Napoleon famously said, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” I normally would like to assume that others who do not share my views are still people who have a legitimate set of values, and may just be misinformed. But harsh experience teaches, we can’t automatically assume that everyone cares about the natural world, the planet we leave to our children, or the creatures with whom we share it.
It’s obligatory for climate denial shills to preface anti-environment rants with “of course we all want clean air and pure water, but…”
Anyone that’s followed the litany of anti-environment initiatives and rhetoric by the current crop of non-conserving “conservatives”, or listened to Rush Limbaugh’s hatred and venom toward the natural world, might understandably be skeptical.
Now there’s this.
Pickup trucks customized to spew black smoke into the air are quickly becoming the newest weapon in the culture wars.
“Coal Rollers” are diesel trucks modified with chimneys and equipment that can force extra fuel into the engine causing dark black smoke to pour out of the chimney stacks. These modifications are not new, but as Slate’s Dave Weigel pointed out on Thursday, “rolling coal” has begun to take on a political dimension with pickup drivers increasingly viewing their smokestacks as a form of protest against environmentalists and Obama administration emissions regulations.
Last month, Vocativ noted many coal rollers focus their fumes on “nature nuffies,” or people who drive hybrids, and “rice burners,” or Japanese-made cars.
“The feeling around here is that everyone who drives a small car is a liberal,” a roller named Ryan told Vocativ. “I rolled coal on a Prius once just because they were tailing me.”
Weigel spoke to a seller of coal rolling customization equipment who described why some drivers see spewing smoke as a political protest.
“I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all,” the salesperson said. “If he’s into the environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of that. To get a single stack on my truck—that’s my way of giving them the finger. You want clean air and a tiny carbon footprint? Well, screw you.”
For myself, I’ve always wondered, why go thru the hassle or expense of buying or building a giant, smoke belching noise machine, when a simple bumper sticker explaining that “I’m extremely insecure about my small penis”, would be so much cheaper.
Below, coal-rolling “humor”. Ha Ha.
The few times I have seen vehicles emitting that level of smoke I just assumed there was something seriously wrong with the engine and the vehicle was driven by someone too stupid to get it fixed. It never occurred to me that someone would actually want their vehicle to do that. I was seriously under estimating the level of stupid.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/enf/complaints/svc2.htm
If you’re in CA, here is a government website form you can fill out to make a complaint against smoking vehicles. It’s through the Air Resource Board. We require smog checks on our vehicles in order to renew the license every year, so if you see a ‘smoker’ in CA, something foul may be afoot.
Many excellent comments, but I feel an urge to add to them. There’s a reason words like moronic, counter-productive, ignorant, spiteful, and especially asshole are still in the dictionary. They’re needed to to describe folks like these “coal rollers”. In the world of statistics, the concept of “below average” is also needed to make “above average” workable, and the coal rollers’ IQ’s are certainly below average.
I second the idea that they will likely be doing harm to themselves and their offspring and ilk by breathing in all that particulate matter, but it’s too bad that it won’t happen fast enough to eliminate them from the gene pool before they do harm to others’ health and the greater good of the nation.
PS to Racist-Poet. It is more demonstrated racism on your part to say that anyone who objects to loud sound systems in cars is racist. We all know who your “target” is. It’s a shame you can’t resist the urge to keep proving to us what you really are.
South Park did an episode making fun of noisy bikers that tweak the exhaust on their Harley to make it as loud as possible just for attention. They should do one on these guys that are 10 times as bad as noisy bikers.