I was recently held up in absolute dead stop traffic. We were sitting on the tarmac with no movement for well over an hour, in the 80 degree sun, before I felt obliged to leave my car and go see if it was because of roadwork or an accident or what.
I joined a small crowd of onlookers after reaching the head, spectating a row of sit-in protesters. One driver had tried to get around but a few protesters moved tactically so that he couldn’t go any further without injuring somebody.
I didn’t wait around, although there were people phoning the police and some tempers beginning to flare. So I head back to my car. The dairy groceries that I picked up on the way back from work had begun to spoil.
I was late home by nearly three hours, so no time to unwind. Just enough to pack away some old leftovers before heading off to sleep and restart cycle all over, -1 hour or so of sleep.
Previously, I had no opinion whatsoever on whether cars=good or cars=bad. But after being held up in traffic, wasting money, wasting gas, losing sleep and perhaps a bit of my sanity I am now totally on board with the Fuck Cars movement. I couldn’t imagine a more convincing strategy to bring people over to your perspective. Excellent thinking. Good job.
You must log in or # to comment.
I’m not sure what your point is. You come in here with this passive aggressive tone even though this community had nothing to do with the protest you’re talking about. I get that it made you mad and you need a place to vent but this is not it.
Also, forming your political opinion based on the fact that some people made you mad is fallacious reasoning and very immature. Even if the protesters were advocating for the same points this community does, them being annoying does not invalidate (or validate) any of the arguments. Funnily enough, good public transport is actually the best and often only viable way to meaningfully improve traffic so you’re acting against your own self-interest here.
Alright I don’t want to double post because I know it’s spammy. But let’s consider optics.
Person has bad experience with group professing “We hate XYZ!”
Person later finds subforum online titled “Fuck XYZ!”
The natural conclusion that person is going to draw will be something like “Ah, so this is where that sentiment is stemming from.” It would be impossible not to link the two.
I understand why people do this but it’s still a fallacy.
You… you think WE started the anti-car movement? Seriously?
Goddamn it, they’re finally on to us.
That’s great, but where did OP mention what the protest was about, at all? All OP mentions is their methods, not opinions, message, or affiliation.
I don’t live in a city. My self-interest is with cars. If you don’t have a car out here, good luck getting anywhere lol
It seems to me like you don’t actually know what this community is about and you’re just mad at the somewhat intentionally provocative title. You wouldn’t be the first.
We don’t want to take people’s cars away. We want good urban planning so that not using a car becomes a viable alternative. If done right this also improves the lifes of people who still need cars for various reasons. If you live in a rural area you’ll probably always need a car and that’s fine.
To be clear, you’re against public transport because you live somewhere with insufficient public transport and therefore cannot rely on the public transport that hasn’t been built? Would the problem of insufficient public transport not be solved by building public transport?
This is what I’ve seen called “the subtractive fallacy”.
People say “cars are bad, we should rely on them less”, and instead of envisioning what that would actually mean, you just assume that the future they advocate for is exactly the same as the present but without cars. Of course that would suck. Good thing no one wants that.
What we want is for you and everyone to have the choice of driving a car, or not. If we had good public transport alternatives everywhere, this would me less people driving cars which is a good thing for everyone else who still wants or needs to drives cars. “Fuck cars” because they have taken over too much space and resources that could be better used elsewhere for the benefit of literally everyone.
How is this so hard to understand?
Most level headed and well communicated take.
It is probably now that I should admit to having fabricated the story. I hope everyone is entertained.
Let’s be honest here, the only thing missing in your story to make it more obviously fake was “and then everyone got up and clapped”.
Ideally you would park your car outside of the city and then take public transit into the city. Cities should be dense, walkable communities connected by light rail and bike paths
Waah they should hold the protests where they affect nobody so everyone can just ignore them waah my spoiled milk
You’re right, I couldn’t ignore it. And it did affect me.
Like I mention in OP, I was previously somebody with no opinion either way on the issue who is now today firmly in favor of the value and dominance of vehicles as America’s #1 choice of transportation.
I have since bought stock in some road surface producers and major auto manufacturers, regardless how they end up performing. If the protestor’s goals were to turn people away from your movement’s ideals, then they’ve succeeded spectacularly here.
“holding no opinion” is holding the default opinion
The objective is not really to defend the values of capitalism but only to pretend not to be aware of them.
I have since bought stock in some road surface producers
1, I don’t believe you.
2, cuck shit.
“Oh~ a guy mugged me, now I’m actually pro murder, yep, that’s me, I love killing people now, la la la”
Wow you surely showed them who’s boss huh
your 3 stocks surely will make a difference I’m sure
(Imagine being this butthurt)
Well, let’s analyze things. Another comment from your wonderful community:
Right? If it’s years in prison either way, they’re about to find out what real eco terrorism looks like when protestors are ready to go all in.
Advocating violence … because cars exist. Who exactly do they plan on maiming/killing? Indiscriminate driver’s license holders? Surely there must be a better way to get your message across.
If by butthurt you mean remaining grounded in reality, then sure.
Wait, you think that’s advocation of violence? For observing that peaceful protests being punished super harshly could lead to violent protests? Sick analysis mate, maybe you should stop inhaling car fumes and work on your reading comprehension, that’s a straight F right there.
“Remaining grounded in reality” lmao whatever lets you sleep at night Mr. super-rational proud owner of 3 carstocks.
I bet you also eat 2 steaks instead of one because a vegan annoyed you that one time.
No, I take one bite and then throw the rest away.
i read your op, and i thought you were sincere. i am surprised to now see that you think sarcasm is wit, and that protesting shouldn’t inconvenience people.
how have you not caught a banhammer yet?
This feels like an attempt at satire, but they failed to mention what was actually being protested. It probably is because it’s very self-centered (“oh no my milk is spoiled! Who cares that 100 ppl are killed everyday day because of cars, I want my milk!!”)
If it’s not sarcasm, then you’re right! A train would have gotten you home on time 👍
I shit you not, on occasions that I have taken a train, I have had the pleasure to experience the train inexplicably rolling to a stop while we all sit waiting, only for the intercom to cackle out a barely intelligible “explanation” and that we will soon be on our way again.
Why did it stop? Still don’t know. How long were we stopped for? About as long as I was stuck in traffic earlier.
A train would have gotten you home on time
In short, no. And on that day, I found myself wishing I had just driven instead. The parking meter fee I was avoiding would have been much preferable, in retrospect.
If governments were to put as much money into train infrastructure as they do in car infrastructure a train would 100% get you home faster and get rid of all traffic on the roads.
Your sorry attempt at a sarcastic post actually proves cars are inferior.
A train would had simply torn those protesters to pieces and got you home on time 🙂
are you sure that they were protesting “because cars exist” ? I’m sure they had another motive and you’re trying hard to ignore their reasons just to rant about cars
Yeah, I’m real motivated now to hear out their reasoning.
Maybe if they physically assaulted me and then asked “Hey, do you care to know the reasons behind why we just assaulted you?”. Same logic.
After a certain point, you begin to realize that some people just can’t be helped. It comes from a place of fatigue.
3 hours ago you wrote this comment 👆
you were right.
I mean you’ve spent a fuck of a lot of energy complaining about it. And you clearly have some strong preconceptions what you are angry about. But it turns out, you don’t even know what the fuck you’re angry about. Go take a bath, dude. Get your head on right, because you’re making a fool of yourself.
This is a thinly veiled attempt at sarcasm I assume.
Lots of logical fallacies though.
Fuckcars is a movement about providing equal infrastructure prioritisation to public transit and soft transit (walking, biking) instead of near-solely focusing on cars.
We don’t know what that protest is and acting as if we as a community must be in support of said protest for the sole reason it blocks cars is nonsensical.
I really don’t think your post is in good faith, I can only assume this protest really bothered you and you’ve come here to blow off some steam? Anyways, this isn’t a very polite way to act, please keep this kind of attitude of lemmy.
Many of us also advocate to get rid of congestion and traffic jams by providing alternatives and making car infrastructure less congested and let it flow better. We advocate for better roads that actually move cars to streets instead of stroads that fail at being both a destination and a throughfare.
Although when we have focused so much on automotive transit, it does make it as a weakness to protestors and saboteurs.
Right now that conversation (whatever the the issue motivating the issue) are still trying peaceful protest.
Imagine what happens if, instead of blocking the highway with their bodies, they just blow up the tarmac?
Then all those people in traffic are just fucked. That segment of highway is useless until days of emergency repair.
A more versitile transit system would be more resistant to such attacks, but that would mean supporting transit for people who are not rich. People who presently are second class citizens, who might be tired of not having the same representation in society. And who might want to disrupt traffic of the wealthy to let them k ow things suck for those without.
No war but class war.
Sorry about your bad day. Hope you have good sleep and feel refreshed in the morning 🖖
The idea that protest is about convincing people of something is such a daft idea, I don’t understand where this comes from. Everyone seems to think it but I can’t remember any protest, and especially any direct action protest where this has ever been the goal or the effect.
But imagine for a moment a world in which a flash dance mob can erupt in the middle of an Ohio mega-mall to confetti, jazz-hands, and live music specifically to convince you, the one standing in the center of a See’s Candies, that clean water is good actually and the city could do a bit better maybe about keeping it that way.
Yeah, that would be the ideal protest. Chocolate and a show. Some good wine, also, they should do that too.
I’d like a massage, is that on offer?
I find massages very convincing
Do you know for sure they were protesting cars, not emissions, not raising awareness for any other cause? It doesn’t matter, I’m just curious.
Your complaints about public transportation make no sense. “Public transportation is bad so don’t spend money on it.” Obviously, if we spent money on it, it would be a viable alternative. I spent some time in Austria this year, a country with excellent public transportation. I could step onto a bus (there was one at nearly every stop about every 10 minutes), be at my destination with no delay, hop off, all without ever needing to show my ticket or talk to anyone. Cars would have been vastly more inconvenient to get around the cities, finding parking takes time, and you almost never have the right of way over other vehicles/pedestrians (as you shouldn’t, you’re in the safe metal box and they’re vulnerable). With effective public transportation, I was able to get out into the Alps, go hiking, and come back into the city without needing to worry about any of the complexities of a car. I could hop on the tram, grab dinner downtown, and be back, without ever getting stuck in traffic. It was so much easier and more convenient than anything I’ve ever seen living in the US, and I fully don’t understand the argument against it. No one is stopping you from owning a car! I own a car, and I won’t stop. There are some things I need one for. This movement is about effective public transportation, and there is no reason to be against it except insecurity, and apparently a fragile ego. What’s next, antifascism protestors block your way to work and you start wearing a swastika? Being reactionary accomplishes nothing good for yourself. If you’re that easily manipulated, every false flag will work on you with no questions asked.
The dairy groceries that I picked up on the way back from work had begun to spoil.
+1, everyone goes “I could never go vegan, I’d miss cheese too much”, but you know what I don’t miss at all? The way spoiled milk smells.
Wipe a few drops off the counter? You have to put that rag in the laundry now because tomorrow it is going to REEK.
you should give a trigger warning when you link gore
There is ample warning in the video itself. Clicking on the link does not expose anyone to gore before they are able to decide if they want to see it. I presume you are the one who had the link removed.
NSFW
I can’t have comments removed since I’m not a mod
The worst traffic I ever hit on my bike is when I have to go where cars are. I wonder what the common thread is…
Clearly bikes suck, you should have taken the plane!
People will reflexively reject new and different possibilities when advocates are too radical or aggressive in their approach. That’s why it’s important that we try to win people over using reason and logic, rather than protests. The fact is, cars are an expensive and inefficient means of transporting people and things. That doesn’t mean cars don’t have their use cases. They certainly do, and that’s why I don’t think cars and small trucks will or should go away completely, but in an ideal (ie maximally cost effective and efficient) scenario, cars would represent a relatively small percentage of total conveyance methods.
deleted by creator
So some jerks made a traffic jam and your takeaway is to blame cars?
You know they’d be doing the same to busses/light rail if it gave them the same 15 minutes of fame.
Lame take. Not smart. My uncle got held up by the local gay pride parade and he blamed gay people as a community.
Funny thing is, you can get off of a bus or train and walk past protesting people pretty easily. You wouldn’t be held hostage by the $30,000 toilet that is preventing you from abandoning it and the situation.
Edit: Ehhhh the whole thing is sarcasm and you changed your post’s meaning. I ain’t spending energy to hit a moving target like this. Sheesh.
I think you’re missing both the point of what I said and protest. Pride started out as a riot. No protest, no parade. Maybe you can protest protesters, and one day, there will be a chud pride parade. Dream big.
There are inherently more solutions in place to situations like that with public transit. They’re already in place, too. You just get off the train and hop on a bus. That’s not exactly a novel concept.
deleted by creator
The sarcasm isn’t conveyed well, but it is an attempt to highlight to *checks notes anti-car protesters just how poor their strategy is. For example, I’m probably not the only person to have been moved from a neutral position to a strongly opposing position by their antics.
But maybe their goal was never to sway people to their side, like you say? Maybe it is literally being done exclusively for the thrill of the spotlight. Or they’re actually pro-car activists, who are subtly portraying their opposition deliberately poorly in order to sabotage anti-car sentiment?
Yeah. See, the real 1984 is when a guy in a tweed coat beats you up while saying things like “2 plus 2 is 4” and “5 times 9 is 45” because then you learn to hate correct answers.
