uziq
Member
+568|4197
ethno-nationalist bogan exclusively drives japanese cars around his american tarmac suburban paradise.

buy a rover like a self-respecting workshop technician.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+682|4464
I bought a $24,000 Mitsubishi 4-door last year.

No way I was going to spend this much on a new car.
As of early 2026, the average new car price in the U.S. hovers around $49,000 to $50,000, with a record high of $50,326 reached in December 2025.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX
Average price of what I'm looking at is U$36k, no point in spending more, I could spend less.
Everything is great
uziq
Member
+568|4197
if i ever got a car it would be a tiny japanese thing. or an import mini. one feels the need to live up to clownish stereotypes when a stranger in a foreign land.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,106|7516|PNW

toyota hilux is world famous for being converted into madcap technicals. zero shame in owning a japanese vehicle. unless you're an ethno-nationalist, i guess.

i have zero reason for a big american suv with a godawful power-to-weight ratio that lets me reach 60 in 30 seconds or whatever. ford etc can all suck it. they use the cheapest component imports anyway. i would drive the tiny japanese trucks if they were street legal in more places. seriously they let teslas onto roads, wtf.

i am also starting to shy away from upgrading to a new vehicle. right now we're talking about ai that's constantly scanning your face and body. i find it highly creepy and invasive. If It SaVeS oNe LiFe! highly weird, the idea of being subject to ignition gates like that as if you're already a dui convict. this is rich territory for creative writing. what do you do if you're being carjacked and your model 2028 shitbox is like "oh, i don't like the look of those pupils. let's calm down first." another place you won't be able to escape from ai. let the bubble burst already.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2026-05-02 17:48:42)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX
Thats a good point. I may need to mount a 20mm cannon at some point so should probably buy a Hilux now.

You make a good argument for keeping my relic on the road or buying the outgoing Outback.
"Palantir FaceScanTM has detected a micro-frown during a news item about Israel liberating babies from their heads. Auto-PilotTM redirecting to nearest Soylent GreenTM clinic"
FaceScan, Auto-Pilot and Soylent Green are registered trademarks of the Trump-Witkoff Corporation.

Or just wait for this to blow over and buy a horse.

I used to know an electronics engineer who refused to won a vehicle with fuel injection - something about not wanting a computer to take the big decisions in his life - like fuel air ratio.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2026-05-04 02:30:14)

Everything is great
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX

uziq wrote:

ethno-nationalist bogan exclusively drives japanese cars around his american tarmac suburban paradise.

buy a rover like a self-respecting workshop technician.
You literally went full weeaboo.

And Rover no longer exists.

We Austrayians have a saying - If you want to go bush take a Land Rover. If you want to come back take a Toyota.
Everything is great
uziq
Member
+568|4197
i'm not interested in anything that a weeaboo is interested in. if you accused me of being a millennial who fell for the japan trap in their 30s, as seems to be a widespread phenomenon on social media right now, you'd probably have somewhat of a point. but weebs are very much their own niche, and aren't even that common out and about in the streets of japan.

no shit rover no longer exists. neither do self-respecting workshop technicians. it's all claude now.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,106|7516|PNW

Dilbert_X wrote:

Or just wait for this to blow over and buy a horse.
i wish that was a solution. but where do you park a horse that someone won't fuck with it? will i get sued if my horse leaves a hoof-shaped dent in someone's ribcage? will police give me a hard time for manure in the bike lane? this is an option for people who live waaaaaay out in the sticks. and as the saying goes, horses eat money and shit work.

less creepy, someone patting a horse on the nose than giving a dashboard a loving rub. human society lost something important when it went to vroom-vroom. who was that one guy who promised everyone a pony, again?
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+682|4464
Tattoo culture has gone too far. Hand and face tattoos are pretty common these days. Especially among influencers who I worry are influencing young people into getting them.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIIbQmAi__fjxxLP2CoXekoTZxcIHbA5q9oQM83AGtJLqHCy84cREGYBo&s=10
I read something recently that said "not having tattoos will one day be a status symbol."
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+568|4197
japan solved that problem, by basically banning people with visible tattoos from most public places and facilities. if you’re tatted in japan, you’ve basically condemned yourself to a lifetime working in the shadow economy or black market. even a construction crew will reject you.

and not having a tattoo is already a social signal tbh. i think i read a statistic that young women today are more likely to be tattooed than not - and more likely than men! the days of a tattoo signaling some sort of subcultural cachet or belonging are long gone. your normie fake email job girlboss is now covered in childish, indecipherable doodles or copy+pasted pablum, like a fleshy pinterest board.

korea is a good canary in the mine for any of these advanced consumerist trends. tattoos there went from being japan levels of taboo to obligatory in about 3 years. centuries of shame and censure and then one day young girls in hongdae began getting tatted up. i could see it while i was living there. tattoo parlours were notionally illegal, as a dictatorship-era hangover. but it was totally unenforced. i can only imagine the shock those conservative korean parents got when their 20-something daughter who went to the arts district of the city came back with full sleeves. it really did seem to happen that quickly. now they are totally passé, drained not only of controversy and mystique but also meaning.

celebrities can pay the $100,000 to have them removed with the very best treatments. it’ll be the dumb normies who are left with the 2020s equivalent of the skinny jeans stuck to their torso forever.

Last edited by uziq (2026-05-08 23:26:49)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX
There was something in 'The Caine Mutiny' about tattoos, and other examples of personal vanity, being a sign of a sick society.

Its a great way for people who are self-absorbed and boring to self-identify, but now everyone is doing it so yeah I dunno.
Everything is great
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,106|7516|PNW

the x platform is so shit that i couldn't even click to enlarge the image. had to zoom in with my browser. there needs to be a mass-exodus from twitter.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+682|4464
It is about billionaires wealth snowballing from what I can see since Twitter is a fucking joke.

...

I have no interest in common with billionaires. I don't subscribe to the belief that distributing their wealth throughout the economy will solve all of our social issues.

They definitely can affect politics in ways that make people's lives harder. But enriching the local construction worker will not make him any less likely to chase a neighbor with a shotgun or make him put on nice clothes.
https://www.witf.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AP23249626764024-1620x1080.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,106|7516|PNW

it's a start. the problem is it takes a country with the willpower to tell these companies 'no.' but that's socialism!
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX
We could literally myspace all of them in about two financial quarters.

Device hoarding is a start.
Everything is great
uziq
Member
+568|4197
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,106|7516|PNW

more boos were justified. they should've started throwing rotten vegetables. big tech is so out of touch they expect people to feel some sort of excitement for this crap. computers and a large number of even obsolete computer components cost twice+ as much now. ai is intrusively everywhere, disrupting all aspects of life, getting directly in your face or slipping through the door cracks without so much as your consent. part of a big sequence of immiserating events. imagine dying because claude fucked up your insurance or some experimental system directs police to the wrong house.

"ai is better than ever--" BOOOOO "where did that come from?"

WhErE dId ThAt CoMe FrOm?

don't y'all have smartphones?
uziq
Member
+568|4197
the cohorts of kids graduating today are fucked. like peak-2008 levels of fucked. no companies are hiring while they're all embarking on their years of trialling AI. even if the experiments crash and burn, for now the hiring freeze is very real. i would hate to be graduating with $100,000 of debt and being lectured by some old boomer bitch from private equity that "you're so lucky to be living through another industrial revolution". the last industrial revolution meant missing fingers and limbs caught in cotton gins. it meant 60 hour weeks and crushing poverty for 98% of people. read the room, for chrissakes!

i actually feel bad for the kids who had their student experiences distorted by technology too. going to college in a pre-smartphone era looks like halcyon times to me now, in retrospect. actually sitting exams and writing answers by hand. social media being something you logged into at a desktop computer, maybe once or twice a day. education being all about sealing yourself away with books in the library or in a field under the shade of a tree. shit was absolutely idyllic compared to the 'edtech' era with AI shitting all over everything.

Last edited by uziq (2026-05-11 15:21:15)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,849|6851|eXtreme to the maX
These kids have not really learned anything - starting with how to work, how to research, how to see the big picture.

Besides being lumbered with a degree which is measurably less useful than it used to be they have far more debt - starting with having debt.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5-lDJWCUAAwfya.jpg
Everything is great

Board footer

Privacy Policy - © 2026 Jeff Minard