Brazil vs. Colombia: Attitudes Toward Foreigners and Cultural Identity

I used to think all Latin American countries are the same.

Man, was I wrong. The comments I get in Brazil are night and day compared to what I get in Colombia.

Post anything about Colombia and the only comments you will get is, "Gringos, go home."

It's as if they are so retarded they can't think of anything else to say.

Meanwhile, the comments I get in Brazil are way more reasonable.

Many people said Colombians are haters. It's my personal experience that they take themselves too seriously.

I guess there's no surprise they even elected a US citizen to be the president, which is something only a banana republic would do.

Colombia feels like a US colony that has turned itself into a brothel, whereas Brazil is a real country with a strong sense of identity.

Brazilians don't suffer from an inferiority complex towards foreigners because their culture is self-sustainable and fiercely independent.

They aren't trying to emulate Miami or appease Washington.

When a Brazilian disagrees with you, most of the time the argument is grounded in truth, empathy, and even humor.

Because Brazilians are more secure in themselves, they don't take jokes personally and are more fun to be around with.

Don't view an outsider as an existential threat.

They just see you as another normal person, same as themselves.

You might say the people in Colombia are very friendly.

That's true, but first of all, you definitely cannot trust them, and second of all, a lot of it is just cultural politeness.

Doesn't mean they are actually nice. Whereas in Brazil, there are some people, not all of them, of course, that will go out of their way to help you out.

There's a large homeless population in Brazil, and I've seen many times where average locals, they will just buy a bunch of food and give it to them for free.

You just don't see the level of spontaneous human kindness in countries that train their citizens to operate solely on hyper-individualistic survival or transactional hospitality.

Another factor lies in the massive difference in economic size.

No matter how many foreigners come to Brazil, they are just a drop in the ocean.

Won't cause any impact to the local economy.

Whereas Colombia's urban centers, particularly Medellín, are experiencing rapid neighborhood colonization because the local economy is fragile enough to be distorted by a few thousand foreigners coming in overnight.

Anger you see online is a form of displaced economic panic, using the outsiders as scapegoat because confronting the local corrupted businesses and political class takes real effort.

Anti-foreigner outrage online is just a cope mechanism for structural failure.

Blaming the tourists won't fix your inflation, it won't fix your greedy local businesses, and it definitely won't fix your country's dependency on foreign capital.

Brazil is secure enough to treat foreigners like human beings, and if that offends you, keep crying in the comments with your, quote-unquote, "nationalism."

And as while you are typing, "Go home," the world is moving on without you.

Drop your comment below if you can even write a full sentence.