• mapiki@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Cars are not technically necessary. But we regulate them heavily - through licensing, safety tests, and policing. And your license can be pulled or suspended so that you cannot drive.

      Why? Because they are deadly. Just because something isn’t created to kill (say… To protect your family? To get you to your job?) doesn’t mean it can’t kill.

      Sadly, we live in a country where freedom and rights are valued more than community and respect.

      But as the welcome to nightvale NRA says: “Guns don’t kill people. We’re all invincible and it’s a miracle.” (Podcast.)

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      And any dumbass who tries to equate the two to justify mass firearm proliferation, just tell them to defend their homes with cars and knives just the same.

      Then they’ll raise their hands and go, “whoa whoa, hey now…”

    • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I mean, a part of me would sooner say “yes, they are both needlessly dangerous and costly to society, which is why a society structured around needing and allowing either mass guns or cars is stupid.”

        • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          The US has more car deaths than anywhere else in the world, by far. Like guns, it’s a real “This is not preventable, says only country where this happens” vibe.

          Some cars will always be necessary. The crazy delusional obsession with car dependence that happens literally nowhere else in the world is not necessary.

            • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              Very similar to a gun advocate. It’s what you’re used to and you’ve already made up your mind, actual arguments or evidence be damned.

                • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Based on what? I’ve given actual arguments and you haven’t. What a bad faith response.

                  My claim is modest: there are easily preventable harms to both widespread use of guns and cars, evidenced by the fact that the US is a HUGE outlier in both.

                  • mapiki@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Agreed.

                    If anyone wants to further argue, note the issue is that we’ve built a country where cars are necessary. (And yet not so necessary that someone’s license can’t be suspended!) However, there is no reason why this can’t be changed. Saying it can’t is limiting our future to also think cars are necessary. They aren’t. They are useful in many places. But you could do without them if as a society we decided to do that. Dream bigger everyone! Have a world where you DON’T need to sit in traffic every day. Where you DON’T wait at red light after red light. Where you DON’T need to be a designated driver for your friends. Where you DON’T fear the day your vision gets so bad you lose your independence. Where you DON’T need to spend hundreds on insurance and car purchases and parking tickets and everything else. If we don’t dream it, we can’t ask for it. And if we don’t ask for it, what we have now will be what we’re stuck with.

                    (And if you want to have a car and have fun - sure! But then it’ll be extra fun when it’s not a requirement and fewer cars are on the road!)