Beyond Coalrolling: The Evolution of Stupid
December 26, 2018
Huh. The Darwin Award wannabes who brought you “Coalrolling” have taken things up a notch.
Evolution is true.
This week, Hickory, North Carolina, became the latest flashpoint between the old and the new. A trio of pickup- and SUV-driving local men decided to aggressively block access to the local Tesla Supercharger there. They threatened violence and had to be ordered off the property by an employee of the store the Supercharger location was located at. What would motivate this trio of men?
The world is changing. Some people aren’t cut out for change due to a combination of genetics, unfortunate choice of parents, and place of birth (hint: yeah, not their choice). And they are struggling to make sense of a world which doesn’t value them the way it valued their fathers.
And so, they act out, stupidly.
–So, we have far-right, male, white men. Gee, what does that likely make them?
“strong evidence has emerged from multiple peer-reviewed and published studies that if you scratch a white, male, far-right nationalist, you’ll find a denier of climate science as well.”
That the less enlightened on the right consider electric cars to be more of a problem than a solution isn’t a surprise. Pew Research did a good study on this a while ago as part of its assessments of climate change attitudes.
Basically, conservatives are less likely to believe the science of climate change to begin with — although, a majority of US conservatives have come to grudgingly accept its reality if not the severity of the threat. But they also are much less likely to accept any of the solutions for global warming as well.
They don’t like fuel efficiency standards and they don’t like electric cars.
Darwin Award wannabe – owning the Libs
Why?
Well, the conservative mindset is fundamentally leery about change. They just don’t like it much, and so they try to avoid it more than the average person.
And these good old boys just take that to the next level of machismo-laden stupid with a personal protest against the inevitable, which they clearly have no interest in participating in.
But let’s spread the context net a bit.
What’s interesting is that Hickory is a data center hub, home to both Google and Apple data centers, and makes 40% of the world’s fiber optic cable. That has supplanted the town’s historical industry of making furniture. At one point, 60% of the USA’s furniture was made in and around Hickory. Now, the money has shifted.
That’s a legacy industry supplanted by a modern economy industry which requires a lot fewer workers with very different skills and education, and the change probably happened in the last 20–30 years.
These boys are probably the children of mothers and fathers who worked in furniture factories and grew up expecting to work in the factories themselves, able to afford their pickup trucks, NASCAR races, and the like. But now they can’t. Furniture factory jobs have dried up. The new jobs require educations that they and their parents probably had no clue about.
And then Tesla sets up a Supercharger in town, probably to service well off, modern-economy people driving from Atlanta to Washington (based on the placement). That’s gotta sting too. No more gas station jobs for them and their friends.
Like I say, when the coal runs out, we can always burn stupid.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
December 26, 2018 at 11:43 am
Hmmmm… brings back a memory from a number of years ago (when Hummer H2s were more of a thing). While driving down Rosecrans St in San Diego, I saw a Hummer H2 parked diagonally across two handicapped parking spots. Didn’t have an opportunity to snap a pic, unfortunately.
Those kinds of vehicles and those kinds of drivers have a way of getting together.
Also, this.
December 28, 2018 at 12:56 am
Good application for the “My handicap’s mental” bumper sticker.
December 26, 2018 at 2:15 pm
It is hard to focus on climate change when you are trying to keep a roof over your head and food on the table. Not to mention heath care…. Education??? well that is something that is in short supply in those communities…. Functionally illiterate is the rule in the good old USA, gee I wonder why??!! Think Neoliberal… think Clinton…
Try this POV…. who drives a TESLA and why??? What economic bracket do you have to be in to own one???? The FAUX GREENS that is who, the rich who want to be seen as making a statement that they really are trying to address climate change…. You know the folks that have the biggest carbon foot print on the planet…. You know, folks from Yale and Harvard….
Driving a TESLA or any display of obscene wealth in these communities is the equivalent of Marie Antoinette saying “let them eat cake”, we all know how that ended.
Have you NO shame???
This has to do with income inequality, lack of opportunities, education and the resentment as a result … dare I say a bit of “social injustice”…
Yellow Vest coming to a town near YOU!!
December 26, 2018 at 2:47 pm
Dude, wipe yourself. I’m not a truck expert, but based on the Chevrolet website that second one there looks to be a Silverado LTZ, which starts at $50,000. If that guy is trying to keep food on the table and a roof over his head, he’s doing it wrong.
December 26, 2018 at 5:37 pm
very much this.
Telling people you have a small dick doesn’t have to be this expensive.
You could just get a bumper sticker.
December 26, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Have YOU no shame, Louise?. A pretty good rant at start and finish—-if you had left out “Clinton” and the BS about Teslas and “Faux Greens” in the middle. A rather poorly constructed straw man that won’t stand up when one looks at how much conservatives and libertarians “own” the present state of affairs.
December 27, 2018 at 8:54 am
“Driving a TESLA or any display of obscene wealth…”
I’m retired military living on a $28,800 annual pension and I bought a Tesla Model 3. It was a sound purchase because a Model 3 is much cheaper to operate.
I have 7,000 miles on the car and have spent $180 for the electricity. That’s about 2.5¢ per mile. At $2.50 per gallon for gas that equates to about 97 mpg.
Purchasing a Tesla Model 3 is not a “display of obscene wealth”. It’s an economically prudent choice.
December 27, 2018 at 9:12 am
Louise? You listening? That’s a whack at your straw man.
Here’s another—-can you cite any proof at all that folks from Harvard and Yale have the biggest carbon footprint on the planet? No? Didn’t think so.
December 27, 2018 at 4:27 pm
“Have you NO shame???”
That’s sarcasm, right? Please tell me that’s humor.
Because otherwise you are defending a bunch of rednecks not just content with destroying the planet, but going out of their way to disconvenience people who are spending more than the average on a car that can make a difference.
Which is arrogant, mean-spirited nihilism. Cruelty. Bullies. And you know how we should treat bullies.
December 27, 2018 at 3:51 am
Couldn’t resist…
December 27, 2018 at 4:50 am
Even Forbes is coming forward with the news.
With $32 Trillion In Assets, Investors Demand Immediate Action On Climate Change
December 27, 2018 at 10:45 am
Relevance to coal rolling? Why are 9 of the 12 comments on Crock posts this morning from Chucky?
December 27, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Um, it’s another approach to environmental activism diametrically opposed to the mouthbreathers with pick-up trucks?
And, it has a multi-colored dynamic graphic which I gotta say, got me a little wet?