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I can think of a lot of (historically) recent changes in the American environment that are more alienating than cars.
by wyager 4y ago
I can think of a lot of (historically) recent changes in the American environment that are more alienating than cars.
- woodruffw 4y agoSo can I, but I can't think of many that share the magnitude and ubiquity of cars! (You shouldn't read this as a fixation or totem: there are plenty of other problems in this country. But it isn't a coincidence that aggressive deurbanization/suburbanization is closely tracked by increases in isolation, which in turn is tracked by a decline in personal trust[1].) [1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/07/22/the-state-of-personal-trust/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/07/22/the-state-of...
- wyager 4y agoI can: the destruction of religion as a civic activity in the US. I'm not even religious but that's a huge one. Another is the effort (by HUD and others) to eliminate regions of ethno-cultural homogeneity. Both of these are A) much more numerically significant (on a per-capita basis) than changes in vehicle use since, say, 1950 and B) well-understood to reduce social factors like trust and cohesion.