Passive-aggressiveness is generally disliked because of the mewly nature of the thing. Rather than come forth with a direct demand, the passive-aggressive person makes their demands known via indirect action or sulkiness. A kind of wheedling needling to get you to do what they want just to get them to shut up.
New cars are like that now.
They all come standard with passive-aggressive “technology” – to make it sound sophisticated and even empowering – such as Lane Keep Assist. The insulting premise being that everyone (remember, the “technology” has become standard) needs assistance keeping the car within it travel lane. In which case – if it is true – the person behind the wheel is arguably either incompetent or negligent and if so that begs the question: Why are such people allowed to drive? What will they do when the assistance isn’t “available”? As when the “technology” isn’t working – perhaps because the cameras cannot see the painted lines delineating the travel lane?
Perhaps because the painted lines aren’t there?
Either a driver is competent to drive – and keeping the car within its travel lane unaided is a very basic competence – or he is not. No one is allowed to fly and airplane who has not demonstrated competence to fly the airplane without the assistance of “technology.” Why should driving a car be held to a much lower standard of competence? There are only a few thousand pilots. There are millions of drivers.
But that is not the point of this column. The point I wanted to make is that this “assistance” – as it is styled – is really more in the way of training. Allow me (per Jules in Pulp Fiction) to elucidate:
Lane Keep “assists” by countersteering against the direction you’re trying to trying to steer the car – as for example when you’re trying to change lanes – if you do not signal the lane change before you begin to change lanes. The idea here being to passively aggressively train you to always use your turn signal. You know – like a good little boy or girl who always follows the rules.
This brings up the ought-to-be-obvious question, assuming you’ve grown up to be a man or a woman and are no longer a little boy or girl in need of schooling: Why is it obligatory to always abide by the rules? Are there not instances when it makes no sense to obey them because there is no reason to obey them – beyond for the sake of obeying them? And is it a good thing for grown-up to always obey the rules -just because – as if they were little children?
As if they were mindless and had no capacity or maturity to exercise judgment, according to the circumstances at hand?
One ought to signal when other traffic is nearby – for the same reason one ought to come to a complete stop at a Stop sign when there is other traffic present. But it is mindless to come to a complete stop at a Stop sign when it is clear there is no reason to do so – other than the presence of the sign. And – of course – the fear of being hassled and mulcted by a cop hiding behind a bush just waiting to correct you for not being a mindless sign-obeyer.
Similarly, it is absurd to signal when there is no reason to.
But the exercise of reason is the very last thing that is wanted by the control freaks who came up with such passive-aggressive “technology” as Lane Keep Assist. They want rote, reflexive – i.e., mindless – rule-following and the “technology” is their tool to train people to be just that. The system makes it both annoying as well as unsafe to change lanes without signaling first because if you make the attempt, the steering fights you. Instead of a smooth movement from the left to the right lane, a jerky one back toward the right – caused by the system trying to force the car to stay in the lane you’re attempting to leave. This is done by the electric motor that is used to power the steering in most late-model (and almost all new model) vehicles.
The driver must then exert contrary force sufficient to over-ride the “assistance.”
It is very much like having the front seat passenger grab the wheel and fight you for control of the vehicle.
It is inevitable there will be accidents arising as a result of this. They will of course be blamed on the driver who didn’t signal before attempting to change lanes. Just the same as drivers who are following a car equipped with Automated Braking “technology” that slams on the brakes for no good reason – i.e., one having to do with traffic slowing down or something along those lines – and ends up rear-ending that car will be blamed for the accident.
Not the “technology” that caused it.
Of course, one can avoid the “assistance” of Lane Keep “technology” by just signaling. Just the same as one could enter a grocery store during the late Mass Panic by “masking.” The fact that both practices are servile and idiotic is just the point. You are expected to be servile – and accept being treated as a presumptive idiot.
. . .
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Former Texas governor Clayton Williams comparing bad weather to rape: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”
Happy New Year, my fellow reprobates…..
We are destined to live in interesting times, but we can all refuse to let the bastards grind us down. Here’s to another year of adventure from which we, being aware of the BS, will probably emerge triumphant. To you all, I wish health, freedom, happiness and embrace of clear thinking and the self-reward of inspired hard work.
Peace out,
Giuseppe
The nanny technology is why I don’t want a car newer than 2017 for most models. It would have to be a few years older with Toyotas because of the push start ignition. There are some new vehicles I really like, but I would not be willing to put up with the electronic minder.
Freedom starts in Texas six hours from now:
‘Most Texas drivers will no longer be required to have their cars pass an annual safety exam after state lawmakers removed the rule from the Texas code.
‘Texas is one of 15 states that mandated annual inspections for noncommercial cars. That will change on Jan. 1 because the Texas Legislature approved House Bill 3297, which eliminates most vehicle safety inspections.
‘The Legislature repealed provisions in state law that mandate annual vehicle inspections. However, the $7.50 fee remains intact under a new name: the inspection program replacement fee.’
https://tinyurl.com/wknx2az3
The ‘inspection program replacement fee’ — LOL!
Translation: ‘We aren’t rendering a mandatory ‘service’ anymore. But we still need your money. So cough it up, bitch.’
FWIW,
I used to live in Texas….the inspections were a joke and the enforcement was deferential in any case….but though the statewide inspection is no longer in effect, seventeen localities still have local requirements…..IIRC, it’s the same in Virginia…..luckily in TN, we have no such requirements (though some places like Memphis etc. levy a wheel tax on top of the tag fee).
WRT nagging cars…..the market has an answer…don’t buy what you don’t like…..takes a while but Euro car companies are dying on the vine due to ignoring market demand…..in the grand scheme of things, companies that bow to coercive force rather than market desires always go out of business….especially when governments collapse like all of the western ones are doing right now.
Government …brandon’s…stock market training…BTFD….
Support the slave owner’s Blackrock, Vanguard and State street….
Last day of the year…red right now…look at the charts of the indices….getting real close to taking out support…buying puts is looking very tempting right now…quick short term profit….
2025 should be interesting…..
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
The Japanese Yen…way down…this supports the carry trade….
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintained its key short-term interest rate at around 0.25% during its final meeting of the year
Borrow Yen at very low rates….then buy the SP500…a real money maker….
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
2024…worst end of year since 1966….
https://www.zerohedge.com/market-recaps/bullion-bitcoin-big-tech-best-bonds-battered-stagflationary-2024
And….the start to 2025…not looking good…..
The beginning of the year gives you an indication of what the rest of the year will look like…..they better start propping it up soon….or….do they want it to crash on the new guy’s head?
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
2024…….Government …brandon’s…stock market training…BTFD….
Support the slave owner’s Blackrock, Vanguard and State street….
Last day of the year…red right now…look at the charts of the indices….getting real close to taking out support…buying puts is looking very tempting right now…quick short term profit….
2025 should be interesting…..
Taking a rental Volvo through construction in Norfolk was an adventure in WTF? Car was freaking out at me and (I’m convinced) trying to punish me for making it uncomfortable.
Yuck.
My daughter’s Outback hates it when I won’t buckle up. The other night I was simply moving the damn thing and the chime just keep getting more and more strident.
I don’t think I’m cut out for this brave new world.
Regardless, Happy New Year, y’all!
Hi Yeti,
You may want to try a 1996 Ford F150. It beeps at me once when I turn on the car. After that it leaves me alone. My 2014 Toyota nags at me a couple times, but it is like a crying baby…after a while it just gives up and goes to sleep.
lol – older cars always more fun see friendly.
1992 Mazda truck – light only
1997 Toyota Camry – 1 chime then light stays on.
2008 Jeep wrangler – chimes instantly up to a speed threshold then light only. If your speed drops below the speed threshold the chiming sequence starts all over again.
2012 BMW X5. Will chime nonstop for ever and cluster messages. Sometimes even goes off after dropping off a passenger and the seat sensor doesn’t fully register there is no one in the seat anymore. Pounds seat with fist. Light goes off – LOL. Sure I could just plug in the passenger seatbelt but it’s way more satisfying to give a barrage of punches.
Behold the progression of government mandated safety Nannie’s over the decades and the degree to which the buying public has accepted this collaboration between OEMs and the Government.
Haha!
My 2018 F-150 does a similar thing, My 2012 Audi shuts the fuck up quickly and the 2015 Passat is the same as your Toyota lol.
Have a great day!
There are ways to defeat the seat belt chimes. I know ya can with Stellantis, and yes even Subaru. Look it up on YT, pretty easy.
“The government is only putting the tip of it in. You can hardly feel it”
😀 Comment of the month!
Why should I pay extra for a car that argues with me?
Besides hindering your ability to swerve rapidly around a kid or dog that runs into the path of your car it’s counterproductive to signal to change lanes on a busy highway. Doing so will alert the clover in the next lane so he can speed up and block you in, best practice around here is to scoot into an opening before anyone can react.
I’m no fan of these ADAS systems but the amount of fear and misinformation being discussed here is crazy.
“Besides hindering your ability to swerve rapidly around a kid or dog that runs into the path of your car. “
It’s clear that a lot of commenters have never driven these systems nor have they driven them in accident avoidance situations .
These ADAS lane keeping systems only exert a small torque on the steering wheel. Typically about 4Nm (~3 lb-ft). This is nothing that isn’t easily overcome and will not “hinder” anyone’s ability to steer. Even a geriatric grandmother can be easily overcome 4 Nm of resistance.
Many newer lane keeping systems also are over ridden by high steering wheel angle rates. Meaning if you make a rapid steering wheel movement (like an emergency turn), the lane keeping systems will have been deactivated completely. Not that you would even notice – because in an emergency, the steering wheel angle rate of change and drivers steering input torque are so high the 4Nm feedback wouldn’t even be felt.
I personally refuse to own a vehicle with these sorts of ADAS features but we only hurt our own credibility by saying that systems like lane keeping assist will prevent the driver from avoiding an obstacle in an emergency situation.
Mike in Boston – please forgive me for using your comment as the example of a general theme that is occurring in the comments.
I have worked on one OEMs systems and it was part of the reason I ended my career in automotive. I refuse to work on these systems knowing what rhe end game is which is full autonomy and the vehicle kill switch and associated safe harbor strategy to move the car off the road and then shut it down.
Burn it Down,
Sorry, but ANY interference in a dire driving event can have catastrophic consequences.
You completely missed the point. Have you actually driven lane keeping? Have you driven it during an evasive maneuver?
I have day in and day out.
The engineering facts and testing don’t bear out your comment.
Can concur. We just leased a Subaru Forester. The lane assist is negligible to non existent. In fact, on a recent road trip to Havasu I took evasive action to avoid a donkey in the middle of the road and the car didn’t interfere in the least.
Have rented dodges and fords over the last couple years where it was downright obnoxious to switch lanes without signaling. Another failure of the big three. More worried about brown nosing daddy-govco than giving customers a decent product. Once again, the Japs just do the minimum to avoid penalties, while American automakers lap up the safteyism like a bunch of feral kittens.
The government is only putting the tip of it in. You can hardly feel it.
Pretty soon, it’s a full on fuckfest. Pardon the vulgarity, but sometimes it helps get the point across.
It’s always incremental. Every time. That you can overpower the control for now is irrelevant. Soon, you won’t be able to because you accepted the premise.
Except, an f’fest requires joint participation from both parties. It is quick, but enjoyable. Nothing Uncle Sam does is pleasurable.
Exactly my point Philo.
But the reality is the engineering and the law is already way ahead of the point of bitching about lane keep assist.
The reality is the slaves have already voted and the kill switch is a non-issue. They will cheer for it under the guise of helping control drunk driving. They will cheer for its ability to control distracted driving. They will cheer for its ability to get a person experiencing a medical emergency behind the wheel safely to the side of the road and to alert first responders.
The whole time it will never dawn on them that at any moment – their freedom of movement from place to place can be curtailed.
I’m just very frustrated, that we are debating the merits of old technology like lane keeping assist while everyone is ignores the elephant in the room.
Second that as best comment of the month so far!
Wen you think about it, this kind of overreach isn’t really surprising. Its what you get in a country of control freaks that cant mind their own business. The whole world has to be be just like us, and conform to our ideals of muhfreedumb, or else.
We should probably just accept the servitude and learn to love it. After all, many of us just voted for more of it.
Ain’t that the truth. Voting for the lesser evil. Good Lord.
We should probably just accept the servitude and learn to love it. After all, many of us just voted for more of it.
This is the hilarious thing – Mericans’ have allowed the government so much overreach into all aspects of their life. Often voting gleefully for their own subjugation along the way.
And now they want to bitch about how lane keeping assist “feels” and making up crazy scenarios where the car is going to prevent them from avoiding an accident.
The reality is that the automotive kill switch has already been legislated into existence and no one did a damn thing about it. But here we are bitching about a feature like lane keeping assist that is over a decade old. Wake up people!
Time to go have some alcohol on my Cheerios to calm down! Sheesh!!
You are right, BID. We had an obligation to fight the ADAS features, augmented reality dashboards, multiple cameras, microphones, etc. a decade ago. It is harder now, but not impossible. We need to stop buying new cars. Unfortunately, we don’t have the power (aka campaign donations) to convince our “representatives” the nightmare scenarios where the auto overrides the driver, but we do have the ability to boycott these vehicles. Let them sit on the lots. Maybe, when Ford, GM, and Toyota are trying to find spaces for the incoming 2025 fleet, but “new” 2023 and 2024 cars are still taking up space…someone, somewhere will wake up. The 1998 Volvo S70 is looking mighty pretty right about now.
“Let them sit on the lots.”
Exactly RG. But the issue is most Mericans are so addicted to having the newest, latest, greatest, crap that they are unwilling (thus far) to boycott new cars.
There are some encouraging signs that it’s beginning to happen with EVs.
There is also some slowdown in the market due to a bad economy and rising interest rates.
However, outside this forum it have yet to see personally observe any friend or relative curb their new car buying due to the presence of ADAS technology. Most enthusiastically embrace it and think I’m a conspiracy theorist when I tell them about what is coming down the pipe.
Never mind that I worked on these features within the industry 60 hours per week, they think they know more than me cause CNN told them how great these features are and how these are “safety features” that will ensure their hellspawn will make it to adulthood.
The The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when people with limited knowledge or competence in a specific area overestimate their abilities.
The Dunning-Kruger effect dominates American life. Particularly with respect to what the general public thinks they know about the auto industry.
I guess the decision is don’t buy a technology-laden car, they’re not worth the powder to blow them to hell.
Who wants a car that tells you how to drive? Have to jump through hoops just to get the engine to start. Maybe even have to water ski out on the ocean and jump a shark or two.
I’m not as dumb as I look. Yeah, you are.
I was driving 30 miles to town from the farm when I was 15 years old.
Car companies have gone insane.
Who do you think that you are?
To be jivin’ me like that
Who do you think that you are? – Guy Clark, Who Do You Think You are
[Car companies have gone insane.] Drumpish
We’ve all went collectively insane. Chopping a young boys ding a ling off , double mastectomy’s of young girls, boys/men in girls restrooms, boys/men competing against girls, same sex marriages, men in women’s prisons and vice versa. These are not the signs of a mature well cultured nation.
“Allow me (per Jules in Pulp Fiction) to elucidate:”
Thanks. I read the rest of the article in his voice.
Thing is all these “vision systems” can already detect other vehicles. So why don’t they? It’s just a few more lines of code.
Turn signals are a form of communication. Communication requires a transmitter and a receiver. If a turn signal is activated and no one is around to see it, is it really blinking? If there aren’t any receivers then what, exactly, is the turn signal?
Thing is all these “vision systems” can already detect other vehicles. So why don’t they? It’s just a few more lines of code.
Nonsense.
Spend some time learning about ADAS. There are many variants. Camera only. Radar only. Camera + radar fusion. Processor as well as sensing capability varies greatly between OEM as well as within the OEM’s own feature portfolio depending on trim level.
There is a HUGE difference between something like Tesla Autopilot and Nissan Lane Keep Assist to just pick an example at random.
Dave Bowman was had the knowledge and access to disable HAL. We have no such luxury. Instead shouldn’t the automated nanny follow Asimov’s three laws?
While I usually signal when changing lanes I’ve never signaled when swerving for road kill, potholes and debris. Does this now make me a bad driver?
Luckily my antique cars give me the benefit of the doubt and I’m OK with that.
Self driving cars and green technology…both don’t work….
‘Green’ Scottish Ferry Emits Far More CO2 Than Old Diesel Ship
Diesel is still the best solution……and fully analog cars….
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/green-scottish-ferry-emits-far-more-co2-old-diesel-ship
I see that new ship often in Troon harbour taking the wife back and forth to work. It’s much larger than the old one it’s replacing.
What a fun time it was to follow the progress of yet another SNP fuck up. Just like the parliment building, the Edinburgh tram and the countryside is now ruined by windfarms in all directions. My joke was they’re building enough to turn Scotland into a helicopter so we can all gtf,
Just wait, Eric. At the rate the safety police are going we will not be allowed to turn right on red because the engine will shut off and refuse to turn on until the light is green. Same with stop signs in BFE. As for the steering, what if someone is trying to swerve to quick avoid a deer darting out or a kid who just ran out into the road? But the stupid safety mechanism will not allow it. Who will be at fault then? I cannot wait for the day when cars shut down and refuse to start when one has swerved too much or not come to a complete stop at said stop
sign in BFE. They are hell bent on making driving a miserable experience as possible before they kick us out of them entirely.
Exactly, Shadow!
There’s a two-pronged assault going on. One prong is to make people not want to drive. The other is to systematically condition driver passivity so that – eventually – most people will welcome being taken for a ride in a Johnny Cab.
You are giving them the benefit of the doubt, Eric. I think they just want to kill us.
Probably so, RG! But – hey – aren’t you supposed to be the optimistic one?
True, but sometimes even my sanguineness for rose tinted spectacles is not enough to ignore the sociopaths in charge when they make it so abundantly clear that they despise us.
Hell, in that case a bullet to the head would be a far quicker demise, but out of habit would go down fighting, just because. And just to piss them off because I would not give up and die quietly. Been doing it my whole life, why stop now?
Thomas DoLorenzo takes a whack at the Tariff King:
‘The 1890 McKinley tariff was named after McKinley because of his notoriety as a tool of the Northern manufacturing plutocracy. It created the highest average tariff rate in U.S. history up to that point, causing such a spike in prices of such that in the next election the Republican party was wiped out, losing both houses of Congress and the White House, with the Democrat party having a 2-1 advantage in the House. Free trader Grover Cleveland became president. McKinley himself was defeated and was installed by the Rockefeller machine as the governor of Ohio.
‘The Rockefeller machine got McKinley elected president in 1896. One of his first “accomplishments” in 1897 was to repeat the political disaster of the McKinley tariff by signing the Dingley tariff which created another highest average tariff rate in history. The people be damned; by that point the Republican party had created a government by the Northern corporate plutocracy, for the corporate plutocracy, of the corporate plutocracy. President Trump’s kind of people.’
https://tinyurl.com/bdehnkas
The McKinley wing of the Republiclown party is back. They’re going to crush the economy in an epic bust. Hunker down, my friends.
‘I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little further on there are only flagstones, and a little further on still these break beneath your feet.’ — Winston Churchill, 1938
And what about emergency moves? A kid runs in front of you and the car will try to hit them when you act to avoid. “Gee, folks, sorry your kid is now just a greasy spot on the pavement. But, the new technology works like a charm.”
Or, you hit a patch of ice and must make several rapid responses to recover? I could go on but, you get the point.
This insanity cannot continue. Nature and the laws of physics will out.
I’ve wondered about that. All cars have some form of ‘stability’ control now. Of course this is now on top of ABS and traction control. But in your ice example, there are times when you need to spin the wheels, etc…. So we are basically ‘going for a ride’ now. very limited control.
Most cars have a traction off button, or at least my ‘off road optioned’ cars do. To turn off stability is way harder and longer, not doing that as your sliding down the road. I don’t think abs can be turned off at all?
In the motorcycle word, mainly the adventure bike segment, everyone knows we need to turn rear abs off, and traction control off, etc… sometimes depending on the situation. All Manufactures do some form of turning these off, some better than others.
You’ll get a letter in your mail from the insurance company saying your rate is increasing due to excessively harsh braking.
I wonder if this is why I see so many brake lights in traffic these days. My assists are all toggled off so in highway traffic I rarely apply the brakes but lift my foot off the gas when I can see up ahead that traffic is slowing. It”s much easier than braking then accelerating as the traffic speeds up again. The past few months it has puzzled me why so many other cars are repeatedly hitting their brakes. I had attributed it to anxious drivers but am now wondering if their brake assists are automatically being applied. We just drove in heavy traffic to LA on I5 and this braking and reaccelerating I think was a one more factor in slowing the traffic down.
I surmise something similar with adaptive cruise control.
I’ll have my cruise set and approach a slower vehicle in front of me, at which point I move into the left lane to pass.
That’s when the vehicle I am about to pass – the (3rd) vehicle in FRONT of THAT VEHICLE exits the roadway – and then presumably the adaptive cruise in the vehicle I am about to overtake – speeds it back up.
Adaptive cruise just means “I’m too lazy to set my own cruise and pay attention to traffic patterns…I’ll just go however fast the guy in front of me wants to.”
“ braking and reaccelerating I think was a one more factor in slowing the traffic down “
Yes it does! Back when science and engineering dealt with facts and data the results of traffic congestion studies showed that in heavy traffic a 5 MPH slowdown results in a total stop about 1/2 mile back (distance from memory I’m too lazy to look it up this morning). If everyone would keep as steady a pace as possible there would be a lot less aggravation in heavy traffic, good luck with that.
‘They want rote, reflexive – i.e., mindless – rule-following and the “technology” is their tool.’ — eric
Eric is describing an algorithm. Algorithms don’t think. They just follow rigid rules.
Imagine an AI world, where algorithms run everything. To the yankee mind, this is utopia — an orderly place where everyone conforms to expected behavior. But the free-wheeling Global South will reject this impersonal, rigid control as anathema. I side with them.
This morning I’m typing up my late father’s notes of a long-ago family vacation. He remarks that I came to pick him up in Pitkin, Colorado in our Chevy wagon. I was 13, three years short of having a driving license. But out there in the mountains, no one cared. My brother and sister, he notes, fished and caught trout without a fishing license. Again, no one cared.
When did algorithms and rigid, yankee-style rules take over? I don’t know, but it was starting when ol’ Jimmah Carter was in the White House, making his sleazy ‘middle east peace deal’ that ultimately cost us a quarter trillion. This morning the New York Slimes features a photo of Jimmah with Dark Brandon, probably the worst ‘president’ of our lifetimes:
https://tinyurl.com/bdftencd
Brandon doesn’t follow algorithmic-style rules because his mind is gone. Soon he will be gone too. Good freaking riddance.
Hi Eric,
I sympathize (and agree) with your disgust of rule followers. I got into a “discussion” last week with a client who was freaking out about the BOI requirements. I suggested that they wait for the final court decision and it was unlikely that the due date was set in stone and would be probably be extended. Apparently, I was promoting “rule breaking”. No, just common sense. The client chose to ignore my advice. That is their decision. I don’t force people to accept my word as gospel. I can only suggest what I believe is the best solution to the scenario at hand.
This morning…US Treasury was hacked. I wonder what they went after?
I am just so tired of the willingness of people to roll over. Very few have any gumption or fight in them. All rules are to be obeyed based on their mindset. Seriously, it is becoming revolting. If government passes a law that every other person needs to jump off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge or risk a fine and two years in jail I truly believe people would line up to do just that.
‘Apparently, I was promoting “rule breaking”.’ — Raider Girl
Good for you. Several hundred million businesses would be required to register with FinCen under BOI. Should BOI prevail, it would take years for FinCen to plow through that firehose of useless data and identify defiant small fish who failed to register.
FinCen just ain’t a credible threat. They can kiss my ass.
As a famous alcoholic once said. “Just say No!
Hi Jim,
I wish it were so, but they are going to pass this enforcement onto the banks and annual renewals with the states. My business will switch to the very first state in the union that tells FinCen to kiss their hiney…Florida, South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, etc. I am hoping one will realize the unconstitutionally of this requirement and buck the system.
Preach it, RG!
I (and you prolly too) can remember when most Americans weren’t such passive, rule-obeying simps. It disgusts me, how things are now. I saw (literally) just how bad it has become during the mass-panic event, when I was often the only person in the supermarket not wearing a “mask”… because some teenager thrust one at them when they walked into the place. Assuming they were not already “masked.”
This is not my country anymore. I am a stranger in a strange land.
It reminds me of the tail end of Robin Williams’ stand-up in Kuwait in 2007. When he relates that he felt like he was “…the only sane person in a town where everyone was possessed”. How appropriate. Here is the video. The flag going down part is a bit long, but the video is just under 4 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD9QAAEfQEA Leave it to Williams to loop the interruption into his monolog..
Eric, it is a curse I have always felt like an outsider from middle school on. I pondered what was wrong with me. Turns out nothing. If the hive mind wants to chase its tail over the latest hoax, have at it. There are not fewer collisions with all the gadgetry, when one of the devises gets cashed in its a write off. we get to pay more to the insurance mafia.
Happy New Year To you and the rest of the thought criminals on this site.
Hopefully you can host the first ever EPeters thinkin at your spread I would attend god willing.
“I am just so tired of the willingness of people to roll over. Very few have any gumption or fight in them. All rules are to be obeyed”
It’s even worse than that. These people will RAT YOU OUT to the authorities in a heartbeat. Not only do they disapprove of your rule breaking, they want you punished for it.
On one of the side roads on my daily drive, they decided to add a stop sign at a deserted section of road. There is no reason for this stop sign at all. I breeze through it every day after I observe the absence of any cops.
One day, as I did so, a man in a pickup truck in the opposite lane saw me do it and yelled out the window at me as I passed by. By the look on his face, I had just strangled a puppy. He was very emotional.
These people are just as much a threat as the state.
Absolutely Philo,
There’s a similar stop sign on my drive where I do a quick look around for AGW’s and then sail on through it. Have had the occasional busybody yell at me to which I simply reply “thank you” and shake my head in disgust.
You are right, Philo. Our peers may even be more dangerous. Big Gov actually has to locate us. Our peers willingly turn us in. There is something profanely disturbing about that.
Back when we were living in South Dakota, many intersections in town had yield signs instead of stop signs. The rule was you had to yield to your right (which meant the one to the left had to yield to you). Of course there could arise the conundrum, albeit unlikely, where if 4 cars arrived at the intersection at the same time.
In Germany, the rule is: The Drivers come to an agreement. One of the drivers is expected to take the initiative and motion to the Driver to his left to procide. The other Drivers then Yield to the Right.
“ I am just so tired of the willingness of people to roll over “
The last straw for me here in WA was the failure of several initiatives on the ballot. One was to repeal the carbon tax scam, it failed I was shocked. People bitched and moaned about high gasoline prices then a group spends their money and time to get the rollback on the ballot. Now a clear path to freedom from the nonsense just vote yes. Nope, roll over again too lazy to research the truth or stupid they fell for the anti initiative ads and the initiative failed. Gas this morning in Seattle $4.55
Hi Sparkey,
I am always amazed at the amount of bond referendums that pass in my county, although I shouldn’t be. The schools, the schools, the schools is what the plebs yell about. The indoctrination camps get their money and Little Johnny and Little Susie graduate reading on an 8th grader level and have a 4th grade basic understanding of math. Yea! So worth it!
You remind me, coming up in my county three districts are putting up school bond measures. I’ve railed on about the insanity of separate districts within a dozen miles of each other. The one I’m in is two buildings four buses and is about 10 miles from the city school district. Yep, their own admin where the director of this place makes north of $150k, lives 4 doors down from me and his yard full of Vote YES signs. This one wants a levy for NEW buses since in their wonderful budgeting process no money was set aside for replacement equipment. Absolute fiscal insanity levy which will pass and thus nick me for hundreds more per year.
Throwing more money at the schools never seems to solve the problem. Up here we spend more money per kid and yet rank 47 in the nation. Apparently all that money is not helping so why give them more to do such a lousy job?
I’ve seen it from the inside, they are well organized, ruthless, immoral, and entirely without scruple.
The procedure is to schedule the funding bill on an off year, or off-off year or even a special election, where maybe 20% of the victims come out to vote, and then they give time off to every teacher, employee, and apparatchik of the school district. Oddly enough they never lose. And the ratchet goes ever tighter.
Hi Sparkey,
A few years ago here in Taxachusetts there was a referendum to get rid of the annual saaaaaafety inspection. I figured that was a no brainer and would pass overwhelmingly. Nope, the dealers and service stations that make out by getting a quick $40 for performing the ‘inspection’ and then even more money for fixing what they ‘found’ ran a scare campaign to convince all the clovers that if it passed then everyone would be driving around in rustbuckets on bald tires. Disgusting, we’re surrounded by pussies scared of their own shadows.
Thankfully we do not have safety inspections up here and the state got rid of the emissions testing when it showed they did not make a difference in the air quality. But, I heard all about having to have your safety inspection sticker on your vehicle in Virginia from a friend and the whole thing sounds insane.
Gentle reminder.
We all know, or should, that “elections” have been rigged, fixed. From the outright sElections for presidents on down to local elections.
So, it’s not right to blame voters for bad election results unless you have good evidence our (((Rulers))) did not fix those particular elections.
That said, I do not vote. A vote is a little declaration in support of that system.
This is a truly global problem.
A few years ago, Swiss citizens had an opportunity to vote on restoring the Swiss franc’s link to gold.
This would have stopped the ability of the Swiss National Bank to continue its endless money printing, creating massive house price inflation, pretending to be a hedge fund, as well as its truly insane experiments like forcing negative interest rates on the public.
Needless to say, the referendum failed, even though Switzerland had previously managed to stay on the gold standard until 2000 – the longest of any country – and its currency is still perceived as ‘strong’ today, mostly as a result of the collective memory of this fact.
The sheeple truly do love their bonds.
Good stuff RG. It’s our job to teach our youth how to think for yourself. I did. Had to darn near demand my kids break the f’n rules. They eventually did and now they get it.
For me, it all started in grade school where they put posters all over place “NO BULLYING ALLOWED” or ‘if you retaliate you will be punished!!!’. Haha……………
My kids wouldn’t do it, but my oldest always wanted to help people so that’s the angle I used “if you see joe being hit, etc… you back him up and hit back harder’ It worked.
He went to the “PRINCIPLE” OMG!!!! it was one of the best meetings ever. Told the guy ‘you talk to HIM, not ME, he can stand on his own actions’ and ‘don’t you ever call me about this stuff again’
He ended up using it as a badge of honor and went to the ‘principle’ 10+ times that year. The teachers stopped sending him and tried to discipline him themselves by trying to embarrass him, didn’t work. We, actually him, ended up getting 1 teacher fired and one more I think later.
They never bothered with the BS ever again. Even the vice principle came to me later ‘thank you for what you did, your son fixed a lot of crap around here’
Agreed; it is unfortunate that so many will happily embrace ideas (and presumably vote for those who push said ideas) that become laws that will lead only to suffering, misery and even death. The whole green scam is a big example, like the push for “net zero”. So many vote for politicians who champion that impossible notion and campaign hard for it. Ending the use of fossil fuels is essentially (for a society) like jumping off a bridge – the effects of which are at best injurious (if you are lucky) and at worst fatal. But yet so many idiots vote for just that. And the then there is the way the populace act so much like sheep when destructive laws are passed. Isn’t there anyone in California who realizes that in a few years they will never be able to purchase a new car (unless it is an EV) and the state will be come very much like Cuba. And that’s assuming the lights stay on….It’s all very Jim Jones. So many willingly drank the Koolaid, and only a few actively resisted (some were shot, a few escaped). Sadly that seems to be the way our society is these days. But I know one thing – they’d have to shoot me because I have no intention of signing onto that suicide mission.
What about Interstate Commerce? The Left Commie Coast can ban the sale of new IC Cars but not allowing someone to purchase a car in Idaho and bring it into one of those Shithole States goes against the Interstate Commerce Rule does it not?
Correct, assuming the law matters. But the law does not matter, it is a set of rules to keep the commoners subservient. If you’re rich and connected enough to fight it, it won’t apply to you anyway.