Another War?

It must be exhausting to be an American conservative. You know, with all the wars that are waged against them; the war against freedom, the war against Christmas, the war against mr. Potato Head, the war against religion, and now, according to PragerU, the war against cars...

The folks at PragerU are losing their cool. Again. This time they rage and rant against government regulations that disincentivize cars and plans to increase public transportation. When looking at any PragerU video, it's imperative to keep in mind that they're funded by two of the richest men in the United States, billionaire brothers Dan and Farris Wilks, who made their fortunes in fracking. Oil billionaires. Add to that its founder Dennis Prager, who is a conservative radio pundit, and you get a YouTube channel that's 100 percent concentrated conservative propaganda with funding from people who have every interest to advertise the use of cars over public transportation. In fact, any PragerU video on any topic should be consumed with the highest amount of skepticism.

So, the war on cars. "We may be witnessing the death of American car culture," is the opening sentence of the video. To which I say: "It's about time!" The narrator, who's presented to us as "the car coach," goes on to describe this car culture as a culture of freedom, and accuses environmentalists and government bureaucrats of transforming car ownership from a source of pride to a source of guilt. Hmmmm, where have I heard this before? Ah yes, feminism makes men feel guilty of being masculine, and critical race theory makes whites feel guilty of being white; being a white male is transformed from a source of pride to a source of guilt, right? Like I said: it must be exhausting to be an American conservative...

Sure, a car makes you free in the sense that it allows you to go where you want, when you want and with whom you want, and it's true that public transportation is scheduled and will 99 percent of the time not drop you of at your exact destination. But at least here in Europe I can choose to go on a bike, by foot, in my car or with public transportation. I've visited L.A. and San Francisco for a couple of days, now some two decades ago, and I remember that there was no public transportation to speak of, that going for a walk was hellish, and that I saw almost no bikes. Instead I saw a grid of 4, 6 or 8 lane highways, jam-packed with cars. All the time. The only exception was during my short visit to a bar at Santa Monica Pier just outside L.A. where it was relatively peaceful. I believe having a choice is freedom and in many American cities there's no choice but to have a car. And having the choice to take public transportation or a bike is good for the environment as well.

Like it's explained in the below linked video, I believe conservatives have a very one-sided view of freedom; they mostly concentrate on negative freedom and have little to say about positive freedom. If you don't know what the difference between the two is, and also if you do know, watch the video. I don't understand why PragerU is as popular as it is. There's nothing to learn from them other than what deeply conservative, dishonest propagandists want you to believe. There's no war on cars. There is an effort to give Americans more choices and an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels, which are both good things.

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