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.

  • 5bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It’s not screwed up to have an emotional attachment to an object. Go into your kitchen and honestly list the feelings you get when you use the pan or knife you always do, or the lamp in the living room that you read by, or your bed.

    The definitive difference being my bed or my knife doesn't burn fuel and I don't expect an enormous amount of space in the public room so I can put my bed wherever I like.

    Germany has a fucked up post war infrastructure built around cars. Ppl rely on them to get around.

    To an extent, yes. Not even close to the extent these people tell themselves this to be true. There is entirely too many statistics about the average car trip in a city being like 3 kilometers. A majority of germans live within 10km of their work and 5k of a supermarket. They still drive their car everywhere.

    I grew up in the german countryside. The people there take their car for literally anything. Forgot the milk? Hop in the car to drive to the supermarket 800m away. Wanna get fresh rolls on a weekend? Hop in the car to drive to the bakery 500m away. Visiting a friend who lives a kilometer away? Guess what, car!

    And this wasn't an infrastructure problem. Those distances are not a problem for anyone who doesn't have mobility issues and the infrastructure is fine. You can ride on the eternally empty sidewalks everywhere, legally.

    It is an infrastructure problem, yes. It is not purely an infrastructure problem anymore. There's pragmatists in the thread that say they don't give a shit about their car other than as a means of transportation. That is an infrastructure problem.

    People claiming they will never set foot in public transport again, no matter how much it'll cost them, is not an infrastructure problem.

      • 5bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        In incredibly stereotypical German style, you are technically correct, ppl who say they won’t ever use transit again aren’t an infrastructure problem, they are a symptom of an infrastructure problem.

        And in an incredibly stereotypical american style, you're talking about societal issues half a planet away with the confidence of a person who's an activist there.

        Stop using ppl as a stand in for the institution. They are responding to what the institution hath wrought, you are mad at the outcome.

        I'm not. Not even in that post. I made it perfectly clear there is a sizeable amount of car pragmatist who'd get in a bus if there was a bus.

        This does not change the fact that there is also a sizeable amount of people who will not get into a bus if their livelihood dependent on it, because through decades of car culture we have cultivated a subset of the population which isn't about material differences, they have romanticized the car to the point where any change to the status quo is wrong to them, no matter how much better it may be. Change the material conditions and they'd just fucking hate it, because it's a topic that's driven almost entirely on an emotional level. They're basically car chuds, if we wanna do a hexbear appropiate analogy.

          • 5bicycles [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            The bus thing seems like it’s about class not transit. They’re not saying “ugh, busses” they’re saying “ugh poor ppl”. I could see someone just not being willing to tolerate the lack of control too.

            Spot on

            You’re talking about people who built a part of their identity around the availability of a thing and that seemed simple to me at first and now it’s looking more complex but still a product of the institutional failings not the people’s fundamental nature or something.

            It's not like I don't get how this happened on some level. Could write you a book about it, but the one hyperfixation literally every one of these comments has is that they don't even perceive the negative externalities and the fact that all their often touted freedom is the result of probably by now trillions of euros having been spent and being continued to spend on the infrastructure required to facilitate all this freedom.

            These aren't unknown factors, especially not on r/de. There's always some sort of post there about how much car cost, there isn't a chance in hell these people aren't aware of it, they just don't give a fuck about it. Which is where the problems come in, you can like your car, or cars or the act of driving or whatever and I'd have no problem with you, but if you're vehemently opposed to any further regulation for the common good, you arrive at a position where you expect pretty much everybody who isn't as selfish as you to nearly completely subsidize your hobby for you and this makes you a problem.

            No one is this much a product of their society, people do have agency. You can't give little kids asthma because you couldn't be bothered to cycle 500m to the bakery and back and then blame this on being a product of your time.