I’ve suddenly received a spew of comments and emails from assorted “driving enthusiasts” who seem to have found themselves in a rash of confusion as to whether I’m pro-car, anti-car, pro-4×4, anti-4×4, a Commie, a greenie, a liberal do-gooder, a vegie-fascist, a total idiot, someone who eats horse turds with goats cheese for breakfast, or even a little green man from Mars.
Okay, I added the last epithet but the others were among the more printable descriptions I’ve received in the past 48 hours.
A quick review of the statistics for the blog revealed almost all of the people spitting and projectile vomiting in my general direction were coming from the PistonHeads forums, after Thinfourth2 obligingly mentioned two of my posts there. (And note, there are some more reasonable people posting on that forum!)
Now, before I reply directly to the thrust of the comments, a word of advice to the Pistonheads - if you want to see your comments published on my blog then you need to abide by my rules.
They’re nice and simple: no threats of violence, no gratuitous obscenities and no meandering diatribes that are completely unrelated to the subject matter of a post. The same rules apply to everyone - whether rabid vegans or crazed petrolheads.
So, if any of you would like to reword your earlier comments to follow those rules and re-post, then I’ll happily publish them.
Back to the point.
I suspect the confusion has arisen because I refuse to abide by the linear stereotyping that sets people along a scale that has loony left to one side and rabid right to the other.
According to this linear measure, I am a loony leftie because I advocate curtailing car use, advocate a massive reduction in personal consumption, advocate huge reductions in unnecessary energy use, advocate drastic reductions in meat consumption, advocate workers’ rights and protections, support genuinely universal healthcare and education systems, and oppose ever increasing state control under the guise of “it’s for your protection”.
Cue vast amounts of vitriol from the other end of the scale.
But, I also advocate using 4×4s (and other fuel guzzling means of transport) if it’s appropriate and responsible to do so, I admire and enjoy the technology behind our greatest machines, I have doubts about some of the science about climate change, I have no problems with eating meat provided it’s produced sustainably and ethically, I encourage personal enterprise provided it’s not at the expense of others, I support fair and responsible policing, I advocate population management, and I support a military that’s used to protect people from oppression, repression and exploitation.
Cue vitriol from the other end of the scale.
Unfortunately, my position on those issues and more make me rather too complex for the simple souls who think there’s only left and right, right and wrong, them and us.
Even more confusingly, I’m more than happy to admit there are tensions and unresolved contradictions between some of my views.
Simple souls don’t like to admit their own positions may be contradictory, so it often seems their response is to shriek madly in the vain hope that I will go away and shut up.
I won’t, as this is my space. It is open to be shared and for other views to be put, but if you can’t handle the reality that it is my space, then it’s probably best if you go and find your own space.
As for me, I’ve decided that much as I enjoy blatting about in powerful, rear-wheel drive cars and hammering a 4×4 through challenging terrain, personal car use is a privilege that is increasingly out of step with what I see as the realities of climate change, declining resources, escalating pollution and exploitation of others.
So, my personal decision is to curb my car use as much as possible, while drawing attention to the potential benefits of other people making similar decisions.
It doesn’t make me “anti-car” or “a ******* loony green”. It simply means I have reflected on what I do and why, considered the implications of my actions, and then decided to make a few changes.
All I ask is that other people pause from time to time to reflect and consider, too.
They may even discover that riding a bike is just as much fun as driving a car - and sometimes even more so!
Thanks to the Pistonheads, this post has already screamed into place as WordPress’s featured environmental blog!
Yay, well that will bring a balance to the debate, and there was I thinking you must be between a rock and a hard place!
It’s really amusing to be screamed at by vegan greens on the one hand and fume-sniffing petrolheads on the other. I must be doing something right…
what is it about you that provokes these strong reactions? And where do these people get all their energy from?
i mean (no offense intended here, stoney, i swear) who cares what you think?
i have to ask the vegans and the pistonheads: Why bother unloading vitriol on stoney, some guy you don’t even know and has no real impact on your life?
i just don’t get it, and i don’t think i ever will.
*shakes head*
Don’t worry, Judy. I’m just an annoying cuss with a penchant for getting up people’s noses. Either that, or someone’s stuck a sign on me saying “abuse me now, I can take it”.
oh, i’m not worried about you (you can take a licking and keep on ticking); i’m just amazed at people who think this is a worthwhile use of their time and energy (i’m big on personal energy conservation).
“abuse me now, I can take it”.
Some people pay a lot money for that!
I hadn’t even finished reading your first sentence before I was thinking “yawn, who cares, why do people insist on having everyone boxed into nice, neat, little categories”. I’m sure I do it myself to some extent but still, the reactions you provoke keep on astounding me. I keep coming back to the thought that people are scared and so are lashing out at any target that’s handy. Don’t they realise that if you’re going to be a bully you’re not supposed to choose someone stronger than yourself?
I could ignore them - and often do. But if you ignore and suppress all the rabid nutters, then more balanced people start forgetting that there are extremists of all types out there.
It’s much better to bring these views out in the spotlight from time to time, so we know what’s lurking in the darkness.
I know why you get picked on. Let’s face it: there’s not much else to do in their mother’s basement.
I, personally, rely on a magic carpet for transportation. But those damn anti-carpetarians won’t leave me alone!
raincoaster, is that a wool or cotton carpet?
there’s that old saying: you can please some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time..
how about none of the people at all?
you stick to your guns, hon. your space. personally, if i don’t like what someone writes i click the X and don’t come back again. but maybe that’s just a little too grown up..
keth
xx
Must say, I agree with keth. I’m the world’s worst for ‘boxing’ people into stereotypes, but I totally acknowledge their right to have different opinions to self. If I don’t like them - I simply don’t go there again.
I’ll be back!
Keth and Dickiebo, unfortunately it’s quite difficult to come across discerning grown-ups. Yourselves excepted, of course!
You need Stunt Stoney. You could train him to pose for pictures to suit both sides, thus confusing everyone!
If you ask me, and you might not, these people get upset by you as you seem to be reasonably sane and stable. It may be jealously that you say and do things they all only dream about.
Have you looked at the original Pistonheads’ thread I linked to? The original reference to this blog generated more than 10 pages of rants and ravings as they indulge in a self-destructive orgy of “he said, you said, he said, you said, I’m spitting my dummy”.
It’s a little disturbing to think some of the people writing there are actually driving on the roads…
The reason they are pistonheads in the first place is because they’re full of neuroses and feelings of inadequacy - taking it out on you is just one way of making themselves feel good.
I, myself, am pure juxtaposition and contradiction - I don’t make sense in any way. But that’s probably what makes me human!
It’s no good, you’re just have to stop being honest and truthful and well balanced, it confuses the rest of them! Not sure you should be trying to control the population though, I think you should have as many kids as possible to outbreed the nutters ;o)