Nuxx:MPG.257c725978a30a779896ba@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!shaftesbury.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Guy Cuthbertson  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: I was rammed last night during Critical Mass. Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:08:41 -0000 References:   <7f757acb-1123-4796-b3cc-1461e0eab224@9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>  Lines: 43 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: MicroPlanet-Gravity/2.9.13 X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 091128-2, 28/11/2009), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: f80b3c90.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=8kM?K>CXePP^, mileburner@btinternet.com says... > May I suggest that if you go out of your way to piss people off, you will > probably succeed. If you video or photograph drivers, and they see you doing > it, they will certainly get annoyed. I can't really say that I have much > sympathy for CM riders who find themselves on the receiving end of irate > drivers, not that I condone their behaviour (the drivers that is) but you do > seem to be the architect of your own destiny.

You see, Doug? Even the most fanatical, irrational, unreasonable car- haters on URC don't condone the behaviour of you or the other CM stirrers. At least mileburner and co try to get their anti-car measures through the "democratic" process instead of resorting to direct action against those awful, awful drivers who dare to travel in the most convenient, evolved, practical way they can.

Thereagain, unlike mileburner etc you are at least honest about your anti-motorist leanings, whereas with them it's "I don't hate motorists, I just care about safety/the environment/'the law' [but only when they can be used against motorists in some way, otherwise I don't really care about them at all, especially if they can be used in motorists' favour]". Of course, you do still pretend that your car-hating is for noble, altruistic reasons when really it's just envy because you can't drive yourself anymore. (You're not alone of course...whenever someone hates cars, it seems that there's *always* something fundamentally insincere or selfish about it...there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a genuinely nice car-hater who really believes that society would be better off without motoring and is prepared to debate fairly without resorting to lies, dishonesty or underhand tactics.)

Overall, you and the other car-haters here are about equal in my book, but you're better than them in some ways, and worse in others. But as far as this thread is concerned, doing things "on the ground" with the sole intention of pissing off law-abiding motorists, simply because you personally don't think they should be driving, is egregious. What if everyone who personally disliked what others were doing started behaving in the same way? Do you think that would make society better or worse? You know it's the latter. (After all, there are those whose hatred of cyclists is just as strong as your hatred of motorists, and that's just one example.) So what gives you the special right to inflict direct action on others when you presumably expect everyone else not to do so? Please answer that question even if you're not prepared to comment on the rest of this post.