:sicko-biker: :sicko-biker: :sicko-biker:

edit: let me clarify that I understand biking isn't feasible for everyone or even safe considering how dangerous city streets are. is just funny meme because bikes are cool.

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    A lot of the replies to this thread is a good example of how atomised political understand is under late capitalism, even on a leftist website.

    People see a "bike good, bike possible" message and interpret it as a moral condemnation of them personally for not biking while nothing else changes and not as a call for people in general to bike more with the changes in infrastructure and city planning that would go with it.

    It's not that there's something wrong with people for thinking like this, after all this is how we're being taught to think constantly by the bourgeois propaganda apparatus, but it is something to consider in political communication, being explicit about the collective nature of what were proposing.

    • wantonviolins [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      It's not that the understanding is atomized, we all fully grok the benefits of a move to non-car society. It's that individual action is often dangerous, irrelevant, or even counter-productive independent of a wider shift in consciousness and action, and currently reactionary forces are stronger than we are. Individually adopting a bike-first approach in many urban centers massively multiplies your chance of getting fucking murdered by people who despise cyclists who will clip you intentionally and laugh as you die.

      I and several people I know have been chased off the shoulder and into ditches by aggressive drivers for daring to walk alongside the road. Like I don't think you grasp how sociopathic American drivers are.

        • wantonviolins [they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          the courts love victim blaming and would rule that you were endangering traffic, basically nullifying your 2A rights

          while I agree with the sentiment it's kinda immaterial. not like you can feasibly draw a weapon and fire on someone speeding off when you're eating pavement