this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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I don't care what reason you think you have, to explain this bullshit behavior. There is no good reason. Even if your government literally refuses to put signals, stop signs, etc, that's still no excuse.

If your civilization can support motor vehicles, then I expect your asses to go out and paint your own lines on the road, make your own signs out of plywood and paint, and then DO YOUR BEST NOT TO ACTUALLY ACTIVELY MURDER EACH OTHER ON THE FUCKING ROAD. If you can't do that, and you all just drive as if you're the only car in the whole country, then I think your country fucking sucks. Period.

America is bad enough with our road safety. Thousands upon thousands are injured and killed on the roads, every year. But, ya know, the vast majority of us do actually STOP AT STOPLIGHTS AND STOPSIGNS, rather than just blasting through, with multiple lanes of cross-traffic just filtering insanely through one another.

When I see footage of that shit, it makes me feel projected embarrassment for your fucking country, whichever one it happens to be. Get your fucking shit together. It's fucking pathetic.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

it makes me feel projected embarrassment for your fucking country

This makes me feel sorry for immaturity.

This comes off as someone who has lived in a modern country and never had to actually exist in one of these countries you look down on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

I fucking KNEW one of the first comments would be like this. I would have bet everything in my house on it, plus my entire right leg.

I just fucking absolutely KNEW someone was going to come at me, like I'm a colonial apologist, merely because I don't want people to get squished by cars.

If your country isn't modern enough to have road safety, then your country isn't modern enough to have fucking cars. Period. There's no cogent, honest argument to be made about that shit, and you fucking know it.

You might have deep and powerful feelings about the concept of cultural relativism. The 1,000-to-100,000 pound metal squishing machines that we call motor vehicles DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THAT CONCEPT, AT ALL. Basic road safety is not optional. Basic road safety is not a matter of culture. It's a necessity. And I won't pretend it's anything less. Neither should anyone else.

Also, like I said in my original post, there is NOTHING about being a non-industrialized, non-wealthy country that obliges people to drive like fucking maniacs. Okay, so you don't have a uniform system of signal lights? NOBODY DID, FOR THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF MOTORING. You don't have great government-provided highway markings? MAKE THEM OUT OF PLYWOOD AND PUT THEM UP, YOURSELF. Or maybe you just don't feel like obeying any sane traffic conventions, because your country's GDP is low? THAT MAKES NO SENSE. WHY THE FUCK WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO SURVIVE? WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL PEOPLE AND ANIMALS, LIKE CRAZY?

You know what I have HUGE respect for, when it comes to people in non-modern countries and their motor vehicle situation? The way they can fix major, catastrophic engine and transmission problems, using bailing wire, twine, hammer handles, chewing gum, and bottlecaps. That automobile MacGyver shit is amazing. But you know what? IF YOU CAN DO THAT SHIT, WAITING YOUR TURN AT THE FUCKING INTERSECTION SHOULD BE A PIECE OF FUCKING CAKE.

Waiting your turn at the intersection, instead of just filtering through traffic is SIMPLE. You can successfully replace a timing belt with a chain of paperclips, but you think turning directly into cross-traffic without slowing down is a good idea? REALLY? Fuck that. It's a choice. A fucking irresponsible choice.

Like I said originally, there is no excuse for point-blank refusing to adopt basic road safety conventions. It's not a cultural thing. It's not an income thing. There is no excuse for it. If your nation is just like "nah, we don't do road safety," it IS perfectly valid for me to judge your whole nation for that shit.

I mean, goddamn, people all over the world call Americans stupid, because we don't want to switch to the metric system. I'm apparently an imbecile, ripe for public judgment and derision, because I still think of the nearest grocery store as 2 miles from my house, rather than 3.21 kilometers from my house. Making that switch won't make me a better driver, won't make me safer, and truly won't make me smarter either...but people will still call me a "dumb 'Murican" straight to my face, for that shit.

Be fair about that shit. If all these countries were able to switch to the metric system, why can't they switch to safely navigating intersections?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Your username is a lie

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

You wrote this post as bait. I decided to bite just to see 3what the response would be.

Which gave you the justification to post this wall of angry bullshit. So, no need to thank me...

Which is what you wanted, but not what you need. (which seems to be anger management therapy)

How much of you mental bank balance do you piss away getting this angry at:

Shit that does not affect you.

Shit that you cannot control or have an effect on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

So what you're saying is, you don't have any way of refuting any of the points I made?

I'll reiterate the most important of those points, one more time:

People in non-Western, underdeveloped countries are capable of fixing a snapped piston rod with a corn-dog stick and a rusty safety pin (which would qualify them as ENGINEERING GENIUSES), but they just can't wrap their head around the notion of waiting their turn at an intersection. They can figure out the firing order and optimal fuel/air ratio of any internal combustion engine, without any documentation...but I'm a jackass for trying to impose the chauvinistic Western concept of yielding to cross-traffic onto their culture.

That's bullshit, and you know it. So you just literally refuse to engage with the argument.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

So what you’re saying is, you don’t have any way of refuting any of the points I made?

No, what I am saying is that I didn't waste my time reading that bullshit.

How much of you mental bank balance do you piss away getting this angry at:

Shit that does not affect you.

Shit that you cannot control or have an effect on.

Or is it the only thing that you have is anger and looking down on others is your way of feeling better about your own life?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

So you're basically mad at me for having empathy? I think it sucks that kindergarten-age children are getting flattened into road-stains, right this minute, even as we speak.

Is that truly a foreign concept, for you? Yes, I care about people I don't know. I think they should stop being mangled in completely, utterly preventable road accidents.

You only seem to care about schoolyard style, street-gang level "respect points." I'm the bad guy, because I'm "dissing" other countries, according to you.

I want them to do better. I'm not prepared to infantilize them. I think people should be judged and shunned, if they engage in deeply irresponsible and destructive behavior. You want to insult non-Western, developing nations much more deeply, by throwing your hands up and saying "hey, we can't expect anything more of them."

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

So much hot air.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago

Oh look at you, still being a total piece of shit!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

american moment

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Downvoting not because it is unpopular - I actually agree with parts of it -, but because it's an incoherent rant fueled by anger against some "undeveloped" country where magically everyone can fix engines with a piece of string. Big "hate the global south" vibes from this one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Not hate. Just an unwillingness to infantilize people.

I'm not going to throw up my hands and say "well, we can't expect anything better from these people."

I'm judging people based on their own faults, as equals. That is an attitude of RESPECT. I'm not willing to say "awww, it's cute that these little brown motherfuckers can even drive. Of course we can't expect them to wait their turn at intersections."

THAT would be fucking hatred. All I'm doing is holding equal, intelligent, capable people to an equal standard. If you drive like a pack of psychos, it's not because you're "primitives" who are somehow incapable of doing any better. If you drive like psychos, it's cause you're choosing to drive like psychos. I think they should do better, and they CAN do better.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago

That's one long ass strawman.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Chill dude.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Oh, the title made me think you were talking about the US.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Might wanna fix your gun laws before moving on to other peoples roads.

DO YOUR BEST NOT TO ACTUALLY ACTIVELY MURDER EACH OTHER.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Oh, for sure. Anyone wants to look down on us for our crazy shit, go right ahead. But don't ever fool yourself into thinking multiple parties can't be in the wrong.

No matter how much dumb shit Person A does, it will never have any power to make Person B's dumb shit into smart shit. That's just a fact.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago