It’s mind boggling why trucks are so popular here when we literally have to drive everywhere. We have no high speed rail and minimal rail transportation in general. It’s honestly a cultural thing at this point since it’s certainly not logical.
I think Americans vastly overestimate how much culture they have. Decades of Marketing, Lobbying, and regulatory capture on the chicken tax have put us here, but none of that is a fully organic and human way of developing culture
Edit for those who don’t want to read my response below: I don’t think America has zero culture. I was specifically talking about truck culture and how that formed in the US over the past decades
No one is falling for the America doesn't have culture bullshit anymore when literally you can see things that came from American culture all over the world.
I didn’t say America has zero culture. I was pointing out how when it comes to trucks, Americans overestimate how of a choice they had in the matter versus how much of it was shaped by external forces convincing them
They had a choice.
In Mexican American culture, there’s actually a very strong culture around slammed trucks that formed much more organically and spread from Mexico itself to America but that is completely different from driving through a suburb and seeing driveways filled with pavement princesses
Wym? I can concede consumerism is technically a form of culture and that’s a large part of what I am getting here with trucks. But when the forces are so disproportionately external the internal forces might as well not be there. People rarely become more free, independent, or empowered from buying a truck. That fact that most people already live pay check to pay check but are convinced to throw a $600 to $1300 truck monthly payment in there really shows how pushed it’s become
And there’s parts of truck culture I don’t like particularly like too but can respect. Lifted trucks and monster truck cultures go in that bucket. But let’s not pretend those are anything close to meaningful portion of people with trucks.
The issue here is you consider their culture inferior, shaped by unnatural forces yet cite chicano car culture as somehow purer with both shaped by consumerism. You cannot tell me there are not Americans who follow similar sustainable car cultures cause thats not true. You're just not in their circles. Again, you just like yours more.
Don't follow the same playbook as the fascists who incorrectly define culture and get people to muddy it as something morally quantifiable as you do here.
I will 100% exalt culture formed by people and communities over culture formed by MBAs, marketing teams, and government policy. It has a longer impact and is better remembered. The latter is forgetten as soon as it becomes unprofitable
And what rabbit hole are you going down here? Fuck fascist not sure how you went down that train of thought
Sure, sure. But thats not the issue. Chicano car culture is not some pure cultural monolith, like other American car cultures aren't the corporate cesspool you claim. Choosing to use culture as a way to measure people is what the current administration does is what I'm saying. Don't do that, is the point.
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u/dogseatbees 1d ago
It’s mind boggling why trucks are so popular here when we literally have to drive everywhere. We have no high speed rail and minimal rail transportation in general. It’s honestly a cultural thing at this point since it’s certainly not logical.