Jello Biafra is personally responsible for all this non-sense. The point of origin for the Anti-SUV meme is a 3 CD set of rants that he put out about 4 years ago. I actually have it, but its in storage and I don't recall the name. Biafra talked about soccer moms buying SUVs so they could run down "urban predators" in the street if they felt threatened. It was very funny. It was a commentary on the attitudes that suburban baby boomers have toward urban generation Xers, with a little bit of frustration thrown in about dealing with big vehicles on the road. It was not serious. It was not literal. It was not really about SUVs. I doubt Biafra had any idea what he was giving birth to when he delivered that rant.

Biafra's frustration about SUVs is understandable. The guy lives in
San Francisco. Big trucks are a problem there. This is because San Francisco has, hands down, the worst transportation infrastructure of any place I have ever been on the planet. You want to talk about damaging people for your comfort and convenience? Tell that to the people who will drown in the Bay when that bridge isn't replaced before the next quake because the city couldn't decide on a solution which is pretty enough.

There are two problems with arguments about fuel efficiency, safety, and cost:

1. The left was pissed off about SUVs long before it really had any data on crash safety. The crash safety issue, in fact, has only really been understood recently. Anti-SUV rage has been going on for a while. So this cannot, in fact, be the real reason for all of this. The same is also really true of the other two arguments. The angst existed before the rationalization.

2. The arguments aren't objectively applied. The left isn't opposed to unsafe cars in general. Only SUVs. The left isn't opposed to gas guzzling cars in general. Only SUVs. The left isn't opposed to expensive cars in general, only SUVs. Furthermore, the left opposes SUVs even when they aren't expensive, or unsafe, or particularly inefficient.

I recently had someone on the left try to explain to me that a late model Corvette gets better mileage then a Ford Explorer. According to the left, driving a Jeep Liberty says "I'm willing to damage you for my own comfort and convenience," but driving a much more dangerous car with much worse gas mileage which costs a lot more money, like a highly customized street drag honda, says "I like to drive fast and its my hobby."

] The difference is they're not macho.

This is the crux. The left doesn't like SUVs because they are macho. The left doesn't like macho. The left also basically hates successful people, but throwing macho in with the success is what took things over the top for them. SUVs are a focal point for this resentment because they combine success and macho (even when they aren't expensive, as they have become a symbol of what the left hates).

My problem with all of this:

] I'm willing to damage you for my own comfort and convenience.

You are shoving YOUR lifestyle/aesthetic choices down MY throat. Its not good enough for you to decide that you don't want an SUV, etc... You aren't satisfied until I live by your perspective. This is no different from what the Christian Conservatives do with respect to the media. Its not that they won't watch that dirty film because they don't like it, its that they want me to stop watching those films because they don't like it. They offer just as many rationalizations backed with statistical data demonstrating that the violent crime that they are exposed to is greater because I watch these dirty films.

The difference is that the Christian Right knows that it is moralizing. The left doesn't. That makes them about 1000 times worse.

This is, still, kind of, a free society. My freedom is a function of how much of my life is defined by my will/decisions versus the circumstances that I am in or the decisions society makes for me.

This anti-SUV thing is not about how "I choose to drive a Geo Metro because it is frugal and fuel efficient." Its about "Fuck you for driving your big truck. I don't like big trucks and therefore you're an asshole for driving one. You are no better then a terrorist. I hope you die in an accident."

By deciding that I am not to own an SUV because YOU don't like them, you are making me less free. In doing so, you are doing real actual damage to me personally, rather then this vague statistical probability of damage you claim that you might be the victim of. You are taking away my will.

And thats my problem with this anti-SUV business. Its an attempt to make me less free.

RE: WSJ.com - The Scarlet SUV