Western Culture and Degeneracy

While traveling Europe, I found red light districts, strip clubs, drugs, and sex shops normal. I don’t know why, but it felt like it was part of European culture.

But while traveling South East Asia, I found that all the places where western tourists and expats congregate to be repulsive. Why is that?

Asia people are typically easy-going, smiling most of the time, helpful, and kind. It’s difficult (but still possible) to be taken advantage of while in SEA. For example, you could forget your wallet somewhere, and come back to get it the next day, with everything inside still intact. But this is only true outside the tourist hot spots.

If you go to Bangkok, for example, there’s a popular area among tourists called “Soi Cowboy” where you’ll find prostitutes, drugs, alcohol, and regular fights. You might even have your pockets picked. I wouldn’t consider these to be good things. This doesn’t seem right. Why is there such a place in a Buddhist country like Thailand?

I was talking with an American man about that recently. I said that tourists tend to ruin a country’s culture because they bring a lot of bad things. But the guy said that I need to shut up because tourists are bringing money and helping the economy grow. I don’t see how drugs and prostitutes (some of them being victims of human trafficking) can help an economy, but the guy was too stubborn to listen to me because it seems like degeneracy is at the very core of western society, and there can’t be any valid arguments against it.