Annoyances

by | Dec 15, 2021 | Editor's Blog | 8 comments

Right now, I’m annoyed at two sets of people, the ones who don’t know how to drive and the ones who can’t discern information from bullshit. They share a trait in that neither has the common sense to make good decisions. One ends up holding up traffic and, at times, threatening the safety of other drivers, bikers, and pedestrians. The other is easily misled and now threatens to undermine our health and our democracy. 

First the drivers. When I went to drivers education class many, many years ago, they taught us how to make a left turn at a stop light. If there is oncoming traffic, pull halfway into the intersection with your turn signal blinking. When an opening appears in the traffic while the light is still green, make the turn. If the traffic is non-stop, wait until the light turns red, make sure the oncoming car is stopping for the red light and then complete the turn. That way, at least one car, and usually a couple, gets through every light cycle. 

Today, nobody seems to pull into the intersection. I’ve sat through two or three cycles waiting for cars that won’t budge when the light turns green, despite an endless stream of cars facing them. They need to understand that, if they are in the middle of the intersection, the cars to their left and right are not going to slam into them when their light turns green. Sitting at the light is more dangerous because it backs up traffic, leading drivers to try to get around the traffic jam, especially if the line gets longer than the turn lane. 

The other drivers that bother me right now are the ones who can’t figure out a roundabout. DOT put one near my house, replacing a traffic light that used to cause major traffic jams in the morning and afternoons. It’s great. The roundabout solved the problem by keeping traffic flowing. And there’s the rub. Too many people don’t understand that a yield sign, means yield, not stop. 

Often, drivers pull up to the circle and come to a complete stop, sometimes waiting for cars that are on the other side of the circle to either reach them or exit first. I’ve seen other drivers who are already in the circle stop to let drivers in. That’s defeating the purpose. The goal is to keep as many cars moving as possible.   Most of the time, if a car is not at the exit to your left, you can go, even if you might have to punch it a bit. The circle inherently keeps people from going too fast, but too many people lack either perception skills or faith that other drivers aren’t trying to avoid collisions. 

The other group of people who are on my nerves are the anti-vaxxers. Over the past week or so, I spent a fair amount of my time breaking my rule, “Don’t feed  the trolls.” I responded to people on social media who believe that vaccines don’t work and that ivermectin and other faux treatments do. They willingly believe people who have been debunked as conspiracy theorists or nut-jobs. They listen to this guy who was described as a “modern-day quack” by a top medical researcher. Or this woman, who’s been dubbed a “doctor of disinformation.” They’ve gained credibility because of the size of their followings, not the quality of their research. 

Most of the anti-vaxxers lack math  and critical thinking skills. They contest the effectiveness of vaccines using numbers that are just plain wrong and they listen to quacks because they aren’t perceptive enough to figure out who is legitimate and who is not. They don’t how to ask the right questions, even if they might want the right answers.

Often they chastised me for not listening to both sides, as if we’re in a political debate instead of a health crisis. The conspiracy theorists they point to have almost all been debunked as frauds and attention hounds, not serious medical researchers. Again, they derive their authority from their celebrity status or size of their social media followings. Like Fox News, they’re telling people what they want to hear, not the truth. And they’ve got a willing audience who spout their nonsense as the gospel or point to them as the authorities that they’re not.

More drivers need to better understand the flow of traffic. Yield means to allow a car that has the right-of-way to continue its path. It does not mean stop. Most drivers are not going to hit you intentionally so position yourself to make progress instead of positioning yourself to stop the flow of traffic. I think these skills can be taught in drivers education. 

As for the anti-vaxxers, I’m not so sure. They’ve been fed a diet of disinformation for so long, that they don’t know how to determine what is legitimate and what is not. They’ve listened to people like Tucker Carlson play on their prejudices and they’ve embraced him because he says what they want to hear. Now, he’s playing them as fools. Fully vaxxed himself, he casts doubt about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to people who lack critical thinking skills and, often, a basic understanding of math. We might be able to fix the driving with education, but I’m afraid it’s too late to fix stupid. 

8 Comments

  1. Fetzer Mills Jr

    Roundabouts are a Communist plot to make America roads like Italy’s.

    • Norma Munn

      Thanks for making me laugh!

  2. cocodog

    Traffic circles as they are called out west first came into being in an area near Long Beach. It lasted about two years, before pressure from insurance companies, traffic cops and irate drivers brought it to an end. By comparison, the Long Beach Circle was safe compared to the infamous circles of DC. Folks enter one of those, and drive until they either die of old age or run out of gas.
    In theory, if folks were courteous and obeyed the traffic laws, traffic circles may do what they were designed to do prevent accidents by slowing drivers down. But unfortunately, not all folks concentrate on their driving and exercise caution. I lost count on the number of folks who see a yellow, and immediately punch it.
    I have been a supporter of three way with left turn signals for years. At least they don’t take years off your life. As to the trolls, the shrinks have a theory, if you ignore them, they will go away. Why they exist, speaks more to poor child rearing techniques and lack of personal discipline. Apparently, their mommy weaned them to soon or their daddies did not show them enough attention. This site picks up trolls before elections, some are pros and quite good others are real losers. The Jan 6th insurrection has introduced into politics a new breed of troll. Amateurs, poorly educated for the most part and devoid of at least a scintilla of common sense and critical-thinking. Their goal is to take over a site and drive off folks who have a serious interest in politics.

  3. LBrooks

    Thomas isn’t the one who sounds stupid. Your vitriol against Fauci is ridiculous. The man has done nothing but serve the public good for his whole career. The reason that he has changed his mind or been wrong on A FEW things is because this is a novel coronavirus – i.e., NEW. Unknown. Scientists learn as they go along. And he hasn’t really been wrong on many things at all anyway. His early call against masks was mostly because there wasn’t enough PPE for doctors and nurses.

    “Jab Mandates” as you call them are nothing new. Did you have to get vaccinated for school? Of course you did. And the unvaccinated ARE way more likely to be carriers (not to mention brewers of variants) than the vaccinated. To say otherwise is ridiculous.

    I’d be happy to MYOB if they weren’t clogging up the hospitals and running up insurance bills. If they’d all agree to stay home and take Ivermectin when they get sick, then I’m about at the point to say “go for it”. But of course, they don’t do that.

    • phoenix

      meh. I am just pointing up several areas that I have seen that have caused rancor. I am not saying they are right or that I even agree. I’m just pointing them out.

      Vent your spleen to someone else.

      I don’t care what people choose to do. They bear responsibility what happens to them.

      If you knew what I do on the topic. You would know Fauci is a clown.

      And the unvaccinated ARE way more likely to be carriers (not to mention brewers of variants) than the vaccinated. To say otherwise is ridiculous.—(Incorrect, but I am not going to throw my pearls before swine. Its not hard to know why.

      But whatever dude I’m sure your an expert.

      • Danny Lineberger

        Phoenix blames Dr. Fauci. The only thing the good doctor has done is to follow the science and try to save lives.

        Over 800,000 people have died in the US. Many of these deaths could have been prevented if more people had gotten vaccinated and followed good health protocols such as wearing masks. Unfortunately, far too many people preferred to follow the pundits at Fox News.

        Although the Pfizer vaccine was initially allowed to be given under Emergency Use Authorization, it is not an experimental drug; it has been fully vetted and tested. Those who say that it is an experimental drug are not being honest. Maybe the anti-vaxxers would prefer that we take ivermectin instead. After all, it has such a wonderful track record treating parasites in cows and horses.

        I take my spirituality very seriously. It tells me that I have a moral responsibility to others that cannot and will not be ignored. It is just not the choice of each of us to get the vaccine or not because this is a highly contagious disease and what each of us does or fails to do can seriously affect the lives of others and even lead to their deaths.

  4. SA

    Share your frustrations about drivers, left turns and traffic circles. Years ago, had a conversation with a writer on the N&O about left turns, which apparently many drivers can’t execute without a traffic signal, and the strategy of pulling into the intersection so you could turn on the yellow. At that time, we concluded that making a left turn in this manner was taught in urban high traffic areas, mostly northern, but was rarely, if ever, taught to drivers around here. As for the traffic circles, the problem I see is that they are being handled in the the same manner as was the construction of freeways in NC. That is, DOT is gong to build them all over the state, but they’re not going to tell anybody how to use them. It’s a free for all.

  5. phoenix

    About driving I agree, I’ve noticed the same. I don’t think they teach the pull into the intersection thing here. Or maybe traffic was always so light that it was not needed.

    About anti Vaxx I’m not sure you are using the term right. You are too broad. People don’t like these experimental mRNA shots for a variety of reasons. So the point needs to sharpened on that so you don’t sound stupid.

    For the most part I blame Fauci he is the face of the government for this thing and has been on every side of every issue and retraced, retraced and rebutted himself more than can be remembered. He also has been out right WRONG on simple things, so many times its no wonder no one knows which way is up.

    He needs to go, just to have fresh face, if for nothing else.

    And then entire “shut them down if they don’t agree with the narrative” has been a terrible thing to do. Science REQUIRES DEBATE. without it we’d still be bleeding people with leeches! Shutting down alternative views is autocratic and is never a good thing. Also the whole stupid Jab mandates thing was/is stupid and UN-American. The same goes for people running around calling un-jabbeed “plague rats” isn’t helping. They are not carriers of anything any more than the jabbed. Ultimately its their choice to get jabbed and their risk if they don’t. So MYOB is the best course.

    So there is PLENTY of blame to go around.

    For perspective, everyone needs to remember that unless you are very elderly and infirm or in general bad health (like COPD, Chronic emphysema, etc) the survival rate is 99.8% for everyone else.

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