S.? The ACLU would be all over it.

Mexicans have no problem wishing each other “Feliz Navidad,” whether at school, at work or on the street. They don’t worry about offending people who don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s part of their culture, and they see no reason to be ashamed of it.

I pointed out that, just as Mexicans want to maintain their own culture, so too do Americans want to preserve ours – and those are the people who voted for Trump.

But, unlike so many naive “conservatives,” I do not consider Mexicans to be “natural Republicans.” I may be way off base here, but it seems to me that most Mexicans are “conservative” not so much out of conviction, but out of habit. That’s the way they are because it’s the norm there. This is the way most Americans were before our culture was largely destroyed by the likes of the “Frankfurt School.” Once Leftism became the norm, it took special effort to be conservative. Before that, it was hard to tell who was a real conservative and who was just being conformist.

I think most Mexicans (like just about every other nationality) are conformists. Either way, their identity as Mexicans influences their opinion of Trump more than anything else. They perceive Trump as “anti-Mexican,” even though he never said anything bad about Mexicans as a whole; he simply pointed out that Mexico is sending a lot of its criminals our way, and that the U.S. has a duty to protect its borders.

I had a long conversation with the owner of a restaurant. He was passionate about his contempt for Trump, and said Americans should be embarrassed to have such a man as our leader. He asked (rhetorically) what would happen if all the Mexican agricultural workers suddenly went back to Mexico. I told him that produce prices would go up. Obviously, this is true. Not wanted to descend into an argument, I didn’t point out that it takes time to adjust to new realities. Yes, prices would go up. But after a while, we’d find solutions – just as we did before we became dependent on Mexican cheap labor. The restaurant owner said it’s foolish for Trump to pick a fight with China. I pointed out that somebody has to hold China accountable, and put an end to its walking all over America.

Mexicans are subject to the same anti-Trump media that Americans are. I’m not sure if they have an alternative media (in Spanish) down there to give some balance.

One point that the restaurant owner, and I, did agree upon is this: Mexicans enjoy more liberty (overall) than Americans do. For the most part, you can do what you want down there. As long as you’re not hurting other people, nobody cares. I’m pretty sure Fred Reed has written about this a few times. Safety is not a priority in Mexico nearly as much as individual freedom is. I’m sure a lot of people die because of this, but they do seem to enjoy their time on Earth more. It’s a trade-off.

But enough about Mexico. We’re having a harsh winter, even in Oregon. I’m thinking we’re in for another ice age. What would happen to the white races if we did experience another ice age?