Fox News. Search it on the web and you’ll find a number of anti-EV articles and stories slanted a certain way. Despite this, when Fox News Digital reporter Megan Myers emailed me to ask a few questions about my experiences with EVs, I immediately agreed to it. This, I thought, was a great opportunity. Fast forward a week or so, and Myers published the article with the title “EV owner and car enthusiast says all electric push was ‘foolish,’ predicts hybrids will be better transition.” It’s a somewhat misleading headline, but I’m still thrilled I did the interview. Here’s why.
First things first, let’s talk about the headline. It states that I think America’s EV push was foolish, when really I was saying that ignoring hybrids to the extent that many automakers did was foolish. Hybrids represent a great way to get as many people driving efficient vehicles as quickly as possible. And yet, companies like GM decided to skip them in favor of EVs, only to backtrack as EV growth started to slow. I’ve discussed this ad nauseam before, so I don’t need to cover old ground, but the point is: Ignoring hybrids was not smart, and we need more good ones.
But let’s move beyond the headline, because the interview was about a whole lot more. In fact, you can watch the whole thing right here; to Fox News’ (technically Fox Business’) credit, they let me talk. They didn’t do much cherrypicking and they didn’t interject their own thoughts — they just ran it like I said it:
OK, now let’s look at the actual written article. The story’s lede is:
The rapid push to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) as the primary mode of transportation in American society is slowing and one auto expert and car enthusiast predicts hybrid vehicles will be the way forward.
OK, this isn’t quite what I was saying. I think pushing for EVs as the primary mode of transportation is still happening; it’s just that the growth of EVs is slowing (it’s still growing quickly, but not as quickly as before). But I do think hybrids are a great option, especially to skeptics. This is hardly a novel or controversial view.
Let’s keep reading:
Tracy said he is a proponent of EVs, but also described himself as a diehard gasoline car fan, and was candid about the upsides, as well as the downsides, to owning an EVs.
This is exactly what I was going for when I took the interview. I know that many people who read Fox News are not fans of EVs, and may love gas. So do I! There’s nothing like rowing through my Jeep Wrangler’s five-speed manual and listening to that four-liter engine under the hood. I’m not here to push an agenda, I just happen to own a few EVs, and I’m going to tell you about their upsides and downsides — I’m going to keep it real. The story continues:
Tracy said the practicality of an EV depends on an individual’s circumstances, what kind of driving they do and where they live. He believes it will be a long time before the U.S. has the infrastructure and consumer compliance to completely switch over to EVs, especially because one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption is charging availability. For drivers who don’t have access to an EV charging station where they live, for example, he said a hybrid is the way to go.
Then they quote me:
“I think, ultimately, the push is to reduce CO2 emissions,” Tracy said. “That means independent of whatever method you use to get there, we’ve got to reduce emissions. So some automakers are focusing on hybrids, some automakers are focusing on electric cars. The overall goal, though, is to reduce emissions through whatever means necessary.”
Then Fox says that I think more hybrids are coming soon because “the marketplace has spoken.” I think that’s mostly true. The story goes on:
“The interest in electric cars is still there, it’s still growing, but it’s not growing as fast as it did before and that indicates that people want hybrids,” he said. “A lot of automakers…they said ‘No, we’re done with hybrids, we’re going straight to electric cars.’That, I think was a bit foolish. People are not ready.”
So that’s where that quote from the headline comes from. The piece continues:
“Not everyone’s ready to go fully electric, and everybody knows that,” he added. “But offering hybrids, I think is where we’re going in the near term and it’s going to be a combination of fully electric cars — and for many people that’s a great solution — and it’s going to be hybrids. I think between those two, it’s going to eventually converge to electric, but you’ll have hybrids in the interim as the infrastructure builds up.”
The article then says I own eight cars (which is what I came up with off the top of my head; I might actually own more — things have gotten out of hand), including a Nissan Leaf and a BMW i3. Then the story mentions many of the advantages there are to EV ownership, quoting me:
“They’re great on maintenance, they’re fun to drive, they’re cheap, and you can get them cheaply because of federal rebates,” he said. “If you have a place to charge, they’re fantastic. Now, some of the downsides, of course, the infrastructure isn’t perfect, and especially if you don’t own a Tesla, there’s some planning that you’re going to have to factor into any trip. If you want to buy a new one, even with rebates, they’re a little bit pricier, but they’re basically getting there in terms of cost parity.”
Note that by “they’re cheap” I meant cheap to operate. Still, their prices — especially on the used market — are dropping rapidly.
The article is quite long, and I suggest you all read it, but I’m just going to include a couple more quotes in here:
Tracy said it is important that people weigh factors in their lifestyle, including the EV infrastructure in the community and the type of driving they do, before they buy an EV. But, he argues that an EV is a great option for people simply commuting to and from work every day.”
The story includes a quote wherein I say the public charging experience really should be broken into two groups: Tesla and non-Tesla, since the former’s experience is generally much smoother due to the Supercharger infrastructure. Then there’s this quote about maintenance:
You don’t have to do an oil change ever, you don’t have to even do brakes pretty much ever because it uses the motor as a regenerative brake, so it slows you down using the motor instead of the actual brake pads…there are some challenges, but man, there are some real benefits, too.
[…]
You won’t have dumb things like [dealing with] the transmission failing and camshaft position sensors failing, it’s just that much simpler to maintain.
Finally, I want to share this quote, which I know assuages some fears that many EV skeptics have:
“If you don’t feel like doing it, if you don’t feel like driving an EV, no one’s taking your gasoline car away,” he said. “That’s not going to happen. You may find that the new cars at the dealership, more or them are going to become electrified. You might have to choose a hybrid, which you will like, by the way, I guarantee it. If you’re going from a gas car to a hybrid, especially if it’s an automatic transmission, they’re great cars these days, so… it’s not really going to feel like a hit as long as there’s a hybrid option.”
(Note: I wish I had acknowledged that California’s 2035 rules are indeed rather strict, though again, they apply to new cars, and don’t involve ripping your existing gas cars from you, and they do allow for some number of plug-in hybrids — not all BEVs).
I am thrilled that Fox let me talk, and didn’t try bending my words. To be able to have a reasonable discussion about EVs — to extoll their virtues without much slant or pushback, and to be able to speak candidly about their drawbacks — on Fox News is huge. I reached a large and new audience of mostly conservative readers/viewers, and I was able to tell them positive things about EVs on a website that often includes somewhat unfair anti-EV slants. This is a big win in my book.
I have received a bit of criticism for going on Fox, but talking with the news outlet was a chance to reach a crowd that may spend much of its time in a bubble. Lots of us live in our own internet bubbles/echo chambers; it’s a huge problem with the world today. Branching out beyond those borders can yield great things.
But beyond that, I remember being a reporter for a heavily politically-leaning media company (Gawker), so I know that not everyone at a given outfit thinks the same way. And it turns out, my line of thinking ended up being true, because — aside from the headline, which, like I mentioned, doesn’t really represent my views — Megan’s article about my experiences with electric cars is fair. In fact, as a result of Fox running what I said without slanting it, anti-EV folks are posting comments ripping on me, but luckily there are EV — most likely Tesla fans — in there fighting the good fight. Just look at this:
Still, of course, Tesla fans are going to Tesla-fan, and plenty wrote some equally absurd comments as the EV skeptics:
Ah, the ol’ classic all-or-nothing argument that just leads to lots of people continuing to drive gas-guzzlers instead of fuel-sipping hybrids. Can’t win ’em all.
Still, the comments aren’t as bad as you might think they’d be on Fox, and the fact that my thoughts were fairly relayed to the news outlet’s audience without being spun (other than a bit in the headline) — that’s just awesome. I’ll admit, I was a little concerned about that at first.
Well, after reading through all the comments I’m going to blow this out here, “take it or leave it”.
Story:
I once called a liberal/left-leaning radio program because they invited discussion about something that was going on at the elementary school my kid happened to go to. My angle was in disagreement with theirs. Some intelligent discourse, talking back-and-forth in real time, what go wrong?
Here is what went wrong. The producer, once understanding I didn’t share their views for what my child should be exposed to, demanded to know everything I was going to say beforehand. Then he kept me on the line for nearly an hour, coming back repeatedly to assure me it would be just another minute, past when I needed to be leaving for an appointment. Then out-of-the-blue he started confronting me like I was an utter idiot, getting that “discourse” all pre-heated up. Then when they finally put me on the radio, they kept turning the volume on my line up and down so I couldn’t hear the host correctly (they actually did that) and I did indeed start sounding like the confused fool they needed me to be. With the host literally laughing at the apparent incoherence of their conservative-leaning caller and anger coming up in me, I gave up and ended the call. (As well any further participation I might undertake in that portion of what is, after all, just the entertainment industry.)
So, to certain commenters, as they say, show me on the doll where Fox hurt you…I’ve seen worse from over at your side.
Media tends to populate with progressives, it’s how that business works. Almost every single person at the TV station my wife worked at was a Democrat liberal, as was she when I met her. Thirty years of life experience…building a home and family, owning property, being around business challenges…changed that. She knew that expressing her later developed views around the station would not have been good for her career so she didn’t, but she had them at home and I wound up being the one advising her toward more-centrist positions, and I don’t mean the “center” that both liberals and conservatives tend to belive they’re in.
There are nut-jobs on either side of any story and they particularly live in the comments section so I don’t think going there to mine information has much of a point. Just read and know that is what someone wanted to post up there for whatever great or stupid reason they have. At-least, cars can bring us together although in my corner of the country you meet very few liberals at physical car meets. I guess I can come here for balance (chuckle).
That’s my piece, anyhow.
Well said.
Genuinely impressed that you managed to get your experiences and opinions through to a Fox News audience without it being absolutely mangled beyond recognition. Bravo.
My dad in the early 00’s was once heading down a… let’s just say an “angry white dude” path. It took my siblings and I to actually talk to him, ask him questions, explain to him things he didn’t understand in a way that wasn’t condescending. We had to give and take, understand his experiences and his viewpoints in an attempt to empathize. From there he relaxed and figured things out on his own.
I’m not above getting frustrated and occasionally reducing others to being twits. Sometimes it’s hard to negotiate with others in an era of screaming and polarization, without being completely stomped on. But it’s the good fight, and DT deserves credit for being an ambassador for a measure of common sense here.
greta thunberg aint takin the carb outta my squarebody
Great job! I haven’t read the full article yet, but it sounds like you got your point across. The headline is just news being news, no matter which way a particular outlet slants.
I wish more sane people would go on the conservative news networks. Without opposing views, they just turn into echo chambers of whatever agenda that outlet is pushing.
David, you are a man of the people. If ever anyone was going to convince a demographic that Electric or Hybridization isn’t bad or scary, you are that person. The fact that you can be excited about multiple forms of propulsion is and should be inspiring. Plus, you effectively have the food pyramid of vehicles and a well-balanced diet of transportation options. I will always strive to be more like David.
I cant wait to tell my grandkids in 30 ish years how we as a species turned how a vehicle is propelled down the road into a political gang rivalry.
What ISN’T a political gang rivalry these days? What beer you drink, what stores you shop at, what entertainment you consume, etc…
I highly applaud David for going on Fox. I agree we have to little discussion in general and far too much echo chamber nonsense in this country.
However, the presence of a known political news media on Autopian has resulted in exactly what I feared. The comments below demonstrate how the mere mention of Fox News can bring out the extremists. I do not enjoy reading the comments on this one. I hate seeing the “you can never be right I am right” idiocy on my favorite car website. So I quite reading and typed this comment bitching about it instead.
Nice work David!
Good work getting the word out! Unfortunately, whatever you say will be twisted by either side into some sort of “proof” they are right. People are people. That said, they didn’t butcher it too much, and maybe just maybe it’ll spur some critical thinking in a few people. If you reach a few people in this climate, it was worth it. Unfortunately hybrids embody the very compromise that is pretty much absent today. “All or nothing” is seemingly the f*ed up rule of the day, but the silent majority that just want a car that gets them where they need to go without causing excessive harm to others may just have their day!
So, if you ever take a marketing class, then you will find out that a new product or class of product has an initial acceptance rate that is like a rocket taking off. After a little while it starts to flatten out and that’s the mature stage. It may remain there for a long time. Right now EVs are starting to taper off. They are growing, but the growth has slowed unlike the initial meteoric rise where all the enthusiasts grabbed their cars. Now, it’s up to the masses to either accept or reject EVs. They are inevitable and they will displace gas cars, but it might take longer than everyone expected. They are the future.
Correct 100% but also once those tax payer funded subsidies stop it might actually start falling. We have yet to see honest head to head competition.
My kneejerk reaction was negative to the idea of contributing to FOX, but your reasoning makes sense and my knee was stilled.
My only complaint is that you
a) read the comments on the FOX site
b) shared them here
Yeah don’t want people exposed to new ideas that aren’t yours.
I agree that hybrids are the way to go right now. But I think they are better than EV’s both now and in the long term.
Agree, on the short term but not long term, I got my parent in to a plug-in and they use it more like an electric car than they do gas. They fill up once a month or less, but plug in every night. Acceptance of the behaviors EVs force us to adopt will come through use of plug-ins. Range anxiety will diminish as people get comfortable plugging in their cars when not in use. And hybrids will allow for any mistakes that happen.
I’m glad you got to do an interview with a non-auto based news outlet. Good or bad, it will bring more eyes to The Autopian. That’s a win-win in my book. Keep up the great work!!
I’m glad you did the interview AND I am glad (gladder?) it turned out well.
If you ever do a video interview again, please consider the following to look like an expert.
I could go on but will stop.
The quality of pundit’s video has been a pet-peeve of mine since before COVID. COVID made it worse since everyone was home. I cannot count how many times I’ve yelled at the TV about the quality. Hopefully I can help one person whom I respect.
I would go a bit further if it’s a regular thing. I am on Zoom meetings quite a bit doing my remote job.
I have a Logitech Brio 4k. It’s got some decent tuning software that allows you to zoom in, frame the subject and adjust color, contrast, etc. If you want to go next level, a green screen helps, but isn’t a requirement. I’ve got one and it’s nice to have realistic backgrounds that are less distracting than my actual environment. It’s obviously not much into portability or practicality outside of a home office.
For sound I have a Blue Yeti microphone. It isolates the tiny bit of ambient noise in my home office pretty well.
And absolutely get a ring light. My camera is in the center of the ring light and on it’s own adjustable arm independent of the laptop.
I use a pair of Elgato Key Light Air instead of a ring light, they have adjustable brightness and color temp and are also great general desk lights. And I have to say I look quite fetching in meetings.
Ditch the ball cap dress for the occasion. It’s just good press for the site. Heck you don’t even need pants.
Dude, holy crap with all this “We need to do this.” or “That’s impossible what these people are saying.”
You all need to find your inner Stoic. Take some time to listen to this when you find the downtime and take a breath already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfCTKHtEjE
Also, DT. Nice job doing your thing that you not only believe in, but also works for all the work you kids are putting in. 🙂
If Fox viewers could read they’d get a lot out of the article.
Dude it is available on video. Or couldn’t you read that? Goose/Gander Harvey. I excitingly wait your response they are always entertaining. 😉
Good for you for putting your voice out. I’m glad you aren’t afraid to tell the truth about hybrids, whoever criticizes you for that is incorrect. I would never have the courage to show my face in the news.
Wife and I did an interview not too long ago, while overall it was positive, the reporter 100% focused on what they wanted, and downplayed what we wanted focused on. Nothing political about it, just people seem to focus on what is interesting to them, or they think will be interesting to people, just not always what YOU wanted them to know it seems.
Also, gotta get a Autopian sign behind you for interviews like this, great way to get new readers. The hat was hard to read and if I didn’t know what it said I probably wouldn’t have noticed as a casual viewer. Pimp that shit Dave!
Good to get news across to the “otherside” of the discussion, even if it may be exaggerated how far apart the sides are. Not all readers are riding through cali in EV’s, so its good to appeal to as many as possible while staying true to your message, which I think you accomplished.
We need an Autopian Step and Repeat
Step and repeats can be made exceptionally cheaply, and do a lot to making the framing look better. This, and all of Mike Dris’ suggestions above.
Well said. Any interview is going to be edited, and reporters will frame their story how they see fit. That’s their job, FOX News well documented agenda not withstanding.
Maybe Fox representing what David said even by his own admission?
Well I disagree about hybrids even. My 2000 Insight is 1 year away from being a classic car yet it is my daily averaging over 65mpg with a removed hybrid battery.
What we really need is to start building cars out of Aluminum and skip the hybrid altogether. A car the size of a Focus built entirely out of Aluminum can drop the engine size by half and drive the same. Non rusting Aluminum cars will save the environment far more than corrosive hazardous batteries.
We have special off road vehicles, track vehicles, hauling vehicles, but never a special enthusiast hypermiler car?
Aluminum 2 seater with .19cd, 1500lbs, turbo 1.0 3cyl with .65 overdrive through a 3.27 final would average 60mpg all day long. A four door would average 50mpg easily.
Where are these cars?
Big Oil and Big Steel would like a word with you.
You would think Big Aluminum would be all over this.
How about big plastic and big alloy? That is what cars are mostly made with.
Big Plastic is made from Big Oil.
Big Steel is a Big Alloy.
Okay that’s pretty good.
Or swap a 220hp K20a into your Insight like I did. That said, I’m very intrigued at the Linsight lithium ion battery swap community that’s making our fantastic and quirky Gen1 Insights far more relevant in 2024.
https://davesanborn.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-insane-honda-insight-k20-swap-is-for.html
I bet that little thing rips! I’ve always loved the insight’s styling and am a big fan of K-motors (got a K24 in my old TSX).
Aluminum doesn’t generally save that much weight, a steel Beetle from 1938 weighs less than your Insight but has two more seats. I don’t think Ford dropped *that* much weight when they went to aluminum bodies.
Lightweight cars are definitely cool, aluminum is one way to get there, but not the only way.
It’s about 400lbs dropped for the Ford trucks with aluminum vs Steel.
There ya go. That’s about what I had expected. Not nothing, but less than 10% weight reduction. Which could have been more easily achieved in other ways. Aluminum is probably worth it for some cars and not for others.
But the Ford retained a steel frame; the aluminum was just the body. On a unibody vehicle, the weight reduction (as a percentage) would likely be even larger since there is no steel frame.
A good comparison would be an Audi A8 vs a VW Phaeton. Not exactly the same vehicles, but the Audi A8 (D2 and D3 platforms) were entirely aluminum monocoques, while the Phaeton had steel outer body panels (and some structural components were steel).
2004 Audi A8 with the 4.2 V8 = 4,399
2004 VW Phaeton with 4.2 V8 = 5,194
Both are 118″ wheel base.
I think the bigger benefit will be a body that hasn’t rusted the bedsides off in 5 years of winter salt country.
True but small part of the market. I bet California or Texas or Florida separate are bigger auto markets.
Exactly your not cutting 400 pounds on something the size of a Focus. This guy is thinking stop making trucks or anything usable and force them into a 2 seater. A fun car I’d like but Noone is getting groceries home let alone transporting anyone or anything. Just another it works for me it works for everyone shut up and don’t tell me any different.
Where are ANY cars? Essentially all that is built anymore are trucks and crossovers.
If America wasn’t in a size arms-race with bigger trucks and crossovers year over year, having cars actually sized to our needs would likely help to massively contribute to better efficiency.
I blame the EPA CAFE standards. Obama promised/threatened a totally unrealistic 54mpg CAFE standard, and the EPA weaseled (w/i’m sure a lot of “encouragement” from US automakers) the “sliding scale” allowances for larger vehicles. Thus we have nuthin but SUVs and Pickups.
Not an OBama fan but he didn’t do anything every other politician does. Lied to get elected and tried his best. If the voting public was just willing to research and think and make up their own minds instead of doing the lemmings suicide lead we would all be better off.
It’s the consumer not the manufacturer. And the new generation who is trying to move the needle is irrelevant because they aren’t buying cars. If you ran one of the Big 3 would you be providing vehicles for people who are buying vehicles or not buying vehicles? Only 1 answer is correct.
You lost the general public at “the size of a Focus”. Unfortunately, nobody wants these cars. Heck, it’s hard enough to just sell an attractive sedan or fun 2-seater.
The car also needs to be built robust enough that the chassis and its components won’t fatigue themselves to death, even with twice the torque output vs stock and 50% more speed than the car originally can reach. Otherwise, aluminum will be a waste given the embodied energy that goes into making components with it. If it fails, it is not easily or inexpensively repaired, as steel is.
The aluminum 2-seater you mention above would also make an excellent EV. A 30 kWh battery pack is all you’d need for 200+ miles range at 70 mph, and with NACS and a battery of sufficient power density, it would recharge in under 8 minutes. Plus you could load a 500 kW drive system into such a thing and have the finished product weighing somewhere around 2,000 lbs for some real lunacy, and the mechanical robustness and the drive system necessary for that output wouldn’t add much to the car’s build cost, allowing you to have hypercar performance on the cheap. And really, 7-figure hypercars should be rendered obsolete with EV technology allowing Joe Sixpack to access that performance in a sub-$30k package. The auto industry is dragging its feet.
Of course, at full throttle, you wouldn’t have much run time on a 30 kWh pack with 500 kW peak power, but it’s also rare that anyone would have a need to floor such a beast.
We are in alignment. I just like tinkering with porting, turbos, tuning, etc so Id rather have the gas with its instant recharge which lets me basically drive around with 2 gallons in the tank (~12lbs of fuel) and at 70+mpg its 140mi of range.
Really the solution is putting a cap on speed, weight, horsepower, and performance. And maybe allow the big vehicles some leeway but with higher taxes, higher registration, frequent inspections, and a state or federal government recognized business to bypass people buying them because they feel inadequacy in some way.
As they would be fitting and bought by .01% of the car buying public I guess they are in and will stay in your imagination.
The only way things get better is if we start talking to each other instead of talking/screaming at each other.
So good for you, stepping into a less comfortable arena to let a different audience hear you.
Question: did they let you promote The Autopian at all? I’m all for new readers but maybe the commenters could not be so antagonistic.
I think the vast majority of us are down for discussion. There are a lot of people on this site who I don’t share similar views with but am more than happy to talk about where I’m coming from with. V10emous and GetStoney certainly come to mind. As lame as it sounds with the ludicrous polarization and extremists on both sides right now I do think we need to start finding some middle grounds again.
There are certainly things that me and other left wing folks are unwilling to compromise on (women’s rights, LGTQ rights, a FIRM separation of church and state, making the mega wealthy pay their fair share, etc.) but there are actually reasonable folks who lean right out there that agree with us. I know several of them personally and I don’t think they have much of a political home these days. I’m personally happy to welcome them.
You can likely count me among one of the ones that tends to lean more right but still agrees with a large portions of your list here.
I think there is an industry in our culture that greatly benefits from all of us being polarized and angry all the time. It’s overdue that we all start to focus on the areas of agreement and look to where we can compromise to bring it back to the center.
Because I think you’re correct; the extremists have had too much control of our discourse for too long.
This is the problem though. Most of those are hard-line issues for the right too. Politics doesn’t tolerate absolutism, as we’ve learned over the past 5, 10, 30 years. It’s impossible to have a conversation with someone who is a no compromise pro-lifer if you’re a no compromise pro-choicer.
To be clear, I’m not disagreeing with your stances, but in politics it’s rare to get all of what you want so if you take an all-or-nothing approach, guess what you end up with.
Same issues as all or nothing on the left.
I am more conservative than the majority of my state (California) but am in favor of allowing abortion in the first trimester and later in the event of danger to the health of the mother or a non-viable (severely damaged) baby.
I don’t care what the confused alphabet do in the privacy of their home, but they shouldn’t be indoctrinating elementary school students. Book banning? More like keep indoctrinating/pornographic material from students 12 and younger. When they get older, let them explore on their own, not leading them into thinking that little boys are actually girls.
As for taxes, what is a “fair share”?
from: taxfoundation.org/
Also the “tremendous gap” between the top earners and the bottom earners is generally stated as pre-tax and pre-transfers. That is where you get the 16-20 times differential between the top and bottom earners. After taxes are removed from the top and transferred to the bottom in the form of various programs, the differential is more like 4:1, not as dramatic as it would appear at first blush.
BTW, I am totally against Grandpa Joe taking taxpayers money from working stiffs and giving it to the more privileged people who have graduated from college and presumably have a leg up on getting good paying jobs to pay off their student loans. I worked my way through college (albeit not as overpriced as it is now), and my daughter worked overtime to pay for her daughter’s college. Now she’s being asked to pay for someone who took out loans to attend overpriced country clubs that hand out worthless paper.
Okay I can’t spell your name but you seem well-versed in facts. I would vote for you.
I agree but IMHO the issue is people unwilling to listen to opposing opinions. This site allows everyone to post with only stopping hateful speech. But Clearly many commenter feel the need to attack people instead of arguing viewpoints. And unfortunately the site can’t control that.
I grudge-read FOX “News” and the comments almost daily to better understand what the haters are up to. The insights gleaned there are nightmare fuel: that Dems are America-hating post-birth abortionists and Marxist communists grooming children for blood sacrifice in pizza parlor basements or drag events, etc. and so forth. Of course when I look around I see my fellow Dems raising families, participating in capitalism and wrenching on their cars …
That said, it’s vexing that Musk has embraced them and their Q-anon insanity, typically the very same demographic that wouldn’t buy an EV if their life counted on it.
just to play devils advocate, if you go on reddit, this site or many others, republicans are labeled just as negatively. Things are way to tribal and need to be dialed in before people start being stupider than they naturally already are.
*As a disclaimer, I dislike both sides and don’t have a donkey or elephant in the race.
You’re saying both sides are equally bad? Here’s some Republican f*ckery:
Yet Biden passes sweeping beneficial legislation that makes today’s unemployment figures the lowest in the last half century, pulled our economy from the brink of depression to record figures, is supporting our vets exposed to toxic chemicals, lowered the price of insulin from $500 to $15, the CHIPS act, and etc. etc.
But you’re still on that both-sides-bad bandwagon. Cool. Please explain that to me without using red herrings. Or just admit that one party is extraordinarily better than the other for accomplishing altruistic goals.
LOL not engaging with this insanity.
Cool, because there’s nothing left for you to say that wasn’t already covered in my reply.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-biden-accomplishment-data/
Bloomberg was one of the most liberal rich politicians in NEW YORK until even liberal New York threw his ass out. Not a viable source.
I don’t think he realizes that he has become the democratic equivalent of Qanon and like Qanon, swallows and then regurgitates whatever information is spoonfed to them. The irony about Qanon? Conservative political sites rarely ever talk about Qanon or their whacky theories. The people who talk about Qanon are the liberal-leaning political sites.
I guess everyone needs their own, personal, boogeyman (like the Marxists that Republicans go on about). <Shrug>
For instance, Have you ever heard how that Trump guy stole the 2016 election by manipulating Dominion voting machines? CNN and 60 Minutes will gladly explain how it was done! LOL.
Can’t they try and get a normal candidate to run as President from either side that isn’t a scumbag or a legacy politician who is compromised by the weight of the skeletons in their closets? Nevermind, back to reality…
nailed it.
I can agree with many of the subjects that the Left holds dear but then I find myself questioning those same subjects that I could agree with when I see and hear just how crazy and uneducated the Far Left has become, like the guy above…
One side wants woman who need life saving care to die because their supposed book said so (even though God is pro killing babies according to it). GTFO out with your false equivalent bs. Let me know when the Dems storm the capital because their guy lost and kill someone there then we can talk.(no the George Floyd stuff doesn’t count, that’s not because of a so called stolen election with no proof). Also get your history right, they said Russia stole the 2016 election but you didn’t see the Dems wanting to lynch their vice president. Yall keep on normalizing the crazy.
I’m not a republican and I don’t live in America. So “Yall” applies to your bogeyman. The George Floyd stuff does count as many innocent people were hurt and murdered that had nothing to do with Floyd or the police. And, the capital was “stormed” when the Kavenaugh hearings took place by Dems and they tried to shut down operations. The Dems have denied election results since 2000 when it doesn’t go in their favor.
Actually the press covered up violent liberal protests that far exceeded The January 6th stupidity and those protests killed far more people and cops than January 6th. Pull your head out of the sand. Your being used.
Literally all your points are untrue.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-top-news-religion-racial-injustice-535e145ee67dd757660157be39d05d3f
Listen CNN and 60 minutes did run 15 to 20 minute segments on the issue of Dominion machines being able to be hacked in the 2016 election and how Trump could have stolen the election. This is a fact as is the fact that you are a straight up liar.
By the way, list the 10 fatalities that happened to the capital police
“that resulted in ten fatalities and injuries to the Capitol Police”.
Go on and list the 10 fatalities to the Capital Police.
Some indisputable facts my credulous friend:
I didn’t say the fatalities were all Capitol Police and not all deaths happened on that day. Some committed suicide later as a result of the trauma suffered at the hands of MAGA fanatics and many more are injured and unable to work. Feel free to split hairs defending your Tr*mp cult comrades.
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/lives-lost-during-after-jan-6-riot-us-capitol/FPQNJC3N55GX3AM6NFRDTOBOOQ/
Tr*mp convened an “Election Integrity Commission” in 2016 to claim that he “won the popular vote”. Two years later that very same commission was quietly put out of its misery after finding exactly … nothing. Nothing at all.
https://apnews.com/article/f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d
Let’s not forget Dominion giving FOX a solid rogering in their propaganda bunghole to the tune of $800 million for spreading lies about voting machines. Smartmatic are about to do it to them again but for far more: $2.4 billion.
https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe
The difference between you and me is a little thing I like to call “facts”. You should try them sometime.
Now go back to your rage-commenting at FOX.
It’s not worth arguing with these folks, as I think you are finding out.
Indeed, what’s the use in arguing when the facts are absolutely not on your side?
At what point will you guys acknowledge that you’ve been deceived and that Dems are decent people who want to live in peace and wrench on their cars?
Those are rhetorical questions btw.
Coming from a guy promoting violence in his user name.
It’s called a “pun” or “double entendre” which is obviously above your pay grade.
Don’t be a snowflake amigo.
POT KETTLE
Amen
I put it above once before, and this will be the only other time I engage in this wackadoo talk, but you might want to listen to this. It might be good for you 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfCTKHtEjE
This is just cut and paste from the liberal propaganda hate groups. And apparently 21 like minded lemmings. I’m not going to argue all the made up propaganda the truth is out their but as they say: Don’t mud wrestle a pig you just get dirty and the pig likes it.
Politics: poly-meaning many and tic-meaning a blood sucking insect.
Politicians are like diapers, they should be changed regularly, and for the same reasons.
There is only one way to look at a politician, down.
“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” ~ H. L. Mencken
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” ~ H. L. Mencken
“The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” ~ H. L. Mencken
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” ~ H. L. Mencken
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” ~ H. L. Mencken
here here!
This is just silly. I don’t watch or read Fox news, but as someone squarely in the center, I’m well aware that both the left and the right have their own set of extremists. There’s plenty of hard-left types posting on DailyKos or Reddit who have equally ludicrous opinions and are equally disconnected from reality, but I wouldn’t consider them to be representative of Democrats/liberals any moreso than Fox news comment section is representative of the right.
Most people are just living their lives, not commenting. If your view of “the other side” is informed by Internet commentary, then you’re going to come off with the worst impression possible (and it doesn’t matter what the topic is). If you’re reading it to “Figure out what the haters are up to,” you’re doing little more than exacerbating partisan distance, because that very quote speaks to a reflexive assumption to assume the worst possible of broad swaths of human beings, many of whom you’ve never met and most of whom are – like the ones you know – just trying to live their lives.
I know plenty of center-right types who own EV’s (and for whom trucks like the Lightning are explicitly marketed to) and don’t indulge any wacky conspiracy theories. I know plenty of center-left types that are happily raising families, own small businesses, and aren’t railing in protests for causes they have limited understanding of. The extremists are small populations on either side; they’re just loud.
And lest that seem like a rant, here’s the crux of it – you presumably have strong beliefs (including things like EV adoption) that you’d like to advocate for and have others believe as well. Is the best path to that going to be via assuming implausibly negative things of those who disagree with you, or through assuming that most of them have the cognition to understand your arguments?
So you’re a “centrist”. There is no “center” when it comes to:
The poisonous agitprop on FOX “News” is a poisoned straw man depiction of Dems as the enemy with Elon Musk leading the charge which was my point.
So bravo to you for being in the “center” – I have no idea what that means. I’m advocating for being rational and empathic, and there’s little of that on FOX.
In a comment railing against *checks notes* press outlet that has the audacity to present viewpoints you disagree with.
I just want to read about cars bruh. Maybe you’d feel more at home in the reddit politics sub? You’d get the warm fuzzy embrace of having everyone agree with you that you so desperately seem to crave.
*checks notes* and yep, it’s MAGA that hates the free press.
Also, anyone invoking “bruh” automatically loses all credibility.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-13/donald-trump-dictator-free-press-fake-news-robert-kagan-jd-vance
*Cites LA times OPINION piece in support of argument*
This guy is just the worst. Can you even see the hypocrisy dripping off you?
So you don’t know how to use any search sites? Cool.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=trump+attacks+journalism
Anything else going on in your life besides oRaNgE mAn BaD?
I bet you’re super fun at parties.
Actually I am. We always have a pony keg of Belgian beer on the tap.
Hey Biden has been president for years. How is Trump accomplishing so much, according to your attacks frankly he hasn’t done anything,
Yeah let me know how that less government control thing is going, oh wait look at the Scotus ruling. The right can’t let people exist and just live their lives. They have to inject their own morality into everything and then claim victimhood. My state is completely run by republicans who all work in real estate yet everyone bitches cause they cannot afford a home here yet won’t blame the real cause of it. “But but california.” Also small government is just big government with a different PR campaign. There is no difference beyond which moron is in power.
Hey ChatGPT, write an insulting response to a “centrist” by listing issues where there is no “center”. Ok, that wasn’t very many. Beef up the list by adding in some points that are vague, definitely open to reasonable discussion, or will absolutely require compromise to achieve a good outcome. Now, wrap it up with a sarcastic compliment, state that I’m ignorant to their position anyway, and then advocate for being rational and empathic.
Now, let’s create some other comments to alienate more people by insulting anyone who doesn’t just stand in agreement with me 100%. Please make it sound so toxic that anyone will think I’m insufferable, regardless of political views. I want to push left leaning people away, too. I want to taint any reasonable left leaning ideas with poisonous vitriol in order to make certain that no reasonable, ugh…”centrist”, on either side will want to engage or consider my views. Remember, ChatGPT, I’m not crazy so let’s emphasize all this by churning out opinions and insults at a rapid pace because that’s how people learn. Sprinkle in some hypocrisy and just really hammer it home that a vote for Biden is just what Fox has been telling their viewers, it’s a vote that will ensure all their fears of the far left will come true.
I’ve written better rejoinders with my forehead.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Good you aren’t using it for anything else like thinking.
There is a center. What is becoming apparent is that there is no room at the center for extremists on either side. You extremists are harmful to society and the environment.
My “extremism” is expressed by wanting an honest president, affordable health care, jobs with a living wage, combating global warming, gun safety regulation, protections for women’s bodily autonomy and the rights for my LGBTQ friends to live their lives like anyone else – etc. and blah blah blah.
Hilarious that this is the sort of stuff you people apparently hate. Honestly the things I want are what they already have across northern Europe. Why don’t you go there and rant at them?
Look at the list and note that the United States isn’t on it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/happiest-countries-world-happiness-report-2024.html
Frigging wack job!
Wow, amazing how your “extremists on both sides” equates people who BUILT A FUCKING GALLOWS in front of the Capitol Building with people who think that dignity, housing, and a living wage are basic rights
Your economy of words mirroring my outrage at this both-sides-bad narrative is … (chef’s kiss) bellissimo.
David Sedaris sums up our options this coming November:
This as someone who minored in history it is fucking wild to me how the right glosses over that shit. Sure the left does stupid fuckery all the time but the right is paralleling the nazis way too much for comfort. The irony is the gallows was for their own vice president who didn’t want to get caught up in all the crazy.
And the left has been in the bed with commies since WWII. See anyone can just make shit up.
*opens Reddit*
*browses r/sandycheekscockvore*
“Fucking liberals”
*goes back to work*
All jokes aside, while I agree some sub Reddits can be a liberal circlejerk (mostly the popular ones), it’s also got plenty of subs that are apolitical. Some of my personal favorites: r/Dogelore, r/whatisthisbug, and r/carscirclejerk. Check it out, there’s tons of cool stuff on there for everyone.
Which country are you in that has the pro-Hamas rallies happening in its universities? Here in America I have personally witnessed a few camp-in and regular protests on campuses, but those are pro-Palestinian/anti-genocide, I’ve yet to see any that were organized around being pro-Hamas here…
Found the dude that doesn’t know geography… “From the river to the sea” implies that Israel (and it’s inhabitants) must be wiped out. They’re rallying for genocide, friendo.
No it doesn’t. “Will be free” implies that Palestinians will be able to live freely in their homeland; it doesn’t specify how this is to be attained, whether it will be a one-state, two-state, anarcho-syndicalist or any other solution. Any additional reading comes from you, the NY Post, or Israel’s propaganda department.
October 7th made it extremely clear how this is to be attained. Palestinian leaders’ rejection of any kind of diplomatic solution over the course of the last 80 odd years makes your comment extremely disingenuous.
It’s like the old adage that the American Civil War was about ‘state’s rights’, resulting in the reply of ‘states right to what?’
From the river to the sea, will be free – Will be free from what?
Answer? Jews. Like I said, thinly veiled call for genocide.
Uh oh, the FOX “News” comment section is bleeding over into The Autopian.
Must be a glitch in the Matrix.
Yeah, the bookburners who vote for the guy with the Klan endorsement (famous supporter of the Jewish people, even had surprise BBQs for Jewish families here!) and cozy up to the billionaire suing to shut up any complaints about antisemitism his companies produce, would know what antisemitism looks like.
I’m saying this as someone who thinks the most “give” Israel should give is to return to the post-Six Day War borders so feel free to sling ‘antisemite’ at me. It will be funny.
Libertarian republicans would really like Marx if they actually read what he said in stead of listening to the talking heads.
Libertarians are just freeloaders. None of these clowns would actually go off into the forest and live a life of solitude away from the government. They just want to bitch about everyone else getting stuff because they think they should get everything themselves.
The ruling class are the real freeloaders. Something both libertarians and communists/socialists could agree on is that they don’t like being forced to support the ruling class.
Besides, modern government has effectively outlawed self-sufficient living without being bothered. Even the unabomber was forced to pay property taxes for services he never used or wanted, lest he be kicked off his own land he paid for with his own money. And now days, the vast majority of the US, even 50 miles from the nearest town won’t let you live as he did. They want you to build a house of minimum size(usually 2,000+ sq ft) on a concrete foundation hooking up electricity, water, and sewer at your own expense, or they will kick you off your own land. This is like a $250k+ proposition, which will drive most people who try to do this into debt, paying interest to banks, and all of the other expenses are recurring and anyone making under $20/hr will not b able to met them even if everything on the property is paid off. All so the local government can assess your property at a higher value and extract more property tax revenue. There’s something really gross about that, when at the same time, so many people want to complain about all the homeless people that have nowhere to go, most of whom have jobs and are priced out of rent.
Yeah but my argument is that libertarians really don’t exist and is mostly just people whining about laws they hate. A libertarian would be living off the grid as much as possible not posting on facebook like I see so many do. If anything the real libertarians are the Amish. I agree on the ruling class. If anyone needs a fucking gallows built it is them.
Whining about laws written by and for the benefit of corporate lobbyists that they had no part in the creation of and often for which there was no public debate or consultation, yet are forced to follow at the point of a gun, under threat of having their stuff taken and/or being locked in a cage, or killed if they refuse to be locked in the cage…
Living off grid shouldn’t entail doing without modern conveniences and labor saving devices. The way society is currently structured, however, forces one to be rich to have both. That’s a problem. Having to work all the time defeats the purpose of going off grid, because often the desire is to reduce toil by finding a way to divorce oneself from having to support the ruling class via taxes and/or profit margins.
That said, screw libertarianism. At this point, anarchy would be an improvement over what he have now.
Try as I might, I see no difference between libertarianism and straight up anarchy.
Here’s a libertarian joke:
There is plenty of anarchy in Haiti. Whats stopping you from moving?
Libertarianism fails for the same reason communism fails… both require everyone to behave rationally and respect the rights of others. But in the real world people are not like that, and someone strong will eventually ignore the wants and needs of the weak, leading to fascism or anarchy. Anarchy is a good party theme, but it is death and disease when applied to a country.
I was with ya there until you wanted them dead. Great way to ‘other’ someone you don’t agree with.
I didn’t say I wanted them dead. I was making a point that if anyone deserves the gallows it is the ruling class. It is in reference to historical france and their use of gallows.
So, dead without a head is the difference.
Agreed, but that is just what happens when they hang out with corporate republicans. Republicans believe in the corporation above all and desire companies be as unrestrained as the individual. Libertarians believe in the individual. But republicans have hung being anti-abortion, anti-vax, anti-gay, anti-corporate taxation necklaces around them for to long. There is a lot of small d democrat individual self rights that they DO agree with (medical choice (pro-abortion), right to marry who you want, be who you want, religion how you want, etc) , but they can’t get ALL of their important agendas addressed. The mainstream congressional ilk all follow your formula because of self righteous beliefs. The libertarian in the trenches are those that might be little d democratic supporters in disguise.
Also, my point was that Libertarians are closer to Marxist (the latest boogie man word) than democrats are to communists.
Yeah I will never understand the love for corpos but the hatred of the government the right has. The corpos are the fucking government. Corporations run the country and should get EVERYONE’s ire regardless of political spectrum.
Corporation and state have indeed merged in the USA. Mussolini had a term for that… It’s also not politically correct these days to acknowledge the reality of what the USA has become. We’re still the “exceptional”, “free” country according to both political parties, and if you disagree, you’re one if those dirty “conspiracy theorists”. Both parties have led us down this road. Reality will eventually come to a head and most people who are currently still comfortable won’t be able to ignore it anymore.
“He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see.” ~Ayn Rand
Not sure Ayn Rand is a good person to quote considering the hypocrisy of ending up on government aid but that is a good quote. The term for it is corpocracy. I’m not sure a Mussolini term would be apt here considering that Mussolini nationalized many industries. Instead we have a “false free” government where corpos control based on lobbying and money. Not the other way around. The single biggest harm to this country ever IMO is when the supreme court allowed corporations to have personhood. That destroyed the political system in one move.
You mean the Jewish space lasers that Marjori Taylor Green talked about?
“Radical left”
“Sleepy Creepy Joe”
“Marxist infestation”
“Degenerate left”
This is why we’re at this point. These are not inquisitive words. Instead of responding to a statement with “Why?”, respond with “NO!”. Listening to an opposing viewpoint is equal to giving comfort to the enemy. There is no gray area. There is no reasonable debate. There is no room for discussion. Clamp your ears and hurl insults. Everything is black-and-white. If you’re pro-Palestinian, you are anti-Israel. If you are Democrat, you are anti-Republican. If you are pro-EV, you are anti-ICE. If you are socialist, you are anti-freedom. If you are pro-amber turn signals, you’re anti-red turn signals.
Give it a rest, man. Have your opinions. Have your convictions. Stop demonizing. It gets us nowhere.
We are not pro-Hamas, we are against a Genocide done with our tax dollars. Stop spreading that garbage propaganda; my brothers and sisters from Jewish Voices for Peace would also like to talk to you. At Northwestern, student protesters were arrested after a pro-Israel student yelled “Kill the Jews.” When we protest, we occasionally encounter agitators who try to start chants or hold up offensive signs.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pro-israel-agitator-shouts-kill-163956737.html?
300 mostly Jewish activists were arrested last week after holding a Seder in Brooklyn. Numerous Jewish students arrested at Columbia were forced to violate their own religious obligations and had to eat non-kosher foods, etc, etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/not-like-other-passovers-hundreds-of-jewish-demonstrators-arrested-after-new-york-protest-seder
Yeah hanging around like minded biased people makes you think you are middle of the road. But clearly left wing lemming because you immediately label everyone you disagree with 6 grade hate names.
Fox always lies. I normally don’t waste my time with them.
David Tracy’s interview with FOX “News” is apparently the exception to that rule, proving that a stopped clock is still accurate twice a day.
What a silly thing to say “fox always lies” two seconds after reading about at least one time they didnt lie.
Perhaps not, but like any other news outlet that values clicks and outrage over actual content, they still mislead with the title.
CNN isn’t exempt from this either. Until news outlets are held accountable for the accuracy of their reporting (so basically never) or are divorced from a for-profit model, we will never get unbiased news. It’s simply not their top priority.
Gota’ be honest here. Fox NEWS and Fox Business are structurally different organizations. Fox News is strictly entertainment now and has strong political pressure, I mean, editorial oversight from above. However, Fox Business, the slant can’t be as steep because people can actually look up business facts and verify. [Not a fox watcher at all, tho. Know your enemy and all that.]
I’m glad it went well, and I would not be a bit surprised if the author did not write the headline.
Traditionally, reporters do not write headlines. Editors do that
That is my understanding, which explains why a balanced article has a not so balanced headline.
Oh now you went and made me agree with you. Lol
I’m disappointed that you didn’t talk about PHEVs since that is what your i3 is with its REX. That is the way for the quickest way to massive emission reduction.
I have a PHEV with a rated 37mi range and in our typical daily use we do about 75% electric. Factor in the road trips we’ve done and we are roughly 60% EV for the first 16k. Note we normally only charge to 80% and only bump it to 100% when we know it will be needed.
I read and enjoyed the article David but I refuse to read Fox News’ comment section, that’s a bridge too far good sir (mostly kidding, I read the majority of them). Even the EV proponents in there are insufferable. The only winning move in there is to not play.
Tis sadly true.
It’s been a unique kind of crazy over there for awhile. Years ago I had to do a bunch of research on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig after the Macando-well blowout. Any news-oriented website at the time with a comment-section had at least a few yahoos floating about, but the comments in the related Fox News articles were a truly special flavor of crunchy bat-shit nuts. Every other comment was some kind of conspiratorial nonsense about North Korean frogmen planting the explosives which would later be ignited by space-based lasers (just one example). And then there would occasionally be links to even worse internet sewer-holes. My overall faith in humanity definitely started to erode during that project.
For the first two years after the incident, at the deep scattering layer there was deadzone the size of Ohio around that well site. The government and media did a lot to cover it up including levying threats against independent journalists. While it has the appearance of having recovered, I wouldn’t recommend eating any seafood that came from the area. Plenty of Corexit 9500A and 9527A to go around in the food chain, to this day.
Yep, it’s definitely not a Fox News-only problem; it seems any news site with a comments section is pretty terrible. It’s got to be the demographics of traditional news sites, right? That might be my bias talking since I’m only 37 but I get the impression that they definitely skew much older.
It really makes me appreciate how good the autopian’s comment section is, mostly positive and mostly on point.
Sometimes when I accidentally wander into online comments/reddit or old Twitter it’s hard to believe some of these are real people posting this stuff.
Niche communities definitely do better in that regard, no doubt. Plus I’m sure they do plenty of hidden moderation here; I seem to recall a lot of spam comments advertising money and porn in the early Autopian days.
Yea we had some fun with those ones. I remember Mercedes edited one of them to say something quite funny.
::wipes tear from eye:: I put a lot of work into those porn ads.
Just go check out Yahoo and shake your head. Those people are barely human. Then again, it may just be a bot echo-chamber.