this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] grue 155 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

I'm gonna leave this up because people are commenting on it, but IMO it's borderline off-topic. This is an article about political corruption in Federal procurement, and only incidentally mentions cars because they happen to be the item being procured. Try to stick a little closer to "problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all" next time.

Edit: I just noticed that the person who posted this is the other mod, LOL. I guess we should have a chat to make sure we're on the same page re: rule 4.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The superior yield for corruption in the procurement of fleets of cars for a State seems like a Fuck Cars issue to me.

I mean, I can see how there could be corruption in the procurement of State Bicycles or State Employee Walking Shoes, but the values involved would be way lower.

And this is without going into the whole point made by somebody else that Governments having and using fleets of cars (especially State officials) incentivises them to have pro-car policies.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

You can try to pretend that this has nothing to do with car dependency. But try to imagine this story happening with bicycles. The state completely supports the car con. We wouldn't be in this situation otherwise. This story is an excellent and important example.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Car dependency is an issue and a major one in the US, but this is almost completely separate. It's all about the blatant corruption of the president's leashholder's company getting a sweet contract that's actually trash for the government because Cybertrucks just plain suck even if you love cars.

The president literally put Musk in charge of reducing government spending.. And then while people are getting laid off left and right, his company is getting a 400M contract for something it hasn't even made to any real scale, whereas plenty of other companies have: armored cars.

[–] Serinus 34 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I dunno, there isn't much more "fuck cars" than this particular "fuck these cars". Thanks for leaving it up either way.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I want to offer that cars have always involved government corruption. The invention of jaywalking, the corrupt development of the highways for "national security" while simultaneously hampering development of real public transit, the wars started for fuel, the extrajudicial killings of people threatening the fossil fuel industry with electric cars (historically), political corruption is the life blood of cars.

[–] Fedizen 2 points 6 days ago

Its deeper than that, too. The nazis tried to ban bicycles in the netherlands going as far as confiscating them to melt them down.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Wow, what a stunning coincidence! The State Department, those champions of transparency and accountability, just happen to have an arms deal for $400 million worth of 'armored' Teslas from none other than Elon Musk. How convenient for the billionaire entrepreneur who's been quietly gutting government agencies left and right. It's not like he has a vested interest in lining his pockets with taxpayer dollars or anything.

Meanwhile, our so-called leaders are too busy patting themselves on the back for their 'fiscal responsibility' to notice the glaring favoritism at play here. The Cybertruck, that tech-savvy publicity stunt gone wrong, just happens to tick all the boxes for the feds' needs. It's like it was designed specifically with their corrupt wallets in mind.

Let's be real folks, this 'gift' from Elon Musk is nothing more than a cash injection into his already overflowing bank account. The State Department's official story is a thinly veiled attempt to whitewash the deal as some sort of public service. But we're not buying it (pun intended). This is just another example of crony capitalism and corruption in action.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Please use one of these vehicles as the presidential limo

We can get a very funny timeline 🤭

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Where the panels fall off from looking at it, the accelerator gets stuck down, and it spontaneously bursts into flames?

Yeah I agree. 😂

[–] Fedizen 8 points 6 days ago

Is this a bailout?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Now this is the corruption that we thought we would be getting not the dumb shit with the Treasury dept

[–] bitjunkie 3 points 6 days ago

We knew this was coming. Hopefully the shitty engineering comes back to bite them.

[–] singletona 92 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Weigh down a vehicle who's performance harshly degrades as weight is added, and put it on the battlefield when those batteries have a habit of catching fire.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The State Department handles diplomacy. I would expect that the intention is for US diplomats (however many are left after all this) to drive around in these things. I'm sure that will help convince other countries that the US is not at all stupidly corrupt.

[–] disguy_ovahea 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yup. Guarantee Musk gets Trump to replace The Beast with an armored Tesla.

[–] FireRetardant 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Which then spontaneously combusts killing Trump, but luckily just before that Trump passes an executive order naming Musk his successor.

[–] disguy_ovahea 13 points 1 week ago

If only they heeded your warning, FireRetardant.

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[–] DarkFuture 75 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

Who could have possibly foreseen this level of corruption happening?

I mean, other than anyone with 2 or more brain cells to rub together.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There has always been lots of Corruption in the US (IMHO), but now there is also a feeling of impunity and no shame, so both more Corruption and it being done in more visible ways.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Yeah at least before imwe were placated with "Tsk tsk! How could you? Time to respectfully step down and hang your head in embarrassment!"

Now they just shrug at us and go "LOL do something about it. Dare you. Thought so. LOL."

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Another handout for Musk. Not to mention all the repairs those pieces of trash will need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Repairs? Hah! That'd be logical!

We know already these things are like rolling Chromebooks. Meant to be constructed cheaply, fall apart quickly, to get regularly thrown into a landfill and replaced as "service."

...Then they try to turn around and do the whole greenwashed "EVs save the planet" marketing thing.

[–] spankmonkey 58 points 1 week ago

Oh, so kids don't deserve an education but we need to blow money on obviously defective bullshit from the de facto president's company.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago

That screenshot is fantastic. It captures multiple broken promises at once. The unbreakable windows work great and the starting price miraculously doubled.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is it. Welcome to all-out, blatant oligarchy. Ready to donate your last food stamps so the State Department goons get to wear brand new swastika shirts?

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[–] homesweethomeMrL 33 points 1 week ago

Oh jeez, just shove it into your face in front of everyone why don't ya.

Fucking corrupt bastards.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago

Woah, hold up. I thought the government said All EVs are bad and we should stick to gas. Now Tesla EVs are okay? Oh, the hypocrisy! /s

I hate this timeline.

[–] teamevil 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So we can't have a consumer protection agency but we can spend half a billion on shitty cars

[–] _stranger_ 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

1 Billion stolen from the department of education.

half a billion in food/aid they refused to deliver that went bad.

half a billion to this fuck's pocket.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wait, I think we should add the first two to the total so it's 2 Billion total to this fuck's pocket.

... Because seriously where else would it be going?

[–] _stranger_ 2 points 5 days ago

They're using the same math to define their wealth, so why the hell not!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Now that's peak government efficiency. Directly in his pockets.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

The state exists to serve capital.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 3 points 6 days ago

Half the joke is in how none of these vehicles will get delivered.

Musk's only penned in by his own limited vision, though. This could easily have been $400B. Next time I'm sure he'll aim bigger.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

The silver lining is that the deathtraps will end up killing cops

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