[ SECRET POST #6070 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6070 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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[Baldur's Gate 3]



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[Date a Live]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 56 secrets from Secret Submission Post #868.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What you're not getting is that they're actually really equivalent. Where do you think all of Texas' population is? They're almost all in one spot on the east side of the state. The rest is desert. Mostly unpopulated, scorching desert. If there's a con you want to go to in Cali, you have to drive through it. And the desert continues in New Mexico. Mostly an unpopulated, scorching desert. Then into Arizona, which is, you guessed it, mostly an unpopulated, scorching desert. The US is not a carpet of suburbs. Most of it is unpopulated wilderness.

[(Anonymous)]

Australia is like a huge Texas then, with a smaller population spaced more sparsely around the coast - because what do you think you hit when you get out of WA?

[(Anonymous)]

I know what you hit. I've looked at maps. So are we agreed, then, that they're similar and that OPs assertion that it's easier to travel to cons via roads in the US might be a little overestimated?

[(Anonymous)]

No, because I've just explained that the scale is different Australia. You've pointed out a handful of states that have this issue, and I've pointed out all of Australia has this issue.

And that's not even considering the cons someone might want get to go to in the populated areas of Texas, or the other states you mention. 30 million people means community. After you leave WA (pop 3 million), you either hit South Australia, with a population of 1.8 million

[(Anonymous)]

SA, hit past too soon

You hit South Australia, or you hit the Northern Territory, with a grand population total of 250,000. That's right, 250,000. Think about what a piece of land as big as the North Territory with a population that small, spread across a handful of cities, actually means. It's nuts. Trying to say that it's the same thing just is not correct.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, if we're gonna do populations, after you leave Dallas (1.2 mil) you drive through the aforementioned three states of deserts until you hit Phoenix (1.65 mil) and you're still a state away from the con in LA (3.8 mil). More desert. Yay.

It's not like a con is a traveling circus. There is usually only one con with the specific focus with the specific actors you want to see, so unless you live in the aforementioned big cities that actually have cons regularly, you have to travel a shit ton and pay through the nose to get to the one you want. They most often happen in LA or NY. Which, you know, is a long fuck off distance.

None of the Americans here are saying that it's not hard for OP. What we're saying is that OP seems to have some rosy as fuck glasses for travel in the US. All things being equal - make the same amount of money, have the same access to transport, have the same pto, etc etc etc, yes, of course it's easier to get to cons if you live near where the cons are. What we're saying is that living here, where the cons are, inherently takes away that equality because we live in a dystopia.

On a map it looks easier, sure, but the map isn't going to show you all the roadblocks in the way.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, but unless you live in the middle of absolute bumfuck nowhere US (which is a very very tiny percentage of the population, statistically the vast majority of the US population lives in or near a city), you can still probably at least access an airport with relative ease, which isn't the case in Australia.

[(Anonymous)]

1) the secret specifically said road trip

2) still doesn't account for no money, no pto, etc etc. Most people in the US are lower/working class. We don't have any resources for time off work, less travel, much less hotel stays and cons and merch. The only thing we have going for us is it we don't have to pay the fuckoff crazy shipping (so long as we're in US fandoms - I bought a thing for an asian fandom I'm in and the shipping was twice the cost of the thing, jfc, but still cheaper than taking the time off to go stay in a hotel in a city in the US where a con was happening that would have the thing).

[(Anonymous)]

I can think of many, many places in the US where the nearest airport could easily be several hours drive away, especially now that airlines are cutting back on services to smaller cities. Also, most of the small airports will only have service to one or two other cities, so to get to most places you'll need at least one connection, maybe more to get to where you really want to go.

The US may have a bigger, more spread out population than Australia, but a lot of that is in small cities and smaller towns. The highest concentration of population is around the major cities, but there's a lot of people who don't live near a major city. This is particularly true once you get away from the coasts and Great Lakes.

[(Anonymous)]

You've mentioned city populations - I'm talking entire state populations, in states that are magnitudes bigger than the ones you've mentioned. The scale is different. And living in remote Australia is no cakewalk on its own (worse healthcare, less job opportunities, worse services, more disadvantage).

And OP was saying that their options are nothing or flying across the country (Perth to Sydney is similar to LA to NY), or to the US.

Easy is relative. You might not think driving those distances in the US is fun or easy. OP was saying that if they had the opportunity to see online friends or a con at the end of it, driving a shorter distance than they currently have to to get to just the nearest city would seem easy to them, because it would be such an improvement over their current situation.

Which from your example it is - Dallas to LA (con and meet up central!) is a 21 hour drive by google maps. OP says they live 28 hours just from the nearest CITY, not the nearest city with a con or a friend.

[(Anonymous)]

*sigh*

Repeating for you who apparently sits in the back. OP is the one who said roadtrips in America were easy. The pushback is coming from the fact that they're NOT. They undoubtedly are easIER in the US than for OP, with ALL factors remaining equal, but there are barriers that exist in the US that do not exist for OP that impinge on the ability for MOST Americans to travel that are not visible on a map.

[(Anonymous)]

*sigh*

Repeating for those who seem incapable of imagination or understanding relativity: OP has said that the remoteness of their situation is so shit when it comes to fandom accessibility that the examples of difficult road trips commenters have mentioned sound easy to them. And that's knowing there are issues in both countries when it comes to the ability to travel and take time off.

[(Anonymous)]

*sigh* As I said in the comment above, yes it "sounds easy" to OP and we're trying to explain why it's not. All you're doing is trying to invalidate our lived experiences.