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istjohn

I don't disagree, but there would be a political shitstorm if you tried to take away their trucks.

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You don't have to "take away" the trucks, but just make them more impractical:

- sales tax on cars/trucks is by weight and exponentially increases the heavier the vehicle gets

- increase taxes on gasoline

- require a special license to operate a vehicle over XXXX lbs.

- rewrite laws or encourage DAs to prosecute drivers that injure other people in cars or pedestrians even if it's unintentional

- illegal to have passengers in the truck bed (some states still allow this).

These are just off the top of my head.

People will wail and cry and scream about their freedom being taken from them...

Do a Carbon Dividend and other people will scream when taking away the gas tax means taking away the dividend.

We need to stop these cowardly politics appeasing automobile users. This is how.

Because it is in fact taking away their freedom

The public roadways have never been especially free, not as in beer nor as in speech. It's a pretty unfortunate choice of setting for expressing individualism. Many have put some of their identity into how or what they drive anyway, of course.

sure, although metaphorically salting the earth through global warming for future generations arguably is also taking away freedom

Yes: Their freedom to pollute the environment and to endanger other people's lives. Hey, there are laws against murder and robbery too. "How dare they take away my freedom to relieve others of their life and property!"

Perhaps it's time Americans stopped reacting like conditioned Pavlovian dogs to the mere word "freedom"? Not all "freedoms" are unequivocally good.

Do you really think what you're suggesting doesn't map to "taking away" to the people involved?

News flash: People aren't stupid, and you're not that smart. NFA tax stamps aren't still a thing because people don't see the tax loopholes as a ban or infringement on the 2nd Amendment. They absolutely do. They've just grudgingly accepted there may be some positive utility to it. What you're talkong about is nothing but velvet gloved taking by policy.

And other posters are right. It'd be a shitstorm.

Yes it would be a shitstorm, but only because some grown adults act like big babies. None of these ideas are "taking away," they are merely requiring that people finally take some personal responsibility for their actions.

And the sort of person that is big about "personal responsibility" for others but calls personal responsibility for themselves "taking away" is actually somewhat stupid in their hypocrisy.

Unless all that "personal responsibility" is actually just backwards justification for a system that's rigged against people without wealth and power and the right skin color, but it couldn't be that could it?

Have you seen what pickemuptrucks cost these days? None of these financial changes would matter.

Not doing things for fear of political shitstorms is a large part of why everything is so broken these days.

Terrible leadership!

I don't do certain unpopular things at work because I know it will be a political shitstorm, and even if I try to, everyone else will not cooperate and I could possibly lose my job or not get promoted. That is why. They usually cannot even do it if they wanted to.

If your voters will vote you out because you do unpopular things, that's democracy at work.

Politics is about figuring out what to expend community energy on that'll actually A) Work And B ) Not have to be undone the next time the winds change.

Terrible leadership I can agree with wholeheartedly though.

You have to pick your fights. I'm not sure this is the hill to die on.

You can take away the CAFE rules that can be gamed by making trucks bigger than necessary.

True. In Florida, 1/3 of trucks are raised so there occupants have to literally climb in. These are commonly adorn with "Trump" and "Don't tread on me" bumper stickers and even massive flags (because you know, big truck means big flag...)

I once drove one to move something (the cab/bed being five feet off the ground wasn't as helpful as you'd think \s). The experience was somewhat surreal, like driving in an air traffic control tower. Much different than a u-haul (my only other trucking experience).

Edit: oh yeah, they do this to go "mudding" (drinking and driving in a giant muddy mess with guns, so much fun!).

Mudding doesn’t mean drinking and driving with guns. It means tearing up the wet muddy ground with your vehicle. Spinning your tires, getting stuck, getting unstuck - just goofing off off-road. I personally don’t see the appeal of it but have friends that enjoy it. They don’t drink and drive (with or without guns).

Destroying forests and wetlands while spewing carbon into the air.

> The park does not sell alcohol, according to its website, but patrons bring their own beverages.

https://www.yoursun.com/charlotte/news/redneck-mud-park-has-...

Trucks are vehicles. How can they be political? I know plenty of people from all kinds of backgrounds owning a truck.

The same reasons usually apply to large BMW and Mercedes SUVs. The correct people own those so they don't attract the same Attention.

Up until this year I would have agreed with you, but grills this year have gotten completely out of control. The lack of visibility and the height of the impact zone has really changed on some trucks.

"Rolling coal" (modifying a diesel engine to run rich and increase soot in the exhaust, a.k.a. incompletely combusted fuel) has become a statement in many places of the U.S. that you are opposed to the EPA, clean air rules, regulation, and in general the perceived nanny state.

My friend is a Tesla owner in Georgia and has been deliberately blasted by these guys at stoplights a few times. They tried, anyway—hard to do this to a car with superior acceleration and a HEPA cabin filter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal

I don't understand it myself. I'm fascinated by the energy extraction from a properly calibrated diesel engine. They get more efficient the more air you pump in.

Ruining that for the sake of pissing people off seems a travesty against the machine.

Ah yes, we have tons of these folks in AZ, frequently they're the same people with the "Don't tread on me" stickers and flags that seem to think "don't tread on me" means "But I can tread on you."

This is something entirely different and reprehensible. I was mostly concerned with the utility of Trucks and how politicization of it is absurd and dangerous. Next time someone wants to buy a truck, they’ll think twice what the society would think of them. What would the neighbors say? All they wanted is a utility vehicle.

This is just one example of many things that are dividing the society into factions.

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