This is how enshittification perpetuates.

If it’s not open source as much as reasonably possible, it’s ultimately no better than Android. Kind of annoyed that distinctions need to be made between “real” Linux and “fake” Linux.

It’s time to bring back this stuff!

This is also exactly my problem with minimalist systems. That, and things being hardcoded in a way I don’t like and not having any reasonable recourse to change it.

Oh of course, if we just magically got rid of about a thousand people, everything would be better. Wow, great problem solving. Totally not a completely useless comment.

Cars are not the only form of transportation with accessibility in mind.

But what there is far far more of is people whose health is in dangerous territory, in part, because they are too sedentary, which is something owed in large part to the advent of industrialism including the rise of motor vehicle transportation.

If you never bike, 5280 ft feels like a lot. If you bike at least 3 days a week for even just two weeks, 5280 ft is already not even a warm up.

I have put more far more than minimum effort into living as car-free as possible. What I have learned is that, no, it is not easy in the US. But it is possible, virtually everyone I’ve seen say that it’s impossible have really just not even bothered trying. Changing habits is hard, and this capitalistic hellscape makes everything that much harder, but no amount of excuses is going to bring gas prices down. Every cent spent on motor vehicles only goes to the lobbyists and city planners who make this paved deterraforming project that much more intractable.

Sounds like hell.

Are you really finding jobs that pay so much better that it’s worth the insane costs of cars, their maintenance, insurance, gas and oil?

A mile is not a lot.

Sounds like you need a job closer to home, or a home closer to job.

That’s a really dumb thing for your brother to do.

I didn’t say it was as easy. I was illustrating that there are parallels - they are both things that you need to plan your life around. If your job forces you to drive 60+ miles every day, you can interpret that as most people do, by saying that makes a car free lifestyle not feasible. Or you can recognize that wasting all that time and money on the road and your car is a fucking stupid thing to waste your life doing, and start using some of your free time to either start looking for a job closer to home, or a home closer to your job.

Oh, and I used to make 45 minute bike commutes to my 10 hour per day job in a rural small town. And still managed to consistently get groceries for a household of 5. You don’t know what’s doable unless you actually try.

Doubt.

In the same way that using degoogled Android usually requires you to get a different compatible phone, and loss of certain apps requires you to live your life a bit differently; the car-free lifestyle also take some pre-planning, and sometimes large changes in your life.

If you don’t think it’s worth it, that’s your choice. But car-centric lifestyles will get increasingly hard to sustain.

The issue here is that we have no way to verify from your text whether you almost hit them because of their lack of responsibility, or if you weren’t paying enough attention.

As someone with extensive experience with bike commuting on a regular bike, I have had multiple near death experiences while obeying all traffic laws properly and using multiple light sources. Even with my new 10 minute walking commute, the simple act of crossing the street safely when the street lights tell me to cross, has proved to be asking too much with multiple near hits in only a few months.

U.S. road traffic crashes cause more than 40,000 deaths annually. Pedestrians are disproportionately affected.

Humans are not remotely responsible enough to drive.

Cutting the motor vehicles out entirely is such an insanely massive savings.

Yikes, ~$1,700 for a bulky Rockchip arm laptop with an awkward roller ball instead of touchpad. 😬

A Vitamix blender. Most reliable blender I’ve ever used and so many things you can make in it. Smoothies, nut butters, you can even cook soups in them.

They are on the expensive side, but the worst model refurbished is still well worth having and goes on sale from time to time.

Leonard Nimoy. Grew up with a lot of Star Trek. Both him and Keanu Reeves helped me understand that it’s entirely fine to be introverted.

As I understood it, Nimoy’s death was from lung problems that developed as a result of his smoking habit - even though he had quit smoking many years prior that. It was the catalyst I needed to finally say, “I can’t wait anymore, time may already be up. I need to quit smoking now.” And that was when I finally did quit smoking and make it stick.