Ummmm yeah right.......

Oh Charles, don't ever change.

Whenever I worry about the economy, I just think to myself: someone actually pays Mudede money to write this shit. And then, suddenly, I know things can't be that bad.

Charles please enlighten us with your stance on the Vern Fonk commercials next

From 11 miles high, one would have concluded cars superseded humans in 1924.

Cars are really the dominant form of "life" on this planet.

Houses are built for cars.

Stores are built for cars.

Gas Stations are among the most accessible and numerous stores and they sell car food. (Yes, there is also and add-on shop for humans who can be given small tidbits, crackers and candies to entice them to performing their task of gassing up a car).

Most of the land is designed for cars to drive and park.

Cities are zoos for humans, who lost their control of Earth when cars took over.

Eventually cars will not need humans for pressing pedals and steering.

Then the 22nd century can begin.

To the Stranger IT staff:

Someone has hacked Charles account and posted this drivel from InfoWars. Make him change his login ID and password so that this doesn't happen again.

"and yet"!!!!!!! lmfao

The advertising tack in which the car is the serene bubble away from the chaos is nothing new. Let's say you were a highly paid developer working downtown. Yes, you'd then be a rich dick who head will roll in the street when the revolution (never) comes. But you'd also be fucking stressed out, all day every day at work. It would be a whole different scene from your strolly foot commute to the land of free Cronuts and who's got the coolest Goodwill sweater. The art and outrage and self expression would be replaced by long days of hassle with a hassle on top and a side of hassle. That's the cost of adding zeros to the end of your paycheck. By the time 6:30 rolls around you'd want to close yourself into an isolation tank too. And hence you'd respond to messing that says you get to do that the second you step out of the elevator into your car.

Seriously I thought you were going to go down the "crows are symbolic of black people" road, which is actually really quite defensible. Recheck the ad for images of raccoon and it might connote homeless-phobia as well.

Have you seen the Cadillac ads which liken their drivers to the villain from 300? If you think you are the type of person who should be carried on the backs of slaves, overspend on our crappy car.

How about that current ad which includes a line like "or you could ride the bus", as in buses are to be avoided.

Of course, since most drivers have their radio/phone/other device pounding music/podcasts/talk radio through their speaker systems it really doesn't matter if your car is hermetically sealed.

@10: I see more people laughing at the inanity than actually being offended.

It is the perfect Mudede post: nonsensical, rambling, unexamined hyperbole, incoherent, and it even touches on all of Mudede's pleasure centers (car hate, socialism, social engineering, and a complete inability to understand what evolution is).

Alternate Headlines:

Why Activia Yogurt is Worse Than Child Rape.

Why Amazon Fire is More Deadly Than Ebola.

Why Iggy Izalea is Worse Than Slavery.

etc...

Charles is, in the big picture, 100% right on this. Cars are destroyers of the planet, of community, of life. And they're a prime reason for much of our investment in Middle East affairs. Cars are the cause; Mid-East gangs are merely one of many symptoms.

@14, this is kind of fun, my turn.
Chapstick is worse than a cheese grater on your nipples.

Using skim milk in place of half and half in your coffee is worse than a moon sized meteor smashing through the earth.

Going further -
What about these walls of the house I'm in ? Why are these walls and insulation keeping the other animals away from me. Why is this dog looking at me, intent to go outside ?

Truly, only those without homes, with the permeability of a canvas tent or less separating themselves from animals, are one with the world. We seek to wall ourselves off, and bomb with drones from afar.

13) you obviously know nothing about niche construction.

@18, Sure, but you see how you made the salient points without resorting to a rambling, longwinded path involving social engineering, strained metaphors, a gross misunderstanding of evolution, and pointless name dropping to make yourself seem intelligent?

But like I said, perfect Mudede post, unsure why anyone is still surprised.

Cars that do not let sound in are the reason that emergency vehicles need to be so loud on the street. For pedestrians like myself, I do not want cars to be so sound proof that I am deafened by the passing ambulances.

@19: You made the claim that cars are niche construction, so what is the shift being caused in our selected traits, especially if you claim these are things that can never be selected for because we can never "work out(?)" shelter or moving fast.

So if nothing is being selected for because you claim it is an impossibilty, than it is not niche construction, which requires a shift in what traits are being selected for. If something is of no evolutionary consequence, than it is not niche constructions.

Granted, this is really more of a philosophical concept we are talking about, so your mileage may vary.

The crows are what makes this a fantastic specimen of a Mudede post. Charles has posted about crows before. Charles, you are the only good reason to visit Slog nowadays. Keep up the good work.

@15 Okay. Great. Right. I agree. Cars are bad. Unfortunately our ecnomy is fairly dependent on them. It's a trap. An awful trap.

I know what your gonna say. You don't HAVE to own a car. True.

So what. Billions of people DO. It's bad. But without those cars economies will crash. You don't agree? Too bad. It's unfortunately true.

Let me illustrate for a moment.

Do you know what's a close second to cars in causing civilization killing greenhouse emissions?

The Internet. And the sundry ever-energy-hungrier strategic metal mining technologies, including what you are typing on right now, that support it.

You don't HAVE to have an iPhone, a computer, or an internet connection either. You don't. It's a choice as much as owning a car.

Unless you want to participate in technological civilization. Get rid of cars. Get rid of the internet. And, like it or not, you get rid of civilization.

It's a trap. We are, for the time being stuck with cars, stuck with the internet at it's pollution. Until better ways are implemented. Ways you're willing to pay for.

We are not, however, necessarily stuck with ISIL. Them we can kill and it won't effect global civilization.

@24 You, personally, have a lot more power over what technology you consume and use than you do over US military intervention in the Middle East. That's one of the main points of a piece like this.

Also that last sentence is ridiculous. First off, how do you "kill" ISIL? Do you mean kill every single person who supports them? Do you seriously think that wouldn't affect "global civilization"?

I thought this was going to be about Sid Vicious singing in a luxury car ad, marking the end of Punk Culture as a signifying force in Western civilization. I'm sooo disappointed. Could you please write that more-important article next?

Who watches ads?

Just when I was forgetting what it was like to listen to one of "those guys" ramble on in the Underground cafe at Western.

Good Afternoon Charles,
Your piece was fascinating to read. I only think that "an Acura ad is more dangerous than ISIS" is a bit of a stretch.

I don't own a car by choice. I am not dependent on one in a city with pretty good public transit. However, those that choose to own one may want the one that is most compatible with their lifestyle & income. This product is merely an example of one. I think the commercial pretty harmless. On the other hand, consumers should know that automobiles are expensive, dangerous and cause pollution.

I've never seen this commercial as I tend not to watch TV. It certainly gets one's attention.

Charles you have strapped me with suburban middle class white guilt. Alas what am I to do but consume, so I will, and those after me will too. And then we will all die, and none of this will matter to anyone, so I might as well get a new Acura! Fuck Yeah!

Charles, the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has something to say to you: http://bernasvibethewayiseeit.files.word…

From one man of African descent to another please, PLEASE stop it with these idiotic articles that even your fellow lefties can't stand.

Why not talk about Scottish independence from a black prospective and how one group of people who never really had the chance for self determination (African Americans) feel about another group about to have a shot at their own? (the Scots) Why not talk about the Kurds, militarization of police, the prison industrial complex, the racist war on drugs etc?

Instead, you talk about a car commercial...

Jesus, I need a drink at 1:30 in the afternoon now. Thanks Charles.

@24 Let's start by getting rid of cars and see how we go. You may be surprised how we can evolve without them.

@25

Well. Duh. Of course we have more control over what we each personally consume.

But we have very little control over the aggregate. My point was we can't just all stop using cars or computers or hydrocarbons with out severe impacts to civilization. We may have personal control over our use of these technologies. But we're STILL totally dependent on them. And that dependency is going to outlast ISIL.

"Should" we literally kill every member of ISIL? No. Frankly, I too am in favor of totally ignoring them. They are nothing.

But we won't. Because killing them doesn't impact us. It barely registered on American radar that we were slaughtering Iraqis in 2003 and this too will barely register. I'm not condoning it. I'm just telling you the facts.

Therefor, because they are nothing, we technically could kill all of ISIL - there are only maybe 4000 fighters in ISIL and maybe a few hundred financiers. They are stateless have almost no strategic capability whatsoever. They are largely criminals and the powerless poor flotsam and jetsam of a dozen countries. They are NOTHING.

Yup. We could kill all of them. You are completely wrong about that. And it wouldn't do shit to impact the lifestyles in western civilization.

Sorry, but history has shown Americans that can kill and kill and kill all over the world and it barely registers here. We've killed hundreds of THOUSANDS - MILLIONS in Vietnam - and the world spun on.

Sure somebody might fly a plane into a skyscraper somewhere and the economy might dip for a couple years, but you know, I had a latte that morning and went to work every morning after just like 99% of everybody else in this country. That's why the Neocons got away with it.

And that's why we will bomb them and kill them - they don't matter.

And it's why won't stop driving cars or using strategic minerals and polluting - because doing that DOES matter. For the foreseeable future, anyway.

And next, a guest editorial by The Philosophy Major Who Did Mushrooms Once at a Party and Now Thinks that Everything is Deeeeep Maaaaan.

Pike Place is a "strong woonerf". It's a short distance, but it works.

Charles, in the same way that black folks don't like for white people to use the n word, I don't like to hear words like socialism used as if they had pristine technical meanings - especially given the theory's claims to universal application and the historical enthusiasms of people so-called for solidaristic promotion of very bad people

@Theodore Gorath: The next SLOG event that you and I both attend in the future (and I swear I'll get to one!), I'm making sure you drink for free.

So just out of curiosity, what is the kill count for this commercial? Has it beheaded any journalists, or do you think that's a fucking joke as well? I would think someone from a place called Rhodesia would have some fucking respect for those who die in war zones, but if you can use it further your rant against cars then why not, right?

I'm still waiting to hear more about the racist bicycle program, but Charles was once again too fucking lazy to deal with people who were bringing actual data to the table and closed the comment thread instead. I'm not sure why people call you an intellectual when you refuse to expand upon, defend or alter your ideas in the face of new evidence - you know, things actual intellectuals do.

I just don't get it, you keep going on and on about Piketty and the reason he is so convincing is because he bothered to actually think his model through, test it, change it when conflicting evidence came up and put it all out there. Yet you can't be bothered to do enough work to tell the difference between the Washington Times and the Washington Post.

Why are you so damn lazy?

Charles Mudede is a master internet troll. We should all stop feeding him with clicks.

I see it clearly now: Cars and Corvids are part of a vast conspiracy against the Good and the True. Thank you, Charles, for laying all out for us.

Car is just a means of transport, the right to see it if they are not overly generation Acura!