tandempower

This forum seems to attract people who defend cars as if they were people. LCF, by definition, implies de-automotivization at one or more levels, whether you're talking about your lifestyle as an individual or reducing driving in a larger area. Because of this, some people seem to respond as if people are under attack, not just cars and driving. I came to understand how this feels in a recent thread where I allowed myself to get emotionally upset by anti-population advocacy that essentially amounts to negativity toward humans as a species, which offends me because I empathize with people who would be targeted for population control measures such as forced birth control or otherwise.

But why would people feel the same about the assertion that the world is overpopulated with cars? If cars aren't people, or even living things for that matter, why would the idea that they are a problem bother anyone? I think it might have to do with the way cars have been marketed as extensions of ourselves and our identities, instead of as appliances like any other. Certainly no one would feel offended if it was said that there are too many kitchen appliances produced and used, and they are marketed mostly for the sake of making money and not really for convenience in cooking and cleaning. Yet many people will take it personally if cars are under attack. Why?

I used to assume the people defending cars were auto workers or others tied to automotive industries, businesses, and their subsidiaries. Or else I assumed they were just people who have a knee-jerk patriotic reaction to cars as something proudly American, since culture has propagated this idea for quite a while. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether it's not something deeper and more anthropomorphic about psychological empathy with cars, like when you see a human statue violently attacked in a way that causes you to empathize with the statue as if it is more than a piece of carved stone, metal, or wood.

Is this the case? Are people offended by anti-automotive sentiments because they empathize directly with cars? Or is it just that they so strongly believe in the right to drive as some kind of fundamental human right? And if they feel it's a fundamental human right, why don't they care about everyone living around the world LCF as being deprived of driving? Is there just a double-standard regarding human rights based on nationality and super-national discrimination between 'people like us' and 'people who are less like us?'