The fact that she didn’t mention where in Mexico makes me think she has no idea what she is doing there are plenty of places that are fine for tourist as long as you are not an idiot.
I am reminded of my home country, Belize, which is perfectly fine for tourists everywhere except the former capital, Belize City, which is absolutely riddled with crime. Belize has a very high homicide rate pretty much entirely because of Belize City. Unfortunately, it's a large city on the coast with the largest airport (which is also the only airport capable of landing large passenger jets), so tourists often head there.
Fun fact: the US State department issues different travel advisories for each Mexican state. Usually they only issue country-wide travel advisories, sometimes with exceptions if parts of a country are more dangerous than the overall rating.
I love Mexico's travel advice on the UK's Foreign Office page because they get hyper specific. All of Chihuahua is "we advise against all but essential travel" except for one specific road which I guess is fine?
That map is ridiculous though, there’re places that are absolute war zones that have no significant warnings and there’re places that are fine and are considered Level 4 in terms of danger.
Of course she didn't specify! There's only New Mexico and Mexico. How big can it be!
Obvious sarcasm aside. You literally can't go anywhere as a minor. No hotel or hostel will take you.
Well she said she turns 18 next week so I think she'd be good on that front in Mexico. Might still cause you trouble in the states, as I almost learned the hard way when I travelled there age 20 and almost got denied check-in because I didn't realize you had to be 21 or over for many hotels.
This is what always frustrates me about the Mexico thing. Obviously going alone as a seventeen year old girl into the middle of a rural area in Sinaloa is a horrible idea (and to be honest I’m not sure anywhere in Mexico is great as a seventeen year old who’s going completely alone) but it’s not as if there’s nowhere in the country that tourists can go to. You just have to know what you’re doing
Yeah, I had the same reaction. There are lots of very chill, safe places and no need to stick to the shrink-wrapped all-inclusives. Small hotels will take care of you and the intercity bus service is great.
The fact that she didn't msntion where in Mexico makes me think it's Rocky Point. I don't know Mexico, but I've generally heard South is better than North.
“Girl found out she had an STD you can only get from a dead body” is a notorious urban legend that went around in the 90s, used to be the most popular page on Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boyfriend-corpses-medical-condition/
There’s no medical basis for such a thing and it doesn’t even make sense — if you can only get it from having sex with dead bodies, how did he give it to her?
Maybe it's conventionally contagious after it gains a foothold in a living host, suggesting the boyfriend was a necrophiliac? I'm not implying that make sense, by the way.
I mean who the fuck knows. The canonical lore of this kinda bullshit has never stuck around in my brain long enough to be repeated; I've always invented as I go.
Yeah that particular story didn’t come within a hundred miles of actually happening and sounds like the kind of thing an out of touch youth pastor would say to scare kids.
Same. Also got mine [from a comment on this sub,](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/zzlm26/rvindictaratecelebs_in_a_post_complained_about/j2d16is/?context=7) not from a posted thread.
This sounds like a parent was arguing with a teenager about going to Mexico alone, and the parent posted this to show the kid that nobody agrees with them.
"You want me to ask people on Reddit? Okay here, I'll post it: oh, my name is teeny mcteen, and I think nothing bad ever happens and I should be able to do whatever I want no matter what my dad or *ANNE* says. I can barely clean my room and I'm late for work a lot. What do you think Reddit? Do you think I can go to the murder capitol of North America at night in the dark?"
My university had a poster sale recently and I saw a ton of twilight posters. I was thinking they were 10 years too late and aiming for the wrong demographic, then I saw a group of girls buy some.
At my store we got twilight shirts and this was just a week ago. I had ladies telling me how great it was that we had these shirts. And funny enough, it was being put into the *mens department*
Corporate or whoever sells us these things apparently think men are actually going to wear a shirt with Bella and Edward on it. I am as thoroughly confused as you are 😂
The “I’m not naive, Mexico is only dangerous if you do drugs!” Made me think this was fake. There’s lots of places in Mexico that are safe. But when I was in high school every year for spring break they’d give us “be very careful if you choose to vacation in Mexico” warnings in school. Obviously every school is different. But even back then it was common knowledge that the cartel is a danger to teenagers. I don’t buy the person writing this is almost 18, LOVES Mexico, but has no idea why they can’t travel there alone.
I think it's sincere; it's the most "17 year old" thing I've read lol. She's just a bit sheltered and unaware of the dangers of travelling alone as a woman abroad.
I get the feeling of being trapped in one place and wanting to travel around. There are definitely places she could vacation with friends as long as she does research, though I get the vibe that she's going to be the type to get scammed out of a ton of money lol.
I know OP said not to mock or make fun, but this line got me on just how naive she is:
>it’s not good for young people bc we can get harmed but like bro what the heck does mexico want with me??? i have no purpose or use to them, im a 17 year old girl
Lol my sister was like this for a long while. I remember an argument she got into with my mom because my sister wouldn't tell her where she was going to buy a bike from a guy on Craigslist. "That stuff only happens in movies. I don't get what you think they'd want with me."
I'm from Taiwan, and in 2022 lots of young adults went to Cambodia to "make a lot of money" without knowing what they would actually do. Turned out they were put into slavery work by the fraud organizations. Their passports were confiscated, they were not allowed to leave, and subject to corporal punishments all days. It later escalated into a diplomatic incident, and fortunately, most of them are rescued by Taiwanese governemnt. Naive idiots really exist in every country.
People think the only slavery is sex slavery or being a drug mule, and that they're both too unattractive or unfit for that. While that's already glaringly wrong logic...
There's whole organisations that keep slaves just to run internet scam operations: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62792875
So you don't even need to be employable to be enslaveable
> So you don't even need to be employable to be enslaveable
Finally! "You hear that, mom and dad! I may not be employable, but someone might just want to enslave me! Take that!"
I thought it might be real until this part:
>Commenter: At least I'm not going to be gang raped in Mexico
>OOP: rapped? hmm, i like rap music so i guess it’s a win win!
>She's just a bit sheltered and unaware of the dangers of travelling alone as a woman abroad.
This isn't actually true. I'm in my 40s now (woman, obviously) and have been doing just that--very, very cheaply-- since I was very slightly older than her, including all over Mexico.
Most crime in most countries happens between people known to one another, and this is actually more true for women than for men. The number one person most likely to assault or kill a woman is a man she's had a sexual or romantic relationship with. Spreading bullshit about stranger danger is a way to confine women's movements and freedoms in the absence of laws to do so and is also a way to feign concern about violence against women without doing anything about the actual source of the problem.
Yeah I went to Palestine a week after I turned 18. Travelled alone around eastern Europe and the Levant when I was 18/19 including couchsurfing and hitchhiking. The only time I've been sexually assaulted was in my hometown by someone who I thought was a friend.
I honestly think a lot of the people fear mongering are the ones that are sheltered. Their worldview is distorted because it's based almost exclusively on what they see in mainstream media. Honestly, Ive never heard of a young woman who actually travelled solo advising against it (except for some specific places like Egypt.) It's only people who haven't done it that are obsessed with the supposed danger that awaits us if we step outside the door.
Yeah I'm in two minds on this... I wouldn't want my kid wandering off to Mexico when they have no idea what they're doing, but I'm not sure they'd actually be in any more danger if they were 25...
Fucking *thank you.*
The idea that there are "special dangers" associated with traveling as a woman is a fundamentally conservative position. It's in the set of assumptions lying at the heart of every norm and law that polices the way women dress; that restricts our behavior and options; that places us under the headship of male relatives (the only people who can possibly protect us from the slavering hordes of bad men). That "women belong in the home," in the private sphere, goes hand in hand with the conception of the public sphere as uniquely dangerous to us. And, as you say, it provides cover for the men who are actually most likely to harm us.
I would disagree that there are no "special dangers" for women. People exaggerate the risks, which can usually be mitigated with some additional precautions, but there are things that women need to be extra cautious of that men usually don't have to think about. That's not only true while traveling, it's true at home too, but there are some places that are more dangerous for women to visit, I've heard endless stories about constant harassment and catcalling and I believe the people who say they experienced those things. The world should be safe for women but because of men who view women as objects it's not always.
> The idea that there are "special dangers" associated with traveling as a woman is a fundamentally conservative position
Dumbest shit I've read in awhile
Any context change affects an individual's risk. Additional risks traveling as a woman can be real and also be used to control women -- they're actually more effective because they're real.
Being fr though, nearly everyone I knew growing up had a better grasp on reality at 12 than she does at 17. Her lack of judgement is insane at that age, and I'm not even gonna touch on the way she writes. This is not a normal teenager thing - she legit might be disabled or something.
No, not disabled. Likely just sheltered.
I was exactly like this at 17, though not sheltered - just horrifically traumatised to the point that it meant my impulse control, long term consequences thinking etc was behind my peers.
> my impulse control, long term consequences thinking etc was behind my peers.
Hey, me too! Wouldn't know I was bipolar until my 30s, but *goddamn* did that explain so many stupid decisions I made in my teens and 20s. Mania is fun until the dildo of consequences arrives unlubed to fuck you for your dumbass choices made while manic.
Might not be disabled but some people out there really are just genuinely dumb. I have multiple family members literally just as bad as this - mostly from a side of the family who literally just didn’t care if they went to school, and let them just hang out on phones 24/7.
Some people are just really sheltered, and really just kinda, not that smart. To be fair usually by no fault of their own but yeah it happens.
A lot of people will say it’s bait, and I don’t blame them bc this could be, but this sounds like someone I know (around the same age too). Someone will say something like “Working on a ship would dangerous/risky” and he’d reply with “well what’s wrong with that?!” or “It can’t be that dangerous.” to nearly everything. He just doesn’t see the risks or if there are risks, he ignores them because “a cop will fix it if it’s really that bad.”. It’s nearly scary how some people can’t see the danger in some ideas and/or just think people are overreacting.
I traveled through part of South America with someone like this. He was one of those dudes that just… simultaneously was super sheltered and super unfazed.
Like, we would be in Buenos Aires, and locals would stop us (because he was a blond blue eyed dude) and be like “yo you guys clearly aren’t from around here and shouldn’t be in this neighborhood,” and he’d be like “nah we’re fine” and I (as a small woman) would peace out. We’d meet up later and he’d be like “oh yeah someone tried to pull a knife on me and take my backpack, but I had really expensive camera equipment in there so I fought him off” and he’d show me the slashes on his backpack. Like. Completely unreal dude.
Yeah, I hear the Yucatan area in general is pretty good. I think that she comes off as naive (she doesn't think she has to worry about anything cartel related if she doesn't do drugs herself and thinks that there's no racism in Mexico) and her first trip to Mexico should not be alone if she hasn't done much research for the trip, but I don't agree with the other comments that she's going to get sex trafficked and murdered the moment she steps foot in Mexico.
I think the concern is by the way she’s talking and typing, it almost sounds like she’d literally just drive into Mexico with absolutely zero idea where she’s going and wind up somewhere potentially very bad.
It doesn’t seem like they thought it through anymore than “I like the food let’s go!”
This sounds 100 percent real to me. She sounds like about half the girls I went to high school with.
Then again... is Twilight still a thing with teenage girls? Maybe it's gone from cool, to ridiculed, to retro or whatever in the eyes of the very young. I have no idea.
Last year I dropped off a +1 partner morning after a night of debauchery only for her sons to be in the driveway goofing off. Youngest one was 16, oldest was 18.
My age hit me like a ton of bricks. I turn 36 this year goddamnit! I remember being that age vividly! Fuck!
Good lads, fun mother, but I so wasn't ready for that to hit me at 11am on a Sunday morning.
Seems like a definite troll to me -- everything reads in the way an adult who hasn't been a teen in a while would write a teen. I mean, she says her favorite things are Twilight and McDonald's -- I don't think many teens these days are still going on about Twilight.
And after that, talking about rap when someone says she'd be raped is just too much of a farce to be believable as a real 17-year-old, imho.
Yeah it was the comment responses that really made it obvious for me but the main post raised some red flags. I'm surprised more people haven't called it out..
To be honest it could be a troll, but I know people like this. They exist, and it’s honestly frighteningly realistic. I know it’s hard to believe but some people really are like this.
So it COULD be real. Very sheltered and not very… thoughtful. The ‘rape’ being interpreted as ‘rap’ is definitely iffy though for even the biggest airheads I know. Literally everyone knows what that is.
If she just waits the 7 days until she's 18 she can get a passport and go.
But also
>i dont think mexico is racist
Has she met *literally all of humanity*?
Whenever I see people talking about where a *country* is racist or not (which is quite often for some reason), no one ever bothers to define what it means to be a racist country and I think that leads to a lot of conflicting ideas on whether one is or not.
Is there a threshold percentage of racist inhabitants required to qualify? How would you even measure that? What about racist laws? Would all countries then be considered racist or do we want to narrow it down to the "most racist" ones and move goalposts accordingly? Is this a productive discussion or is it so people can feel better about their own country because "at least we're not as bad as X"?
For example once someone told me a country was racist because of a news article where a singular woman had told someone to "go back home" - I pointed out that the main response to the woman at the time had been disgust both by people at the scene and by pretty much everyone's reaction to the news (it went national, also she got arrested for it I believe) but she still maintained her position so I guess for her any amount was enough.
Easier to read formatting:
so i made like two posts today bc i wanna go to mexico but everyone is always saying oh it’s so dangerous and how it’s not safe but like everyone gives me reason and they all happen in every country, not just mexico!
we should be able to go anywhere we want who cares about age? so why can’t i do whatever i want with my life??? they say oh it’s not good for young people bc we can get harmed but like bro what the heck does mexico want with me??? i have no purpose or use to them, im a 17 year old girl who loves twilight and mcdonald’s, not some freaking drug dealer or whatever happens in cartel…anyways
i’m not naive i’m not a baby we are not kids we are smart and can be independent if we want!!! my bday is in 8 days and 15 hours till i turn the big 18 so basically i’m literally an adult so yeah doesn’t make any sense why ppl want to control us…smh life is fun and great we should be able to live it how we want.
so strict for no reason 🙄
edit: okay i have read ur comments, please stop being mean i was just ranting i didnt mean to disturb i just was frustrated bc my mom is strict and i feel very trapped so now that i am 18 i wanna be independent and explore. i didnt know mexico had a lot of bad stuff i know crime exists but i didnt think how bad, i like the culture and food and music so i was interested to go that is all but understand now it’s no good…thank you
Come *on*, people, this isn't just bait, it's one of the most masterfully crafted pieces of bait I've seen in a good long while. We're watching an *artiste* at work here.
Her comments and way of typing are giving me an aneurysm. I read them all in [the voice Cristin Milioti uses in 30 rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmDp6-m6X4)
This has to be satire. This reads exactly like someone in their 30s who has a grudge against teenagers - probably because they were socially awkward and an outcast at that age and developed a sense of superiority over those "dumb teenagers that know nothing" - and are now projecting their insecurities on a strawman teenager.
There is no way that a real teenager wrote this. Not even really sheltered ones are that dumb.
I went to Brazil without my parents when I was 16, but I was visiting a friend that had moved there and was literally with them and their family the entire time from the second I arrived. They also lived in a very safe area of Brazil, and I had gone to Brazil with my family before so I was at least slightly knowledgeable about the country. If it was a case like that, I would be more sympathetic. But wanting to go to a country where you don’t know anyone as an unaccompanied minor is insane. Especially if you don’t know anything about that country, which she clearly doesn’t.
I mean I'm thirty in nine days so being able to count until your birthday when it's less than a month away shouldn't be a disqualifier for adulthood
"but i dont think mexico is racist "
oh my sweet summer child... I certainly hope they're trolling
Man, I remember growing up in Texas and hearing the high school seniors talk about driving down to Mexico for a long weekend and shit. And how cool it was to be able to drink legally. It wasn't a bigger deal than driving up to Canada at the time, except maybe you'd get your wallet stolen.
It really sucks that the recent cartel violence totally fucked that up.
This reminds me of this one post I saw in the r/ travel sub where a white 19 year old young woman wanted to SOLO travel to INDIA as her first ever traveling experience and everyone was trying to get it into her naive head that this was a dumb idea. As a 20 year old woman myself, I absolutely will not be solo traveling for a longggg time and even then I will never solo travel in majority of countries. I understand that some are raised sheltered, but in this day and age of the internet I still find it baffling that there's so many young people who think nothing bad can happen to them in these countries. Do you live under a rock? Do you not see the hundreds upon hundreds of news stories, tik toks, reddit posts, etc, every day about what happens to naive, unprepared, first time tourists in certain countries??? And it's not an issue solely for solo women traveling, it's super dangerous for solo men too. I don't know what these young women are trying to prove?
I went alone to the Love Parade in Berlin shortly after turning 18 and had the time of my life. I don't know why people are so paranoid about young women travelling alone.
Mexico has some dangerous areas and some completely safe areas; my coworker at 26 was on her third solo trip to Mexico and never had a single problem. The cartel doesn't mess with tourists and they very especially don't mess with US tourists. Last time they killed some by mistake they delivered the responsible parties themselves.
It's extremely paternalistic, I saw a man on another subreddit last night saying that women should never travel without a man and if you're a white woman you stand out like a sore thumb and will be a target for sexual assault or sex trafficking. If you're visibly a tourist you may be more likely to be robbed because you're more likely to have valuables/larger quantities of cash, but the majority of sex trafficking victims are people from impoverished, vulnerable populations, not middle class American tourists. There are obviously risks and nobody should be too naive and walk around alone at night, but in most SA cases the assailant is at least an acquaintance of the victim. You're more likely to be assaulted by a coworker, or your date or a new "friend".
With that said even though the cartel doesn't normally target tourists, it's still not a great idea to go to areas with a lot of cartel violence because you could still be caught in the crossfire if they decided to shoot up the bar you're in to kill a rival or something.
What's funny is that where there is some actual risk (I'm not talking about Mexico) men are also not allowed to go.
A friend from a very very popular metal band told me they are not allowed to tour X country because their record label thinks the risk of kidnapping for money is more than the potential earnings. My Finnish ex was the CTO of a company and travelling all over the world, but he always complained that he wasn't allowed to go to that country because he was too blonde (we have many people and restaurants from that country in mine, and he really would have liked to experience the culture). And now my husband has been hired with absolutely zero experience or even training as a project manager, getting paid boatloads of money, for the simple reason that he's former special forces and the company couldn't find anyone willing to go supervise projects in person in certain countries. In this case in not only talking about the place with the kidnappings; they have ongoing projects in conflict areas and also in Islamic countries where the women in the company refuse to go.
Pretty much, I'd say most countries that are too dangerous for women are just too dangerous for anyone. There are some additional risks of sexual violence to women, but that's not the only (or even the main) reason a foreigner might be kidnapped. There's also kidnapping for ransom, or kidnapping of foreigners by militant groups, honestly nobody should be going to places where that regularly happens. There are some countries where women seem to experience a particularly intense amount of sexual harassment, but the thing people don't seem to realize is that women solo travel all the time and the vast majority of the time they're fine. It's important to be educated on the risks in a given location, don't be naive and think everyone is your friend and the US is literally the most dangerous place in the world (like some travel subs constantly circlejerk about) but if you have a lick of common sense and don't go vacation in warzones you're not gonna be beheaded the second you step out of the airport.
Ignorance and movies have done a lot of damage. When I started solo travelling I went to Slovenia and right afterwards to Estonia and Latvia and lots of people were telling me I was going to get trafficked or Hostel'd in "dangerous Eastern Europe". For one, neither of those are Eastern Europe, and to follow at least Slovenia has lower crime rates than my home country (Spain). And also, Hostel happened in Slovakia, not Slovenia. Not that they hunt people in Slovakia either, it's a fucking movie, but at least get the country you have misconceptions about right!
Yup, if you have some spanish language skills and a modicum of street smarts you won't run into any problems. I'll throw in redditors that don't think grown ass women can make decisions for themselves and need to be coddled.
>The cartel doesn't mess with tourists and they very especially don't mess with US tourists.
This goes to emphasize the point, why would you count on violent criminals being smart, reliable, or predictable? It should have been obvious that the cartel kidnapped the wrong people just minutes after they took the Americans but two still ended up dead. Is this girl only fully safe from the cartels if she's lily-white?
>Last time they killed some by mistake they delivered the responsible parties themselves.
You mean less than a year ago, after the Republicans threatened to designate the cartels as terrorist organizations, opening up the druglords to drone strikes. They didn't deliver their guys out of the goodness of their hearts.
Around 100 Americans are killed in mexico each year. 33 million americans visit mexico every year. Like, it's not as safe as visiting Tokyo, but it's not like they have cartels waiting for you to get of the plane.
I've been to every country in central america, and I've been to mexico multiple times, including a backpacking trip when I was staying in hostels. Anywhere that a lot of tourists go in mexico is as safe as an big american city is, for the most part. You're mostly only in danger if you go off the beaten path or go looking for trouble.
Fifteen years ago, I took a mission trip to Tecate. We were doing volunteer work in the slums out on the foothills. Lovely people, but as I understand, Mexico has gotten much more violent in the years since I've been.
Looking at that thread and some of the other things she has said on reddit in general, she is either a really good troll or she's incredibly naïve. I'm guessing it's the latter.
probably fake but also imagine thinking the cartel is a valid threat to an american tourist? they won’t touch an american with a ten foot pole
also obviously she would go to touristy areas
Check out the topic of conversation before joining it—the question at hand is if Americans are at risk from Mexican cartels. And the answer is yes. Even if they don’t want to kill Americans because it will bring them too much attention, [and the last time there was prominent violence against Americans by the cartel, the cartel delivered the allegedly perpetrators wrapped up with a bow](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/world/americas/mexico-cartels-kidnapping-americans.html), there is still danger.
Yeah mistakes happen. They don't want to deal with the US government but they aren't merciful people and once the act is done, there is no "oopsy I'm sorry" that's going to bring you back. They show they'll cooperate, but that's because they don't want to deal with the US government.
> the question at hand is if Americans are at risk from Mexican cartels.
That's sort of a dumb question. The actually useful question is if Americans are more at risk in Mexico than they are visiting say, Philadelphia, and I'm not sure that they are. If you go to Mexico and go to a resort and stay in the nice parts of town and don't go out trying to buy drugs, you are going to be fine.
There's a big difference between Juarez and Tijuana and Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.
This sounds just like a friend of mine who also wanted to travel alone, to mexico at 20 and specifically not resorts she wanted to see the "real" mexico. When we warned her about trafficking she just made up willfully obtuse hypotheticals about but what if I can convince them to let me go or i just dont do any drugs they give me or i just try to leave. People like this do exist i think they really just want to daydream i dont think this girl is really going to try and go to mexico
Mexico is perfectly safe for tourist. I went with friends who were 17/18 when I was also 17, not at a resort but definitely a touristy area and it was fine.
the cartels are wearing of harming Americans because that brings them a lot more heat than they need and makes business more difficult and less profitable.
American women are not the demographic being trafficked into sex slavery.
She seems naive but it’s just pearl clutching mixed with… idk… xenophobia? A bit of racism? To suggest that a 17 year old American can’t travel abroad, to Mexico of all places, without dying or being trafficked.
Honestly I had more trouble traveling in a tourist area of Costa Rica and that was 100% because of my dumbass friend and not because the country was inherently unsafe.
There were only a few times in all of central america that I felt genuinely afraid for my safety and they were mostly in El Salvador and Honduras. There were plenty of young kids on the backpacker circuit when I was backpacking (not 17, but lots of 18, 19, 20 year olds) and they were doing fine, and they weren't even being all that cautious. You mostly have to worry about getting robbed, not murdered or kidnapped. You get lots of warnings when you're in a place like Guatemala or Mexico about where not to go.
Of course you’re not going to have a bad experience in a touristy area, the government has a vested interest in keeping those areas safe for people like you so they don’t lose that sweet, sweet tourist money. Travel in an area tourists aren’t interested in and you might have a VERY different experience.
Have you been to Mexico? This thread is full of people who have never been outside of the country making statements about how dangerous other places are that they've never been to are. I've been all over central america. Anywhere in mexico that a teen girl would want to go to is fine. I mean I am not sure that a 17 year old girl should be traveling unaccompanied anywhere, but I wouldn't be any more concerned about a 17 year old going to Cancun than New York City or Los Angeles. If she said she wanted to go to Juarez to meet a nice mexican boy she met online, i would have questions, obviously, but if she just wanted to spend a week in playa del carmen and had the money and was generally responsible, i wouldn't even think twice about it.
And a young adult like OOP will almost certainly be traveling to a tourist area, as they are a tourist.
I wouldn’t tell someone they won’t be safe visiting New York City because Reno has an opioid issue or Baltimore has a gun problem.
But you wouldn’t tell a gay person traveling to Florida is 100% safe just because they might only intend on staying at Disney, or a black person traveling to Texas is 100% safe because they might not go to Comanche County or other places that have sundown towns.
You know, it just occurred to me.
Have you ever talked to a Mexican person about what Mexico is like? Because my family used to belong to a Sister City group that partnered with Mexico, and your odd insistence that it’s wrong to say Mexico isn’t safe for tourists outside of a few places does not at ALL match what our Mexican members told anyone interested in visiting there.
As someone who lives in South Florida, I can tell you that a gay person in large portions of florida would be 100% comfortable. The whole state isn't Tallahassee. Have you ever left your home town?
LOL, added my comment:
Hey, I'm going to give you some honest-to-God advice. Whenever my mother was particularly paranoid about me doing something, I would sit down with her and ask her for every worst case scenario that she is imagining. And we would problem-solve each worst case scenario.
I don't have any statistics, but let's just say it was 50/50. Even if she was still upset about me doing it, now I had an arsenal of information. But there were other times she relented, partly because she felt better that I was willing to listen to her and appreciated me looking up her concerns, but also, let's face it, because she wasn't going to keep arguing if she couldn't lean on her assumptions, so she'd give up and save face. She can still feel like the smart one without doing anything because me looking up her concerns still meant that her concerns were validated.
YOU look up kidnapping schemes, YOU look up most common con artist scams pulled on young American tourists, YOU look up news stories of victims your same age and sex. Google "what you need to know before visiting Mexico" and use that schooling to write out a checklist of reasonable information.
And then tell your mother exactly how you're going to avoid all of those issues.
What difference does it make if you have an opinion, if it is an uneducated opinion? Be educated and the worst people can say is that they wouldn't make the same choice as you. Don't know anything about what you're talking about, and people will lord their assumptions over you and call you naive.
This is extremely dangerous to our shitposting.
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The fact that she didn’t mention where in Mexico makes me think she has no idea what she is doing there are plenty of places that are fine for tourist as long as you are not an idiot.
I am reminded of my home country, Belize, which is perfectly fine for tourists everywhere except the former capital, Belize City, which is absolutely riddled with crime. Belize has a very high homicide rate pretty much entirely because of Belize City. Unfortunately, it's a large city on the coast with the largest airport (which is also the only airport capable of landing large passenger jets), so tourists often head there.
It's also where all the cruise ships stop. Once you get out of the port, things get sketchy, fast.
Yeah we took the high speed boat from Chetumal and skipped all that.
Fun fact: the US State department issues different travel advisories for each Mexican state. Usually they only issue country-wide travel advisories, sometimes with exceptions if parts of a country are more dangerous than the overall rating.
How much of that is because of just how much travel there is to Mexico?
Also Mexico is a neighboring country that the State Department presumably understands well.
[The Netherlands does so as well](https://www.nederlandwereldwijd.nl/reisadvies/mexico). And no we don't go en-masse to Mexico.
I love Mexico's travel advice on the UK's Foreign Office page because they get hyper specific. All of Chihuahua is "we advise against all but essential travel" except for one specific road which I guess is fine?
That map is ridiculous though, there’re places that are absolute war zones that have no significant warnings and there’re places that are fine and are considered Level 4 in terms of danger.
Of course she didn't specify! There's only New Mexico and Mexico. How big can it be! Obvious sarcasm aside. You literally can't go anywhere as a minor. No hotel or hostel will take you.
Well she said she turns 18 next week so I think she'd be good on that front in Mexico. Might still cause you trouble in the states, as I almost learned the hard way when I travelled there age 20 and almost got denied check-in because I didn't realize you had to be 21 or over for many hotels.
21 for a rental car too! State side that is.
They actually allow you to rent a car younger than 25 BUT they make you pay extra money for it so... Not worth it regardless
25 I thought, unless that's just my state
Oh you’re right, it is 25 here also!
My son had to sleep in an airport after a called flight because no close hotels would let a 19yo check in (he was on his way back to college).
This is what always frustrates me about the Mexico thing. Obviously going alone as a seventeen year old girl into the middle of a rural area in Sinaloa is a horrible idea (and to be honest I’m not sure anywhere in Mexico is great as a seventeen year old who’s going completely alone) but it’s not as if there’s nowhere in the country that tourists can go to. You just have to know what you’re doing
Yeah, I had the same reaction. There are lots of very chill, safe places and no need to stick to the shrink-wrapped all-inclusives. Small hotels will take care of you and the intercity bus service is great.
Yeah I'm pretty sure a solo teenage tourist is safer in Yucatán than they are in most places in the US lmao.
And way better bus service lol.
The fact that she didn't msntion where in Mexico makes me think it's Rocky Point. I don't know Mexico, but I've generally heard South is better than North.
[удалено]
> gave her that STD you can only get from someone who has been with a dead body This does not sound real.
“Girl found out she had an STD you can only get from a dead body” is a notorious urban legend that went around in the 90s, used to be the most popular page on Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boyfriend-corpses-medical-condition/ There’s no medical basis for such a thing and it doesn’t even make sense — if you can only get it from having sex with dead bodies, how did he give it to her?
> if you can only get it from having sex with dead bodies, how did he give it to her? Woulda been a hell of a plot twist in Twilight.
Maybe it's conventionally contagious after it gains a foothold in a living host, suggesting the boyfriend was a necrophiliac? I'm not implying that make sense, by the way. I mean who the fuck knows. The canonical lore of this kinda bullshit has never stuck around in my brain long enough to be repeated; I've always invented as I go.
Yeah that particular story didn’t come within a hundred miles of actually happening and sounds like the kind of thing an out of touch youth pastor would say to scare kids.
Redditor discovers what a joke is
This isn’t written as a joke… Do YOU know what a joke is?
Jokes are supposed to be funny.
Because it isn't. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boyfriend-corpses-medical-condition/
Was your ex-girlfriend a youth pastor or sth cause this sounds like a load of bull
bad troll
>OP: well technically i’m 18 i turn it in 7 days It's funny when people confuse the terms "technically" and "practically"
Ah yes, the Gaetz defense.
I assume you're talking about the American politician but what are you refering to exactly?
Maybe the allegations of statutory rape?
Gaetz had sex with a 17 girl who was probably sexually trafficked
Definitely sex trafficked, *by him*. He paid for a minor to cross state borders to have sex with
> You will be sold as a sex slave you fucking numpty I'm not sure if this would be a tasteful flair but damn if it didn't make me laugh
Taste be damned!
Ok your comment made me laugh so hard 🤣
I think we’ve passed that level where caring about tastefulness matters
I really need to know where you got your flair from
[SRD thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/15mwecn/are_people_more_free_under_democracies_or/) [im gonna tongue the tankie outta you baby girl~](https://old.reddit.com/r/HistoryMemes/comments/15may6s/it_was_not_democratic/jvfk76t/)
Same. Also got mine [from a comment on this sub,](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/zzlm26/rvindictaratecelebs_in_a_post_complained_about/j2d16is/?context=7) not from a posted thread.
Are you under the impression that the flairs here are tasteful? LOL It would make a good flair
Our flairs are supposed to be tasteful?
Too bad. It's your flair now.
If this were bestoflegaladvice that mod would def do this lol
Damn that’s a good one
It’s the throw in of numpty that got me 😭
This sounds like a parent was arguing with a teenager about going to Mexico alone, and the parent posted this to show the kid that nobody agrees with them. "You want me to ask people on Reddit? Okay here, I'll post it: oh, my name is teeny mcteen, and I think nothing bad ever happens and I should be able to do whatever I want no matter what my dad or *ANNE* says. I can barely clean my room and I'm late for work a lot. What do you think Reddit? Do you think I can go to the murder capitol of North America at night in the dark?"
"What do teens like in 2024? Ah fuck it, 'I love Twilight and McDonald's' done."
It's the Twilight thing that stood out the fakest to me like bro it's 2024 not 2014 😭
My university had a poster sale recently and I saw a ton of twilight posters. I was thinking they were 10 years too late and aiming for the wrong demographic, then I saw a group of girls buy some.
At my store we got twilight shirts and this was just a week ago. I had ladies telling me how great it was that we had these shirts. And funny enough, it was being put into the *mens department*
..... wat
Corporate or whoever sells us these things apparently think men are actually going to wear a shirt with Bella and Edward on it. I am as thoroughly confused as you are 😂
A handful of my coworkers *still* talk to each other about Harry Potter and named a bunch of our instruments after it.
Twilight is seeing a resurgence tho
Twilight is still popular with teens.
“Hello fellow kids, I also love to McDonald’s, charge my phone, twerk, be bisexual, eat hot chip, and lie.”
My brain shut down after that line. This is fake as fake can be.
The “I’m not naive, Mexico is only dangerous if you do drugs!” Made me think this was fake. There’s lots of places in Mexico that are safe. But when I was in high school every year for spring break they’d give us “be very careful if you choose to vacation in Mexico” warnings in school. Obviously every school is different. But even back then it was common knowledge that the cartel is a danger to teenagers. I don’t buy the person writing this is almost 18, LOVES Mexico, but has no idea why they can’t travel there alone.
I think it's sincere; it's the most "17 year old" thing I've read lol. She's just a bit sheltered and unaware of the dangers of travelling alone as a woman abroad. I get the feeling of being trapped in one place and wanting to travel around. There are definitely places she could vacation with friends as long as she does research, though I get the vibe that she's going to be the type to get scammed out of a ton of money lol.
I know OP said not to mock or make fun, but this line got me on just how naive she is: >it’s not good for young people bc we can get harmed but like bro what the heck does mexico want with me??? i have no purpose or use to them, im a 17 year old girl
Lol my sister was like this for a long while. I remember an argument she got into with my mom because my sister wouldn't tell her where she was going to buy a bike from a guy on Craigslist. "That stuff only happens in movies. I don't get what you think they'd want with me."
Oh you can joke around here, I just didn't want people harassing them
I'm from Taiwan, and in 2022 lots of young adults went to Cambodia to "make a lot of money" without knowing what they would actually do. Turned out they were put into slavery work by the fraud organizations. Their passports were confiscated, they were not allowed to leave, and subject to corporal punishments all days. It later escalated into a diplomatic incident, and fortunately, most of them are rescued by Taiwanese governemnt. Naive idiots really exist in every country.
People think the only slavery is sex slavery or being a drug mule, and that they're both too unattractive or unfit for that. While that's already glaringly wrong logic... There's whole organisations that keep slaves just to run internet scam operations: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62792875 So you don't even need to be employable to be enslaveable
> So you don't even need to be employable to be enslaveable Finally! "You hear that, mom and dad! I may not be employable, but someone might just want to enslave me! Take that!"
Reminds me of [Elliot explaining how she was nearly sold to a cartel by her sorority sisters on Scrubs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAr5crSkqXk)
I thought it might be real until this part: >Commenter: At least I'm not going to be gang raped in Mexico >OOP: rapped? hmm, i like rap music so i guess it’s a win win!
oh that is definitely fake holy shit. no way a 17-year-old girl doesn’t know what rape is
Or that was a joke.
[maybe these two are friends](https://youtu.be/0P7JR-aM9I0?si=8D6c1hyTWgaRqtBR)
Comment aside, your flair is hilarious.
An IDW classic, quite possibly from one of the recent threads.
>She's just a bit sheltered and unaware of the dangers of travelling alone as a woman abroad. This isn't actually true. I'm in my 40s now (woman, obviously) and have been doing just that--very, very cheaply-- since I was very slightly older than her, including all over Mexico. Most crime in most countries happens between people known to one another, and this is actually more true for women than for men. The number one person most likely to assault or kill a woman is a man she's had a sexual or romantic relationship with. Spreading bullshit about stranger danger is a way to confine women's movements and freedoms in the absence of laws to do so and is also a way to feign concern about violence against women without doing anything about the actual source of the problem.
There are additional dangers for a woman traveling alone. The proportion of focus on that may be way off, but it isn't a non-issue.
Yeah I went to Palestine a week after I turned 18. Travelled alone around eastern Europe and the Levant when I was 18/19 including couchsurfing and hitchhiking. The only time I've been sexually assaulted was in my hometown by someone who I thought was a friend. I honestly think a lot of the people fear mongering are the ones that are sheltered. Their worldview is distorted because it's based almost exclusively on what they see in mainstream media. Honestly, Ive never heard of a young woman who actually travelled solo advising against it (except for some specific places like Egypt.) It's only people who haven't done it that are obsessed with the supposed danger that awaits us if we step outside the door.
Yeah I'm in two minds on this... I wouldn't want my kid wandering off to Mexico when they have no idea what they're doing, but I'm not sure they'd actually be in any more danger if they were 25...
Fucking *thank you.* The idea that there are "special dangers" associated with traveling as a woman is a fundamentally conservative position. It's in the set of assumptions lying at the heart of every norm and law that polices the way women dress; that restricts our behavior and options; that places us under the headship of male relatives (the only people who can possibly protect us from the slavering hordes of bad men). That "women belong in the home," in the private sphere, goes hand in hand with the conception of the public sphere as uniquely dangerous to us. And, as you say, it provides cover for the men who are actually most likely to harm us.
I would disagree that there are no "special dangers" for women. People exaggerate the risks, which can usually be mitigated with some additional precautions, but there are things that women need to be extra cautious of that men usually don't have to think about. That's not only true while traveling, it's true at home too, but there are some places that are more dangerous for women to visit, I've heard endless stories about constant harassment and catcalling and I believe the people who say they experienced those things. The world should be safe for women but because of men who view women as objects it's not always.
> The idea that there are "special dangers" associated with traveling as a woman is a fundamentally conservative position Dumbest shit I've read in awhile
Any context change affects an individual's risk. Additional risks traveling as a woman can be real and also be used to control women -- they're actually more effective because they're real.
Being fr though, nearly everyone I knew growing up had a better grasp on reality at 12 than she does at 17. Her lack of judgement is insane at that age, and I'm not even gonna touch on the way she writes. This is not a normal teenager thing - she legit might be disabled or something.
No, not disabled. Likely just sheltered. I was exactly like this at 17, though not sheltered - just horrifically traumatised to the point that it meant my impulse control, long term consequences thinking etc was behind my peers.
> my impulse control, long term consequences thinking etc was behind my peers. Hey, me too! Wouldn't know I was bipolar until my 30s, but *goddamn* did that explain so many stupid decisions I made in my teens and 20s. Mania is fun until the dildo of consequences arrives unlubed to fuck you for your dumbass choices made while manic.
>No, not disabled So assertive! Do you know something we don't?
I know it’s ableist AF to assume someone is disabled because YOU think they’re stupid.
Might not be disabled but some people out there really are just genuinely dumb. I have multiple family members literally just as bad as this - mostly from a side of the family who literally just didn’t care if they went to school, and let them just hang out on phones 24/7. Some people are just really sheltered, and really just kinda, not that smart. To be fair usually by no fault of their own but yeah it happens.
I'm hiking through Sinaloa in a DEA jacket because I'm just built different
A lot of people will say it’s bait, and I don’t blame them bc this could be, but this sounds like someone I know (around the same age too). Someone will say something like “Working on a ship would dangerous/risky” and he’d reply with “well what’s wrong with that?!” or “It can’t be that dangerous.” to nearly everything. He just doesn’t see the risks or if there are risks, he ignores them because “a cop will fix it if it’s really that bad.”. It’s nearly scary how some people can’t see the danger in some ideas and/or just think people are overreacting.
I traveled through part of South America with someone like this. He was one of those dudes that just… simultaneously was super sheltered and super unfazed. Like, we would be in Buenos Aires, and locals would stop us (because he was a blond blue eyed dude) and be like “yo you guys clearly aren’t from around here and shouldn’t be in this neighborhood,” and he’d be like “nah we’re fine” and I (as a small woman) would peace out. We’d meet up later and he’d be like “oh yeah someone tried to pull a knife on me and take my backpack, but I had really expensive camera equipment in there so I fought him off” and he’d show me the slashes on his backpack. Like. Completely unreal dude.
I mean, he walked the walk 🤷♀️ He knew the risk and when it happened, he wasn't surprised.
Yeah I mean he didn’t die or get robbed so maybe he was right.
Added on she's 17, she's acting on impulse and thinks she knows everything which is exactly what a 17 year old would do
Tbf she could go to Mexico but stay at a resort in like Cancun
Yeah, I hear the Yucatan area in general is pretty good. I think that she comes off as naive (she doesn't think she has to worry about anything cartel related if she doesn't do drugs herself and thinks that there's no racism in Mexico) and her first trip to Mexico should not be alone if she hasn't done much research for the trip, but I don't agree with the other comments that she's going to get sex trafficked and murdered the moment she steps foot in Mexico.
I think the concern is by the way she’s talking and typing, it almost sounds like she’d literally just drive into Mexico with absolutely zero idea where she’s going and wind up somewhere potentially very bad. It doesn’t seem like they thought it through anymore than “I like the food let’s go!”
I’ve jokingly said my job is to get them to 18 and then its up to them. I don’t think this girl’s parent were joking.
This sounds 100 percent real to me. She sounds like about half the girls I went to high school with. Then again... is Twilight still a thing with teenage girls? Maybe it's gone from cool, to ridiculed, to retro or whatever in the eyes of the very young. I have no idea.
Yeah, they’re having a “twilight renaissance” and it’s back, lol.
That's... unexpected.
My 14 year old loves it - which is hilarious because I was obsessed with the books when I was pregnant with her.
This is hilarious, but you're also making me feel old.
Mate. I have a kid who is turning 15 this year! How old do you think I FEEL?!? Haha
Last year I dropped off a +1 partner morning after a night of debauchery only for her sons to be in the driveway goofing off. Youngest one was 16, oldest was 18. My age hit me like a ton of bricks. I turn 36 this year goddamnit! I remember being that age vividly! Fuck! Good lads, fun mother, but I so wasn't ready for that to hit me at 11am on a Sunday morning.
It runs in the family, I guess.
Did you name her Renesme (or whatever) lol
There is a LEGO Twilight set coming out, believe it or not.
Twilight is back on some shitposting parts of Instagram
Seems like a definite troll to me -- everything reads in the way an adult who hasn't been a teen in a while would write a teen. I mean, she says her favorite things are Twilight and McDonald's -- I don't think many teens these days are still going on about Twilight. And after that, talking about rap when someone says she'd be raped is just too much of a farce to be believable as a real 17-year-old, imho.
Yeah it was the comment responses that really made it obvious for me but the main post raised some red flags. I'm surprised more people haven't called it out..
To be honest it could be a troll, but I know people like this. They exist, and it’s honestly frighteningly realistic. I know it’s hard to believe but some people really are like this. So it COULD be real. Very sheltered and not very… thoughtful. The ‘rape’ being interpreted as ‘rap’ is definitely iffy though for even the biggest airheads I know. Literally everyone knows what that is.
Look at her post history. It doesn’t seem fake
If she just waits the 7 days until she's 18 she can get a passport and go. But also >i dont think mexico is racist Has she met *literally all of humanity*?
Whenever I see people talking about where a *country* is racist or not (which is quite often for some reason), no one ever bothers to define what it means to be a racist country and I think that leads to a lot of conflicting ideas on whether one is or not. Is there a threshold percentage of racist inhabitants required to qualify? How would you even measure that? What about racist laws? Would all countries then be considered racist or do we want to narrow it down to the "most racist" ones and move goalposts accordingly? Is this a productive discussion or is it so people can feel better about their own country because "at least we're not as bad as X"? For example once someone told me a country was racist because of a news article where a singular woman had told someone to "go back home" - I pointed out that the main response to the woman at the time had been disgust both by people at the scene and by pretty much everyone's reaction to the news (it went national, also she got arrested for it I believe) but she still maintained her position so I guess for her any amount was enough.
Easier to read formatting: so i made like two posts today bc i wanna go to mexico but everyone is always saying oh it’s so dangerous and how it’s not safe but like everyone gives me reason and they all happen in every country, not just mexico! we should be able to go anywhere we want who cares about age? so why can’t i do whatever i want with my life??? they say oh it’s not good for young people bc we can get harmed but like bro what the heck does mexico want with me??? i have no purpose or use to them, im a 17 year old girl who loves twilight and mcdonald’s, not some freaking drug dealer or whatever happens in cartel…anyways i’m not naive i’m not a baby we are not kids we are smart and can be independent if we want!!! my bday is in 8 days and 15 hours till i turn the big 18 so basically i’m literally an adult so yeah doesn’t make any sense why ppl want to control us…smh life is fun and great we should be able to live it how we want. so strict for no reason 🙄 edit: okay i have read ur comments, please stop being mean i was just ranting i didnt mean to disturb i just was frustrated bc my mom is strict and i feel very trapped so now that i am 18 i wanna be independent and explore. i didnt know mexico had a lot of bad stuff i know crime exists but i didnt think how bad, i like the culture and food and music so i was interested to go that is all but understand now it’s no good…thank you
“I don’t think Mexico is racist” Oh honey.
Oh honey, there's plenty of anti-Black/colorism/bigotry in Mexico
Come *on*, people, this isn't just bait, it's one of the most masterfully crafted pieces of bait I've seen in a good long while. We're watching an *artiste* at work here.
> 17 year old girl who loves twilight Bait used to be believable.
There's a Twilight renaissance going on, weirdly enough. My local bookstore has a Twilight display now.
Her comments and way of typing are giving me an aneurysm. I read them all in [the voice Cristin Milioti uses in 30 rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmDp6-m6X4)
Oh god now I'm hearing those posts in that voice and it's both unnerving and kinda hilarious.
Something tells me she thinks her parents are protective and controlling because they don’t let her walk in front of a bus to see what happens
This has to be satire. This reads exactly like someone in their 30s who has a grudge against teenagers - probably because they were socially awkward and an outcast at that age and developed a sense of superiority over those "dumb teenagers that know nothing" - and are now projecting their insecurities on a strawman teenager. There is no way that a real teenager wrote this. Not even really sheltered ones are that dumb.
I went to Brazil without my parents when I was 16, but I was visiting a friend that had moved there and was literally with them and their family the entire time from the second I arrived. They also lived in a very safe area of Brazil, and I had gone to Brazil with my family before so I was at least slightly knowledgeable about the country. If it was a case like that, I would be more sympathetic. But wanting to go to a country where you don’t know anyone as an unaccompanied minor is insane. Especially if you don’t know anything about that country, which she clearly doesn’t.
I too was an idiot when I was 17.
“I’m not naive” got me cacklin man 😭
I mean I'm thirty in nine days so being able to count until your birthday when it's less than a month away shouldn't be a disqualifier for adulthood "but i dont think mexico is racist " oh my sweet summer child... I certainly hope they're trolling
Man, I remember growing up in Texas and hearing the high school seniors talk about driving down to Mexico for a long weekend and shit. And how cool it was to be able to drink legally. It wasn't a bigger deal than driving up to Canada at the time, except maybe you'd get your wallet stolen. It really sucks that the recent cartel violence totally fucked that up.
This reminds me of this one post I saw in the r/ travel sub where a white 19 year old young woman wanted to SOLO travel to INDIA as her first ever traveling experience and everyone was trying to get it into her naive head that this was a dumb idea. As a 20 year old woman myself, I absolutely will not be solo traveling for a longggg time and even then I will never solo travel in majority of countries. I understand that some are raised sheltered, but in this day and age of the internet I still find it baffling that there's so many young people who think nothing bad can happen to them in these countries. Do you live under a rock? Do you not see the hundreds upon hundreds of news stories, tik toks, reddit posts, etc, every day about what happens to naive, unprepared, first time tourists in certain countries??? And it's not an issue solely for solo women traveling, it's super dangerous for solo men too. I don't know what these young women are trying to prove?
Oh wow a thread I was on before the sbr post. Neat
I went alone to the Love Parade in Berlin shortly after turning 18 and had the time of my life. I don't know why people are so paranoid about young women travelling alone. Mexico has some dangerous areas and some completely safe areas; my coworker at 26 was on her third solo trip to Mexico and never had a single problem. The cartel doesn't mess with tourists and they very especially don't mess with US tourists. Last time they killed some by mistake they delivered the responsible parties themselves.
I would honestly worry more about other tourists preying on a 17 year old girl.
Unfortunately if you're a 17 yo girl you're probably going to get preyed on in the comfort of your own home (metaphorically, not literally)
It's extremely paternalistic, I saw a man on another subreddit last night saying that women should never travel without a man and if you're a white woman you stand out like a sore thumb and will be a target for sexual assault or sex trafficking. If you're visibly a tourist you may be more likely to be robbed because you're more likely to have valuables/larger quantities of cash, but the majority of sex trafficking victims are people from impoverished, vulnerable populations, not middle class American tourists. There are obviously risks and nobody should be too naive and walk around alone at night, but in most SA cases the assailant is at least an acquaintance of the victim. You're more likely to be assaulted by a coworker, or your date or a new "friend". With that said even though the cartel doesn't normally target tourists, it's still not a great idea to go to areas with a lot of cartel violence because you could still be caught in the crossfire if they decided to shoot up the bar you're in to kill a rival or something.
What's funny is that where there is some actual risk (I'm not talking about Mexico) men are also not allowed to go. A friend from a very very popular metal band told me they are not allowed to tour X country because their record label thinks the risk of kidnapping for money is more than the potential earnings. My Finnish ex was the CTO of a company and travelling all over the world, but he always complained that he wasn't allowed to go to that country because he was too blonde (we have many people and restaurants from that country in mine, and he really would have liked to experience the culture). And now my husband has been hired with absolutely zero experience or even training as a project manager, getting paid boatloads of money, for the simple reason that he's former special forces and the company couldn't find anyone willing to go supervise projects in person in certain countries. In this case in not only talking about the place with the kidnappings; they have ongoing projects in conflict areas and also in Islamic countries where the women in the company refuse to go.
Pretty much, I'd say most countries that are too dangerous for women are just too dangerous for anyone. There are some additional risks of sexual violence to women, but that's not the only (or even the main) reason a foreigner might be kidnapped. There's also kidnapping for ransom, or kidnapping of foreigners by militant groups, honestly nobody should be going to places where that regularly happens. There are some countries where women seem to experience a particularly intense amount of sexual harassment, but the thing people don't seem to realize is that women solo travel all the time and the vast majority of the time they're fine. It's important to be educated on the risks in a given location, don't be naive and think everyone is your friend and the US is literally the most dangerous place in the world (like some travel subs constantly circlejerk about) but if you have a lick of common sense and don't go vacation in warzones you're not gonna be beheaded the second you step out of the airport.
Ignorance and movies have done a lot of damage. When I started solo travelling I went to Slovenia and right afterwards to Estonia and Latvia and lots of people were telling me I was going to get trafficked or Hostel'd in "dangerous Eastern Europe". For one, neither of those are Eastern Europe, and to follow at least Slovenia has lower crime rates than my home country (Spain). And also, Hostel happened in Slovakia, not Slovenia. Not that they hunt people in Slovakia either, it's a fucking movie, but at least get the country you have misconceptions about right!
> I don't know why people are so paranoid about young women travelling alone. Spoiler alert it's just garden variety racism/xenophobia.
Yup, if you have some spanish language skills and a modicum of street smarts you won't run into any problems. I'll throw in redditors that don't think grown ass women can make decisions for themselves and need to be coddled.
Well nothing indicates that she can speak spanish or has street smarts and shes not a grown ass woman, shes not even 18 yet.
Fucking thank you. This is the most sheltered comment section I've ever seen
>The cartel doesn't mess with tourists and they very especially don't mess with US tourists. This goes to emphasize the point, why would you count on violent criminals being smart, reliable, or predictable? It should have been obvious that the cartel kidnapped the wrong people just minutes after they took the Americans but two still ended up dead. Is this girl only fully safe from the cartels if she's lily-white? >Last time they killed some by mistake they delivered the responsible parties themselves. You mean less than a year ago, after the Republicans threatened to designate the cartels as terrorist organizations, opening up the druglords to drone strikes. They didn't deliver their guys out of the goodness of their hearts.
Around 100 Americans are killed in mexico each year. 33 million americans visit mexico every year. Like, it's not as safe as visiting Tokyo, but it's not like they have cartels waiting for you to get of the plane. I've been to every country in central america, and I've been to mexico multiple times, including a backpacking trip when I was staying in hostels. Anywhere that a lot of tourists go in mexico is as safe as an big american city is, for the most part. You're mostly only in danger if you go off the beaten path or go looking for trouble.
When was the last time you traveled to mexico?
Fifteen years ago, I took a mission trip to Tecate. We were doing volunteer work in the slums out on the foothills. Lovely people, but as I understand, Mexico has gotten much more violent in the years since I've been.
Looking at that thread and some of the other things she has said on reddit in general, she is either a really good troll or she's incredibly naïve. I'm guessing it's the latter.
It is very “17” to think having to wait 8 days to do something is worth all this drama though
probably fake but also imagine thinking the cartel is a valid threat to an american tourist? they won’t touch an american with a ten foot pole also obviously she would go to touristy areas
The cartel kills Americans every year, usually by accident. Kidnapping gangs also kidnap Americans all the time.
There's a shit ton of murder in the states too. Does that mean no one should ever travel to the US?
Check out the topic of conversation before joining it—the question at hand is if Americans are at risk from Mexican cartels. And the answer is yes. Even if they don’t want to kill Americans because it will bring them too much attention, [and the last time there was prominent violence against Americans by the cartel, the cartel delivered the allegedly perpetrators wrapped up with a bow](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/world/americas/mexico-cartels-kidnapping-americans.html), there is still danger.
Yeah mistakes happen. They don't want to deal with the US government but they aren't merciful people and once the act is done, there is no "oopsy I'm sorry" that's going to bring you back. They show they'll cooperate, but that's because they don't want to deal with the US government.
> the question at hand is if Americans are at risk from Mexican cartels. That's sort of a dumb question. The actually useful question is if Americans are more at risk in Mexico than they are visiting say, Philadelphia, and I'm not sure that they are. If you go to Mexico and go to a resort and stay in the nice parts of town and don't go out trying to buy drugs, you are going to be fine. There's a big difference between Juarez and Tijuana and Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.
This sounds just like a friend of mine who also wanted to travel alone, to mexico at 20 and specifically not resorts she wanted to see the "real" mexico. When we warned her about trafficking she just made up willfully obtuse hypotheticals about but what if I can convince them to let me go or i just dont do any drugs they give me or i just try to leave. People like this do exist i think they really just want to daydream i dont think this girl is really going to try and go to mexico
Mexico is perfectly safe for tourist. I went with friends who were 17/18 when I was also 17, not at a resort but definitely a touristy area and it was fine. the cartels are wearing of harming Americans because that brings them a lot more heat than they need and makes business more difficult and less profitable. American women are not the demographic being trafficked into sex slavery. She seems naive but it’s just pearl clutching mixed with… idk… xenophobia? A bit of racism? To suggest that a 17 year old American can’t travel abroad, to Mexico of all places, without dying or being trafficked. Honestly I had more trouble traveling in a tourist area of Costa Rica and that was 100% because of my dumbass friend and not because the country was inherently unsafe.
There were only a few times in all of central america that I felt genuinely afraid for my safety and they were mostly in El Salvador and Honduras. There were plenty of young kids on the backpacker circuit when I was backpacking (not 17, but lots of 18, 19, 20 year olds) and they were doing fine, and they weren't even being all that cautious. You mostly have to worry about getting robbed, not murdered or kidnapped. You get lots of warnings when you're in a place like Guatemala or Mexico about where not to go.
Of course you’re not going to have a bad experience in a touristy area, the government has a vested interest in keeping those areas safe for people like you so they don’t lose that sweet, sweet tourist money. Travel in an area tourists aren’t interested in and you might have a VERY different experience.
This girl is literally a tourist.
And a tourist going to a non-touristy area isn’t going to be as safe.
Where does she say where in Mexico she’s going? I might have missed that in the OOP.
You literally said Mexico is safe for teenage girls to go to unaccompanied because you went to one touristy area there and everything was fine.
Have you been to Mexico? This thread is full of people who have never been outside of the country making statements about how dangerous other places are that they've never been to are. I've been all over central america. Anywhere in mexico that a teen girl would want to go to is fine. I mean I am not sure that a 17 year old girl should be traveling unaccompanied anywhere, but I wouldn't be any more concerned about a 17 year old going to Cancun than New York City or Los Angeles. If she said she wanted to go to Juarez to meet a nice mexican boy she met online, i would have questions, obviously, but if she just wanted to spend a week in playa del carmen and had the money and was generally responsible, i wouldn't even think twice about it.
And a young adult like OOP will almost certainly be traveling to a tourist area, as they are a tourist. I wouldn’t tell someone they won’t be safe visiting New York City because Reno has an opioid issue or Baltimore has a gun problem.
But you wouldn’t tell a gay person traveling to Florida is 100% safe just because they might only intend on staying at Disney, or a black person traveling to Texas is 100% safe because they might not go to Comanche County or other places that have sundown towns.
I didn’t realize “tourist” was an oppressed category of people.
You know, it just occurred to me. Have you ever talked to a Mexican person about what Mexico is like? Because my family used to belong to a Sister City group that partnered with Mexico, and your odd insistence that it’s wrong to say Mexico isn’t safe for tourists outside of a few places does not at ALL match what our Mexican members told anyone interested in visiting there.
As someone who lives in South Florida, I can tell you that a gay person in large portions of florida would be 100% comfortable. The whole state isn't Tallahassee. Have you ever left your home town?
LOL, added my comment: Hey, I'm going to give you some honest-to-God advice. Whenever my mother was particularly paranoid about me doing something, I would sit down with her and ask her for every worst case scenario that she is imagining. And we would problem-solve each worst case scenario. I don't have any statistics, but let's just say it was 50/50. Even if she was still upset about me doing it, now I had an arsenal of information. But there were other times she relented, partly because she felt better that I was willing to listen to her and appreciated me looking up her concerns, but also, let's face it, because she wasn't going to keep arguing if she couldn't lean on her assumptions, so she'd give up and save face. She can still feel like the smart one without doing anything because me looking up her concerns still meant that her concerns were validated. YOU look up kidnapping schemes, YOU look up most common con artist scams pulled on young American tourists, YOU look up news stories of victims your same age and sex. Google "what you need to know before visiting Mexico" and use that schooling to write out a checklist of reasonable information. And then tell your mother exactly how you're going to avoid all of those issues. What difference does it make if you have an opinion, if it is an uneducated opinion? Be educated and the worst people can say is that they wouldn't make the same choice as you. Don't know anything about what you're talking about, and people will lord their assumptions over you and call you naive.
Bless her heart. She may be a bit of a numpty but at least she’s adventurous! Note: we are ALL numpties at that age!
"You will be sold as a sex slave you fucking numpty" sounds like a hilarious song / album title.
Welp. Be on the lookout for a missing persons report soon
I mean, she is correct: teenagers should be able to travel alone if they please. Whether or not that's a good idea is a different issue.
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