Encounter with a "woke" hipster..

[Bumblebee]

I took a quick shot to the local hardware store this morning via the Ram pick up and encountered a strange fellow..

As I was exiting my truck I heard "excuse me" so thinking someone needed a hand, I stopped and looked around. Coming into my view was a quintessential "hipster" and his gal aboard their bicycles. This 20 something guy had the scraggly beard, man-bun complete with man-purse and one of those new bicycles made to look 'old timey.'

So I said "what's up?" He started to go into a tirade on how people like me driving big trucks are polluting the earth and supporting big petroleum.....I just had to burst out laughing......but at the same time I figured it was time to really wake up this "woke" person.....

I said, "you are riding a bicycle probably made in China or Taiwan and unless migrating birds flew it to your house, it was brought here by something which burns petroleum......you are wearing clothes probably sold by Walmart which were made off-shore in some super polluting country...unless you live in a log cabin made by your own hands and live in the woods and are completely self-sufficient by heating with wood, killing animals and growing vegetables and fruit, storing them for the winter, sewing your own clothes and using zero electricity you in your own right am a polluter." "You must have a pedal powered generator to charge up the phone in your hand.."

"Furthermore, the days of 'do what I say and not as I do' don't wash anymore."

Then I turned to the young lady with him and told her she needs to hitch her wagon to someone with a brain if she wants to succeed in this world. I said if she has a clue, she'd soon see the hypocritical way of thought this guy has.

To that I turned and walked away but kept an eye on them to ensure they didn't go and do something to my truck.

I guess I'm getting old and mellow as the thought of punching him in the throat only crossed my mind twice while talking to him...

 

[Tetsuo1000]

You polluting dinosaur! How dare you not listen to the unsolicited lessons of someone 1/3 your age and life experience.
lol
This is what happens when we tell kids they are all winners at team sports.

 

[Hayabusa Wannabe]

May I borrow your entire censorious speech (in case of emergency)?

 

[Bumblebee]

May I borrow your entire censorious speech (in case of emergency)?

Of course you may....

It was one of those speeches where you think of better things you could have said long after the encounter..

 

[Bumblebee]

Then you get all the media infused "woke" people like this....imagine, they enjoy the freedom which is provided by having a robust defensive force yet don't want that force..if I were the US government, I'd be telling the Canadian government they have a duty to protect northern sovereignty and that is that....

Burlington-born Sarah Harmer joins national push against new fighter jets

 

[Mythos]

I said, "you are riding a bicycle probably made in China or Taiwan and unless migrating birds flew it to your house, it was brought here by something which burns petroleum......you are wearing clothes probably sold by Walmart which were made off-shore in some super polluting country...unless you live in a log cabin made by your own hands and live in the woods and are completely self-sufficient by heating with wood, killing animals and growing vegetables and fruit, storing them for the winter, sewing your own clothes and using zero electricity you in your own right am a polluter." "You must have a pedal powered generator to charge up the phone in your hand.."

Is it even possible to live like that? Think of the wealth it would require to own the land and pay the taxes on that. You would have no time to earn a living because you'd be spending every waking hour surviving. Where are you allowed to build a home on public land? Maybe you could live as a nomadic hunter until you were busted for poaching but I don't see building a cabin and living off of subsistence farming unless you have a lot of money to pay for the cost of owning it. We're all stuck being consumer pawns. The best you can do is make the choices that align best with your ideology. Unless you're one of the ultra-wealthy, you will in some ways support them and everyone else who has more money than you do. They aint living off the land and their not about to so I don't really see things changing any time soon. Hippies come their senses sooner or later and it's usually sooner. Give them three years.

 

[Bumblebee]

Is it even possible to live like that? Think of the wealth it would require to own the land and pay the taxes on that. You would have no time to earn a living because you'd be spending every waking hour surviving. Where are you allowed to build a home on public land? Maybe you could live as a nomadic hunter until you were busted for poaching but I don't see building a cabin and living off of subsistence farming unless you have a lot of money to pay for the cost of owning it. We're all stuck being consumer pawns. The best you can do is make the choices that align best with your ideology. Unless you're one of the ultra-wealthy, you will in some ways support them and everyone else who has more money than you do. They aint living off the land and their not about to so I don't really see things changing any time soon. Hippies come their senses sooner or later and it's usually sooner. Give them three years.

To add to this our climate can be harsh when winter comes...survival during this period is a challenge for even the most seasoned...

I'd wager the person I encountered lives in his parent's basement.

 

[Mythos]

I'd wager the person I encountered lives in his parent's basement.

Parents who drive cars, no less.

To add to this our climate can be harsh when winter comes...survival during this period is a challenge for even the most seasoned...

I always think about that when I see the reality show about the Alaska Family. Where do they get the chain saws, tractor, etc?? The answer is they have money and right now, a lot of it is coming from the TV show they give you about how they live off the land. It's actually hilarious. It's almost as ridiculous as the Oak Island show. LOL my mom has been watching that for years waiting for them to find the treasure. Rick and Marty grew up in my home town. Good folks, they donate Oak Island stuff to local fund raisers. The show is a pile of BS though! That's entertainment!!! Jerry Springer embraced it.

 

[Bumblebee]

Parents who drive cars, no less.

I always think about that when I see the reality show about the Alaska Family. Where do they get the chain saws, tractor, etc?? The answer is they have money and right now, a lot of it is coming from the TV show they give you about how they live off the land. It's actually hilarious. It's almost as ridiculous as the Oak Island show. LOL my mom has been watching that for years waiting for them to find the treasure. Rick and Marty grew up in my home town.

I'm 100% certain the parents drive cars and the house has central air and heat....

As for those shows-survivor, and all the rest, I always picture "ATCO" trailers out of sight where the actors are during filming...you watch some of them and know the camera crew is getting power for their equipment somewhere...

 

[Mythos]

I'm 100% certain the parents drive cars and the house has central air and heat....

When I was young and poor, I came to realize how much more money I required to have the basic essentials of life. I was spending what I had just to keep a roof over my head and have some food. My brother in law was using the same resources I did and paying twice as much for his life but the net result was that he owned 10 times as much as me. Poverty isn't cheap no matter how you slice it. If you can pay more, you get a lot better bang for the buck and there is no way to get around the need for money. The more you earn, the more efficiently you use the resources required to generate that income. Someday that hipster will figure that out like his parents did. If he still wants to ride a bicycle to his job, more power to him, as long as it's a job where he can afford the extra food required to power the bicycle. How much will that extra food cost compared to gasoline? What resources were used to make that food? Did the processing and packaging of that food meet ethical standards? Does the company where he earns a living care about any of that? It's not even possible to choose your battles because they're all interrelated.

 

[Mythos]

Here's a little secret, @Bumblebee , I almost never drive my truck. I walk nearly everywhere I need to go. I leave less of a carbon footprint than most but I do it because it simply isn't necessary for me to spend the money to drive. Financial resources and natural resources are the same thing. I wish this hippy kid could be listening this, this is good stuff!

 

[DougE]

He started to go into a tirade on how people like me driving big trucks are polluting the earth.

I was thinking about this (pollution and recycling) the other day. Corporations are the ones responsible for the majority of pollution. I don't want to make this post political but I believe enforcing regulations towards companies would help with all of this. I don't think that ordinary people driving trucks are the ones responsible for the environmental issues. I recycle when I can and pick up litter if it's in my way but I know its such a small act that wouldn't make a dent on the global scale.

 

[Mythos]

...and whe he learns to drive, he would best know that the resources he is using are not just gas, oil, tires and brakes. Someday, if you intend to replace that vehicle, every mile it went should represent an equal proportion of the cost of the new vehicle. I guesstimate the whole cost of running my truck is about a buck a mile. If my job doesn't pay enough for me to run that truck not just to work but everywhere I drive so that I can have a normal life and go to work, I'm using more resources than I can afford or else I need a better paying job.

I don't think that ordinary people driving trucks are the ones responsible for the environmental issues. I recycle when I can and pick up litter if it's in my way but I know its such a small act that wouldn't make a dent on the global scale.

I don't know if industry or personal pollution of the everyday normal guy impacts the environment more. I suspect that globally, you are correct that industry causes more pollution but you have to remember that just living and taking shits twice a day has a huge impact on the environment already. A lot of people ride bikes in China but they also take a poop twice a day and that's an awful lot of poop taking with the population. As for industry, if it's less profitable to run green, the price of stuff goes up and there you go again using more resources in the form of money you had to earn to get what you need. Spend more money, use more resources. The real problem with industrial pollution is the huge number of people it needs to satisfy the needs of. I don't recall what the carrying capacity for humans is to achieve a stable environment but it was very few per square mile. We're big polluters even in a primal state.

 

[Slowstang305]

I don't blame you one bit. What you said was spot on.

11MPG club.

 

[Mythos]

...so our hippy friend will have to start hating humans in general.

 

[Bumblebee]

Here's a little secret, @Bumblebee , I almost never drive my truck. I walk nearly everywhere I need to go. I leave less of a carbon footprint than most but I do it because it simply isn't necessary for me to spend the money to drive. Financial resources and natural resources are the same thing. I wish this hippy kid could be listening this, this is good stuff!

I'm pretty in tune with nature...I am always planting trees or plants where ever I can on my property...I have a patch of area which is just as "Mother Nature" intended, weeds and all. One of my neighbors said I should cut it all back and clean it up and I disagreed saying it provides critters with somewhere to go and for him to worry about his own property.

That being said, when I want to drive my truck, I am behind the wheel, it is a '16 with 60,000kms (38,000 miles) on it so it isn't driven that much.

 

[DougE]

I'm pretty in tune with nature...I am always planting trees or plants where ever I can on my property...I have a patch of area which is just as "Mother Nature" intended, weeds and all. One of my neighbors said I should cut it all back and clean it up and I disagreed saying it provides critters with somewhere to go and for him to worry about his own property.

That being said, when I want to drive my truck, I am behind the wheel, it is a '16 with 60,000kms (38,000 miles) on it so it isn't driven that much.

I can guarantee that if those hipsters knew what you just said, it still wouldn't be enough for them and they would find some reason to give you a hard time. I'm sure they have nothing better to do with their lives.

 

[Bumblebee]

I was thinking about this (pollution and recycling) the other day. Corporations are the ones responsible for the majority of pollution. I don't want to make this post political but I believe enforcing regulations towards companies would help with all of this. I don't think that ordinary people driving trucks are the ones responsible for the environmental issues. I recycle when I can and pick up litter if it's in my way but I know its such a small act that wouldn't make a dent on the global scale.

Corporations need to get with the program as well, the packaging they have is staggering....I got something in the spring and the amount of sytrofoam was crazy....that stuff goes right into the land-fill here as well as any soft plastic....we were told it wasn't profitable to recycle this stuff...sometimes I think profits should be foregone so this stuff can get recycled as it is the worst stuff to go into a landfill.

The local landfill also an environmental deposit center so you can take wood, lawn clippings and all that stuff out there...on a windy day the plastic bags are flying by like jelly fish in the ocean and sticking to all the trees..it just looks awful.

My son had to have e-tests on his vehicles where he used to live and his '05 crap box Ford Focus barely registered on the e-tester...I can imagine newer vehicles are more environmentally friendly as long as the smog stuff stays on.

 

[Bumblebee]

I can guarantee that if those hipsters knew what you just said, it still wouldn't be enough for them and they would find some reason to give you a hard time. I'm sure they have nothing better to do with their lives.

Well, I was able to shut him up pretty good this morning...

I mustn't look angry enough to make people like this avoid me...I must work on this.

To add to this @DougE , if this person knew what I used to do for a living, he might have avoided going near me in the first place. We used to do environmental impact analysis when we were planning on operations especially if we had to destroy power grids or infrastructure to achieve our mission...

 

[Mythos]

I have a patch of area which is just as "Mother Nature" intended, weeds and all.

Do you have earthworms in that patch? Then it's not as M.N. intended. Earthworms are an invasive species accidentally brought to North America by Europeans. They destroy conifer forests albeit very slowly--like a few inches per year.

That being said, when I want to drive my truck, I am behind the wheel, it is a '16 with 60,000kms (38,000 miles) on it so it isn't driven that much.

I have an '18 with about 20,000 miles. The vast majority are highway miles. I use it mostly to visit my hometown and my kids.

I can guarantee that if those hipsters knew what you just said, it still wouldn't be enough for them and they would find some reason to give you a hard time. I'm sure they have nothing better to do with their lives.

They will learn eventually. It's like all the old hippies living in Shorewood, Wisconsin next to Milwaukee. They all live in mansions now. Probably still smoking pot but they figured out what life was all about like everyone.

sometimes I think profits should be foregone so this stuff can get recycled as it is the worst stuff to go into a landfill.

If profits are foregone, resources get used to compensate for the lack of profit. Literally, "there is no free lunch" and that applies to physics as well as economics. I wonder if it would even matter if we did away with money? Resources are resources and when they are used, they are gone. No free lunch.