cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/23351353
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Fuck Cars
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Isn't anyone else disturbed by the concept of independence being a problem for this person?
I'd like more public transportation in America, but I'm not really interested in anything else they have to say.
The concept of independence can be a problem because it tends to manifest in a "I'm a lone ranger that doesn't need anyone" mentality.
If you're someone who generally just wants to live alone off-grid in a cabin in the woods and interact with people once a year that's fine.
If you're massively dependent on your neighbors and international trade and are in a self-destructive anger spiral about it because the realities of living in society damage your sense of self-worth, which has been tied to the fiction that everyone is an island, it's an issue.
So if you value independence over community and you're an asshole, then that's a problem.
On the other hand, if you value community over independence and you're an asshole: also a problem.
We can extrapolate further and say that if you drink water and are an asshole: also not good. I don't think drinking water is the problem in that case.
I want you to realize for a moment that you are arguing with one sentence in a comic that said of itself "I will not explain what this means right now."
@moakley @grue The "concept of independence being a problem" is a very real one. To quote someone or other who is apparently very famous: "No man is an island." (And to tack on an obscure movie reference: "but some men are peninsulas.")
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@moakley @grue Unless you're living in a forest that's nowhere near another human being, hunting and gathering all of your own food, moving around entirely on foot (or on animals you personally captured and trained), wearing clothing you made from materials you personally gathered from the environment around you, YOU ARE NOT INDEPENDENT. Even the smallest rural settlement has interdependence as a fundamental requirement.
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@moakley @grue Car drivers depend on a whole bunch of things, as noted above. But farmers do too. They rely on people making tools, and in the case of motorized ones, supplying fuel and maintenance for them. They rely on markets to sell the products of their efforts to permit them to exchange with other people for other necessities like clothing or food other than the food they themselves produce. Etc. etc. etc. Everybody depends on everybody else in a society.
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@moakley @grue Those "lone wolf" stories of people who "never rely upon another"? They're just that: stories. And generally pretty bad stories written by thoughtless writers who preach a bad message that doesn't hold up to even a second's examination.
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No, because your premise is incorrect. This person is completely in support of the concept of independence, but simply rejects the notion that car-dependency provides it. Real independence is achieved by removing the dependency on cars.
You didn't read the second line?
I don't see how anyone could interpret that as anything other than a blanket statement about independence.
I searched up the artist to find more evidence and saw that I wasn't the only one who thought that, because they posted a follow-up attempting to clarify that specific line. The clarification just reiterates the point of the original comic and doesn't try to explain why that phrasing was used or what it could have meant.
So maybe they just phrased it poorly, but I'm not the only one who took issue with it.
Acknowledging that a concept is complicated is different from being opposed to it. You deciding to interpret the statement the latter way instead of the former is your own problem, not theirs.
They literally say:
(Emphasis mine). They are not just saying, "it's complicated." They literally use the word "issues."
Yeah. And "issues" means "issues," which is not the same as "bad."
"Issues" in this context means "problems", and problems are bad.
Yeah, and check this out!
They want to "strive" for "issues"? We know what they think independence is. Why do they want to destroy society??
How is claiming that independence is a complicated, nuanced concept problematic?
It sounds like you are interpreting it as if they are saying it doesn't exist or something similar which is not at all what they said.