The Way Society Has Become

Wife and I were talking and things are vastly different from the way they used to be. When I had driver's ed, you always flashed your lights at an oncoming car that forgot to put their lights on at night. It was a courtesy thing and something we were instructed to do. That was then.

Nowadays, flashing your lights at an oncoming car will most likely get you shot by some thug or gang banger who has nothing else to do but, look for victims.

We see a plethera of cars who do not have their lights on at night and we go right on by. Apparently the Police don't stop them either, something else that has changed.

I'm 36 years old and I never learned to drive. I don't think I want to drive, at least not where I live now. There's too many distractions and too many maniacs either drunk/high or playing on their phones. I don't think I could handle it, even in broad daylight. I'd be so petrified. All it takes is one minor slip of the wheel/brake, and it's curtains for you. Hell, I didn't learn to ride a bicycle until I was ten. It boggles my mind how so many other people can drive so effortlessly, though. Sometimes I wonder if you'd have to be mentally wired a certain way to pull it off, as if these are people who can turn off the fear mechanism in their brains.

Keith wrote:I'm 36 years old and I never learned to drive. I don't think I want to drive, at least not where I live now. There's too many distractions and too many maniacs either drunk/high or playing on their phones. I don't think I could handle it, even in broad daylight. I'd be so petrified. All it takes is one minor slip of the wheel/brake, and it's curtains for you. Hell, I didn't learn to ride a bicycle until I was ten. It boggles my mind how so many other people can drive so effortlessly, though. Sometimes I wonder if you'd have to be mentally wired a certain way to pull it off, as if these are people who can turn off the fear mechanism in their brains.

There are real fears in driving anywhere nowadays, especially at night when the criminals are out looking for victims. Getting gasoline even opens one up to possible situations. Frankly, I don't go anywhere anymore, even for a walk without being armed. There are lunatics everywhere out there now and they are encouraged, condoned, celebrated, pacified and supported.

They only have to have luck once...

Society has changed in many ways. Not for the better, mostly.

I still flash my brights to remind people to turn their lights on. It's a safety thing. Everyone is armed in Texas and criminals know it.

Keith wrote:I'm 36 years old and I never learned to drive. I don't think I want to drive, at least not where I live now. There's too many distractions and too many maniacs either drunk/high or playing on their phones. I don't think I could handle it, even in broad daylight. I'd be so petrified. All it takes is one minor slip of the wheel/brake, and it's curtains for you. Hell, I didn't learn to ride a bicycle until I was ten. It boggles my mind how so many other people can drive so effortlessly, though. Sometimes I wonder if you'd have to be mentally wired a certain way to pull it off, as if these are people who can turn off the fear mechanism in their brains.

how do you get around?

Crusader wrote:I still flash my brights to remind people to turn their lights on.  It's a safety thing.  Everyone is armed in Texas and criminals know it.

I agree with you and it's how we were trained in Driver's Education however, here and in most places in the country, it is no longer safe. I'm glad that Texas is still a free state that allows one to defend him/her self.

RV wrote:Wife and I were talking and things are vastly different from the way they used to be. When I had driver's ed, you always flashed your lights at an oncoming car that forgot to put their lights on at night. It was a courtesy thing and something we were instructed to do. That was then.

Nowadays, flashing your lights at an oncoming car will most likely get you shot by some thug or gang banger who has nothing else to do but, look for victims.

We see a plethera of cars who do not have their lights on at night and we go right on by. Apparently the Police don't stop them either, something else that has changed.

What you have out there is the entitled, the addled-by-drugs, the clowns who feel a need to Virtue Signal. Who want to play Alphonse-and-Gaston with everyone at a stop sign or making a left-hand turn. It's a Leftist mentality, a California mentality...you write your OWN rules, and many universal rules they reverse in their own minds.

Take flashing lights, to pass or to signal that you're coming, or going through. These pot-addled kids, somehow have the idea it means you're YIELDING to them. So they jump in.

So, someone's turning left mid-block into a driveway, in heavy traffic? Some California clown will stop, holding up 50 cars, to LET THE PERSON DO IT. And it can get ugly if some impatient driver, likely also from California, then passes on the right.

The Leftists worship CHAOS. They write their own rules, and on the fly. That's one reason why traffic has become so dangerous these last ten or so years.

Keith wrote:I'm 36 years old and I never learned to drive. I don't think I want to drive, at least not where I live now. There's too many distractions and too many maniacs either drunk/high or playing on their phones. I don't think I could handle it, even in broad daylight. I'd be so petrified. All it takes is one minor slip of the wheel/brake, and it's curtains for you. Hell, I didn't learn to ride a bicycle until I was ten. It boggles my mind how so many other people can drive so effortlessly, though. Sometimes I wonder if you'd have to be mentally wired a certain way to pull it off, as if these are people who can turn off the fear mechanism in their brains.

No, you just have to be trained for a complex set of behaviors.

And, of course TRAFFIC LAWS need to be understood - and enforced. So we all understand who might have the right-of-way, how to avoid collisions with other traffic or pedestrians.

It's not unlike speech. Speech is impossible until everyone more-or-less agrees on what various sounds mean - how they make up words; what words mean; what sentences mean. Speech is much more complex than driving a car.

It's dangerous now, because of people who reject rules, don't obey them...and make their own rules, such as who might have the right of way. Other people aren't going to expect a car to stop dead in mid-block. Or stop at the end of a merge lane on the freeway.

I've driven taxicabs and 18-wheel trucks, and passenger buses. As well as railway locomotives, pulling trains. It ain't that hard - most truck drivers tend to be on the wrong side of the Bell Curve. Cabbies are smarter, but only because you need your wits to live on the street.

We got stupid locomotive engineers from time to time. They usually didn't last long. Most of the time, they didn't take anyone with them when they came to the end of their career...occasionally, though, they did.

Crusader wrote:I still flash my brights to remind people to turn their lights on.  It's a safety thing.  Everyone is armed in Texas and criminals know it.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL! Californians are leaving the drug riddled state and moving to Texas. Texas is becoming more and more liberal with the advent of Californians moving there.