Cars are still a necessity for many Americans and, therefore, the culture of cars is likely to survive for a while. The long-term health of our culture is at risk for various external reasons and one big one: People acting like jerks.
Cars are awesome. I love cars. I devote most of my day to writing about, driving, or thinking about cars. Some of my best memories are in cars. When people online or in person explain their dissatisfaction with cars I am quick to defend vehicles not only as a form of transportation but also as a focal point for community building amongst often diverse groups.
Car culture is good for democracy. It is good for society. I interface with people I might otherwise not because of cars and, in doing so, have the kind of interactions that are necessary for a functioning polity.
Unfortunately, there’s a group of folks, best represented by the r/fuckcars subreddit, that see cars only as a societal evil. To them, cars are a historical mistake caused by greedy 20th-century capitalism that led to us remaking our cities for cars and, by doing, so clogged our air with noxious fumes and sent everyone out to the suburbs.
It would be easier to laugh off the group if there weren’t constant reminders that our hobby is at risk of being outlawed in different ways. And being a jackass really hurts all of us.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3mL-qZuha1/?img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C08zN2WuesS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
This has come up recently because of this gentleman, Miles Hudson, aka SRT.Miles, aka aka the “Belltown Hellcat.” He has a Hellcat Dodge Charger with a modified exhaust and his joy seems to be in driving as loudly as possible late at night in Seattle.
In watching a lot of these videos it’s not clear if Hudson’s goal is to represent car culture or just be an annoying influencer, but to the average resident nearby it’s a “car thing” and nothing else.
You can really get the sense of how this is about cars from a recent write up in Fox 13 Seattle:
Hudson’s Hellcat — a Dodge Charger modified with racing-grade software and an ensemble of aftermarket parts — wears a price tag close to $100,000. While some automotive mod companies linked to Hudson on his Instagram page relish his patronage, others are slamming the brakes on any association with the reckless driver’s exploits.
The city’s patience wore thin last week as Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison took legal action, demanding a default judgment against the daredevil driver. Hudson could be on the hook for not only his towering fines but also the taxpayer dollars squandered as a result of his failure to answer the city’s pleas.
Residents have lodged numerous complaints and police have issued warnings, tickets and reports to no avail. Hudson’s mother emailed the city in mid-May, insisting that steps were being taken to bring the car into compliance and under new ownership. Yet, a recent video on Hudson’s Instagram page contradicts these claims, showcasing masked antics that only fan the flames of local frustration.
The “racing grade” software bit is kinda hilarious and this is an extreme example, but it’s certainly not the only one. If it’s not Hellcats in Seattle it’s people in trucks “rolling coal” on electric cars:
If you’re not aware, rolling coal is using a (usually modified) diesel truck to spew as much particulate matter into the air. This is typically done by tweaking the engine to dump as much diesel into the cylinders as possible and, without enough air for proper combustion, the exhaust releases a big smokey plume that’s terrible for everyone. A kid in Texas tried to do it to a bunch of cyclists, accidentally collided with them, and sent two of them to the hospital.
The Hardigree Principle
Not to get too Andy Rooney on your ass, but when someone acts like a dummy in a Nissan Altima that’s easy to write off as a person being a dummy in a Nissan Altima, but when someone acts foolish in a modified car or a sports car it’s suddenly more ammo for those trying to declare all cars evil.
Now, Matt Hardigree is only human, don’t think I haven’t been through the same predicament. I get the appeal of being dumb in a car and I have, of course, been dumb in a car. But I’ve very specifically tried to do dumb shit in a way where, if I really screw up, I’m only annoying/hurting/inconveniencing myself. I’ve also tried to do it stealthily. If I’m in a bright orange Veyron I’m not going to go bombing down Broadway.
Weirdly, this seems to be the exact opposite of how people act. The more conspicuous the car the more conscious the activity.
This is why I’m proposing The Hardigree Principle, which states that the louder and flashier your car the harder you need to try to not be a jackass in public.
If you’ve got a heavily modified Pontiac Aztek with a bright purple zebra wrap and a bangin’ sound system then it’s on you to not blast Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open” outside the Children’s Hospital at 4:00 AM. If you’re a Creed Festival then or a race track or whatever, sure, have at it.
If your daily is a brand new 911 GT3 then, cool, good for you. Great car. Maybe try not to hoon it on city roads in the middle of a weekday, it’ll only end badly.
This isn’t to say that if you have a stock Dodge Neon you’re allowed to drive however you want. Always be safe, but the odd front-wheel-drive tire chirp from a spotlight isn’t going to grab the attention of the national news or doom car culture.
This Is What SLAB Culture Gets Right
Growing up in Houston I sort of grew up with SLAB cars. For those who don’t know, SLAB means Slow, Loud, and Bangin’ and refers to any car (though often older American cars) lowered and covered with bright candy paint, a huge subwoofer (with which to bang), and swangas (wheels with the giant elbows out).
Out of any context, they are about as obnoxious as any car could possibly be. But the “slow” in SLAB is important. While I regularly experienced SLAB cars in the wild and, on occasion, heard a few pop off with some Lil’ Keke in the middle of the HEB parking lot, I rarely had any issues.
Part of the reason is that so much money is put into these cars that it would be risky to drive fast with these wheels. Unfortunately, as pointed out in the film above, clout chasing has resulted in some street racing and other less-ideal behavior for social media.
To get a little more Andy Rooney, I do think social media has made this behavior worse by making it possible to grab a huge audience and make money by being more obnoxious with your car.
Ultimately, I think car culture is a good thing and for every one jackass annoying their neighbors for lols there are dozens of other helpful, well-meaning people who just like cars. It’s on the rest of us to do better personally and also to discourage our friends from being chodes so we don’t wind up with more car shows that think they need to ban whole classes of cars to survive.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin: It’s a nice car culture, if we can keep it.
“If you’ve got a heavily modified Pontiac Aztek with a bright purple zebra wrap and a bangin’ sound system-”
Hey, that sounds like what DT should be living in right now. What’s the deal?
“If you’re a Creed Festival…”
Thanks, now I’m going to have nightmares.
“If you’ve got a heavily modified Pontiac Aztek with a bright purple zebra wrap and a bangin’ sound system-”
Hey, that sounds like what DT should be living in right now. What’s the deal?
“If you’re a Creed Festival…”
Thanks, now I’m going to have nightmares.
I had someone roll coal on my K-truck last week! I was in Tukwila (a Seattle suburb) on a 3 lane wide road when a lifted white GM pickup came up behind me at a light. When the light turned, he aggressively changed lanes and went racing through traffic. At the next light I was behind him… When it turned green he revved his engine way up and made a slow burnout across the intersection billowing so much black smoke out of his oversized exhaust pipe that it was hard to see or breathe! Traffic on my side of the road nearly came to a stop.
There’s a few kei trucks where I work here in Central Ohio. Brodozers roll coal on them constantly, it’s so disgusting.
I had someone roll coal on my K-truck last week! I was in Tukwila (a Seattle suburb) on a 3 lane wide road when a lifted white GM pickup came up behind me at a light. When the light turned, he aggressively changed lanes and went racing through traffic. At the next light I was behind him… When it turned green he revved his engine way up and made a slow burnout across the intersection billowing so much black smoke out of his oversized exhaust pipe that it was hard to see or breathe! Traffic on my side of the road nearly came to a stop.
There’s a few kei trucks where I work here in Central Ohio. Brodozers roll coal on them constantly, it’s so disgusting.
Folks have rolled coal on my Mini and Civic as well.
It seems anything perceived as efficient is the enemy.
It’s also anything they think they can get away with, which is smaller cars in general. They’re just the grown up school bully picking on the smaller kids
Folks have rolled coal on my Mini and Civic as well.
It seems anything perceived as efficient is the enemy.
It’s also anything they think they can get away with, which is smaller cars in general. They’re just the grown up school bully picking on the smaller kids
I find that my jerk side is kept in check by being uncomfortably well known as a person. I live in a smaller city, so obviously if I was in LA or something, I would be blissfully anonymous, but that is not the case here. Plenty of people are familiar with “that goth girl with the Fiats/MR2/from autocross/who works at *shop redacted.*” Add into the mix a lot of people also knowing my family as well, many of whom are also involved in the car community. I am not a saint, but I am kept pretty well in check by knowing I have to maintain a positive reputation. I feel like if there was more pressure on everyone to keep their reputation clean, it might cut down on the jackassery
The same media that keeps you in check rewards jackasses. Their reputation IS negativity.
Basically internet trolls on wheels.
I find that my jerk side is kept in check by being uncomfortably well known as a person. I live in a smaller city, so obviously if I was in LA or something, I would be blissfully anonymous, but that is not the case here. Plenty of people are familiar with “that goth girl with the Fiats/MR2/from autocross/who works at *shop redacted.*” Add into the mix a lot of people also knowing my family as well, many of whom are also involved in the car community. I am not a saint, but I am kept pretty well in check by knowing I have to maintain a positive reputation. I feel like if there was more pressure on everyone to keep their reputation clean, it might cut down on the jackassery
The same media that keeps you in check rewards jackasses. Their reputation IS negativity.
Basically internet trolls on wheels.
I could write a novel about this, but I’m going to try and keep this short. I’ve spent years as an emergency room social worker, and in that capacity get to see the human experience a bit differently. Also fairly involved in Public Health. So with that. This isn’t exclusively a Car Culture thing, as Socially we’ve prompted Anti-Social/ Extreme Behavior as way of expressing our individuality and our place in society. There’s two factors I believe mainly at play, one, being social media, and two being the death of the Third Place and our lack of natural supports. Socially, we’ve rapidly been isolating ourselves due to a myriad of reason, such as and not limited too, our anxieties over the Other often fed to us by the media. For example, most adult men have very little to no interaction thats not work or family. These relationships can be positive, however there is still elements to these connections that aren’t featured in friendship and limit freedom of expression. The car too, is not without blame here, its an inherently often an isolated experience, as most people spend most of their time driving to work alone. Also it’s likely the most dangerous thing most people do, playing into our mass social anxiety. So, we’re all very often lonely. Making us ripe targets for social media. Social Media prompts difference. And with that shear amount of uploaders, naturally people seek to create that difference how they can. Skill based difference requires hours of work. However negative social behavior difference only requires a willingness to do so, which easier. So, people do negative things, and get rewarded for it with their own community in likes. Because we as social animals seek community which often does not exist IRL. We copy that behavior hoping to get what use to be filled by going really just going outside.
Which gets to my second thought. R/Fuckcars is extreme and clearly falls into the what is listed above. But they have a point, Cars and society built exclusively for only their use as transport is reasonably isolating and exclusionary. A car is often expensive, requires space, has multiple barriers to use. Also, persons 45 years and younger will likely not live as long as their parents for the first time in US history even though are medical system on case success and ability to treat is improved. Largely due to the limited about of exercise and outdoor espouse we get. We are natural an animal that thrives on extended cardio, we’re better than all those other land mammals. And we’ve largely removed that from our day to day lives. For a large segment of the population, they would prefer another option. However persons can be extremely hostile to this due to the inverse of the same situation that created R/Fuckcars. But R/Giveusotheroptionsoutsideofthecar doesn’t gather the clicks
TLDR: We’re lonely creatures and things aren’t going well as a whole.
Very insightful – thanks! I think another big factor this is that for a lack of a better term, we’ve made our society very frictionless in many cases.
Whether consuming a entire days’ worth of calories with a single bag of chips, getting into fights on the internet with people you’ve never met, or jumping in your car and reaching triple digit speeds, it’s easy. Too easy perhaps.
And it now takes actual effort to reverse this, to add fiction back into our lives. And being what we are, it’s often unlikely that we do it.
I could add more about the deontological nature of our society devaluing the concept of virtue, but it’s the pragmatic I really find most interesting, (that’s why I appreciated your point about our increasingly sedentary ways).
Not to get too much into Hot New Psychology, but I’ve seen this called the Convivence Curse. We’re primarily evolved as persistence hunters. We’re adapted to more or less suffering. Like how we get a major dopamine response when running. Because we often live sedentary lives and over consume calories with limited effort, we’re working against conditions that we’re psychologically accustomed too. Theory is, without any sort of adversity in out lives we often start to look for danger in places that might not be dangerous. basically our fight or flight response goes into overdrive. Which could give a chemical reasoning to why anxiety is vastly more common in what is a less dangerous society. Some of the reasoning is increased social acceptance and understanding. But anxiety as a concept is far older then the diagnosis, so we have sources that pre-date dx to suggest that populations of the past were highly likely less Anxious over all.
Fascinating. I’d read recently that ancient Greek warriors didn’t get PTSD; conflict was such a big part of their lives and societies that if anything, another way of living was what felt subconsciously off to them.
In my everyday life, I’ve always noticed that if I spend a day doing passive things (consumption of one sort of another), I often feel way more tired at the end than if I spent the day doing active things like wrestling with a car repair.
Yeah, chasing clout and establishing a brand are not healthy behaviors. Also building an identity around one thing is equally unhealthy, be it whistle tips or an incredibly niche political faction
Or: “Unplug the Internet”
I could write a novel about this, but I’m going to try and keep this short. I’ve spent years as an emergency room social worker, and in that capacity get to see the human experience a bit differently. Also fairly involved in Public Health. So with that. This isn’t exclusively a Car Culture thing, as Socially we’ve prompted Anti-Social/ Extreme Behavior as way of expressing our individuality and our place in society. There’s two factors I believe mainly at play, one, being social media, and two being the death of the Third Place and our lack of natural supports. Socially, we’ve rapidly been isolating ourselves due to a myriad of reason, such as and not limited too, our anxieties over the Other often fed to us by the media. For example, most adult men have very little to no interaction thats not work or family. These relationships can be positive, however there is still elements to these connections that aren’t featured in friendship and limit freedom of expression. The car too, is not without blame here, its an inherently often an isolated experience, as most people spend most of their time driving to work alone. Also it’s likely the most dangerous thing most people do, playing into our mass social anxiety. So, we’re all very often lonely. Making us ripe targets for social media. Social Media prompts difference. And with that shear amount of uploaders, naturally people seek to create that difference how they can. Skill based difference requires hours of work. However negative social behavior difference only requires a willingness to do so, which easier. So, people do negative things, and get rewarded for it with their own community in likes. Because we as social animals seek community which often does not exist IRL. We copy that behavior hoping to get what use to be filled by going really just going outside.
Which gets to my second thought. R/Fuckcars is extreme and clearly falls into the what is listed above. But they have a point, Cars and society built exclusively for only their use as transport is reasonably isolating and exclusionary. A car is often expensive, requires space, has multiple barriers to use. Also, persons 45 years and younger will likely not live as long as their parents for the first time in US history even though are medical system on case success and ability to treat is improved. Largely due to the limited about of exercise and outdoor espouse we get. We are natural an animal that thrives on extended cardio, we’re better than all those other land mammals. And we’ve largely removed that from our day to day lives. For a large segment of the population, they would prefer another option. However persons can be extremely hostile to this due to the inverse of the same situation that created R/Fuckcars. But R/Giveusotheroptionsoutsideofthecar doesn’t gather the clicks
TLDR: We’re lonely creatures and things aren’t going well as a whole.
Very insightful – thanks! I think another big factor this is that for a lack of a better term, we’ve made our society very frictionless in many cases.
Whether consuming a entire days’ worth of calories with a single bag of chips, getting into fights on the internet with people you’ve never met, or jumping in your car and reaching triple digit speeds, it’s easy. Too easy perhaps.
And it now takes actual effort to reverse this, to add fiction back into our lives. And being what we are, it’s often unlikely that we do it.
I could add more about the deontological nature of our society devaluing the concept of virtue, but it’s the pragmatic I really find most interesting, (that’s why I appreciated your point about our increasingly sedentary ways).
Not to get too much into Hot New Psychology, but I’ve seen this called the Convivence Curse. We’re primarily evolved as persistence hunters. We’re adapted to more or less suffering. Like how we get a major dopamine response when running. Because we often live sedentary lives and over consume calories with limited effort, we’re working against conditions that we’re psychologically accustomed too. Theory is, without any sort of adversity in out lives we often start to look for danger in places that might not be dangerous. basically our fight or flight response goes into overdrive. Which could give a chemical reasoning to why anxiety is vastly more common in what is a less dangerous society. Some of the reasoning is increased social acceptance and understanding. But anxiety as a concept is far older then the diagnosis, so we have sources that pre-date dx to suggest that populations of the past were highly likely less Anxious over all.
Fascinating. I’d read recently that ancient Greek warriors didn’t get PTSD; conflict was such a big part of their lives and societies that if anything, another way of living was what felt subconsciously off to them.
In my everyday life, I’ve always noticed that if I spend a day doing passive things (consumption of one sort of another), I often feel way more tired at the end than if I spent the day doing active things like wrestling with a car repair.
Yeah, chasing clout and establishing a brand are not healthy behaviors. Also building an identity around one thing is equally unhealthy, be it whistle tips or an incredibly niche political faction
Or: “Unplug the Internet”
Only “Car Culture” I’ll complain about is a bunch of douchebags from a “less liberal” town next door driving their white raised trucks with Trump flags and honking their horns to see who they can piss off.
This is SoCal, by the way. I simply let their (literal) freak flag fly.
I find that hard to believe. I live in Socal and that’s extremely rare, even in Orange County. Extremely loud exhausts are everywhere and every intersection has takeover tire shreds nowadays.
I find it easier to believe. Native Angeleno here & older than dirt. LA, Orange and San Diego counties are quite a bit different than the counties directly to the East: San Bernadino, Imperial and Riverside.
Only “Car Culture” I’ll complain about is a bunch of douchebags from a “less liberal” town next door driving their white raised trucks with Trump flags and honking their horns to see who they can piss off.
This is SoCal, by the way. I simply let their (literal) freak flag fly.
I find that hard to believe. I live in Socal and that’s extremely rare, even in Orange County. Extremely loud exhausts are everywhere and every intersection has takeover tire shreds nowadays.
I find it easier to believe. Native Angeleno here & older than dirt. LA, Orange and San Diego counties are quite a bit different than the counties directly to the East: San Bernadino, Imperial and Riverside.
I don’t even think it’s just cars. It seems like it’s a influencer culture where people derive satisfaction in life from shock value and followers.
Expect it to get worse in the near future.
It’s “The Narcissism of Small Distinctions”. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. When a 7yo kid is pulling down 7 figures unboxing/playing with increasingly expensive/sophisticated toys or electrivia, everyone wants in on the action.
I don’t even think it’s just cars. It seems like it’s a influencer culture where people derive satisfaction in life from shock value and followers.
Expect it to get worse in the near future.
It’s “The Narcissism of Small Distinctions”. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. When a 7yo kid is pulling down 7 figures unboxing/playing with increasingly expensive/sophisticated toys or electrivia, everyone wants in on the action.
Would be nice if they actually did something to him. I’d crush his car with him in it, but I’ll allow we’re (cue George Costanza) living in a society, so I’d be fine with him having to watch. And a lot of community service, something fairly brutal and fitting. And revoked license with automatic jail time for non-compliance—none of this horseshit, “Now, if you do that one more time (fifth time), I pinky swear (again) that we’ll surely put you in jail.”
I don’t think he’s really a car enthusiast so much as one of an apparently endless cavalcade of pathetic, mass-produced, entitled parasite “influencers” looking to be paid in attention and this is his chosen course, but whether or not I’m right (why not both?) doesn’t really matter as all people see is: asshole “gearhead” = gearheads are assholes.
I always shudder at a car getting crushed because the owner was an idiot. I say take it to a place where the entire car can be disassembled and sold as parts. The car parts get to live on to repair somebody else’s car and he has to pay all of his fines and for the disassembly. He’s out a couple of thousand plus his $100k car. That would be a fitting punishment.
Yeah, that’s a far more environmentally responsible and smart solution for the car part.
I could settle for lifelong Yugo ownership.
Would be nice if they actually did something to him. I’d crush his car with him in it, but I’ll allow we’re (cue George Costanza) living in a society, so I’d be fine with him having to watch. And a lot of community service, something fairly brutal and fitting. And revoked license with automatic jail time for non-compliance—none of this horseshit, “Now, if you do that one more time (fifth time), I pinky swear (again) that we’ll surely put you in jail.”
I don’t think he’s really a car enthusiast so much as one of an apparently endless cavalcade of pathetic, mass-produced, entitled parasite “influencers” looking to be paid in attention and this is his chosen course, but whether or not I’m right (why not both?) doesn’t really matter as all people see is: asshole “gearhead” = gearheads are assholes.
I always shudder at a car getting crushed because the owner was an idiot. I say take it to a place where the entire car can be disassembled and sold as parts. The car parts get to live on to repair somebody else’s car and he has to pay all of his fines and for the disassembly. He’s out a couple of thousand plus his $100k car. That would be a fitting punishment.
Yeah, that’s a far more environmentally responsible and smart solution for the car part.
I could settle for lifelong Yugo ownership.
I think rolling coal was attempted on me once in my Bolt, fairly congested traffic but my lane started moving quicker than theirs so by the time they could ‘gun it’ for the coal I was already past them, think they tagged some poor guy behind me, such a d!ck move.
The loud cars in our neighborhood have settled down the last couple years, but for a while definitely had some folks with their orange Chargers and blue WRXs that would take the left onto our street( .2 mile dead end cul-de-sac) and gun it to their house, and then of course leaving their house gun it to the stop sign to turn right. Our neighborhood is fairly chill and live and let live but thinking some folks might have eventually gave them a talking to.
What I don’t understand is how folks like srt.miles and the like with their super loud exhaust and racing in the middle of the night aren’t just pulled over and the cars impounded on whatever charges the cop feels like thinking up that night. But random people of a certain persuasion get profiled and stopped daily. It’s not like the loud guys are making it hard to find, and no matter how fast your hellcat you can’t outrun a radio.
I think rolling coal was attempted on me once in my Bolt, fairly congested traffic but my lane started moving quicker than theirs so by the time they could ‘gun it’ for the coal I was already past them, think they tagged some poor guy behind me, such a d!ck move.
The loud cars in our neighborhood have settled down the last couple years, but for a while definitely had some folks with their orange Chargers and blue WRXs that would take the left onto our street( .2 mile dead end cul-de-sac) and gun it to their house, and then of course leaving their house gun it to the stop sign to turn right. Our neighborhood is fairly chill and live and let live but thinking some folks might have eventually gave them a talking to.
What I don’t understand is how folks like srt.miles and the like with their super loud exhaust and racing in the middle of the night aren’t just pulled over and the cars impounded on whatever charges the cop feels like thinking up that night. But random people of a certain persuasion get profiled and stopped daily. It’s not like the loud guys are making it hard to find, and no matter how fast your hellcat you can’t outrun a radio.
A Pontiac Aztek with bright purple zebra wrap and a sound system that only plays Creed?
So that’s what David will be buying and dailying, right?
A Pontiac Aztek with bright purple zebra wrap and a sound system that only plays Creed?
So that’s what David will be buying and dailying, right?
I live in Los Angeles and cars with extreme exhaust volume go past every hour of the day, most of them with crackle tunes. Almost got killed on the 101 trying to go surf early AM by an out of control supercar going triple digit speeds and merging in and out of traffic for “Supercar Sunday”. Luckily he swung into the shoulder at the last second but kicked up a ton of rocks into my windshield. Used to enjoy riding my dual sport on twisty roads to hit some forest service roads but had too many close calls with cars going over the center line so I called it quits.
I still follow car blogs (this is basically the only one I visit at this point) but my real-life enthusiasm for cars is basically dead.
I live in Los Angeles and cars with extreme exhaust volume go past every hour of the day, most of them with crackle tunes. Almost got killed on the 101 trying to go surf early AM by an out of control supercar going triple digit speeds and merging in and out of traffic for “Supercar Sunday”. Luckily he swung into the shoulder at the last second but kicked up a ton of rocks into my windshield. Used to enjoy riding my dual sport on twisty roads to hit some forest service roads but had too many close calls with cars going over the center line so I called it quits.
I still follow car blogs (this is basically the only one I visit at this point) but my real-life enthusiasm for cars is basically dead.
So can I still be a jerk part of the time? Maybe just to the people who really, really deserve it?
From my observations, that’s the whole point of the internet. Go wild!
So can I still be a jerk part of the time? Maybe just to the people who really, really deserve it?
From my observations, that’s the whole point of the internet. Go wild!
Hard agree. See what I did there?