Was on a trip through the Midwest recently and was thinking a lot about these kinds of anti-car comments. We're getting disconnected from the working class here.
In much of the U.S., and in plenty of the world, you can't live a normal life without regular access to a car. There's no public transit, no cabs or ubers, and no bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure even if you wanted to slog ~15 miles to the grocery store and another ~15 back with a few bags of groceries through all the bad weather year-round. Many jobs (even in more densely-built urban/suburban areas) require you to have a car to get to shifting worksites. Owning a car is one of the first rungs on the ladder to economic independence. If your car breaks down or gets stolen it's a problem that you have to deal with today.
Of course, the best solution would have been to never become so car-centric in the first place over the last century, and of course the negatives of cars we discuss are undeniable. But the former is not a solution where we stand now, and the latter runs directly against the most immediate material interests of a huge chunk of the working class.
If you're going to talk about eliminating something as vital as that you have to front-load what you have as a replacement. Just railing against cars generally will get people to think you're an out-of-touch liberal from one of the five urban areas where an appreciable amount of people don't need a car for everyday life.
Yes, of course, nobody here spend their time flatting the tires of homeless people nor on top of a pedestrian bridge throwing shit and yelling "fascists" to the commuting cars below. Specially because imagine going outside, lmao
We don't shit on the people forced to do what they gotta do to survive, we shit on the hare-brained idiots who planned this fucking disaster, or the dipshits who piss and moan about changing anything based on the imaginary scenario of their feelings as broom-broomers being affected by the evil gommuist bus lane :liberty-weeping:
We don’t shit on the people forced to do what they gotta do to survive, we shit on the hare-brained idiots who planned this fucking disaster
That's the intent, but like a dozen other things, the people this is intended for don't care and the people just trying to survive often don't get the whole context.
An ordinary person in a place where they really do need a car will see anti-car stuff and go :jesse-wtf: because there is no other viable way for them to live right now. We're better off pushing immediate improvements over current car-centric culture than we are attacking the problem from the ground up. Talk about mandating that certain employers offer work from home jobs or a plan to open up grocery stores in small towns or better transportation to and from schools and people will see something that directly benefits them (while also reducing dependence on cars).
Was on a trip through the Midwest recently and was thinking a lot about these kinds of anti-car comments. We're getting disconnected from the working class here.
In much of the U.S., and in plenty of the world, you can't live a normal life without regular access to a car. There's no public transit, no cabs or ubers, and no bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure even if you wanted to slog ~15 miles to the grocery store and another ~15 back with a few bags of groceries through all the bad weather year-round. Many jobs (even in more densely-built urban/suburban areas) require you to have a car to get to shifting worksites. Owning a car is one of the first rungs on the ladder to economic independence. If your car breaks down or gets stolen it's a problem that you have to deal with today.
Of course, the best solution would have been to never become so car-centric in the first place over the last century, and of course the negatives of cars we discuss are undeniable. But the former is not a solution where we stand now, and the latter runs directly against the most immediate material interests of a huge chunk of the working class.
If you're going to talk about eliminating something as vital as that you have to front-load what you have as a replacement. Just railing against cars generally will get people to think you're an out-of-touch liberal from one of the five urban areas where an appreciable amount of people don't need a car for everyday life.
Yes, of course, nobody here spend their time flatting the tires of homeless people nor on top of a pedestrian bridge throwing shit and yelling "fascists" to the commuting cars below. Specially because imagine going outside, lmao
We don't shit on the people forced to do what they gotta do to survive, we shit on the hare-brained idiots who planned this fucking disaster, or the dipshits who piss and moan about changing anything based on the imaginary scenario of their feelings as broom-broomers being affected by the evil gommuist bus lane :liberty-weeping:
That's the intent, but like a dozen other things, the people this is intended for don't care and the people just trying to survive often don't get the whole context.
An ordinary person in a place where they really do need a car will see anti-car stuff and go :jesse-wtf: because there is no other viable way for them to live right now. We're better off pushing immediate improvements over current car-centric culture than we are attacking the problem from the ground up. Talk about mandating that certain employers offer work from home jobs or a plan to open up grocery stores in small towns or better transportation to and from schools and people will see something that directly benefits them (while also reducing dependence on cars).
Yeah, same thing none of us do big spoon memes IRL when trying to unionize their workplace. This is a space for circlejerking.