Posted on 08/05/2020 5:21:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
We have watched our society slide into a disturbing trend of permissiveness when it comes to assaulting and removing aspects of our culture. Between evictions of historical monuments, the eradicating of entertainment properties and the condemning of commonplace practices, we have almost become conditioned to accepting these efforts. Now we may be seeing the effects of this movement metastasizing.
The Wall Street Journal delivered a lengthy treatise that looks at a normal aspect of American life, one that almost nobody looks at as being a nefarious component in our existence, with contempt: driving pickup trucks. Using "almost" is the qualifier here, as we have come to learn that the learned elites are capable of looking at the most mundane characteristics of society and sneering. In a display of abject elitism, writer Dan Neil has managed to take an isolated personal experience and elevate his near-trauma to a need for bans on the venal vehicles.
It turns out Dan was in a Costco parking lot and had a close call with a GMC Denali. To suggest he was affected by an event that a large swath of America has probably experienced is an understatement:
"As that chrome grille closed on me like a man-eating Norelco shaver, time slowed. It seemed I was watching myself from afar, being nimble for a man my age, darting from the path of a towering, limousine-black pickup with temporary plates, whose driver barely checked his pace."
Yeah, we can say he was affected:
"It was huge! The domed hood was at forehead level. The paramedics would have had to extract me from the grille with a spray hose, like Randall Jarrell’s ball-turret gunner."
Mr. Neil then goes on to list a number of safety features that these trucks could be outfitted with to ensure the safety of others, and he tips his elitist hand by employing the tired argument involving the supposedly more-evolved souls on the continent: "such systems are not mandatory, as they would be in Europe." Yes, we need to follow the guidance of those who are outlawing butter knives and look askance at pedophilia scandals for fear of being labeled as intolerant.
What we have here is the familiar practice of leftist elites who encounter an inconvenience in their personal life and immediately conjure up a way for the government to remedy their discomfort. This was the mentality of a San Francisco Board of Supervisors member who tired of his young child pestering him for Happy Meals to get the toys. Rather than be a parent he decided to pass a law forbidding the restaurant chain from giving away free toys. Now we have a grown man who saw a scary truck and thus wants to impose European neutering standards in order for him to feel protected.
Dan Neil of course found an ally in academia. Well ... sort of. He cited as a fellow pickup truck opponent an associate professor of design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. You have to wonder just how many phone calls had to be placed before getting someone this far-flung to latch onto his paranoia. But hey, now he can back up his impotent argument by stating that anyone who opposes his efforts are not among the educated set, and they probably hate science too.
Then, sensing a true movement among the elitist minds, Ryan Cooper over at The Week decided to take up the pitchfork and torch and join in on the flatbed fussilade, and of course, he had to take things a step further. Not content to merely lobby for EU truck standards, he went so far as to "expose" what pickup trucks are designed for in reality: running people over.
sales of mega-pickups, which have basically been deliberately designed to intimidate and kill pedestrians, are booming https://t.co/RpCLHH3PCE— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) August 3, 2020
Pick up trucks are the ideal road weapon to run these vermin over and crush them!
Oh, my! An ASSAULT TRUCK!
This makes me want to get one.....complete with a rifle rack, some truck nuts and a big beautiful confederate flag flapping gloriously in the breeze as I drive by him. I think he and his fellow marxists would get a severe case of the vapors and retreat to their fainting couches.
Yes, they realize the truck is like a horse in ancient battle. Hmm...
Having recently moved, I’m willing to make the controversial observation that pickups are made to haul things. They are really good for that. Plus, banning or raising the cost of these vehicles would have a disparate impact on the latinx community. Do they drive anything else?
Around here they drive Suburbans, Escaldes and luxury mini-vans.
I took delivery last week of THREE Ford F150 pickup trucks for a project at work.
Three killing machines.
I’ve never had a full size pickup before but for the last 18 months I’ve had a F150 as my company vehicle. I’ve put over 50,000 miles on it already.
When the lease runs out I’m thinking of buying it.
Black pickup truck is the worst seeing it is like a liberally classified assault weapon no matter what the gun which is black in color and scary or seeing its being supposedly used as a weapon and is black in color could be racist. White pickups are for white supremacists
I guess the word “Pickup” will soon be banned because, well, you know, the word kinda reflects ...
Guess he wouldn’t fit in well in East Texas. Poor baby.
Girls drive pick ups also. My neighbor’s girlfriend drives a 1 ton diesel dually.
If you live in the sticks a pickup is almost a necessity.
What about those diesel versions that can belch out thick, coal like smoke at will? How about in all black with CO2 laden black smoke? Bwahahaha!
This guy must be a midget.
I would estimate that 60% of the homes in our county of 600,000 have at least one truck.
Too bad they dont have dog scramblers for pickup trucks unless you run Budd wheels.
Anyone else remembering how Rush used to mock the way the “news” would report the misdeeds of SUVs as if the vehicles were responsible?
Was it an AUTOMATIC?....................
My neighborhood is chock full of pick ups. And they are driven by FEDGOV employees. Ha!
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