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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

I remember when i was a kid and the cars started dinging when your seat belt was unbuckled, and my family (and everyone we knew) went out and bought empty buckles that just plugged into the seat belt latch, to defeat the dinging and let you drive without your seatbelt in peace. I wonder if these still work to defeat the more and more aggressive warnings.

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When I was a kid, cars didn't even have seat belts in the back.

I'm all for the extra safety, but if they make safety too annoying, people will start looking for workarounds.

People will look for workarounds regardless. Some people just become irrationally incensed if you suggest that they aren't perfect. It's really frustrating. There's an entire subset of the population that lives life explicitly thinking "Rules are for everyone else and I deserve everything"

Next time you go to the grocery store look at how many carts don't get put away. The exact same people who do that will freak out and start a war if their car gets scratched by a loose cart.

Don't believe my takes? Go to a local city or school board meeting and see the utter insanity that comes from people that you will be shocked to learn are a middle manager at some company or own their own small and successful business.

Some people genuinely don't get that the world isn't about them, and I think we have drastically underestimated the percentage.

> drive without your seatbelt in peace

That’s one very stupid way to die.

You'd be surprised how many "normal" people initially revolted against seatbelt laws and protested through noncompliance. Even the people who accepted that seatbelt use was safer, refused to use them because of the usual "The Government Won't Tell Me What To Do!" mentality.

"I will endanger my own life, just to spite the government that will never know about how I'm spiting them unless I die."

I can understand not wanting the government to decide how they live their life, who they can and can't marry, how they should identify, which bathroom to use, etc. But I'd think no-cost life-saving stuff is not a hard decision. Same with vaccines.

I wear my seat belt anytime I leave the driveway but I still want one of these things.

My car can't tell the difference between a person and my backpack on the passenger seat, but it dings regardless.

We just had two teenage boys in the area get ejected through the windshield (not wearing seat belts). One died, one's in the hospital.

Wear your seatbelt.

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