I've lived in a big city for years now. Never seen anybody get mugged, or shot, or carjacked, despite doing activist work that often has me visiting poor minority neighborhoods.
The only time I ever really felt uneasy was when I had to walk alone at night through a neighborhood where all the businesses had bars on the windows. Worst thing that happened was a couple of people asking me for money, and they didn't give me any shit when I said I didn't carry cash.
But any time I visit the small town where I grew up there's always someone or another acting like I came back from a fucking warzone lmao
There has to be some kind of car brain explanation. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, a tiny town an hour and a half's drive north of a mid-sized city. I remember people thinking it's perfectly reasonable to drive 90 minutes to work or to revolve your life around your car. But back home they love it. Driving around is pleasant for them for some reason. They love driving 100mph with no one doing anything about it, since there's no traffic and the cops don't give a shit unless you're black. Back home you can drive in a straight line without stopping for at least an hour. The road just keeps going. I think some rural folk interpret this as the greatest personal freedom, the ability to get on any road you want and drive in a direction far too fast and end up wherever you please.
In cities things are more congested, and driving around is more of a chore. Parking is more difficult, there's traffic, and navigation is more complicated. Back home there were just two roads. You go north to be in more rural swamp forest nowhere, you go south to be in civilization. Navigation rarely got more complicated than that.
Yeah that's actually how they see it. Half of my family drives recreationally to unwind and calm down. They genuinely enjoy it. They even have fun fixing and maintaining the car, or tinkering with it and modifying it. And yeah, their perspective is: I can just get into my car and start it and go wherever I want whenever I want. But a bus or train I have to rely on someone else for, and adhere to limitations of schedule and lines. So to them it's more freedom.
Yeah, they can't interpret a car being a burden or driving as a waste of time. Living somewhere rural means you're a car hobbyist by default.
I do have fun modifying, operating, and maintaining my primary vehicle, but it's a bicycle. So I can almost see where they're coming from. But my bike didn't cost tens of thousands of dollars and I'm not gonna explode if it crashes.
I mean you should be able to understand it. Its a hobby, and a fun mechanical one, as you do with your bike, except it gets absurdly powerful. And let me tell you, absurdly powerful cars are very fun and kick ass. Its expensive, yes, but some hobbies are.
Cars as a hobby fuckin rule. Cars as a necessity is fucked up.
Yeah I can understand having fun with cars. They go fast and some people enjoy tinkering. I was never able to get into it because being in a car makes me sick. I can handle about 30 minutes at a time before I get too dizzy to keep going.
Yeah it's also way too expensive. My car is by far the biggest money sink I have and I barely use it and it's paid off. Constantly breaking down and demanding gasoline. If it was just a toy I used to ride around on weekends, that's fine.
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