I’m not sure if they are EV but there are now completely autonomous taxis available to the public in a neighborhood on the western side of Seoul. Will try to get over there and try it out soon.
Interesting. That hasn’t been my experience. I’ve lived here almost thirteen years. There’s definitely racism, especially down in the Central Valley. But I wouldn’t say it’s any worse than what I saw in Arizona and Texas.
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I’ve seen lots of racism since I moved to CA, especially during the Rodney King affair when I lived in L.A.
However, California hasn’t actively worked to disenfranchise black people, like Texas and other states. No black person has has been decapitated by a racist mob, as has happened in Texas. No black person was run down, cornered, and shot dead just for being black, as has happened in Georgia.
Of course, and this is important, I’m white, so my perspective on this topic will be somewhat refracted.
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Yeah, my experience may be colored by location; 1 year in north San Diego County and 5 in Fresno.
I wasn’t aware of this. I am wondering if you were referring to the horrible lynching of James Bird Jr in the Japer area. The black gentleman that was murdered while chained by his ankles and dragged behind a truck of white supremacist for miles. I don’t recall the decapitation.
I don’t think any states can claim to not have racists. It’s a sad and perverted contest to determine which state is the worst. People ain’t no good.
That’s the one. From Wikipedia:
… Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head.
I worked with Jasper on and off over the years. It is an East Texas town with a fairly large black population, and as I recall when Byrd was murdered the mayor was Black. I watched the community’s reaction with particular interest and some knowledge. I remember being proud of how the sheriff’s office pulled no punches and turned the case around almost immediately.
Beside the lynching itself, one of worst things about historic lynchings was the lack of punishment. That didn’t happen in Jasper. James Byrd was a horrible incident, but it wasn’t sanctioned by community opinion, governmental inaction, or what was in effect public policy.
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We played Jasper regularly until districts were redrawn.
Our family often camped near there in the National Forest and Jasper is the gateway to Toledo Bend and SamRayburn reservoirs)
There was a sizable black population, my perspective is likely skewed since the athletic teams were predominantly black.
That incident is the only thing that most people know of Jasper.
It’s repulsive to think about, and even as someone who’s been there many times it doesn’t take long for my mind to go there when the town is mentioned.
I would just say to anyone who thinks ‘Jasper, that’s where a bunch of racists live’, that its also where a bunch of poor black people live too.
We played Jasper in a playoff series when I coached baseball in Brenham. I can tell you Jasper is a looooong way from Brenham, and I had to drive our school bus there and back.
ETA: I never heard racism connected to Jasper like I always have with Vidor.
That would definitely change the perspective. I’m in Napa County, which has no shortage of fuckwits, but it still part of the Bay Area and overall liberal. Fresno and San Diego might as well be different countries.
Rethinking this a bit, I have to say that the casual racism towards Mexicans out here is pretty blatant. I’ve never understood why considering how much of California’s economy is predicated on cheap Mexican labor.
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If California is trending less racist it’s because a significant number of the state’s racist necks have moved to Nevada. I view this as a sort of continuation of the dust bowl migration.
Yes, definitely different.
Vidor was a haven for the white sheet idiots. My dad grew up in Orange. I asked him recently about Vidor. He said there was definitely activity (and the infamous sign). Mostly he felt they reveled in the reputation. Which is another aspect to their depravity.
I also grew up in the county and Vidor still had the reputation, and I’m sure some people actually were active in hate groups.
With the advent of the internet those previously isolated bigots found like minded people to skink into the muck with them.
That’s a long way to say that the embers of overt racism-as-a-way-of-life the I sensed being present growing up have been fanned into flames in places.
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New York, Oregon/Idaho
eta: Latin America
Bottom line: there’s racism everywhere; but in some places they’re so blatant about it even other white people notice.
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Agree, there is systemic racism ingrained in every culture but that is different from the notion of racial superiority, which doesn’t exist outside of the thoughts and behaviors of inferior minds.
I live in suburban SoCal NW of LA and I can tell you there is definitely palpable racism here- it’s mostly white and affluent and 35-40 min away from the melting pot of LA. What made it palpable was trump’s election ‘win’ in ‘16 coupled with many of my neighbors’ reactions after George Floyd’s death. A trip a few miles away into Ventura County and it’s even worse, mind you not as bad as Orange County which is its own sort of ‘special.’
ETA- fuck the dojers.
Here’s an interesting look at a real world EV road trip - in properly sub-freezing temperatures - while also checking out the Kia EV6.
I only watched the first 20 mins or so; I doubt I’ll watch the whole thing. I am liking the Kia more and more, but the non-Tesla charging infrastructure sucks balls. It’s all well and good having a car that has a 250kW charging capability, but not a lot of help if you can’t get more than 100kW at the “pump”.
ETA: Ok, I watched the whole thing. Car looks solid, charging infrastructure is random at best.
Not electric cars, but comparing current modes of travel vs. the hypothetical rail link.
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So we have a pretty good high speed rail system here with the longest probably being Seoul to Yeosu in 3 hours. Seoul to Busan is probably 2 hours 30 minutes at around $45 one way.
Flying to each location takes about an hour but most airports are at least 30 minutes outside of the city. Nisan’s airport is almost an hour using public transportation. Sometimes plane tickets are cheaper than high speed rail so I use that but getting to the airport takes about 45 minutes to an hour from my place in central Seoul. Seoul station however is about 10 minutes from my house.
Overall high speed rail is generally faster and more comfortable and it doesn’t take that much longer than flying.
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