• MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    you’re ready to return to nature

    No, I’m trans. I need to take hormones every day or I’ll want to kill myself. I wear glasses and I can’t do without them. I love processed food, as long as it’s vegan. Instant ramen and potato crisps make up a significant portion of my diet. I can’t do without the internet. Constant information and stimulation keep the voices in my head quiet enough to be bearable. I love technology, there’s no place for me in a primitive world. I’d die.

    Our infrastructure and our technology can change and evolve to co-exist and support the environment much better.

    I know. And cars aren’t the way. Cars are destructive to communities, they kill people with startling regularity, and even when they’re working properly on an electric battery they release PM10 pollution that gives kids asthma and allergies, and they stunt cognitive development for the people inside them.

    The answer is public transit and bicycles. We don’t need to return to monke, we need to build cross continental high speed rail. The technologies to make our lives better exist and they’re not cars. Not even electric cars.

    • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      My apologies for assuming then. It genuinely came off as pretentious and I’m sorry for misunderstanding.

      I also wasn’t aware of the side effects and dangers that even EVs had. I agree that public transit should be invested in more, but I at least thought using EVs as a transition phase would help.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Electric cars are only an effective solution if we’re waiting around for capitalism to fix our problems. Which we shouldn’t be doing. If the government is actually putting in an effort, then it’s more cost effective and faster to build trains and trams and rail. Electric cars let people do a little more good in a world where nobody else is. But they’re not the future, not a future we can look forward to. The EVs of the future are trains, bicycles, trams, buses, scooters, skateboards, fire engines, and ambulances.

        Living carfree makes my life better. But people don’t realise that. I say “you better be ready like me”, and you think I’m an anprim. Nah, I love technology. And I also like getting exercise when I go places like nature intended. I like the vitamin D, I like the cortisol, I like the lack of guilt. I like bringing my bike on the train and playing with my phone on the way. I like never needing to seriously worry about parking. I like knowing I’m not part of the problem. And I really like knowing that no matter how badly I fuck up, I’ll never get someone else killed through carelessness.

        The future is awesome! Walkable neighbourhoods and a public transit system the government actually invests are amazing. I’m very lucky to live somewhere that both of those are true. It’s great in the future, come over here!

        But psychologically, people are stubborn. They’re scared of change. They’ll resist it. People don’t know what’s good for them, they only know what’s comfortable. So come join us in the future now, don’t wait, and don’t risk the possibility that you’ll end up an old fart holding the human race back with your reliance on the technology of the past.