Shit wagons - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Talk about sports cars, aeroplanes, ships, rockets etc.

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By QatzelOk
#13918998
When I was a kid, we used to call the massive 4x4s that hicks drove "shit wagons." Many of these vehicles - like the Chevy Suburban and Ford Explorer - later came to become known as "SUVs" or Sport-Utility wagons.

Of course, the word "sport" means youth, and the word "utility" means massive. So these vehicles are really about trying to buy back your youth in a massive vehicle. There's nothing sporty about sitting on your ass all day. And the utility of a 5000 lb cup-holder is very small.

But the new BMW and Mercedes SUVs seem to want to rebrand these "shit-wagons" into something more urbane, more European, more sophisticated and suave. Something James Bond would drive when he isn't killing bad guys from foreign cultures.

Which is why I am pleased to report that the Mercedes M-Class SUV is made in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while the BMW X5 is made in Greer, South Carolina.

Gentlemen, start your banjos.

Image
Mercedes employees take an extended break outside the M-Class compound

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User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13920034
Lensky1917 wrote:In other words, SUVs are nothing more than obese adolescents? :?:

Vehicles have nothing to do with the age or "sportiness" of the driver.

It's all about fake perception: how you wish you were if you didn't slave away in an office all day.
By Wolfman
#13920238
Of course, the word "sport" means youth, and the word "utility" means massive. So these vehicles are really about trying to buy back your youth in a massive vehicle. There's nothing sporty about sitting on your ass all day. And the utility of a 5000 lb cup-holder is very small.


Actually, no. The word "sport" refers to the "sport engine", which is generally V-4 or V-6 configuration, and is referred to as such because it is appropriate for car races. And the word "utility" means "utility", as in, it can be used for a lot of shit. Below is a picture of a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport, a kind of SUV which is not too much bigger then a car:

Image

I have used mine more then once to haul things like brush, wood, a fire pit, furniture, etc. That is why it is called a "utility" vehicle.

But the new BMW and Mercedes SUVs seem to want to rebrand these "shit-wagons" into something more urbane, more European, more sophisticated and suave. Something James Bond would drive when he isn't killing bad guys from foreign cultures.


That happened a decade ago kid, pay attention.

Which is why I am pleased to report that the Mercedes M-Class SUV is made in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while the BMW X5 is made in Greer, South Carolina.

Gentlemen, start your banjos.


You gotta love the racism. :lol:

Vehicles have nothing to do with the age or "sportiness" of the driver.


That's because the "sport" refers to the engine, not the driver.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13920336
Publius, cars are called "sport" because of their style, because of their cheapness, or because they have black trim instead of chrome.

There is no such thing as "sports" engines. An engine is a machine, while sports are competitions between people. Pushing pedals and leaning into turns are hardly sport. The best drivers are typically killed in action, which makes car-racing more like a war than like athletics.

Calling car-racing a sport is like calling a bake-sale a sport. The ovens do all the work in the latter, and cars simply react to button pushing in the former.

The primary function of most advertising is to make you worship youth, and to dread old age. Advertising does this because there is nothing more sure than growing older, and companies want to make money off of this, by tricking you into thinking you can buy back the magic of youth - the one you see in mass media.

Sports Cars are about buying back your youth. They have nothing to do with any kind of "sport."

It's sad to see so many people still buying into this 60-year-old lie. Though it's more likely that people who grow up in a hollow are still living in 1957. What's everyone else's excuse, if you're not brainwashed by mass media?
By Wolfman
#13920611
Publius, cars are called "sport" because of their style, because of their cheapness, or because they have black trim instead of chrome.


It mostly has to do with engine configuration.

There is no such thing as "sports" engines. An engine is a machine, while sports are competitions between people. Pushing pedals and leaning into turns are hardly sport. The best drivers are typically killed in action, which makes car-racing more like a war than like athletics.


There's no such thing as a sporting engine?

Calling car-racing a sport is like calling a bake-sale a sport. The ovens do all the work in the latter, and cars simply react to button pushing in the former.


Well, that's one man's opinion.

Sports Cars are about buying back your youth. They have nothing to do with any kind of "sport."


Explains why all of the SUV owners I know are in their 20s. And they're called "sports" vehicles because of the sporting engine.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13921503
sporting engine

This expression is meaningless marketing jargon.

Powerful engines aren't necessarily sporty.

So what does a motor have to do to qualify? Sweat a bit wearing a headband?

This word has been used to brand automobiles as being related to male achievement. Words like "sport" have been stolen from human achievement and slapped onto status symbols like cars. But it's just branding.

Sport is only a meaningful word if you participate in one. Sitting on a "sporty" engine while you commute is meaningless and sort of sinister: "I let my machines play sports for me."

Image
what else do you let your machines do for you?
Last edited by QatzelOk on 21 Mar 2012 03:48, edited 1 time in total.
By Wolfman
#13921507
How are you so dense that you don't know what a sports engine is? It's an engine in a vehicle designed for high speed or rapid acceleration, or more likely both. Almost definitely looking at a V4 or V6 engine with a high compression ratio, and very likely a charger of some kind and designed for higher octane fuels, and for a sports car you're looking at a certain set of tires and an manual transmission.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13921511
Publius wrote:How are you so dense that you don't know what a sports engine is?

Oh, I'm aware of what marketing people refer to when they say "sports engine."

Perhaps I have more densities than you do when looking at the way this word is used?

I have seen many out-of-shape and unsocial people interact with "sports" objects, but to no avail.

"Sport" isn't a status object you can collect. Marketing only makes it seem so. Reality isn't marketing.
By Wolfman
#13921513
Oh, I'm aware of what marketing people refer to when they say "sports engine."


So, my mechanic who worked on my jeep and called my sporting engine a "sporting engine" is in marketing?

I have seen many out-of-shape and unsocial people interact with "sports" objects, but to no avail.


OK? A sporting engine is a thing in of itself that exists independent of marketing and your perception.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13921541
Publius wrote:A sporting engine is a thing in of itself that exists independent of marketing and your perception.

Are you saying that engines were playing sports together before I was even born?

Are you actually trying to pull rank on me here because I'm not as old as internal combustion athletics?
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13922152
Publius wrote:According to you, it is not a running shoe because the shoe itself does not run.

I'm not the problem here, Publius.

The problem is people who think they can simply buy "sports" shoes and wear them while they scroll through Facebook, thinking the shoes are doing the sports for them.

Likewise, adults who think their cars give them a personality or a social position, when in fact, cars do just the opposite, turning you into a mechanical goon with no empathy and robbing you of most of your meaningful social interaction.

The expression "shit wagons" describes the crude, anti-social creature how used to emerge from them, often having shit encrusted on his boots from his many dogs. This is a much more honest assessment of the function of huge trucks.
By Wolfman
#13922168
The problem is people who think they can simply buy "sports" shoes and wear them while they scroll through Facebook, thinking the shoes are doing the sports for them.


Who the hell is saying that?
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13923573
About running shoes doing the sports for you, Publius wrote:Who the hell is saying that?

Marketing is saying that.

In the subtext.

This is all that gives the shoes any status: the notion that owning particular objects can get you fit and healthy.

People try to "own" all kinds of traits and status positions that - in reality - can only be given to real people who do real things for their community or to improve the collective.

The destruction of and notion of community in the 20th Century (by cars and mass media) lead to a bunch of aimless consumers looking for status in all the wrong places. Especially in North American style places.

Shit wagons were one of those wrong places.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13924600
About advertising having a subtext that is designed to manipulate your subconscious mind, Pub wrote:Only in your paranoid delusions.

I guess you don't have a subconscious mind then.

Advertising works on this part of the mind. So does religion.

Edward Bernays/Uncle Sigmund Freud

Calling large-cab trucks "shit wagons" makes them unattractive to normal status-seekers. Which is why the expression SUV was crafted out of English words that could mean virtually anything.

[youtube]sZ8ZvYNlxiM[/youtube]
User avatar
By quetzalcoatl
#14064268
And some people buy shoes to run in...and actually run. Running in running shoes is better than running in chukka boots. Racing on a racing bike is better than racing on a ladies fitness comfort bike.

Subtext is great, but don't get so carried away that you're blinded to function.

Oh, and all the yokels in S. Carolina put together do less damage (by orders of magnitude) than one hedge fund manager with a 300 dollar haircut/
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#14066202
quetzalcoatl wrote:some people buy shoes to run in...and actually run. Running in running shoes is better than running in chukka boots.

All of this is true.

But what isn't true is that consumers only buy the objects they need to live their lives well.

Running shoes are worn by many people who never run.

SUVs are being driven by people who commute to their office jobs carrying ONLY a huge coffee and cellphone.

This kind of fake "lifestyle" consumption is the sickness that is killing the planet, along with killing entire societies with a socially destructive competition for status - objects that "say" things like "running" or "sporty."

If only people who needed them drove SUVs or cars, the earth would be saved.

But marketing brainwashes everyone to shop until the world drops.
User avatar
By Dave
#14075105
This thread is a rare case where Wolfman is sympathetic, if only because he is countering Qatz's vile mendacity and garbage.

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