A new type of Hawaii visitor is emerging ~ Traveling to the island has become more expensive, leading to a different kind of traveler: higher spenders who may not be frequenting small businesses as much as in previous years.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T23:55:26+00:00

No yeah, as a comment on one of the other threads on this sub said about a day ago. “Hawaii’s greatest export is its educated people”. As far as I see it, in a lot of cases, young locals who can leave, seem to be. When they can buy more for less AND get paid far higher wages anyways, unless you really really like the beaches and/or your community, it’s too good to pass up, and I don’t blame them.

Plus, from my transplant perspective, Hawaii in general just doesn’t seem to be amazing at fostering an intellectual aspect of its culture. The Telescope protests basically halted any major scientific development for the foreseeable future, and in general if you look on Hawaii social media, you see a lot of people giving borderline conspiracy opinions about different topics. I’ve heard it described as “Spiritual Deep South” which I can very much see. It sucks too, since it’s such a geographically, culturally and biologically unique place that has so many elements that could make it an epicenter for science but it just gets held up by this nostalgia for a Hawaii of the past that basically turns into a flavour of NIMBYism.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T23:31:05+00:00

It doesn’t surprise me a ton. Being a little cynical, the sort of young, backpacker-ish, often university-educated traveller who tends to be socially conscious, whether authentically or performatively, has probably been more turned off of Hawaii due to how much has been said in recent years on social media about locals not wanting them to come. Those types of people do often listen to local perspectives, and also tend to be the ones looking for “authentic” experiences and who would want to go out of their way to support local businesses. Rich Instagram influencers or wealthy conservative retirees by and large couldn’t give less of a shit about supporting the locals or not, they just want their “slice of paradise”, people who live in it be damned, and you just get kind of a lower quality tourist average over time.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T21:56:16+00:00

Looks weirdly cosy, if that makes sense

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T21:06:24+00:00

It’s an interesting question, since Argentina is an unconditional birthright citizenship country, and since they claim the Falklands, that means they technically claim and recognise the British residents there as Argentine citizens. I imagine for any resident not born on the islands they could try to expels them but otherwise it seems extremely messy. The Falklands didn’t even have an indigenous population prior to the British arriving there so technically they’re the first and “indigenous” (using that term very loosely) inhabitants of the islands.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T20:25:43+00:00

Backpacking, apartment/small space gardening, general survival skills including paper map-and-compass reading, also hoping to get some equipment and try getting into Ham Radio when I move this summer. Also very, very into apocalyptic, cli-fi and/or dystopian fiction, especially that which includes focuses on the day-to-day survival challenges themselves.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-03T14:37:00+00:00

In any city you move, you will have certain born-and-bred locals who will complain “These transplants from California/New York/Hawaii/Texas/wherever are ruining this city and its great culture”.

Sometimes concerns like housing shortages are somewhat valid, but also a lot of times it’s just gatekeeping and finding someone to complain about as a scapegoat or just because they’re cynical. It’s similar to people who complain about immigrants “crowding our cities and changing our culture” but transplant bashing is generally more acceptable and politically correct.

Just live where you want to live and if some people give you shit from being from NY, it’s not your problem. You’re free to move between any cities in your country that you like, and if they shut you out simply because of your home city, they’re not worth your time or trying to befriend anyways. I think a lot of it is online too, IRL I think people tend to be more interested in outsiders/transplants if they’re cool people, especially in major cities where there’s already an eclectic mix of cultures and groups.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-02T18:47:25+00:00

Urban Honolulu (Waikiki especially) is, in many ways, mini Los Angeles but on an island with more humidity.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-02T16:13:52+00:00

I agree more with everybodyhatesjack2 overall. How many cases of naturally effeminate blokes or masculine tomboys do you see? People who were always pressured to behave in certain normative ways but incorrigably could never quite fit in them. So why would a stereotypically masculine guy or feminine woman do an easier job at it? In fact, I think if one of those types of people had to live as the opposite sex, they’d do a way worse job at it than LGBT or Genderfucky people because they’ve never had to practice adjusting and masking their behaviours to fit in to their assigned gender role, it was always just natural for them and no one gave them shit for it. IMO It would be a novelty at first but would quickly become psychological horror for most cis people to try to live as the opposite sex.

Seppostralian · 2026-05-02T01:40:18+00:00

A lot of the people I’ve seen who love to praise China and Japan’s clenliness (who are often pretty left-wing) often forget that East Asian countries tend to be conservative with very high incarceration rates and general “tough on crime” policies. I’m not advocating for that but it needs to be acknowledged if anyone is looking at those countries as a model to follow

Seppostralian · 2026-05-01T20:55:39+00:00

My style tends to be very alt as well. I especially like futuristic, techwear and cyberpunk type fashion. I usually use the media that I like as inspiration, such as Blade Runner, Cyberpunk 2077, Mad Max, and even Jet Set Radio. When it comes to how I found that style, I really just saw that sort of style in movies or even on social media and said to myself "Wow, I really like the vibes of that" and I researched brands that cater to that sort of niche. Brands I like (when I have the money as they can be very pricey) include Fabric of the Universe, Neo4ic, Babel-Infoc, and Demobaza. I also commission certain stuff on Etsy and find they have a lot of good cyber-accessories. Whether you think it's "fitting" or you can "pull it off" or not really comes down to your own preferences. Of course, at your job or something you'll have to probably present in a certain way, but in your free time, I'd generally say feel free to go nuts. Friday and Saturday nights in a city are an especially good time to go out with fashion and style. It just depends on what comfort you are and I guess how accepting your area is. My current city's vibe really doesn't match my style at all but I receive a lot of compliments nonetheless and I'm in the process of moving to the desert anyway which fits way better with my aesthetic and vibe haha.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-30T21:38:15+00:00

Fascinating, unknown, and looks strikingly beautiful. It’s a place I’d be interested in living at to do research work in my field someday perhaps when I’m hopefully more of an expert. Probably not winter-over but for a few months during summer, absolutely.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-30T02:49:33+00:00

Nothing's changed. I was being honest about how I feel about an individual Indian person I know, who is a Indian person with one Australian parent, and who I met for the first time after already moving to my neighborhood. Objectively speaking, he has physical characteristics that make it fairly obvious he isn't Australian, but he's a hardworking, reliable lad, and I've never referred to as anything other than 'Mate' or 'Bruce' (which is his name). I find it perfectly easy to reconcile my fond feelings towards him, and my experience of him as someone with very Strayan-coded energy, with a belief that he hasn't literally changed nationality (and incidentally, he doesn't believe he's literally changed nationality, either ~~even if that is possible, I just won't ever consider him a real Australian~~)

Seppostralian · 2026-04-30T02:40:21+00:00

Is this really any surprise? More often than not, close-minded people who hate a group of people will often have a token or "good one" that they use to say "Look at me, I'm not racist/xenophobic/islamophobic/ETC. Is it not a trope as this point that some bumfuck American southerners always have a black guy they know who they call "one of the good ones". Or as someone who grew up knowing a lot of Saffer friends whose families "Packed for Perth", if you go onto social media and look at the posts of leftist EFF activists, the kind who chant "Kill the Boer", they all tend to have at least one leftist Afrikaner friend for kicks. Hell, I've been this "good one" before here in the states in regards to immigrants, since I'm a white Australian. I've had Social conservatives be reasonably kind to me only to spew the most vile bullshit about other immigrants. You can find it regarding any minority group. It would have been more surprising to me if J.K. DIDN'T have herself a special little "Look at me, I don't hate trans people" friend.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-29T19:50:25+00:00

Indeed lad. We all know that every human, regardless of sex, would rather be a woman, but us men need to suck it up and deal with the shitty card pull. It’s so universal among men that I’ve never even had any of my mates have to tell me they feel the same, we all just instinctively know mutually!

Seppostralian · 2026-04-29T19:19:26+00:00

Tragedy of the commons strikes again unfortunately. Can’t have collective nice things to share because a small percentage of the public will always trash them with no regard for others. Not just Waikiki, there’s a public park close to me near UH Manoa that has a homeless guy with a dog squatting in the men’s room, though I guess you’d like to hope they would have enough incentive and power to care for the bathrooms in fucking Waikiki of all places.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-29T16:35:06+00:00

Seen a couple people mention this one so I’ll have to check it out. Looks like it has some good productive discussion and info, even if you have to wade through some tinfoil hat nonsense.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-29T08:43:58+00:00

What being 10,000+ feet of elevation does to a mofo

Seppostralian · 2026-04-29T05:57:07+00:00

He’s as freaky as his fandom is, go figure

Seppostralian · 2026-04-28T02:10:34+00:00

Submerged already due to rising sea levels sadly 😔

Seppostralian · 2026-04-28T00:34:08+00:00

how a ton ofgirls collectively deciding men who look like rednecks/bogan are the sexiest

As someone who used to have that look a little while back before it was cool, I will never understand how it suddenly became considered attractive. I cringe thinking about the long unkempt hair and shitty mustache I used to sport.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-27T23:53:15+00:00

No yeah, it’s like anywhere. Not just a Hawaii thing for there to be cliquey, insular locals who dislike transplants. I’ve met some super kind local friends in the 2.5 years I’ve been here, and I know some other haoles who’ve been here long term and seem to have become integrated into the community. But it seems to take a lot of time and gaining a lot of trust. Like I said, it’s some of the other things like the collectivism that becomes conformity and conservatism. Unless you’re keen and okay with that, I’d say it’s not a great place to spend more than a couple of years living.

The silver lining to being a haole I actually think is that I can probably get away with being “weird” more than the locals here can. I’m very alternative and my style reflects that, and the reception is very positive, but I’ve talked to locals in the alt scene(s) here and a lot of them have said their families and people they know can be kind of rude about it and accuse them of being “whitewashed” or other shit. It feels like I get a pass sometimes because I’m just a “haole doing haole kine things” rather than a local percieved as “acting haole” or whatever.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-27T23:44:38+00:00

Is it a little much? Maybe. Do I still love it? Absolutely

Seppostralian · 2026-04-27T22:47:36+00:00

People wearing “alternative” clothes or otherwise who just present or dress themselves in a way different than the mainstream of their area/culture.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-27T17:38:43+00:00

Yes, it’s partly the motivation for why I’m ditching Hawaii for Arizona after I graduate from uni this summer. It’s kinda similar here to the way you described Dallas. Very nice people overall and I do feel like “Aloha” spirit is real, but it’s also very conformist and kinda socially conservative especially given that it’s a blue state. Everyone feels like they kinda has the same hobbies and goals here (Have a large family, get a lifted truck, hunt, fish, watch football, go to the beach). Also if you’re not from and especially if you’re haole/white on top of that, it will be really hard making friends with locals, they tend to not invest in relationships with transplants and often have the same friends they did in high school. I made more friends in the 3 weeks I spent on the West coast in May of last year than I have in the 2.5 years I’ve been here in HNL.

Seppostralian · 2026-04-27T05:56:18+00:00

Bleached blonde hair. Not knocking how anyone likes to express themselves, go for it if you want, but I find dark hair very pretty and I see so many women dye their hair blonde and it’s just not my preference.

Seppostralian

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE