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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   29870 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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The steelman: cars are dangerous heavy machinery and neglect of maintenance causes a significant amount of death and destruction. Public safety is substantially served by requiring cars be kept in good order. Just like how it's reasonable that cars be required to have working head and tail lights, its reasonable to require they have working brakes and suspension, and checking those requires a mechanical inspection.

Oh, I get the argument for it, but I have a similar instinctual response as I would toward a law requiring annual housing inspections or mandating preemptive parenting classes before couples are allowed to have children. It just seems weirdly invasive.

Driving already requires a license, although I’m not sure if inspections specifically do anything.

I mean, at the end of the day, operating a motor vehicle on public roads paid for via taxation is a privilege, not a right. You can drive a car in any condition on your own private property.

I’m not arguing; I’m just conveying my impression from a state with fewer restrictions and more freedom.

It’s starting to feel like talking about freedom of speech with Europeans. You make the merest mention that you appreciate America’s freedom of speech, and they start tripping over themselves to tell you why their much more restrictive version is actually better and more socially responsible. I get that the states that require vehicle inspections have their reasons. I just find the requirements bizarre, intrusive, and off-putting. No amount of argument is going to change my mind, as mine is an instinctive and emotional response, not a carefully-thought through rational one.

No amount of argument is going to change my mind, as mine is an instinctive and emotional response, not a carefully-thought through rational one.

In other words, it's an argument from dignity (liberal) against an argument for safety (traditionalist-progressive).

That’s it precisely. Regular vehicle checks seem freedom-impinging, which is bad enough on its own. To make matters worse, they also seem unnecessary, which therefore also makes them degrading.

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