How Cars (2006) Explains the Collapse of American Society

[@rpgslayerlordthefirst9261]

As a person with disability. A world where speed and efficiency are valued more than my own abilities has been a struggle for my entire life.

[@emilyniedbala]

+

[@lucasdasilva4496]

For me too mate, but maybe in a different way. Everytime I want to play a competitive game that I like, most of the strategies aims to destroy the oponent as fast as you can. This destroys any sort of freedom, you can not choose the strategy that you want, because your enemy will, and will force you to have the same strategy, or a variant of it, removing any sort of freedom on your choices.

[@shadowsconception26102]

Womp womp

[@mackeziehartill2733]

I know exactly how you feel buddy.🎉😂

[@millersam07]

There was actually a video on cars and disability rep by another KZbinr. In later films there are cars called Lemon's, a whole section of the economy is devoted to ripping them off, and basically treating them as defective citizens. The companies are making millions of dollars off of them bc well they need new parts or they'll die. The big companies decide they are not going to make those parts anymore. So a bunch of Lemon's get together in a big conspiracy for the parts. Matter gets mistaken for a spy, and has to infiltrate the evil Lemon group. And that's basically the side plot of one of the movies. But the other KZbinr's video analyzed how the Lemon's were a representation of disabled people in current society.

[@Gio-ym4uj]

Italian, here. No. I had to make an effort to write this comment.

[@williambrasky3891]

Pretty efficient use of words you got there.

[@calmc9655]

​@@williambrasky3891yes, it must be quite difficult to reduce so many hand gestures into so few words xp

[@akirashiori6265]

It pains me to think that the US could’ve been Italy. Imagine having thousands of Italy like cities? Sure, you’d still need to rent a car occasionally as this country is enormous, but on a day to day basis you’d be able to walk or take efficient public transport to work

[@allenmontrasio8962]

​@@akirashiori6265 have you been to an Italian city?

[@Iapetus7849]

@@akirashiori6265 You'd actually be surprised at how many places in Italy resemble American-style suburbs. And this sort of "car ontology" is definitely a big part of our culture here.

[@DamonXWind]

"It's like if a movie about sentient guns tried to tell us to solve our problems with words instead of bullets" The Iron Giant has entered the chat

[@Cuorante]

"I... am not... a gun."

[@GeriatricFan1963]

"You are who you choose to be..."

[@azanyahyisrael101]

Not going to lie. This is an excellent comment😊

[@eurosonly]

You've just reminded me to watch that. I've only seen it in parts back in the day.

[@colltonrighem]

Funny, since that was the pitch for the movie in the first place - “what if a gun had a soul and didn’t want to be a gun?”

[@geofff.3343]

Cars actually make me feel confined. I have to pay money for payments, insurance, and maintenance. Nothing tied up my life and resources like a car.

[@matejlieskovsky9625]

"Bikes deliver the freedom that car ads promise."

[@htopherollem649]

​@@matejlieskovsky9625until/ unless you get hit by a car, it broke me

[@austinbaccus]

These are only problems if you have a minimum wage job or bought a car you couldn't afford. Walk until you get a better job

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

@@austinbaccusEven if you have a good paying job, cars are still an expensive burden. Owning one should be optional, not a requirement.

[@TheDr502]

Oh yeah, and don't forget needing to follow cryptic road signs to a T, lest you get lost.

[@blakejon]

There is a film about peace loving sentient guns, Iron Giant. "I am not a gun" gets me every time!

[@tryhard7536]

Illegal alien gets the army to deport and dismantle him

[@guard13007]

The bit where McQueen stops just before the finish line to let someone else win reminds me of in elementary school when the principle asked me why I didn't enter into their reading competition. I said it wouldn't be fair for me to win every year, so I only did it once. I know this has nothing to do with the point being made here.. but I just.. I think about how I wish more people had that mentality. Competition is fun, winning is fun.. but also, staying dominant at the top is just crushing others' dreams to aggrandize yourself. You've already won, you don't need to keep winning. Edit: Typo!

[@zacksung11]

That's exactly the kind of thinking I wish F1 drivers had. Dominating seasons year after year is tiring to watch.

[@jfu5222]

Cooperation over competition and sustainability over growth are lessons I've tried to instill in my kids. You have to make active choices to stay out of that mindset.

[@jevilthechaostailor]

how does a reading competition work? how do they judge it? is it speed or do you have to analyse a text?

[@enhaworld]

it reminds me of how the captain of the cheerleading squad at my high school was so popular she always won everything no matter what

[@ChimeraLotietheBunny]

Same idea

[@AlEcyler]

When I was living in Denver (which has a decent public transport system) my best friend was legally blind and couldn't drive. So we'd either use public transport when it was available or I'd go and pick him up and we'd make the trip together. I never thought much about it, but watching this video I think I may have lucked out always having a buddy to ride with me during heavy traffic.

[@smelly1678]

Have to disagree about pubtrans in Denver being decent. There’s no metro or tram and lots of sprawl. Was only there a week, but found that moving around the city was really difficult and inefficient without calling a car.

[@AlEcyler]

I don't know when you were there, but I was able to step out of my apartment walk across the street and go directly to the airport or downtown light rail station. Any given neighborhood in the metro area was a block or two from a bus stop. It's now amazing by any stretch, buy I've been to bigger cities that are far worse. So as I said. Decent.

[@severdislike4222]

@@AlEcyler Personal guess - prior to the light rail system offering service going into golden (do wish they'd finish the frigging line to Boulder though) and as far south as Lone Tree. So any time prior to 2017. Any time after that and yeah, Denver has an infinitely better rail & bus system than a lot of metro centers (especially in the midwest & friggin south.) Source - I lived in Lakewood while they were building the dang thing. It was a massive quality of life improvement when I could bike 5 minutes to the nearest station.

[@hmfan24]

Cities are quicker to accommodate cars than they are pedestrians with disabilities. I've lived in Houston, and it was impossible to function until I got a car. Even the bus system wasn't friendly enough when you live in the suburbs.

[@blindey]

Legally blind person here. I was in Pasadena (Which for everyone else is a suburb about 20-30 minutes outside Houston) and there was 0 bus or connecting transportation that went to Houston. I moved out to Cali and I was SHOCKED at how good the bus infrastructure here is. I could go across...at least a good portion of the state on it whis multiple giant cities and that's so much better, like. damn. Also bike lines even existing is very cool.

[@eurosonly]

I just wanna clarify that when hes talking about competitive car culture, he's talking about your everyday suburban soccer mom and football dad who buys a new big truck or suburban to compete with thwir neighbor. These people are not apart of the car culture you might be thinking of. These people don't go to car meets to show off their new led taillights and exhaust.

[@TiagoGomez-hb9te]

Yeah this is true

[@jonasjacobsen9702]

I think you're right. The specific car culture your talking about here is actually a community niche. More like a hobby. I don't think that is his point in the video. He's talking about the broader implications of car dependency and how car dependency actually makes us less human.

[@K1ng1995]

Exactly most people they have cool cars show them off or have rebuilt old cars because it's FUN. Whatever happened to just HAVING FUN? Isn't that why Rock N Roll was made in the first place? To be loud and obnoxious and have a good time? You have your Muscle and Classic car lovers who worked so hard brining a classic piece of automotive history back to life for new people to see and enjoy. The Loud bright colors, loud engines. You have your JDM lovers who showed the world that a car doesn't have to be expensive to be great You have your European car lovers who show that car loving is for people of all ages.

[@disableddanny96]

The thing I think cars is really trying to say is it’s about the journey, not the destination

[@churchofmarcus]

Life is a highway 🎶

[@SuperSandwich713]

​@@churchofmarcusUnironically this is the deepest I've ever thought about what that lyric actually means, thanks

[@deadhead4077]

Incredible deep dive. American car culture is def about freedom. I always thought a green revolution revolved around EVs but it took a while to grow up and realize replacing 1 gas car for 1 EV is not solving anything and we really need to push more public transportation initiatives and trains the I'm sure lobbyists from the big 3 helped make less of a priority

[@Nylon_riot]

I am glad people are figuring this out. It is actually about surveillance. I have watched the Koch brothers end projects through heavy campaigning in real time. The other issue is zoning. We don't do mixed zoning so people can't live where they work, also forcing people to drive while it drives up rent and real estate as people pay to reduce their commutes.

[@alexcarter8807]

You want freedom, get a bike. The ultimate libertarian vehicle.

[@kevinmathewson4272]

bicycles could be a good middle ground.

[@evilryutaropro]

Cars are closer to feudalism than freedom

[@fredithegeroo906]

The zoning laws would also have to change; I want to be able to get to and from work without having to drive several miles in heavy traffic! But nooooo, I have to live in suburbia where you need a car to get anywhere!

[@troperhghar9898]

Cars is the male protagonist version of a halmark movie

[@shay3000]

Well damn 🤨

[@complexrolls]

Are you Daniel? Cause damn.

[@blindey]

As a legally blind person, being able to go places, and hving difficulty doing so, has directly stunted my social development

[@hazelnoisette4539]

I think rather than the cars replacing us I feel like with the obsession with cars made us turn ourself into our cars

[@TyErickson-i2s]

Ha mind blown

[@communist_kirby]

my headcanon is that the cars in Cars didn't genocide the humans, but instead the humans in the universe started becoming so car-centric in their lives, started living so much of their lives in their cars, that they BECAME cars somehow. almost like the play "Rhinoceros" where people turn into Rhinoceroses as they become more anxious about the fact that everyone is turning into Rhinoceroses (that play is an argument against fascism tho, so slightly different but maybe also similar 😂). it makes some parts of the movie ironic, such as the family on the road trip having to take one car per "person" (because they are cars) instead of being able to carpool. and everyone turning into cars was likely intended to be a liberatory action (since cars give you independence in our current world) but once you make everyone into cars, the infrastructure required just to have people live life is expanded greatly. this is perfectly encapsulated in what the video mentions about LA: it's 41% roads or parking yet you can't get anywhere fast. you'd think it'd be the other way around but when you think about it, cars just don't make sense to base a society around.

[@Gorgo4fun]

My take on their origin is that the cars didn't kill us, they are cyborgs, which turns the movie into a technooptimistic, automobilized, transhumanist, petro-masculine Sci-Fi Dystopia.

[@williambrasky3891]

Nah, it’s actually the Great Replacement Theory but for cars. The cars out fucked us. Now, they just breed humans to grind up for fuel (or Huel as they call it). Basically the cars’ solve every problem with breeding.

[@tabrams6025]

I don't like this

[@Gorgo4fun]

@tabrams6025 me neither

[@deadhead4077]

My parents moving to Boston are considering selling their car since public transit is so abundant, and parking is awful.

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

Selling their car? It's not a slave!

[@Galaxyeyez]

Good on them for embracing mass transit.

[@the3dluxe53]

@@Galaxyeyezwas that a pun?

[@Jkdabomb10A]

“Sentient guns advocating we can solve our problems with words.” You mean the Iron Giant????

[@kingofnonation5843]

'You are who you choose to be " Hogarth

[@SephWarren]

Clearly this is just a not too distant future where humans went through the Wall-E effect and couldn't escape the cars they ordered their fast food from and eventually fused with the machine

[@thacool101]

13:28 "a movie about sentient guns that advocate for peace with words" is just transformers 😂

[@benthurber5363]

No, you missed what really motivated the Italian forklift: Spite.

[@bicuriousdirtbikeboi2594]

I lived in Steamboat Springs Colorado for a year, and it’s a great city for no cars because almost everywhere is bikeable, and the bus is free and works well

[@jacksont9455]

That’s how I felt at the Catalina island. Most people had bikes and golf carts, and cars were very rare I wish it wasn’t so expensive and touristy. I’d totally live there

[@matiasjacobsen2647]

Catalina island sounds like a cool place to be

[@Existential_Millennial]

Great video! This made me think about comparing American Graffiti to this framework, since in American Graffiti, the car is idealized as an essential part of the community. Granted it's George Lucas being nostalgic about his own teenage years, but I find it interesting that during the "Golden Age" of the White American middle class, cars were seemingly able to bring people together. Probably has to do with low oil prices and the fact that this version of the US is before the national highway system really took off and destroyed the pre-car layout of most cities and towns (which was further exacerbated by a transition into a service economy and Neoliberalism). Like this video states, we increasingly valued speed and efficiency, so the idea of cruising down main street all night with your friends stopped becoming economically, and therefore socially, viable.

[@churchofmarcus]

I was doing this with my friends in the mid 2000s. Doing it now with motorcycles.

[@STUFF955]

My us history teacher used cars as an example for how the highway shifted people away from small towns

[@slayerat5280]

I work in architecture/planning, i wish more people understood how cars are destroying us. Great video!

[@mattwolf7698]

13:25 That reminds me of the mess of the "fighting is bad" moral in the first Pokemon movie.

[@K1ng1995]

I always thought the lesson was "Fighting to kill is wrong, but competition is ok long as it's done in a non toxic healthy way."

[@gagz9k]

This video is so American it doesn't even considers the possibility of country not built around the automobile.

[@giorgiomaifredini5495]

I’m italian I can say with certainty efficiency is not what we’re known for…😅😅

[@--------04]

yeah, like with all the things that aren't ideal, too much efficiency it's not that (excluding like Milan)

[@ellicurus]

The scariest part of our techno-capitalistic hellscape that this video touches on is when I got a KZbin ad for the lightning mcqueen Mattel piston cup track right in the middle of it

[@ChibiRagdoll.]

My husband and I both work from home, and we only leave the house a couple times a week; rarely at the same time unless we're going out together. So even though we live in a rural area with no access to public transport, there's really no reason we need two cars. And yet, when he totaled his this past summer, I couldn't wait for him to get a replacement. He was driving *my* car when he went out, and something about it made me feel anxious and trapped, even though I could walk next-door to my mother's house and use her car if I needed to... but that's *her* car, and I'd be doing the same thing to her 😅 it was not a fun couple of months.

[@jfu5222]

The best time I spend in my car is picking up my daughter from swimming or nordic skiing practice. We have, by far, the best conversations during those fifteen minute trips. Whenever possible I take my motorcycle instead of the car. I was thinking about similarities and differences between these forms of transportation in the context of the video.

[@TheDualHero15]

When lightening is getting himself into the racing headspace and kept going back to his cruise and radiator springs has stuck with me since seeing it in the theater.

[@BradleyNOliver]

You forgot the part where Chic tried to kill the blue one

[@skateryan]

I've been without a car since 2017. I live in Dallas. Before I moved in with my current roommate, I was using the bus and train system here. It's livable but it means that I have to plan for how much longer it takes me to get someplace using that system. Usually, I have to plan for an extra 30-60 minutes of travel time compared to when I had a car. It's not ideal and it's way worse than living someplace like New York. It has definitely made me an advocate for more and better public transportation. You should not need to spend $15,000 or more plus insurance, registration fees, and upkeep for a car just to be able to get around where you live.

[@austinbaccus]

Get a $3k car then.

[@skateryan]

@@austinbaccus Bold of you to assume that I just have $3,000 lying around to buy a car with. Forget the other factors of buying a $3,000 car that would make even poor public transportation seem worthwhile. You still need to pay for insurance, registration, and often more for upkeep on a $3,000 car than a $15,000 one. Then there's fuel economy, which adds even more money in gas. So, that $3,000 car isn't as viable of a solution as you might otherwise think. Also, I don't support public transportation just for myself. I support it because I know it would support my community as a whole.

[@churchofmarcus]

​@@skateryanmotorcycles can go car speeds while costing less for all the things mentioned. Plus 3k gets you a 250 that's like 4 years old. Practically new.

[@skateryan]

@@churchofmarcus Honestly, that's just a personal thing for me. I've never felt the safest on motorcycles when going at car speeds. In this area, you're right. I just don't want to do that. Still, public transportation isn't just about whether I personally can travel from A to B. A lot of people could use it, and it would make everyone's lives in a metro like Dallas better.

[@Fogwell94]

A 3k car is going to cost you 10k in repairs lol

[@disableddanny96]

Both of my wheelchairs are named after characters from cars

[@CynthiaMcG]

After losing my last apartment in California, I actually lived in my car. It wasn't fun.

[@thecactusman17]

I am legitimately surprised that you'd make this whole bit about Cars without bringing up the substantive parallel connection to the film Doc Hollywood, which Cars basically remakes in it's entirely while adding some racing jargon and NASCAR footage.

[@isengarde9490]

Cars is the only thing that has kept Nascar going this long. That is all.

[@jamiegould9847]

bro the day before this came out I decided to write one of my final papers on the sociology of pedestrians, driving, and traffic culture. so thank you for giving me a few more sources to cite, but also a BANGING intro to captivate the reader like "remember that disney movie about nascar?"

[@jaeric]

This opens up a whole new understanding to why I have driving anxiety.

[@schm00b0]

We are in all of those episodes - any satires or dystopias you can think of - yeah, we're in those, for real

[@betosan2157]

😂😅 I’m currently stuck in traffic as I’m listening to the video when an add for Pixar Cars toy pops up😂 Traffic in SATX sucks

[@sudd3660]

car in the real world is a huge problem, and worse is that people will fight to keep them. we are so self destructive...we are more of a self-destructive nuke, taking with us everything around us.

[@thyCarrot]

All to keep the wheels and gears of the same system that kills us going

[@skycreeper0173]

That was a super entertaining and eye opening video. I really enjoyed it!

[@ThunderChickenBucket]

Interesting video and I'm digging this new channel. So much of our lives are spent driving, there's only so many hours one can sit behind the wheel before going completely car brained..."hey this isn't so bad, everyone else is driving too so it's normal." Except it's not normal and it sucks and it makes people aggressive and dickish.

[@Interfaune]

There are several limits to the freedom that comes with the car. You have to park it, remember where you parked it, stay awake and sober, not kill anybody... And then there's all the expenses. You even have to keep check on the time, depending on the parking situation. I believe the most free mode of transportation would be walking and even that has the limits of stamina and of course... speed! There is no freedom.

[@CatAndOrHatMan]

@2:04...no...no I am sorry sir you have encouraged me to! He sleeps in a TRAILER...non motorized...but pulled by a "car"...and or motorized vehicle...the trailer is more akin to a stroller in this case...and McQueen is Mac's dear sweet bebe...I didnt set out to shatter this logic with creepier logic...but there it is.

[@UCjNrKLyRJI-abFA8qiNo92Q]

cars didn't kill humans, other animals are cars too like butterflies and cows

[@maryelizamoore7870]

I hate urbanism.

[@williambrasky3891]

As a guy who grew up driving race cars, first, not cool. Second, yea tho. But third, the faster you drive, the slower it feels. Fourth, Italians are peak efficiency. I thought you went to college?

[@jonathanthompson5900]

Bro doesn’t know community service is a thing that a judge can legally force someone to do as a punishment

[@UncleSamFreedom]

7:20 do not foeget Philadelphia and Chicago. 30% of familirs in Philadelphia does not own a car and most of families that have one use it rarely and parks it pretty far from their house. (Ofcourse there is plenty of places where you do not need a car outside of north america, it is just that usa and Canada are stucked in 60's car distopia

[@wiggetman]

id say La may work cus their light rail and couple of heavy metro lines are good just not good enough for the size of the city

[@jaredslootweg6777]

7:28 Up here in Canada, there's a city called Vancouver that doesn't need the ownership of a car. You can take the SkyTrain, public transit, and the Canada Line to get where you need to be.

[@rkmh9342]

Fun video! I like how your Wisecrack video on nationalism provides an illuminating context here. Economic elites plot together across national boundaries all the time and out in the open. Instead, Cars tells the working class to pin their hopes on an economic hero who will be moved by their plight and rejuvenate satisfying economic activity for those left in the dust by economies of scale. This propaganda is intended to obfuscate that the source of power is in global solidarity with people in your economic situation ignoring national boundaries. There is no economic hero destined to restore a nostalgic economic utopia. Instead, working-class solidarity asks us to set aside national identity to regain legislative power from capital flight, i.e., how we are always told that we cannot have laws in our long-term interest since the capitalists will take their money and invest it somewhere else. Only solidarity that ignores borders will be able to challenge the universal ownership funding the control of our lives by the managerial class, e.g., BlackRock and their ilk. Obviously, this means that Cars primed the US people to accept Trump as the incarnation of Lightning. Not only did Cars prime us to look to someone like Trump, but its silly attempt at resolving the emotions of nostalgia it provokes forces its audience to stop the pain such emotions create. Intended or not, such a stupid story could be seen as directly contributing to the current political climate. Instead of solidarity with fellow workers across the globe, we are fed a diet of resentment that the managerial class outsources "good" jobs to non-Americans, reinforcing the national boundaries designed to keep us subdued and compliant to a social order tailored against our own interests. The only way to defeat the reality of Cars is to curse national [racial] identity and embrace solidarity with the global working class. Or continue sucking on the exhaust pipe fueling the accumulation of wealth by the crooks in the top 1%.

[@thyCarrot]

Holy. This comment deserves it's own video!

[@rkmh9342]

@@thyCarrot That would be something eh? KZbin videos advocating for the organization of labor across national boundaries would likely be quickly demonetized and the account shadow-banned. Nebula has many videos about the struggle for global working-class solidarity. For example, Second Thought is an out-and-out organizer.

[@jeffreyatlee8785]

What is the index of the speed of realising all the horrific implications of movies, especially animated ones.

[@jgueroz71]

Don’t think Pixar expected someone to over analyze a movie that came out 18 years ago to this extent. I still like it tho

[@Fogwell94]

Yeah lmao, what is going on...this isn't the first video to overanalyze cars. It seems like a trend lately. I can imagine John lasseter and his team being like: "guys, we just wanted to make a movie about talking cars to sell toys to children and earn a lot of money from it, there is no need to treat it like it's citizen kane" 😂

[@5GentleGiants]

I knew there was a reason I liked this movie so much

[@mr.sir.]

The special behind the scenes on the DVD also deviled into this subject as well with the behind the scenes

[@red_light_3937]

16:35 I need clarification or concession here. Horses are a living being, who too require constant fuel, (food & water), and require shoeing / specialized medical care. Bicycles point of initial motion of occupant is the persons own legs, (unless it’s an electric/gas bike, but then that’s not unlike a car), so I could go either way on whether fueling the person counts as fueling the transport mode. But bikes also require specialized parts to build, rebuild, or repair. Though it is hypothetically easier to repair vs. a car, especially more modern car with a separate computer chip for many of its functions.

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

You can live in any major city without a car. If you work from home.

[@mikaylaholland5536]

Just answering your question about not owning cars - I live in DC and I haven’t owned one the whole 8 years I’ve lived here. HOWEVER. I do take a fair amount of ride shares, and I appreciate that a friend does have a car, because it is pretty frustrating that, for example, most big box stores are in the suburbs and it’s really hard to get out there on public transit, much less lug back whatever I buy. And there are even parts of the city itself that don’t have good bus service, or to get there I’d have to ride two different buses and it would take an hour where an Uber would take 20 minutes. So I’m certainly surviving without a car, and when I do the math I’m still saving money this way, but it’s not like “who needs a car anyway!” And yeah, every time I rent a car I feel such a rush of freedom lol

[@autumnassassin8263]

The idea of a car on a base level embodies the American ideal. Being free to go and do whatever you want, being self sufficient and capable on your own, and of course being an individual. And honestly, while lobbying and companies made things this way, I think anymore cars and driving are so tied to the American identity that it would basically take a reworking of our entire culture to change.

[@laurynharrell8529]

Listening to you talk about working late while I work late is so meta.✨🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭🤣✨

[@Disthron]

It's been a while since I've watched the movie, but doesn't McQueen mess up the road, and as his punishment he is tasked with fixing the thing he messes up?

[@alexhartan]

Sue's relationship with Elizabeth is very similar to the relationship between a substance user and his sober self. Elizabeth starts by feeling in control, then gradually fades into the background to the point where her existence feels more and more worthless. Sue then becomes her only escape the only reason why life is worth living.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Amazing work as always 😊😊😊

[@Eddyspeeder]

Hey guys, I'm so delighted about what Wisecrack 2 seems to be. I'm a long-time viewer, from the days where half the comments to each video were a lavish celebration of Jared's hair. But I've noticed that in recent years, I felt less and less compelled to click Wisecrack videos, with some exceptions. I've even pondered unsubscribing, but I couldn't bear to after all inspirational material I've seen over the years. That, and FOMO on the things that did interest me. It feels like Wisecrack 2 is a return to form. And I'm super delighted about that, so thanks!

[@laurenm3148]

I learned a lot from this - I love your videos!

[@Roosimpson]

Minneapolis has been named the most walkable city on earth, so you may not need a car to live there!

[@BMoney8600]

I never would’ve looked into this movie as deeply as you have buy you made great points. I got my first new car last September and I actually feel a connection to it compared to my old car

[@epr0smith]

Video essays are so back

[@shabadu5]

I didn't have a car for ~5 years in Chicago. Public transit to places other than work took longer, but it was doable. Bought one again in 2020 because of covid. I think it was easier to not have one at that time because venture capital was subsidizing Uber and Lyft rides pretty heavily, which helps when you're running late or the bus/train travel time is too long to justify the trip. The biggest issue was taking my dog to the vet. Transit doesn't allow pets and you had to call your driver (while they're probably driving someone else) and ask if a dog was okay, and now we're off the smooth VC-funded rails of the interaction so everyone's thrown off.

[@steak_n_eggs]

first time on the channel, really liked it, and mad props for owning Attack on Mars

[@berry888]

it's actually wild how having a car in america is damn near mandatory. whereas overseas places have easily affordable and robust public transportation

[@mikeohawk95]

Example of this was radiantor springs and today it’s now all most the whole US with 1/4 of its malls remaining operational for now, towns in struggle etc

[@harryburganjr.969]

The episode of How To With John Wilson, “How To Find Parking”, also explores these phenomena really well.

[@Tristan_Flowers]

Portland is actually so chill without a car

[@redjaypictures4528]

I Had to pause for a while after finishing this one, as someone with a decent idea of the main aspects of gearhead culture, most of us pick our favorite cars based on a strange “kindred spirit” with them, most every gearhead will confidently tell you that they think cars have some sort of life to them that makes them more than just metal and rubber, which didn’t strike me as strange until after i had watched this

[@pavelslama5543]

Nice, nice, let´s hate on one of the last freedoms we still have... As someone who spent 18 years (since I was 6 to 24) having to go to school by train, tram or bus, I can safely say that now the 20 minutes I spend daily getting to work and back home in my car are the best calming experience I can get throughout the day. And that´s just driving 30mph through a typical central European suburbs in my station wagon. The best thing is when I have a free friday or saturday evening, and I can take my RWD roadster for a drive on the mountain roads around here. Even if there´s nothing else worth living for, this makes it worth it. And then I turn on my PC and see a new tons upon tons of anti-car videos on each and every youtube channel... Each one sounding like when I had to read Das Kapital for my school project some 8 or 10 years ago.

[@MetroChamp]

I stopped reading when you said "European". Take a trip to the USA and try getting around without a car.

[@TiagoGomez-hb9te]

@@MetroChamp It’s hard to

[@MetroChamp]

@TiagoGomez-hb9te Even the densest populated areas in the USA have massive gaps in public transit.

[@josezubiate87]

Feels like homeboy did this on a dare 😅

[@j.martinez8282]

If it wasn't for KZbin, you'd be the most prolific philosophy paper and grant-getting author in all of academia. Oh, and I meant that as a compliment by the way.

[@caiden3396]

Wait...If what Ligntning McQueen did is indentured servitude, then working off a bill at a restaurant or doing things for one's landlord to lower rent are also indentured servitude, correct? Assuming we're not accounting for the number of years part? Maybe debt bondage is a better term?

[@DarkReaper12]

Not a better term. They are equal terms.

[@caiden3396]

@@DarkReaper12 I meant better as in more accurate. I think penal labor would probably fit best, specifically involuntary slavery aka involuntary servitude, penal labor being a term for various kinds of forced labor (although, technically labor under capitalism is forced labor at least in practice for most people if I'm not mistaken or at least similar as most people are technically able to not work but suffer consequences like homeless). And it's unpaid labor, though that term also applies to domestic labor among other forms of labor. Maybe debt bondage aka debt slavery would also be an accurate label, depending on the details in the film. Going based on Wikipedia, indentured servitude is technically a bit different. And it's not voluntary slavery which, depending on the context, would be an accurate description (along with debt bondage) in the restaurant and landlord context.

[@Fanatic17]

I am italian and I can say that we like to enjoy life no doubt about it but if we set our mind on something we can work harder than anyone and we are trained since birth to deal with inefficiency and all kinds of problems. Maybe Guido wasn’t highly skilled cause he practiced every day but he just needed to be that good in order to keep the shop running

[@jorgerangel2390]

When I was a kid, I walked to each of my friends house and each one of them got out and walked with me to the next one until we had enough to start playing football, that was 1000 times better that going out now in a car waiting in traffic and expending money just to get together

[@strivingtogrow8612]

The cars being in other cars isn’t weird considering in the first transformers cartoon, auto bots could ride inside Optimus primes trailer.

[@TheAugustburnsbright]

Hot damn, that side camera continues to serve....well, I can't say what it serves on this website, but you know what it is. Loving the new channel, keep up the awesome work!!

[@zacksung11]

7:50 That's the Magallanes Interchange in Manila at night. The shot is facing eastward at EDSA (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue) and that unlit stretch in the middle is the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT3) line, and in the distance is Magallanes station, with those office towers located in Makati City. I recognize it because of that huge circular gap in the middle just below the avenue. It was built in the 70s to ease traffic between EDSA and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) below. That gap was open until the Metro Manila Skyway was built over it in the late 90s. That's one symbol of the American colonial period in the Philippines, the love of cars and the miniscule role of mass transportation.

[@Roosimpson]

One thing that I think is missed in this video is the very important detail of Lightning’s age. As a newer car and a green rookie in the racing game, Lightning is clearly meant to understood as a young character. This is a coming of age story. That literary dynamic is quite important.

[@LostScot]

There's another theory that says humans evolved into those cars. Look at the culture in the movie: they know they can replace their parts easily. A lot of the world around them isn't designed for cars, which only makes sense if they replaced us. And if they can replace parts, why not put human parts into cars too? What I'm saying is that inside each car is just a big old brain.

[@dixonvfitness1921]

The delinquent road hazards need their own movie.

[@yossarrian]

the first ep of Netflix cartoon, Tokyo Override (only saw the one, and just last night) really backs you up in this premise. That story seems to be about logistics and streamlining datapoints, the aggregation of digital and physical, yet fights this premise by following outcasts, and engaging with government officials who recognize the discrepancy of they job of public welfare and the pursuit of optimization.

[@LongNickOfDaLaw]

Thank you cars developers for creating ray tracing

[@SilverZorro22]

I live in a rural town in NM and even here you cant get most places without a car. Towns in America are not made for walking.

[@guard13007]

I live near Denver. We have light rail that's sadly almost unuable right now (but thankfully that's due to repairs at the moment, not a constant bad). One of the people closest to me lives in Colorado Springs. We do often end up with the hour+ drive either direction because for some reason, our rail system just doesn't go south. But we at least always use one vehicle and are actually together once we've made the trip. The idea of dragging multiple vehicles around an area like LA instead of piling into the same vehicle is utterly insane. It's been a long time since I've been in LA, but I remember really liking to walk and take the subway.. what changed?

[@alessandrocerioli2151]

Italian here....yes I think dor some things some of us are more efficient than people from other countries, just look at how long it takes from us to drink a coffee.

[@ninjaloving1]

Lack of connection or community will make it harder to organize and cars make it hard when its what allows you full transportation.

[@Wreckedftfoxy]

all of Pixar's movies are one big continuity which is a theory that was accepted so it is true cars fit before Wall-E there is a whole timeline on it and cars didn't do genocide they sent humans on the axiom (the ship from Wall-E). also cars are technically organic with car exoskeleton

[@chuchojuarez95]

2:50 friendship matters more than the PISTON CUP Impossible

[@TheDr502]

I enjoyed Cars' plot for what it was, but the most interesting aspect of Cars is its concept. That concept, of course, is the notion of a sentient automobile. Of course, when people start building self-driving race cars, those race cars will be programmed to prioritize winning races over anything else. But... what if a self-driving vehicle became advanced enough that it started to develop human emotions? What if a car transcended the programming imposed on it by humans to ponder about life, romance, its purpose in life, etc as opposed to "just being a car"? That'd be highly unusual behavior for a car. For that reason, one could argue that Lightning's character growth directly opposed the intent of whoever built and designed him (i.e., the people who are ominously absent from this setting, but presumably exist or once existed, given the existence of automobiles). Although Lightning's arrogance is certainly unwarranted in this movie, his mindless focus on winning races is perfectly logical. Heck, his rival Chick's obsession with winning makes sense, too. Most likely, both cars' myopic view of the world was the intent of the humans who built them. A car isn't designed to fall in love, cherish friendship and community, or appreciate Nature. It has no need for those distractions. Those are human emotions. Lightning is not a human. He's a car. A car is a machine that's at least as gigantic as a rhinoceros, yet it moves 10x faster than one. It has 1 purpose: to be a fast form of transportation. Things like animal/pedestrian safety and even the welfare of other cars simply aren't a priority, so anyone or anything that stands in a car's path gets smashed outta the way or flattened into a pancake. A society that's tailor-made for cars like the setting in Cars (or real-life American society) would make it much easier for a car to prioritize "being a car" over anything else. In terms of what he was built for, Chick was behaving more appropriately than Lightning was in the last 20 min of the movie. Stopping right before the finish line? Going in reverse to help another car? That's not very "race car-like". But, crashing another car to win a race? That's more like it. Chick did what any sentient car would be programmed to do: prioritizing speed over useless crap like courtesy or empathy. That willingness to look and think beyond what they were built for is what made those vehicles in Radiator Springs more enlightened than Lightning. Paving that road brought him outside of his comfort zone, which were the fast lane and the racetrack. He was forced to engage in experiences that forced him to slow down (aka look beyond what he was built for). As a result, Lightning became a more intelligent and empathetic car who could think beyond "just being a car", unlike his rival.

[@TiagoGomez-hb9te]

Nah, you’re thinking way too much and giving the writers too much credit. They weren’t thinking about that. This isn’t Toy Story. Cars was _just_ ripping off Doc Hollywood a Movie that Normies don’t know about…

[@captnrobvious47]

Speaking as one has worked on cars both in and out of work for as long as I can remember... I hate how seriously we take our cars, especially here in the U.S. They've become more important than our own homes and it's easy to see why since here in the States we're a very sociable and outgoing people so your car is garunteed to be seen before your home so of course folks' cars will be tricked out with LEDs in the wheel well, a truck will be jacked 20-frakking-feet above the pavement or your antique convertible will have the most immaculate paint job while their owners' homes are basically hovels and trailers and holes-in-the-ground. We take Shakespeare's "All the world's s stage." a little too literally.