Comment by RajT88
3 years ago
Where I live - which my wife still questions our decision - the giant mean trucks aren't just giant and mean, but they are outfitted with what sounds like a freight train horn, and many myriads of flood lights.
Nobody knows why this is, because most people live in subdivisions and not farms, where you might feasibly need giant mean trucks with flood lights. And yet the big mean, loud, bright trucks are quite popular.
> Nobody knows why this is
But isn't that sort of an easy thing to generalize? (forgive me). It's not about need. It's about want. Everyone surrounding you has a big truck, you need one too. You buy a bigger truck than them, now it's up to everyone else to step and make theirs bigger, meaner, louder, etc. You spit coal out of your exhaust? Cool, now I spit more. Pretty simple human behaviors, unfortunately.
I feel like this could also just be based off a "biased" sample set. Like you're more likely to notice a large truck with fog lights, meanwhile the Ford Maverick is sold out for the entire next year and it's fords nicest looking, smallest hybrid truck
This is definitely anecdotal and subjective, but I'd say the vast majority of trucks I've seen look really angry.
My unscientific guess: there was some sort of big angry truck trend that the people who style these things got stuck on, and the Maverick sells like hotcakes because it is styled for underserved "I want a little classic looking truck" market.
Doubly unscientific guess: A little electric Maverick would sell incredibly well.
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Oh, absolutely biased! But not just trucks. Works for all kinds of other things. Sports cars too. Nice things. Athletic skills. Etc. People like to one up each other.
So, that's not all truck owners. Just thinking (anecdotally) that lots of "mean" truck owners buy them in part because of one-upping/status-seeking behaviors and wants rather than "I need to tow 12k pounds" requirements.
In my town (just outside NY City), seems like the status vehicle of choice is a 911. Buy one if you want to fit in with all your rich buddies!
> Nobody knows why this is, because most people live in subdivisions and not farms, where you might feasibly need giant mean trucks with flood lights. And yet the big mean, loud, bright trucks are quite popular.
Tail fins used to be a big things on cars, but no one knows why that was, because cars don't fly. /s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_tailfin
It is a prisoners dilemma, people want safety from all the dangerous cars, so they buy a bigger car to feel safe, this makes other people want even bigger cars than your car so they don't end up being crushed by you. The end result is less safety and more deaths and injuries.
Sometimes people are different than you and enjoy different things and it doesn’t inherently mean they’re bad.
Perhaps try adjusting to your new location instead of blaming the locals?
It's also perfectly valid to hold an opinion and have preferences contrary to those around you.
And these opinions aren't about shoe style, they have consequences on the broader society, and thus are open to criticism for their societal impacts.
I didn't detect any blame in the GP's comment, nor the claim that "I dislike it and therefore it's inherently bad."
The more accurate reading would be that the GP thinks that it's bad, and that's why they don't like it. But even still, the comment doesn't appear to contain blame, only bewilderment.
Tricked out trucks aren't my thing. But I can see the appeal of buying a rugged vehicle and tricking it out.
To the extent that I have an axe to grind with the big truck owners, it's because some (not all, and not always) these big truck drivers:
- Drive aggressively in urban areas - Blast their excessive lights which is a hazard for cars in front of them - Are intentionally disruptive with their giant horns
Put more plainly - assholes seem to be drawn to such things. But I don't think they create assholes.
But for sure, where I live, there are a lot of disruptive assholes with big trucks.
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