“Rowlingphobia” and other supposed afflictions of our supposed “woke” culture

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/01/18/highways-are-already-scary-self-driving-cars-wont-help/

You know what I think would be far more useful? Software that detected when the driver was significantly impaired. You’re weaving all over the road, or you’re exceeding the speed limit, or it senses that you’re nodding off, and it fires off alarms to let you know you’re not safe, and if you exceed a certain frequency of warnings, it transmits alerts to the police.

What the fuck? I must have misread that. Let’s try again:

You know what I think would be far more useful? Software that detected when the driver was significantly impaired. You’re weaving all over the road, or you’re exceeding the speed limit, or it senses that you’re nodding off, and it fires off alarms to let you know you’re not safe, and if you exceed a certain frequency of warnings, it transmits alerts to the police.

What, really? PZ Myers just suggested that cars be designed to tattle on sufficiently-erratic drivers (as perceived by the machine) to the fucking cops?

I was on board with the rest of that (but as I understand it, most of those things are increasingly standard in newer autos already anyway) but … ratting people out to those no-good rotten violent fascist pigs? Including drivers of color and members of other marginalized communities?

Yikes.

And not one person in the comments has called him out about that bit either. Someone’s driving being erratic is surely one of those many things that would better be handled in some other way than by siccing armed agents of the state on people. This could be a granny with fading vision or an injured person or something, and is probably not a violent persistent felon or a hijacker or suchlike that actually would clearly warrant a response by armed agents of the state.

I’m not even sure I’d like the thought of vehicles tattling on their owners to the DMV or their insurance company. Especially since it might not even be the owner who’s driving in any particular instance. And the machine can’t see whether there’s an extenuating circumstance (icy roads? Winding mountain road with high winds? Problem with the machine’s own sensors, perhaps from snow or ice or even nesting insects? I’m remembering hearing somewhere about a 747 brought down by mud-dauber wasps who’d mud-daubed its pitot tubes shut, in concert with the 747’s own autopilot acting on the resulting faulty data…)

Best might be if it just sends the owner an email letting them know and suggesting resources that could be applicable (from optometrists to substance-abuse programs to “maybe it was just the weather or something. I could be wrong; I’m just a machine after all.” Perhaps with an option to configure it to also alert a trusted close kin, e.g. of an elderly driver, who can intervene if it’s *really* necessary, knows and cares about the person, and knows their situation so as to be able to think up an appropriate course of action.

PZ’s suggestion, on the other hand, would probably result in an annual spike of brown people being shot during “routine traffic stops” because they were “reaching for something” (license and registration, perhaps?) and the “officer felt threatened” in the northern and mountain states every February or March or so, once enough days of dealing with slippery and slushy roads had happened over the space of December and January as to trigger the things’ erratic driving tattle thresholds.

Meanwhile, I have now just survived two supply runs in a row where the local major taxi companies fucked up. “It’ll be 20 to 25 minutes”. I grumble and say OK, then hang up. 30 minutes later, no taxi. I call back and they say they never even sent it. Meanwhile everything in my bag is 30 minutes closer to missing its deadline for getting re-refrigerated, and this time there’s too much bulk and weight for hoofing it back home to be a realistic option.

A helpful store clerk was able to supply the number of an independent taxi driver, who got there in 5 minutes and had me home in another 10, fortunately. But I’m still concerned. Increasing the number of alternate taxi services in my phone contacts from 2 to 3 doesn’t feel like enough of a safeguard. And I don’t know why I am suddenly beset with problems getting transportation, again. Everything was working fine up until about two weeks ago (three, in the case of one of those services) and now they can’t apparently do their jobs properly for love or money? They don’t even have the weather as an excuse this time, as it was clear and calm and the roads were in good condition.

Anyone have any ideas here that might be helpful? (Not “move closer to the stores” — rent is too damn high as it is and is surely a lot higher right near the shopping district — or “get delivery” when I still lack a functioning credit card.)

@ surplus

Over here, and maybe other places, insurance companies for young drivers will often offer a discount if the driver agrees to the installation of a ‘black box’. That transmits all the parameters of their driving, including things like if they’re wearing a seatbelt, to the insurance company.

The general consensus is to pay the extra to not be monitored. The companies send a report to the driver as to their driving. I can see the utility of that for a new driver. It’s valuable feedback. But of course the company could then decline either coverage, and that messes up your insurance record forever.

Having said all that, I am very aware that I am in control of two and a half tons of metal, often travelling at speed. But also just passing feet away from pedestrians, kids, cyclists, horse riders and a whole host of other vulnerable people. So I do see a responsibly on myself, and all other drivers, to ensure we drive as safely as possible. And if we’re not fit to drive, however inconvenient that might be to us, we owe it to everyone else to not put them at risk.

Even a momentary lapse of concentration at the wrong time can end and ruin lives in a matter of seconds.

The US gets through a 9/11 every six weeks in terms of road deaths. As we have tragically seen, in the wrong hands a vehicle is as deadly as a gun or even a bomb.

So whilst I am very glad I only self monitor (I do have recording equipment installed) I can’t really see a moral objection to efforts (jn general terms that is; even if there are problems in the details and application to be worked through) to keep people safe; however much an imposition that might be on personal liberty.

ETA: There is a black box installed on my truck. That records a few seconds of data if it thinks the vehicle has been involved in a major accident. But Land Rover will only unlock that by order of the court. I think though all US vehicles for the last decade or so have had to have them fitted.

@Alan Robertshaw
I took the simplest approach of not even bothering to get a license. There’s enough cars around as it is and I don’t trust my own attention span enough to not have something go horribly wrong. Unfortunately this is only an option for me because I live in a city with access to public transportation, so it obviously won’t work for everyone.

Southern Star Brewing is the brewery that refused to host Rittenhouse. Their Buried Hatchet Stout is delicious.

Ngl, I got Rowlingphobia from that intro pic, it’s straight out of the Scary Stories Treasury, holy crap.

Also I have to laugh at the NHL being woke. I literally went to the first sportsball game in my life last November (work event) and it was an NHL game. It’s now saved on my phone in clips as a demonstration of brilliantly well-executed right-wing propaganda that legit looks like it’s from MegaCity One or some shit.

EDIT: Does anyone know off the top of their head, because I’m afraid to google but I also don’t want to ask anyone else to do what I don’t want to do, what is Kyle Rittenhouse’s event that keeps getting cancelled? What is it that a teenage race murderer can have a worthy perspective on, since I don’t imagine he has a skill to put on an entire show at his age (although I could be wrong, I just find it unlikely)?

Continuing the conversation about driving, I don’t have a car, so my driving is limited to rental cars. On a cross-country road trip in the USA with my boyfriend several years ago, we were under pressure to make it back home (2,000 miles away) as quickly as possible so that I could return to work. It was an interesting experience.

We crossed into Wyoming in the middle of the night and saw that the highway was very dark. What lighting there was came from lights set into the median strip. On either side of us was darkness. We drove for several hours, and as the sun rose, the darkness to our right lifted to reveal incredible, steep, gorgeous mountains, seemingly almost in our laps. We were flabbergasted. Too bad Wyoming is so right wing. (Hello, Dick Cheney.)

My boyfriend and I took turns driving. I would drive until I was exhausted and then keep driving. When I would start to think that I might crash — but not care because I was so tired — I knew it was time to hand off the driving to him.

My boyfriend and I both still have a strong memory of the McDonald’s just outside Laramie, Wyoming. It was really big and fancy for a McDonald’s, with paintings and copper panels on the walls. We remember pulling into the parking lot at 5 a.m., when it opened, and being greeted by a chubby, cranky server whose hair color matched the copper panels and who poured us coffee. I don’t usually drink much coffee, but I did that time because it was my turn to drive.

@Alan Robertshaw:

 I also apply my general Marcus Aurelius approach, and don’t get worked up about other people’s less than stellar driving;

Now picturing Marcus Aurelius behind the wheel of a Volvo or something on his morning commute. It’s easy enough—the real problem is getting back to his villa—all the roads leading out of Rome do this weird u-turn…

@ mooncustafer

Now picturing Marcus Aurelius behind the wheel of a Volvo

“You can be the man who complains about the branch blocking the road; or you can be the man who moves the branch from the road…..or if you’re a BMW driver you can just beep your horn at it until it gets out of your way.”

Did double murderers used to get handed glittering media careers before the wokists ruined everything then? Kyle Rittenhouse should thank his lucky stars for the culture war, it was once a lot harder to turn being a teen killer into a grift.

It’s actually kind of impressive how people defending Rowling pretend the stuff she did ended with her little essay full of misrepresentations and half truths that someone who didn’t know the reality or what the dog whistles could legitimately not see the problem with. Just blatantly ignoring how she became the public face of an openly genocidal hate movement in the two years since then, which anyone who even glances at her social media would know.

We already see the abuses that come from the breathalyzer that jurisdictions force people with DUI convictions to install. Sometimes, it malfunctions. Sometimes it demands a test at the exact moment the driver is doing something dangerous. Whatever the cause of the report, police and insurance will never believe the black driver over the device. Having more automated systems like that will only compound the issues.

@Alan Robertshaw:

The general consensus is to pay the extra to not be monitored. The companies send a report to the driver as to their driving. I can see the utility of that for a new driver. It’s valuable feedback. But of course the company could then decline either coverage, and that messes up your insurance record forever.

So, you could get useful feedback that would improve your driving, make yourself and others safer, but lock you into having high insurance rates and being permanently listed somewhere as a bad driver even though you’re not anymore; or you can keep the default insurance rates, not get the feedback, and be a worse and less safe driver, until your first accident or thereabouts.

Seems there’s a wee bit of a problem with the incentive structure there.

And if we’re not fit to drive, however inconvenient that might be to us, we owe it to everyone else to not put them at risk.

…

I can’t really see a moral objection to efforts (jn general terms that is; even if there are problems in the details and application to be worked through) to keep people safe; however much an imposition that might be on personal liberty.

Not disagreeing. Not agreeing that “automated tattling to armed agents of the state” is the best way to deal with that. And again, even automated tattling to the DMV who might then suspend your license or insist you retake the tests or something could become a problem if (and they will) they just blindly trust the automation.

Meanwhile, I note that you’re using terms like “inconvenient” and “imposition”; that’s perhaps a bit of a class/European privilege issue. Poorer people in the Americas may find that loss of driving privileges is an acute threat to their very lives, if they have poor or no other transportation options, lack the funds to move, etc.; it could easily cascade into a job loss, then homelessness, an elevated risk of violent death (especially if black, female, gay, etc.), and in the more northern areas, just plain death once winter rolled around.

Consider the difficulties I’ve had lately transporting food home. Now imagine I was non-disabled and it was a job I kept being late for because of this, until eventually they fired me for repeat tardiness; and without disability the most jobless-nondisabled-me could get was welfare, which pays only around half as much as disability does; with half the income I actually had, there is no way to not be homeless in Canada (as the lowest rent anywhere in the entire country is now a little bit higher than the highest monthly amount welfare recipients can be eligible for!); without access to grooming and personal hygiene anymore, I quickly become incapable of passing any job interview, so unless I get very lucky and land a replacement job within a month or two and avoid homelessness altogether, my joblessness, and the homelessness, become effectively permanent; and I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that Canadian winters are not survivable without shelter, full-stop. Savings? What savings? A good third or more of the populations of the US and Canada live paycheck to paycheck, with emergencies soaking up any would-be savings as fast as they can be accumulated. And a lot of the time those emergencies are car repairs and similar transportation-related matters!

Even without involving gun-slinging yahoos, automated tattling tech would probably kill a significant number of poor people on this side of the pond and greatly worsen the poverty of a lot more.

The ideal fix would involve a much more robust welfare state and much more robust public transit over here. I’m pretty sure what we’ll get is tattle boxes instead, because that’s what the billionaires will favor: it’s much cheaper and it doesn’t dangerously empower the working class. The best we might realistically hope for, short of a full-blown revolution (party like it’s 1789!), is complete inaction: no welfare improvements, no transit improvements, but no tattle boxes either.

I do though have little moments of clarity where I suddenly become very aware that I’m manipulating this death machine with dials and levers and one minor slip and it could be devastating. It only lasts a second or two; but it can be a bit disconcerting.

I wonder if this is a common, but undiscussed, experience among drivers in general or if it’s limited to the non-neurotypical.

@BTD:

Also I have to laugh at the NHL being woke. I literally went to the first sportsball game in my life last November (work event) and it was an NHL game. It’s now saved on my phone in clips as a demonstration of brilliantly well-executed right-wing propaganda that legit looks like it’s from MegaCity One or some shit.

Could you please elaborate? I mean, sure, it’s a lot of toxic masculinity on display (even by sportsball standards — does any other sport, save boxing, regularly feature fisticuffs?) but you make it sound like it was a top-flight production of Triumph of the Will on Ice or something.

@Kietazou:

I really like your site and your takes on things. It’s a real mistake for me to read the comments, though, as happened today. These are the sort of people who may accept me as an ally, if I shut up and nod. Maybe. Many of them, as seen her today, are the sort of ally that sends me home from any party very early on. My word, self- righteousness on an almost Xian or Maoist level! Because it’s all empty fucking words.

Could you please elaborate? I don’t see a specific complaint about a specific comment(er) here, just vague insinuations of intolerance of some sort.