What blows my mind is the gun culture. I don't live in the US, and from the outside it sounds absolutely bonkers and caricaturesque that one can just take their paycheck and legally purchase a firearm like in the Wild West. It wouldn't be the first time someone experiences culture shock though. Or the last.
Culture shock in spades: watching Asian tourists renting machine guns at various indoor ranges in Las Vegas. They look around like "is this really happening?", then after ripping a magazine full of rounds downrange get these ridiculously huge grins. 44 Magnums are popular as well (for one shot).
As one might imagine, the range attendants are very good at two things: keeping things safe, and taking good souvenir photographs. I've never seen anyone leave one of those ranges unhappy.
For the more well-heeled tourist, there are outdoor ranges where you can shoot cannons and drive tanks (there's also one in Texas).
Yes. b.) is to a.) what a wank is to a relationship. That's why I think we'll see the end of performative activism when people stop pleasuring themselves.
Man what an analogy. You are right, everything we build these days is so expendable. The throwaway era. The only thing left from our time for tourists of the future to pay guided visits for is the continent of garbage drifting through the Pacific.
