SUV drivers ARE idiots!
A Marxist friend once called me an Anarchist. I did a little research and found out he was right. He thought he could convert me. Fat chance- I ride a motorcycle every day in traffic.
What does this have to do with anything, let alone your rant? I belive that the greatest authority and the only legitimate authority is one's own common sense and willingness to assume personal responsiblity. We are individually responsible TO each other, not FOR each other. This is an important distinction.
I happen to believe very strongly in taking personal responsibility for my own actions and my own self. The idiots in giant SUVs don't take responsibility for anything. They are keeping their sorry butts safe from weather, other drivers, their own lack of skill and attention, and anything else they can squash away.
You can make your own choices here in the USA, but as far as I am concerned, if you wallow along in an SUV, you belong in a nanny state that blows your nose for you, because that is what you want: no responsibility for anything, including your own welfare or the consequences of your actions. The whole point of these SUVs is to isolate the driver from anything outside.
I ride a bike, so I have to be aware of everything around me, from road conditions to idiots in SUVs. I burn a lot less fuel, use much smaller tires, use a little less oil, and take up a whole lot less room on the road. I don't block anybody's line of sight. I don't even listen to the radio and pollute my brain with commercials. I am part of the world around me, not isolated from it. That is MY choice.
Motorcycles make less toxic waste in the manufacturing process, use smaller parts, and generally require fewer resources to make and maintain. A bike takes up about 10% of the space to park. You can put a whole bike repair shop in the same amount of space it would take to park on or two SUVs.
There is nothing good about an SUY. An SUV combines the worst features of a van, a station wagon, and a four wheel drive pickup, without the advantages of any of them. They usually have things like heated leather seats than only a sybarite would want. There are just too many idiots who buy these enormous fashion accessories. Nothing like a Lincoln Navigator with chrome wheels and brush guards.
Of course, if the general population were not such a bunch of idiots, I couldn't feel so superior, but that is another rant for another day.