this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

I'm gonna leave this up because people are commenting on it, but IMO it's borderline off-topic. This is an article about political corruption in Federal procurement, and only incidentally mentions cars because they happen to be the item being procured. Try to stick a little closer to "problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all" next time.

Edit: I just noticed that the person who posted this is the other mod, LOL. I guess we should have a chat to make sure we're on the same page re: rule 4.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I dunno, there isn't much more "fuck cars" than this particular "fuck these cars". Thanks for leaving it up either way.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

there isn’t much more “fuck cars” than this particular “fuck these cars”.

On the contrary, I believe that in a lot of cases (not necessarily this case, but others) trying to single out particular kinds of cars to oppose is a divide-and-conquer tactic by car-apologists. If they get us frothing about 'swastikars' (or, more often, 'bro-dozers') in particular, they distract us from e.g. the fact that all cars, even down to the humblest hatchback economy car, take up the same amount of space (1 parking space each) and thus contribute equally to things like driving demand for subsidized parking and wrecking walkability. I see the fuck cars movement as being about the detrimental effect car dependency has on urbanism, climate change, public health, etc. in a macro sense, not hate for cars as individual devices.

In other words, I think "particular 'fuck these cars'" is 100% missing the point of "fuck cars."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hope this isn't one of those instances where I 90% agree with you, but you're gonna be angry with me over the 10% difference.

Aren't parking spaces smaller in Europe than the US? There is value is having smaller cars.

To go farther into the 10%, there's a lot of rural America that needs cars. It's not practical to lay track literally everywhere. And Park n' Rides are much, much more tolerable if the demand and use for them is much smaller. I don't expect places like nowhere Ohio to give up their cars. I just want all towns to be more walkable, and I want the biggest transformation to be in the cities.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Aren’t parking spaces smaller in Europe than the US? There is value is having smaller cars.

Maybe, but if so, it's only a marginal difference. First of all, keep in mind that you have to design spaces for the biggest cars (or at least the 90th percentile or something, excluding outliers), not the average. Second and more importantly, the big win for urbanism isn't shaving a foot off the width of a space; it's having fewer spaces to begin with. It's also an issue of the proportion of people doing trips in cars vs. other modes, and things like that. If you're building with the expectation that everybody is entitled to free and abundant parking at their destination, you're going to destroy walkability regardless of whether they show up in Smart Cars or Suburbans.

To go farther into the 10%...

100% agreed with the whole paragraph. And that's another reason why I think dog-piling about pickup trucks and other specific automobile makes/models/styles is unhelpful: it often gives ammunition for those special-snowflake types who really do need that kind of vehicle an excuse to claim their exception disproves the rule and dismiss us all as irrational truck-hating reactionaries instead of urbanists with legitimate concerns.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I want to offer that cars have always involved government corruption. The invention of jaywalking, the corrupt development of the highways for "national security" while simultaneously hampering development of real public transit, the wars started for fuel, the extrajudicial killings of people threatening the fossil fuel industry with electric cars (historically), political corruption is the life blood of cars.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Its deeper than that, too. The nazis tried to ban bicycles in the netherlands going as far as confiscating them to melt them down.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The superior yield for corruption in the procurement of fleets of cars for a State seems like a Fuck Cars issue to me.

I mean, I can see how there could be corruption in the procurement of State Bicycles or State Employee Walking Shoes, but the values involved would be way lower.

And this is without going into the whole point made by somebody else that Governments having and using fleets of cars (especially State officials) incentivises them to have pro-car policies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

You can try to pretend that this has nothing to do with car dependency. But try to imagine this story happening with bicycles. The state completely supports the car con. We wouldn't be in this situation otherwise. This story is an excellent and important example.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Car dependency is an issue and a major one in the US, but this is almost completely separate. It's all about the blatant corruption of the president's leashholder's company getting a sweet contract that's actually trash for the government because Cybertrucks just plain suck even if you love cars.

The president literally put Musk in charge of reducing government spending.. And then while people are getting laid off left and right, his company is getting a 400M contract for something it hasn't even made to any real scale, whereas plenty of other companies have: armored cars.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Weigh down a vehicle who's performance harshly degrades as weight is added, and put it on the battlefield when those batteries have a habit of catching fire.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The State Department handles diplomacy. I would expect that the intention is for US diplomats (however many are left after all this) to drive around in these things. I'm sure that will help convince other countries that the US is not at all stupidly corrupt.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup. Guarantee Musk gets Trump to replace The Beast with an armored Tesla.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Which then spontaneously combusts killing Trump, but luckily just before that Trump passes an executive order naming Musk his successor.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

If only they heeded your warning, FireRetardant.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Too bad those cars are illegal in Europe.

So how are they going to do diplomacy over here?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Diplomats are exempt from most rules that apply to citizens.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'm just hoping they don't have to tow anything....

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I do!

The sooner it is a shit show the sooner I get to laugh about it.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Who could have possibly foreseen this level of corruption happening?

I mean, other than anyone with 2 or more brain cells to rub together.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I mean, I expected corruption. I didn't expect this level of corruption.

On the bright side, that 400m might not be worth much after they're done with the economy. Wait... fuck.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

In the future that would be the price of apartment rent per month.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

That was naive of you.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Even my orange tabby cat could see it coming.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There has always been lots of Corruption in the US (IMHO), but now there is also a feeling of impunity and no shame, so both more Corruption and it being done in more visible ways.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Another handout for Musk. Not to mention all the repairs those pieces of trash will need.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 month ago

Oh, so kids don't deserve an education but we need to blow money on obviously defective bullshit from the de facto president's company.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago

That screenshot is fantastic. It captures multiple broken promises at once. The unbreakable windows work great and the starting price miraculously doubled.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is it. Welcome to all-out, blatant oligarchy. Ready to donate your last food stamps so the State Department goons get to wear brand new swastika shirts?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Carl’s Jr. — Fuck you, I’m eating.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago

Oh jeez, just shove it into your face in front of everyone why don't ya.

Fucking corrupt bastards.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Woah, hold up. I thought the government said All EVs are bad and we should stick to gas. Now Tesla EVs are okay? Oh, the hypocrisy! /s

I hate this timeline.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So we can't have a consumer protection agency but we can spend half a billion on shitty cars

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

1 Billion stolen from the department of education.

half a billion in food/aid they refused to deliver that went bad.

half a billion to this fuck's pocket.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Now that's peak government efficiency. Directly in his pockets.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

The silver lining is that the deathtraps will end up killing cops

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

So that's why they were cutting the budget. It's so they could afford all these new cars.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

Wow, what a stunning coincidence! The State Department, those champions of transparency and accountability, just happen to have an arms deal for $400 million worth of 'armored' Teslas from none other than Elon Musk. How convenient for the billionaire entrepreneur who's been quietly gutting government agencies left and right. It's not like he has a vested interest in lining his pockets with taxpayer dollars or anything.

Meanwhile, our so-called leaders are too busy patting themselves on the back for their 'fiscal responsibility' to notice the glaring favoritism at play here. The Cybertruck, that tech-savvy publicity stunt gone wrong, just happens to tick all the boxes for the feds' needs. It's like it was designed specifically with their corrupt wallets in mind.

Let's be real folks, this 'gift' from Elon Musk is nothing more than a cash injection into his already overflowing bank account. The State Department's official story is a thinly veiled attempt to whitewash the deal as some sort of public service. But we're not buying it (pun intended). This is just another example of crony capitalism and corruption in action.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Quid pro quo

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Please use one of these vehicles as the presidential limo

We can get a very funny timeline 🤭

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Where the panels fall off from looking at it, the accelerator gets stuck down, and it spontaneously bursts into flames?

Yeah I agree. 😂

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Is this a bailout?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

May every single one explode with a high ranking official inside.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@toaster lol. Got warehouses full of steel tanks? Checkout this one weird trick to make it through the next quarterly report.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Would be a shame if they all happen to spontaneously combust at once. It'd be some pretty fireworks at least!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Great … tanks that blow themselves up.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Now this is the corruption that we thought we would be getting not the dumb shit with the Treasury dept

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I wonder if they can survive metal balls :3

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