and it is the most pathological shit I have seen in a while. Good god, the answers read somewhere between internalized advertising and an oedipus-complex about a machine.
Hence, I shall cite you some example so you, too, may look into the abyss. If you think some of it is worded with way too much pathos, rest assured that's all in the original comments, too.
"Why do you have an emotional bond with your car?"
There is no goal I cannot achieve with my car [...] I am in my own world. [...] The seat is really comfy.
The car is freedom to me. I can get together some friends and drive around the forests on a sunday.
Like other people like rollercoasters, I like the car for it's speed and acceleration. [...] Other people have touched on the risk part of it, and I like the risk of driving quickly, it's like parajumping. The goal however is not to endanger other people. I am a car enthusiast and I'm not ashamed about it.
For me, the car means getting everywhere quickly. This first started when I turned 18, where I now only needed 15 minutes to get to work. [...] I feel way safer doing 180kph on the Autobahn than on a bicycle, because I have way better control over my car. I will drive my Diesel as long as it's possible, even if it costs 5€/L.
A:Same as OP, I am uncomfortable when people show me their new car and I have to fake enthusiasm about it. I always ask "Is that a 1,4L Engine?". I don't even know what it means.
B: You should ask if it's a 2L, 1,4L is an insult to most cars.
Did your parents never drive across the country with you when you were a child?
I like my car because: it's reliable
I never had one for this long
we have experienced and seen so much together
because it never causes trouble
because it's reliable
because it's comfortable
because it has seats that are better than my couch
because it has a great sound system
because it radiates calmness
because I talk to it sometimes
because it looks great with summer tyres.
I have Kids, 5 at that. The Car is like our second living room.
Freedom. I come from the country and cycling more than 5km was never an option for me.[...] Also Price. I know, difficult topic, especially if you consider all the costs of owning a car. It was still cheaper to get into the next big city in my 90s Fiesta and two friends than it was taking the train.
For me, the car was one of the places I couldn't be disturbed. Music up, I am not allowed to check my phone, I got out of the house.
My car is freedom. For my body and my mind. I leave every day life behind me, no matter if I bomb down the autobahn at 250kph or do 50kph listening to my favorite music while cruising through the countryside
It doesn't matter which car you are comfortable in. A car means independence. I took the train for 5 years while studying, never again.
There's some comments there pointing out how fucked the entire thread is, at least.
EDIT:
They keep coming, folks
There is currently nothing more beautiful than to wash my car on a warm, sunny Sunday. Once everything is perfectly clean and glistening in the sun, I just feel like I have just created Art ;).
[in a thread discussing a general speed limit on the autobahn, suggesting people who want to drive fast hit a racetrack] This is just the typical "gO tO a RaCeTrAcK". So far, there is no speed limit on the Autobahn and once you hit 180kph, every 10kph more is exciting. Sometiomes, someone cuts you off or gets on the autobahn, you just quickly accelerate and get away. That can be enough adrenalin for a day, that's just part of it, you don't need to go to a racetrakc for that. You're not endangering anybody with it, thats just forced scenarios.
I'm a student and I really like my car for the following reasons:
It's the first big investment I bought myself (okay, my Dad helped)
I have to move a lot and the car is the only constant over changing appartements
freedom
When you drove your Golf 2 from Party to Party in 1995, fucked on the hood, the backseats and behind the wheel and always had two friends with you with some cassettes that everybody knew by heart, that drove you to every festival in the area, when you've seen practically every country in west europe and northern africa and spent years with at least one hour a day behind the wheel, you must have a miserable life if you don't have an emotional connection to your car. You get attached to your Appartement, or are you HOMELESS?
A: Why does anybody like bicycles is the question?
OP: It's really hard to kill someone with it, it's quiet, it keeps you fit and it doesn't take up as much space nor pollute the enviroment. Yet it is still individual mobility, faster than being on foot and you don't have parking woes. Oh, and it's fun. Exercise sets free Dopamine.
A: You can kill someone with a bicycle. The risk of being killed is way higher. Fun is something else to me. Driving a car for fast for a long period of time is also exercise (of course only where it's allowed). Motorsport > Cycling.
We're materialists, and we should have a materialist understanding of how people view cars. Right now they're extremely useful in all but the densest urban areas and a necessity for most rural folks. "My car is freedom" sounds goofy until you put yourself in the shoes of someone in a small town that's 10+ miles from everything. In that situation, you can't have a normal adult life -- think going to work, or to the store, or on a date -- unless you have a car. Even in a city large enough to have real public transit, a car is the difference between doing things on your own time with storage/transport space and doing things slower, on someone else's schedule, with no more than what you can personally carry.
Of course people associate the tool that allows them to easily meet those needs with freedom, independence, and all sorts of positive emotions. That's the material base to all of this, and what we eventually have to provide.
I'm not going to claim a car isn't the pragmatic solution for a lot of people as it stands, thread has those comments and I didn't cite any of those for a reason.
Calling the car your second living room, using the autobahn as your personal racetrack or ascribing a radiating calmness to a car has nought to do with freedom or indepedence. That's just terminal car brain.
And I can see how people arrive there in a culture that yells at you at in every possible way that you need to buy a car, don't get me wrong. It's still not a good thing and any change to the status quo must now fight what has become basically a replacement religion. You cannot possibly argue with these people anymore (believe me, I have tried a lot) because any change to the status quo is a direct attack on their perceived freedom, or on their most treasured object.
The underlying theme in all the posts (taking into account parts and posts I didn't translate to here) is basically that all the negative externalities that come along with the car do not register to many people. It's entirely ego-driven and the frame of discussion isn't about whether any change would be a good idea to society, it's entirely about taking freedom and fun away from those who are way too attached to their car.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ti1l
SNL from the 90s was alright.