Let's get this started by saying

Thats right wibarals, i've taken the orange pill. And I have been radicalized by this man.

I don't hate cars, but I do hate car-centric infrastructure. And trucks, fuck trucks.

My History with cars.

Back when I was in high school, I considered myself to be a bit of a "car guy". I did all the maintenance on my dad's old truck which he let me drive. I even bought a project car and got it running after it sat for 20 years. I was friends with several other "car guys" and even took several auto-shop classes. Throughout my first few years of college, My plan was to go out into the world and create an electric car company. I even joined my schools SAE - Formula E team, where I became the electrical lead after being on the team for only one semeseter (talk about a red flag). I was the electrical lead for this team for around 2 (miserable) years.

My Enlightenment.

Sometime early 2022 I saw my first NJB video. I don’t recall which video it was, but I think it was one of the strongtowns videos, talking about how car centric infrastructure is bad for the community of a city. This video shook me. I grew up in the suburbs, and this video finally put words to a feeling that I had been feeling all of my life, but never been able to articulate. I had never even considered that it could ( or should ) be possible to live without needing a car to get everywhere. It would of course be irresponsible to say that all of my feelings of social isolation are due solely to disconnected / hostile infrastructure, but it is certainly a contributing factor. After seeing some benifits of other forms of transportation, I started to ride my bike and take the bus as my primary mode of transportation.

Where I stand now.

Because I live in america, I do still need a car. Even though most days I can do everything I need to without driving, it is still a nice tool to have. And that is how I view my car and driving, as a tool. I currently daily drive grug, I will drive him until he dies. When grug does eventually pass on, I will need to take a moment to evaluate my life at that time. If I don't need a car at that point, then I will just not buy a new car. But if I do need a car still for some fringe tasks, I will probably buy some used plug in hybrid with a good safety rating. Like a prius or something.