We're all in on the culture war now
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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As someone who drives a car in the UK, I'd like to point out that this is a load of old bollocks designed to drum up votes from Boomers ahead of what's looking to be an absolute embarrassment of an election for the Tories in the next year or so.
Almost none of these promises have any actual substance to them, and are largely just meaningless slogans designed to rile up the Boomers* who have spent their lives being taught that public transport and bikes are what poor lefties do.
If Labour have been quiet on these issues, it's because they know that their best election strategy at this point is to just let the Tories flap on, doling out enough rope with which to hang themselves.
*not all Boomers, obviously, but they really are the majority of Tory voters
Well I'm not a UK driver but all of those ideas sound good to me, because cars give people freedom to go wherever they want and help the economy keep going. Tons of people don't have access to public transit and they do have cars, and they need them to get to work and the rest of the places they go to live their lives.
Sure, build more public transit to help out too, and create incentives for pollution reduction and all that. But if you want the regular people on your side you will have to stop trying to take their freedom to drive away.
Just move to America if you want unsafe roads for bikers and parking lot after parking lot.
I'm already here and it is wonderful
Brother our infrastructure is why our kids are all weak and obese and all of ours cities are unlivable.
Well I don't have any of those problems, I live in a small town and life is great here. Cost of living is low, crime is low, and the air is fresh.
Nothing much I can do about the rest of the country's problems. I vote against the Trumptards each November.
So, to paraphrase, โI got mine, so fuck youโ?
"It doesn't affect me therefore it's not a problem and nothing should be done. Doing things might inconvenience me in some way."
What a shitty attitude, but you vote so good for you have a sticker. (/s in case you're as dumb as I assume)
Americans like you are why things are so shitty in the first place and why we're an international embarrassment.
Do better.
Let me tell you how "dumb" I am so you can gloat over it some more, you bright shining ray of sunshine. I'm so dumb that I have 2 college degrees, a great career doing high-tech stuff for lots of money, and I own my own house and land where I have an offgrid solar panel system and a sweet garden.
I'm so dumb that my life is great and you made me so sad about it.
Thank you for demonstrating my point.
Boy oh boy are you in the wrong community...
I don't care, I'm just scrolling the Lemmy World feed for entertainment and this one came up. Now you get to hear my "boomer" thoughts on the matter haha.
I mean, all power to you for having your opinions, and what you say about public transport is absolutely correct.
But here's the thing; no one is taking people's "freedom to drive" anywhere. At the very, very worst, some councils are making it more expensive to drive within their jurisdiction, because they want to insert a moment of friction to make people wonder whether the car journey they "have" to take could be taken with public transport instead. I drive places (much less than I used to), and I see that as a Good Thing. We had the same grumbles back when Ken Livingston's council introduced the original scheme 20 years ago, but people very quickly adapted and got over it.
As for the 20mph zones; they just make sense in built up areas. As I said elsewhere in this thread, I live in an area that has 30mph limits in residential areas, but I've taken to traveling at 20mph anyway, because there are kids who live near me who have a tendency to run around without paying enough attention. Sure, I'd be legally in the clear if I hit one at 30 and seriously injured them, but that wouldn't help my conscience one bit.
Same here
You're a very typical US citizen that has bought into the "mah free dumbs" lie. There are 8 billion people on the planet and regulations are about those people (or some subset thereof) having a way to get along without buggering up someone else's freedom. It's all very well driving a car, but the asthma you cause in someone else necessitate regulation for many other people's freedom. USA is one of the very few places on the planet that has Jay walking laws, because most countries recognise people's freedom to walk in the street, ffs, it's not rocket science, it's a very basic freedom.
Nope, I'm far from typical. I'm a well educated successful American with a Zen-like level of contentment. I have the true freedom to do whatever I want in the USA, whether you believe it or not.
Oh dear god, that's sad. You are the definition of typical. I've spent years working and travelling in the US, and you speak exactly like virtually everyone else over there. My dear friend, you don't have control over anything. You don't even have control over your own bowels, they will drive you to obey them. Everyone thinks they are free and in control, and you, like everyone else, control virtual nothing in your life. This is not some great conspiracy, its just the law of nature. So enjoy your free dumb, you poor fool, but try very hard not to fuck up someone else's freedom in the process ๐ or accept that there is no such thing and go with the flow instead. You are soo American, it would be funny it it wasn't so sad. Sorry.
Well everything you just wrote is absolutely wrong. Why don't you go ahead and list anything that you think I don't have the freedom to do? Put some substance into your hyperbole for a change.
I tell you what, I'll go one better, that I hope illustrates my point. I told this to every American I ever met and, so far, only 1 learnt from it.
It's OK to be hungry.
You have the "freedom to eat whenever you want, whereveryou want it", but you can eat so much that you die. You can eat as little as you like, so little that you also die. Your freedom you eat whatever you want, whenever you want is an illusion, driven by outrageous commercialism.
You do not have the freedom to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. You think you do.
Edited for autocorrect, I don't even have the freedom to type ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
Way to dodge the question with a philosophical yarn. You probably just don't have a real answer.
Everybody knows about the vices of excess consumption. That is not a useful metaphor relevant to individual freedom. Living a free life doing what you want does not require or even imply consuming an excess of anything.