THE CHIMERA

I have a friend who is super car focused. Where she lives, there is a bridge where people often cross the road, and they painted the road with some blue waves, to showcase that. I often drive whe. She's with me, because she drives like a maniac. Anyway, people were crossing the road and i waited. She told me that cars have the right of way here and i could just go. I just gave her a look and then drove off when people were done, like 5 seconds later. The next time a few weeks later, she said the same thing and i told her: I don't care how often you tell me that, i'm not gonna run over people to save 5 seconds. She told me that she would usually just honk or rev up her engine, or "pretend to run people over" it's so weird to me what they get out of that behaviour

Go to any Instagram comment section about something to do with bikes, and every other comment is some blood thirsty version of "I get hard when I run over bikers".

It's revolting.

They were already late to whatever they're supposed to be doing, and you've just become the excuse they needed.

In the US at least, Trump has validated half the country to express naked contempt for anyone they deem "other." This includes: any person of color, any woman, anyone younger than them, anyone that "looks" educated, anyone walking, anyone on a bicycle, and anyone in an electric car, among others.

Not excusing the behaviour but I'd bet it's the amount of traffic people often sit through everyday along with the overall pace of life feeling faster.

I'm lucky to work weird hours where traffic is almost zero, but personally, sitting in hours of traffic everyday to and from work would make me want to pull my hair out.

Either they're forced or they believe they're forced to drive cars. I'd become insane too.

What's wrong with drivers? Frustrated mammal instincts while physical venting is impossible.

• The feeling of wearing big heavy armour (the car) and being separated from others not perceived quite as human in their armour intuitively calls for extreme force in all interactions, but the instinct is frustrated by knowing any collision is expensive and must be avoided, the opposite of folkrace. (Imagine the stress and frustration if rugby armour was expensive and easily dinged and scratched, so the players would have to avoid getting rough, and if someone hit your expensive armour, it would suddenly become your job to extract insurance info or money from them while the game went on.)
• Being agitated by imperfect humans in traffic while not being able to vent the anger out through muscle action is frustrating - you have to sit stiff in place and keep the controls steady. On a bike you can direct the anger to your muscles and get rid of it. A stimulant crash (often anger) while driving in heavy traffic is extra bad and common after a day of stimulants at work. (When the power steering belt broke on a Volvo V70 I was driving as a taxi, it was nice, healthier and more fun to use force to make the car turn. Why don't car makers allow me to adjust the powering ratio when it's all programmable now? Why are cars and computers designed to deprive the driver and user of all exercise?)

I worked in a university traffic research unit (psychology and cognitive science angle) after being a taxi driver.

(This text editor is shitty and frustrating, and my Lemmy feed is poison, but luckily I can fidget and pace a bit here by the computer.)

I think people all just hate each other more now. Generally stress makes little aggressions feel more extreme and the world is in fact falling apart at the seams.

Plus scientific studies have shown people with more bumper stickers were more violent and more likely to commit road rage seeing the car as an extension of themselves and interactions with the car as attacks on personal self and people are much more aware of "personal space" than before covid probably upping the sense of the car being an extension for more people.

It's the same phenomenon of de-socialization that was radically accelerated during peak Covid that has led to everything from a 1000% increase in unruly passengers on airlines, to a drastic decrease in relationships and dating, to a whole host of people just checking out from the social contract and embracing ludicrous conspiracy theories and retreating to online safe-spaces where any crazy thought will be validated and praised.

As a species we were not meant to have constant exposure to millions of people's innermost thoughts and feelings and unrestrained impulsive ideas. It fucks with your head. Combine that with the economic incentive of keeping people in one spot, scrolling their attention-span to sawdust, and you are training an entire generation of people to turn off their inner monologues and to stop thinking entirely, just seeking validation and things to click on.

I feel strongly that AI ruining the internet will be a net-positive, as it's going to drive more people to human spaces to connect with each other. Sure there will be a whole segment of people raised in the AI slop of the next decade, but there will also be a subset of people who want more and create their own spaces with other real humans.

Theory 3: Trump and other authoritarian world leaders/parties/orgs has validated unmitigated rage and contempt towards almost anyone for almost any reason.

I think the number of people with little care for those outside their vehicle has increased. At least a chunk of it is due to the vehicle design - it's hard to be aggressive in a 1970s car, it's easy in how separate you are, how isolated from people outside, in an SUV

You've never had a cyclist on the sidewalk yell that you're walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk as they blast past you at road speeds?

Assholes are assholes, regardless of what flavor unholy chimera they've merged into. They're just less deadly when they're non-charmeras.

Or the car turned right and didn't care/look. =)