General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Direction action is great and I fully support it, but what these people did is annoying. People might have an SUV for a specific reason. Maybe they have a large family/children? Maybe they run a contracting business and use their SUV as a business vehicle (like someone I know)? They'd be very disadvantaged because some clowns decided to go save the planet by deflating tires (lmao...as if that's going to do anything). It's ridiculous.

Direction action is very useful but it has to be focused in the right way. There needs to be a strategy. This just seems like it was some neckbeards from /r/fuckcars trying to act like revolutionaries. It does nothing to support their cause. Nobody who walked out in the morning to find their tires flat is going to say "ah, they're right, I will sell my vehicle and start biking" or whatever. The reaction is going to be a feeling of being upset, angry, annoyed and probably ready to kick some ass. How would all the cyclists or transit users feel if someone started deflating bike and bus tires, or putting piles of bricks and logs on MUTs? Or what if they went out and sabotaged the LRT like the Tarnac Nine did? I'm sure nobody would support that whether or not the "justification" for doing so had any merit.

Fuck cars indeed, but we need to fight them in a more sensible, intelligent and academic way and not pretending to be revolutionaries by deflating tires.

Ahh yes...and AGAIN we are comparing the non-destructive temporary disabling of SUVs with targeted violence against people.

We already know how cyclists will feel about an attempt to injure or kill cyclists...because we've already experienced it. There have been many cases of traps being laid for cyclists.

Direct action is annoying...at a minimum...that's the point of doing it. In fact...it's almost the definition of doing it. If you support direct action but don't support disrupting or annoying some people, businesses, governments...then...you don't support direct action.

Also, I'll be blunt here...those people driving excessively large vehicles into the city are the problem. Yes, the oil industry and auto industry are pushing them...but we are still buying them. The folks who argue something like the "the corporations are destroying the planet, so they should be punished, and I should get to keep driving my pickup into the city" are ... to put it nicely...giving themselves an excuse.

I'm not saying that targeting everyone driving an SUV is the right choice...but it is not an invalid or obviously misplaced choice. This isn't the same as the right wingers blaming immigrants for ... well ... pretty much all the things they get blamed for.