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America's love with cars is founded on fear and selfishness (poptalk.scrubbles.tech)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
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Probably not too unpopular here.

Standing waiting for the bus in my city with decent transit and I have 2 trucks rev their engines loudly past me, another one letting just clouds of pollution, watching people driving who aren't paying attention and several people blowing cutting last second through a light. All in just 3 minutes by a small corner with light traffic.

Made me think how cars are inherently selfish. People don't want to be around others (the fear aspect), so they drive their own bubble around. In addition to that, some go out of their way to make their cars even worse to people outside of them.

No wonder we can't move away from them. They are a definition of our own culture

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[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago

America’s love affair with cars is tied to independence.

A car means you can travel anywhere in the contiguous 48 states — vacation, visit friends and family. It also means you can look for work and get a job in a wider area than relying on just living near work. This means better pay, and access to cheaper housing. A vehicle also helps to haul goods meaning it’s easier to become an independent contractor.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 6 points 6 months ago

Except in most other countries they have access to the same amount of independence, but don't need a car to do the same thing.

[-] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee -2 points 6 months ago

"Most other countries"

Can you name even five?

[-] Factualfiction@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

Not OP but here you go:

  1. Japan
  2. South Korea
  3. Hong Kong
  4. Taiwan
  5. Singapore
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this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
43 points (66.9% liked)

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