Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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One thing I feel like we discuss rarely here is cars.
I drive a late 90s/early 00s German sedan. When I made less money, I spent a good amount of time wrenching on it. I wanted to have some minimal competence and understanding of the car, and it was a great way to save money.
It still would be a great way to save money - I won't kid myself there - but the stress of preparing for a maintenance job, buying the specialized tools/parts, and working in my extremely cramped garage has lost some magic. I still feel accomplished doing little things but when I'm constantly under pressure to be doing work or parenting, there's less magic in DIY. Bike maintenance provides a similar dopamine hit with far less commitment.
That said, I just picked it up from the mechanic this week after a month-long absence and some significant work being done. I truly do not understand how people put up with newer cars.
This thing is absolutely sublime. It strikes a perfect balance between the precision and feedback from all of its systems while driving and what you'd define as "luxury" and comfort. I splurged on an aftermarket exhaust that fades into the background on the highway and absolutely rips when I'm driving like I stole it late at night on more empty roads.
Not to mention how it looks. Of course, any car you see as a teenager is what you base everything else on, but the slightly angular design language of this period right before everything turned into aero blobs for fuel efficiency and crash standards just really gets me going. I absolutely still look back at it when walking into the office and find myself getting excited when I step back into it after a long day.
Whenever I'm on the road watching hundreds of drones driving dirty shitboxes without using their turn signals or trying to drive efficiently, I fall into such a superiority complex. How could you care so little about something you do so much? For a country supposedly in love with its cars, it would be tough for Americans to give less of a shit about how driving feels and how they perform at it. For all I'm made fun of about the time and money I've invested in an older car, when I spread that out over the time I've used it and the joy I derive from it it seems like an obvious trade.
I suspect this is a rhetorical flourish, but if it's a genuine question I think you need to take a step back from your own perspective. Everyone has something that they use/interact with frequently, but they don't care about except for its utility. The premise of "you do this a lot" => "you therefore should care about it" is false.
I've been trying to find a balance between protesting too much on a Friday fun-thread and really trying to outline where y'all are wrong here. @sarker talking about a Pillow Case is still just... so wrong, so let's dive in.
First, I disagree that you can safely disregard things you do a lot. I don't care about pillowcases as much as I do cars, but I know enough to understand that a lumpy yellow-stained sack on my bedframe is going to hurt my sleep and disgust anyone else coming into my bedroom. No, you can't care about everything all the time, but you should absolutely be investing your conscious thought into the major components of your life. It really doesn't matter what it is.
There's a bit of a strawman argument going on here about caring. Caring about cars isn't just status symbolism, the sensory experience, or even how good it can be to drive. I care about how I load my dishwasher because I have to do it every day. I care about how my keyboard feels because I press it hundreds of thousands of times a year. I care about driving efficiently because catching ten red lights a week means I've spent that much less time idling at a stoplight in my life.
Second, the attitude of "Well it works for me, and it's not important" gets to the heart of my annoyance. People have collectively lost their fucking minds about dangerous cars are. They're completely desensitized to the responsibility they wield when driving it. If I don't care about my pillows, I may not get laid or wake up grumpy. If I run my tires down to the belt, I run the risk of at least making a ton of people late to work next time it rains, but also kill someone else.
Maybe many people (here and otherwise) don't care about cars but keep them well-maintained. That sounds like a purple squirrel to me, but let's say that's the case. I still believe that purchasing a vehicle with poor performance characteristics sucks. I don't get into situations where I need them often, but I once again don't understand thinking "YAGNI" when it comes to controlling your own fate on public roads. It's the same reason I have a shotgun locked in my closet and frequently train with firearms. I'm not interested in rolling the dice with police response times when it matters.
My main rebuttal there is what I said before: everyone has something which is a major component of their life, but they aren't putting conscious thought into. I would be willing to bet that you, as in you personally, have things like this. It seems completely implausible to me that if we were to exhaustively list every single activity you do on a daily (or more frequent basis), that you consciously think about them all with any sort of regularity. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think I am, and it seems to me that this is a very strong argument against your stance on why everyone should care about cars. They matter to you and that's fine, but not everyone feels that way.
I can tell you that at least I am that way. I'm not perfect of course, but I check my fluids every so often, keep air in the tires and make sure I have tread, etc. It is simply a matter of safety, much as you said (that and not blowing up my several thousand $ piece of metal through neglect).
But maintenance is one thing, performance is another. I see no reason why I should care about performance. It's not like my life will be saved by how fast I can accelerate, or how well the steering performs under high stress, or anything like that. It doesn't interest me, and it doesn't benefit me, so of course I don't care.
Everyone has that but.... should they?
For me it's my yard, which I've discussed previously. I know I should care about it but can't. It falls lower on the priority pole, but at least I still know that I'm putting myself at a disadvantage.
I actually think it could and I believe that mine has. You're showing a little about what I'm talking about. Braking is another aspect of performance, and the stopping distance difference between low and high-end tires is enormous. It is precisely what the layman disregards that can easily be life or death. Just check the stats on TireRack between the worst and best tires for common sizes.
The fact that not every sticky driving situation can be avoided through braking is one of the reasons I care about other aspects like acceleration and general handling.
I would say yes. Realistically, people simply do not have enough time or energy to care that much about everything. Some things are important, and some things are not important but personally interesting. Beyond that, who cares? Life is short, and people should feel free to spend it how they see fit imo.
I think that this is untrue by definition. If something was actually a common cause of life or death scenarios, people would learn about it and care. If I learned that 50% of drivers were dying when they use CheapMcBad (TM) tires, even as someone who doesn't give a shit about cars I would go out and replace my tires. I don't care about cars, but I do care about not dying and so I'm going to take steps if something is actually a common failure mode.
Now there is a delay here in between "something is known at all" and "something is known to the masses". So perhaps the things you mention are in that in-between phase where laymen don't yet know that they should care. But I submit that it's more likely that those things are, in fact, edge cases. That they are unlikely to make a real difference in safety for most people, and only an unlucky few will encounter a situation where those things matter.
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