My neighbor bought a new 64K truck (I know because he constantly mentions the cost) had a lift kit installed for 15K (I know because he constantly mentions the cost) has four kids who are bullies (I know because I see and hear them), and constantly complains about gas prices and property taxes, despite the fact that he is one of two houses in the neighborhood with kids.
Most of property taxes go to fund the public schools, which his children attend. Basically the neighborhood is subsidizing his children's education, but he thinks he deserves to pay less in taxes. I explained this, and he told me I was full of shit, but I think he knew I was right, because he started revving his engine early in the morning the day after that and did it for like two weeks.
Hilariously, he stopped doing it not because I complained -- I'm up early anyway -- but because his wife came out in pajamas and started screaming at him for waking her up. Quite the metaphor for Republicanism.
I keep reading shit like that, Gas was too expensive, thanks Biden! Just shifting blame left and right. And hey, I come from the midwest where gas is essential because everything is so goddamn far apart - but I drove a civic.
Oh I'm so sorry you went out, spent way too much on a giant truck, bragged to all your friends how you just have to have a hemi/cummins, did everything you could to reduce efficiency, and now you have to spend even more on gas? What a shame. Just, such a shame.
You don't want to even do a tiny bit of introspection there? I drive an EV now, and they just rage that for a full "fill up" I spend $6. Total. My monthly travel bill (when not riding transit) is now about $15.
I saw a lady apolozing to Trump for not donating because she had to pay her medical bills and was living in disability. So she was basically giving her disability check to Trump every month. 😖
I work in a gas station, there is a MAGA regular who is constantly complaining about how broke she is, she buys 2 packs of unfiltered camels a day, that's $14.60 a pack, over $800 a month just for cigarettes cause she buys the most expensive packs in the store.
I find it so funny Americans complaining about gas prices. Where I am in New Zealand, fuel prices are perpetually high because of our location. If my calculations are correct I pay the equivalent of USD$5.67/Gallon for regular (I have to use mid grade). I use a 1.8L Miata infrequently and fuel prices are still pain.
$100k watches? I have seen many instances of the pickup truck driving stereotype but I’ve never seen any of them wearing any sort of watch, let alone an expensive one. Is this specific to some country?
I personally have pity for rank and file Republican voters.
They were simply easy marks our education system intentionally failed to teach critical thinking and reason to because obedient laborers don't need that, and were then spoonfed sensationalist lies that appealed to their fears and anxieties, the easiest avenues for indoctrination, for the last half century under the guise of being "news" for the private profit of private shareholders and to turn them into useful idiot dependable votes for those same private shareholders to effectively capture their regulators and government that was once meant to protect us from them.
As just one in an ocean of examples, Fox "News" has been telling these poor sad bastards that "man made climate change is a hoax for scientists to sell books!"
Man. I stopped on the side of the road the other day to help a guy with a "need gas" sign. I'm not exactly well off myself, but I figured I could give him a ride. "I ain't got no cash, but thanks for stopping!" Dude's driving a pristine pavement princess. Priorities, man...
In anglo Canada we have our own version of this that includes at least 1 oversized Canadian flag, at least 1 “FUCK 🍁 TRUDEAU” and 1 “FREEDOM” optionally also on flags or decals, something sloppily painted in white complaining about coronavirus mandates, and getting more common is something insulting Jagmeet Singh.
Even if you drive a small car being forced to pay about 15% of your total income just to get to work is still fucking expensive. And no, public transport or bike isnt a suitable option for everyone.
I drive a small 4 cylinder Honda. Gas mileage is amazing. If anything, gas is so cheap compared to groceries I'm thinking about getting a Costco membership even though I have to drive for almost an hour and a half. A week's worth of groceries at Kroger is almost $100 for one person. It costs me $65 to fill up my gas tank which lasts me 2-3 weeks. I might as well just drive the extra distance and buy bulk.
So, as long as I’ve been on lemmy, I may have come across maybe 2 certified Trump supporters, yet… there are 36 downvotes on this post.
I wonder who the 34 other cowards are that refuse to stand and be counted. Also, I wonder how many of the bad-faith both-sides “leftists” we all know and love are amongst them.
For a more nuanced discussion of this topic, please see my friend Bjarne Knausgarde's blog "Notes From Disgraceland." There, he discusses:
The political subject of late fascism is an updated version of the old one. The industrial worker-
citizen, the authorized emblem of post-utopian depoliticized post-war modernity, now appears
in the guise of the forgotten men, the non-synchronous people of the political present[10].
He encapsulates the virtues of petro-masculinity: A patriarchal, weapon-carrying and 2
amendment-worshipping male, defined by manufacturing, motoring, his tie to fossil fuel
presents a particularly uncomfortable configuration in the light of climate change and urgency
for reducing or eliminating dependency on conventional energy sources, which creates
an urgency to imagine a new barricaded lebensraum for the heteronormative family protected
from the deviant other, which bundles together economic, geopolitical, religious, racial, and genital into a comprehensive crisis of order and allows fascism to emerge as a candidate for its
restoration.