- Joined
- Mar 21, 2005
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LsXiV7Obds"]YouTube- Shaq's Gi-normous New Truck[/ame]
So am I supposed to read this as you saying that you perceive blue collar people to be better somehow than other types of workers?
I've done both, and I went back to school in no small part because white collar jobs are generally easier than being tradesman, IMO. Way easier.
I certainly agree. The main reasons I finished college was more pay and less strenuous work.
However, I differ about the jobs being more respectable. As long as a person does their job honestly and is not a detriment to the community through crime or unethical behavior, they are as respectable as anyone else who shows the same morality.
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".
I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.
Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".
A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.
It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.
To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.
IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".
Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.
But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.
So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?
Your truck sounds like my car and damn all of you for leaving nails in the bed.
Too many flat tire stories attributed to you guys.
:3oops: My bad. :lol:
BTW, I don't own a truck anymore, because I don't do construction anymore.
It's all good, but at least once yearly I get either nails or screws in one of more of my tires.
Grrr, the annoyance!!
The good news is that through karma, when it's your truck that is the one dropping all the nails, you tend to get more flats than anyone else. :lol:
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".
I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.
Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".
A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.
It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.
To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.
IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".
Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.
But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.
So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?
I'm with Mega, I think you forgot the third option Tuck.
Work.
Looks.
Play.
If he bought it specifically because he wanted to LOOK like "a man of the people", then I call horse **** on his fakery.
If he bought it because he WANTED A TRUCK, for personal use, then that's fine, I don't care exactly why.
I own a 4WD truck. Most of the time it takes me to and from work. Sometimes it goes offroad for business or pleasure. Frequently I haul stuff in it, like brush, trash or gravel, or a utility trailer. It's dented and dinged and dirty and has empty coffee cups, tools, trash and a camp-chair in the back. I don't use it for the job I get paid to do daily though: I use a company truck. The company insists on it's trucks being kept much cleaner and neater than my personal truck. :doh
My truck definitely ain't no fashion statement... if that was what I wanted, I'd have one of those duallies with all the lights on it, or a Jaguar. :mrgreen:
You're describing my living room, just as much as my vehicle.Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".
I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.
Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".
A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.
It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.
To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.
IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".
Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.
But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.
So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?
For me, using it for play is still using it as an accessory and not for it's intended purpose.
For me, using it for play is still using it as an accessory and not for it's intended purpose.
I'd love to see your suggested car then to tow an extremely large boat on a weekly basis. How is towing stuff on a regular basis not the intended purpose of a truck, whose partial selling feature is the ability to tow stuff?
You can easily get 3000+ pounds of towing capability with a station wagon like v70 or an outback, or even the hyundai elantra. Anything more than that could easily be done by a frontier or ranger. I doubt anyone has a boat that actually needs an f150 or Silverado to tow.
Do you tow stuff much? Just askin'... in my experience there's a gap between what a vehicle can theoretically tow, and what it can really tow without all kinds of bad things happening, like overheating the engine, breaking an axle, or being unable to reach 25mph going uphill.
Also if what you're towing is a lot heavier than the vehicle pulling, you're not going to enjoy that drive much.