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Right. One thing we were peripherally aware of but didn't have space to cover properly in our article was the role of the car in right-wing politics, fascism & enaction of racist/segregationist geographies. In the US, cars are increasingly used as weapons to harm protestors. 1/ https://twitter.com/PHellermann/status/1310864876294766598
See for instance this article covering multiple instances of deliberate cars running down protestors, & the legislative efforts of Republicans to incite even more car-based violence. Cars culture is often right-wing: it individualizes & atomizes people. 2/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/drivers-keep-running-over-protesters-e2-80-94and-getting-away-with-it/ar-BB19ppBw
It makes them feel they are above & beyond normal society, that they are independent from social attachments and environmental dependency. It gives the illusion of not having to care, of having one's own comfortable space, regardless of external pressures. 3/
Car culture gives the illusion of dominance: the bounty of the world comes in through the petrol pump and at the drive-through window, the natural world is one big motorway with shopping malls coating it. The car driver is an atomized consumer, with no friends, ... 4/
and no perception of his (yes his) systemic dependence upon the work of others, be it production or care work, or upon planetary biodiversity, stable climate etc. In other words, the car driver is the Homo Economicus of neoclassical economics. He is an agent of destruction. 5/
He is unable to form unions with his co-workers, arrives atomized at work: the perfect neoliberal worker. He feels entitled to everything, but above all to his sense of special dominance. Protestors, community deliberation, concerns around justice & rights, be they racial ... 6/
or around air pollution or cycling or climate, are all anathema to his desire for fascist dominance. Cars, quite simply, create monsters, and Republicans in the US realise this so well that they are passing laws to protect car drivers mowing down protestors. 7/
Thanks to @bikeademic for opening my eyes to car culture. Read his amazing contribution "Cultures of consumption: the âcar cultureâ"of our article. I've gone way further in this thread in terms of the politics of it, but understanding how cars shape ... 8/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620300633#sec0016
ideology is important. PS I'm aware there is a "left wing" emancipatory freedom aspect of car culture (see Tracy Chapman "Fast car", "On the road", Motorcycle Diaries etc). But these are either emancipatory (leaving a bad place), vapid escape (Kerouc - I'm not a fan) and ... 9/
engagement & entanglement with local populations and their struggles (motorcycle diaries). Not quite the same thing as constant suburban driving.
PS2: I'm also aware that some people *need* cars because they are frail, disabled, etc. That's fine. This is not about them. End/
PS2: I'm also aware that some people *need* cars because they are frail, disabled, etc. That's fine. This is not about them. End/
