Why is the right at war with cyclists? We’re not ‘wokerati’ – we’re just trying to get around | Zoe Williams
Why is the right at war with cyclists? We’re not ‘wokerati’ – we’re just trying to get around | Zoe Williams
Riding a bike is not a political act, yet cyclists have become the bete noire for the anti-woke, anti-green, anti-liberal crowd, writes Zoe Williams
I feel like this article is really missing out the part where oil interests are intentionally funding hatred of other modes of transportation. The PragerU video on "The War on Cars" is a good example. They are funded by oil companies, and this is public information that is easy to find. And they use that platform to prevent other modes of transportation from being safe or viable.
We're not 'wokerati'
But we are, though: cyclists are "better people" than drivers. And the right hates better people.
I think cyclists secretly love cars. Otherwise why do so many end up on a car hood or under its wheels? It's probably one of those BDSM things really...
Look, I'm generalizing here, but there seems to be an almost intentional effort on the part of many journalists and journalistic outlets to misunderstand "The Right".
Its the charity part, which, like I get the journalistic training and the importance of giving someone you might disagree with the the charity required to have a conversation, but "The Right" has been using this act of good faith to further their agenda. We shouldn't be giving them charity. Period. They've broken with the good faith required to support that charity. "The RIght" aren't arguing or acting in good faith, and so charity shouldn't be extended to them. They are captured by a kind of cynicism that is not compatible with civil society.
I have a hypothesis about the right. Some of what happens is to protect the ego.
Consider bike riding. Riding a bike is better for the environment and their health. This prompts questions like "why am I not being better for the environment? Why am I not being better for my health?"
One option when faced with that sort of uncomfortable question is to reject thinking about it and get mad at other people. Do not consider anything negative about oneself. That's uncomfortable and difficult. Being mad about other people is easy.
This resolves the cognitive dissonance, though in its own expensive way with its own tradeoffs.
The truth? It stems from fear based mentality and personal insecurity. If you spend enough time evaluating the conservative mindset you come to realize it is grounded in fear and a disdain for oneself. They don't want more cyclists because they think it's an affront to them personally, as if they would need to start cycling to fit in.
A lot of people miss the fact that cyclists are just people getting about the place. As for example when you hear people say, 'Oh, it's only middle-class men who cycle, so why should we build bike lanes?' as though it's somehow the case that middle class men who choose to cycle just like... deserve to die? It's a really common argument that people make and they've not even thought about the obvious implication of what they're saying.
Even if it were true that all or most cyclists were middle-class and male, which it isn't, I'm never sure whether it's the maleness, the middle-classness, or the cycling that has apparently warranted the death sentence.
It’s pretty much just rural vs urban divide.
Bikes don’t work well in rural or suburban communities and so if you are for it, then you are one of the “urban liberals” and so I must oppose you at all costs.
Of course there are also urban conservatives that are against cycling but we have a name for those,
idiotspeople with a financial interest in the current car centric infrastructureI’m wokerati! But no shit, we’re doing what the left wants, so of course the right is mad. It doesn’t matter if it’s for our health, cheap transit, or the environment or any other reason we aren’t guzzling oil to get somewhere and so they’re mad
Riding a bike, my fellow patriots, is a clear sign of deviance and disloyalty to the core values of our great nation. The leftist elites have brainwashed these so-called "cyclists" into believing that their petty little two-wheeled devices are some sort of symbol of environmental progress. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Cycling is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at undermining our cherished car culture. They claim they're fighting climate change, but their real motive is to erode our freedom - the freedom to drive wherever we want without pesky road taxes or emissions regulations.
These cycle-huggers think they'll win our hearts by peddling (pun intended) around our cities in their lycra ensembles and smug smiles. But let me tell you something: we won't fall for their tricks. We love our SUVs, our loud exhausts, and our cheap gas - and we will protect these cornerstones of American life, come what may.
As true Americans, we must unite against this cycling menace. Our roads should belong to those who value their country enough to keep its economy thriving with their fuel consumption. It's time to put an end to this two-wheeled insurrection and defend the freedom of movement that makes us great.
There's a couple of things at play here:
Where the infra (say it's the road) isn't adequately engineered to accommodate cycling and driving at the same time, it's going to give drivers the experience that the road is a scarce resource and when resources are scarce, some folks are going to think in eliminationist terms (e.g. if those people just didn't exist, everything would be fine) or the part of their brains that descends from people that wiped out competing clans and took their resources rules the moment and they set about violently defending 'their' resources.
The folks most-triggered at being made to share the road with cyclists really do some mental gymnastics to frame it in a way that they're really the victims here and it's cyclists, not the road engineering, that are the problem. Oh, poor me those cyclists don't pay taxes and I subsidize their use of my roads bla bla bla and eventually that comes out in the form of vehicular assault to teach cyclists a lesson to stay off their roads. It's bullshit all the way down of course, but that way they get to feel like the good guys while still bullying and murdering cyclists.
Also, it's not by accident that the 'everything is woke' people are the first to engage in whatever moral panic that's directing political violence at today's boogeyman- whether it's trans people in bathrooms, or gay people generally, or pregnant women that have ideas about bodily autonomy, their targets are always a tiny vulnerable demographic and uniting to put them in their place is an exercise in maintaining or restoring what they think order ought to look like. If they're not putting people into the bottom rung of whatever hierarchy they think they're defending, probably they think it's the end of order or civilization or the like and they've failed in their duties to uphold order. Keeping them agitated about (and acting out about) moral panics is an effective way for lobby groups to pit people against scapegoats to keep their ire focused away from themselves or their patrons.
they find the concept of the do-gooder infuriating and the idea of minding their own business untenable.
Indeed!
Oil industry profits and exceptionalism.
I love cyclists. Always let them go first.
I just hate the bike racing people who think public traffic is their personal sporting grounds. Meaning they don't have to follow the rules of the road because it might mean they don't get to break their speed record that day. Or that close down entire roads just so they can race one another.
They should find a hobby that isn't in public traffic. Imagine if tennis closed down train tracks just so they can use the train tracks to put up their net.
Fearing change.
because they're antisocial, hetero normative, fascist wannabe, assholes that despise wholesome solutions to the world's problems. there's only one way to deal with these sociopaths.
conservatives don't get mad at anything they don't personally do or don't make things up about other people to get mad at challenges (impossible)
The same reason they fight against vegetarians, the same reason they fight against gay men, the same reason they fight against renewable energy, all of it is toxic masculinity. The standardized male eats steaks, drives a loud truck, works at the coal plant, complains about his wife, enjoys smoking and drinking and watching sports. If you deviate from this whatsoever, conservatives are against you.
Because the right are a bunch of fucking screaming babies that need their goddamn asses beaten to a fucking pulp.
LIBERALS: STOP BEING NICE TO THESE FUCKING SHITS. NO, THEY DO NOT HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN YOU.
Because oil companies and their useful idiots have propagandised them into believing that every cyclist that inconveniences their morning commute and causes them to lose 20 seconds of their drive deserves to die.
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I do not think they are anti-cyclists. Anyone have objective proof on this claim, thanks.
Edit: For the record. I think bikers are more anti-car or anti-car infrastructure or worry about safety. Which is a valid criticism. A biker vs a 3,000lbs piece of metal is obvious. Drivers do not care about bikers outside liability or annoyance.
I think that Americans corralate freedom of movement with cars so they do not want to give that. It is about nuance. But I have never read anti-bike rethoric anywhere from reasonable people, left or right.
Only over emotional or extremist people seem to be quoted as unfairly being the voice of everyone else. And I say that as someone who bikes 50km, for fun and who also likes to drive.
I'm not at war with them... The cyclists here are at war with cross walk signals!
Two times in the last couple of years I've tried to turn right on red coming home at night, watching traffic on the left, turn back to the right and a cyclist is literally in front of my car as I'm about to apply the gas to turn! They would be laying across my hood without a fast reaction time.
Number one, I don't believe they are supposed to be riding on sidewalks, and number two they completely disregard traffic signals/walk signals.
Granted this is in the U.S., specifically in Florida, and I don't blame them for not wanting to be on the normal roads here as they will literally be run over by a jackass in a lifted F350; but I do wish they would at least abide by the pedestrian crossing signs as I really would prefer not to hit anyone!
Our state is so backwards the concept of public transit is an afterthought and very few places are remotely walkable... We have some bike trails here and there, but everything is designed for cars because living near a population center is too expensive for most and requires you to commute by car.