The other night, we watched a movie from the ’80s. It doesn’t matter which one because in every movie from the ’80s, no one in the movie “buckles up” for “safety.” As opposed to every movie (and TV show, today) in which everyone dutifully does so. The culture has changed. America is no longer the same country. It is a very different country.
Safetyism has changed it.
The change is both subtle and profound. Subtle, because it has become almost unnoticeable; it is invisible – unless you can remember what America was like before Safetyism. It is something like being able to remember what America was like before Nahhhnlevven – that is, when America was still a country rather than a Homeland and you could run like OJ through the airport to catch your flight at the very last minute. When you describe the way it was to people who cannot remember, it does not register – because how could it? It is difficult to notice a difference when you have no comparison point.
This is why the Party – in Orwell’s 1984 – was so obsessed with erasing the past to create a kind of permanent but also ever-changing present. It is absolutely why the past is being changed to suit the present today; viz, scenes in TV shows about the past depicting what was not true in the past; though there are some wonderful exceptions to this rule, one of them being the popular series, Mad Men. No one in the show, which was about advertising executives in the ’60s – “buckled up” because back then, almost no one did. Seat belts were like the appendix in a human body; i.e., a thing that flopped around unused.
The culture had not yet been changed.
The italics are there to emphasize an interestingly incongruent relationship: Seat belts were in cars for decades before most people wore them. More precisely, seat belts were mandated (to be installed in all new cars) decades before most people were made to wear them. It took decades of nagging – and in the end, mandating – before “buckling up” became something almost everyone does now by rote. It changed the culture.
Intentionally or not, it also changed everything else.
Pre-and-post “buckle up” America are two very different places. Pre “buckle up” America was not defined by Safetyism. It was perhaps a riskier place but it was also absolutely a freer place. Kids played outside unsupervised and so never learned to be afraid of the outside. They grew up sitting in mom’s lap while she drove – or sitting beside her while she drove – rather than strapped into a “safety” seat in the back. They grew up without fear of cars as a result and most were itching to become old enough to drive, themselves – and when they did, they were just as free to drive anywhere, anytime as adults. They could buy booze at 18, too – in congruence with being old enough to be dragooned into “service” and sent to kill (or be killed) in some foreign sandbox somewhere. Today, 18 year-olds can’t legally buy booze but can be dragooned to “serve.” Another weird incongruence that can be attributed to Safetyism.
The mantra, Safety First, is something that would have been laughed at by the Americans of the pre-Safetyism era – not because they were reckless but because they weren’t neurotic (or gelded). Safety First is one of those terms that has a superficial sensibility but a deep maliciousness underlying it. The superficial sensibility being the method by which the underlying maliciousness is furthered. It does this by imputing recklessness to any questioning of that which is asserted to be “safe.”
The evil genius of this method must be granted.
Recall the way it was used during the Great Terror – the four years of what was styled “the pandemic.” People were badgered relentlessly about “masking” – which they were tol they had to do because Safety First. Most did so, because by 2020, Safety First had become the undeclared national religion, one which almost everyone reflexively genuflected before. It is not going too far to say that Safety First replaced the religions that were once adhered to a majority of Americans in pre Safetyism America. The observation about vacuums and beliefs comes to mind; i.e., when people no longer believe in one thing they shortly come to believe in other things.
Not necessarily consciously but implicitly.
Safetyism is now that. A kind of given that almost no one questions, even though they ought to – because when you stop to think about it for a minute, you realize that the decision about what is an is not “safe” is no longer yours to make, as it was back in the old America – the one depicted in Mad Men and that can still be seen in any movie made before Safetyism evolved from a minor cult, like one of those backwater snake-handling congregations you have heard about, into a new national religion that’s so pervasive, so accepted, that almost no one thinks to question it.
And to think it all started with seat belts.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $25 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/05/25/culture-shift/&media=https://www.ericpetersautos.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Safetyism-lede.jpg&description=Pre-and-post "buckle up" America are two very different places. Pre "buckle up" America was not defined by Safetyism.){kind=link}
I remember an episode of Dirty Jobs where someone uttered the phrase (safety first) to Mike Rowe. His response was, “Well, top 5 anyway”).
My dad, who passed away in 2000 was a mortician and I grew up in the funeral business. Prior to becoming a funeral director , my dad was a medic in the Navy and then an EMT. He refused to wear seat belts even after it became “law”.
When I was in my mid twenties , I asked him why he never wore seat belts. He said that after all he had seen in his work at accident scenes that seat belts did save lives and they also caused deaths. His estimate was approx. a 50/50 chance either way and the gummit had no right to dictate you to do something that had a 50/50 chance of killing you.
Years later, when taking flying lessons in a Cessna 172, we were instructed to make sure and check that a seat belt cutter was on board due to the fact if you wound up in a crash upside down in a body of water, or on fire, the weight of your body pushing down on the seat belt buckle would make it impossible for you to unbuckle the belt and you would need to cut it to escape.
Fast forward to approx. 2019, the wife and I were driving on a secondary highway in MO. and there was one of those electronic signs on the side of the road that read “712 deaths on this highway last year. 49% were unbuckled.” Immediately, my dads words hit me like a brick….and I thought “Hell, that is right at that 50/50 mark.” 49% were unbuckled and died, and the other 51% that WERE buckled died anyway !!
Dang, just don’t write, “false information that creates fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community.” or your ass is going to jail.
/…What a pussified/control freak world this has become.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-woman-arrested-after-facebook-post-over-unsafe-brown-drinking-water-report
Before the mandated seat belts and kiddie seats, they were pushing and legislating motorcycle and bicycle helmets.
Our servants have become very uppity and need to be put in their place.
RE: “Before the mandated seat belts and kiddie seats, they were pushing and legislating motorcycle and bicycle helmets.”
I dunno about where you were, then.
But, no… no they didn’t. Not here in Iowa anyway. Nor in California.
Heck, I didn’t see a dufus with a bicycle helmet on in Iowa until the 1990’s. Same goes for the strap-in back seat baby.
Just watched DC Cab for the first time, and it was precisely what I wanted it to be. Satisfied. Finally checked out some John Waters movies recently too – Serial Mom, Cry Baby, Polyester and Hair Spray. Very good experiences. My only requirement for movies is that they be at least twenty years old. Watching everything I heard was good in HS but refused to see. Parenthood, with Keanu Reaves and Joaquin Phoenix, another excellent one.
Ha! I like this: “My only requirement for movies is that they be at least twenty years old.”
…I’ve been thinking the movie industry needs a new rating, i.e. PG-13, Rated-R, etc,… N.W..
Not Woke.
I’m NOT watching any more ‘woke’ films. …Ever. They are so lame, and gross. A.k.a. fake & gay. Gag me with a spoon.
I won’t watch anything new, no matter how good it looks in the trailer. I’ve been burned (my retinas) with too many woke surprises. Never again. Movies from 60’s – 80’s are plentiful and represent a better time.
The worst movie from the 80’s is better than the best movie of the 2020’s and I’ll fight you over that statement. LOL
Dude you Must watch that kool movie Sicario (2016)? …with Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin..
That is so Bitchin cool with the Gritty….Mexican border look…(Quite authentic)….
although….
The west coast highway is/was a Mind blowing run from Banderas Bay to Acapulco….
possessing Beaucoup “Unibomber” hideaways and unreal “pennie weenie” villages tucked hard against the Occidental Cordillera and the Pacific…
Mexico was a cool place to check out ….honest injin.
Boy,
I forgot to mention that I just missed meeting with Andy Dufresne from that Sheepshank Reduction movie….in Zihuatanejo……
I missed him by 5 minutes …instead I end up playing with one of those weird looking ..Americo Sur raccoon looking things with long tails …Coatimundi??
Oh Well…Onward thru the fog…
Ah yes. I remember when I was a kid in the 90s and the trips from Ohio to Florida or Missouri in the back of our Ford minivan. My sister and I and sometimes our dog all together laying down in the back of that van, building ‘forts’ playing games. My dad was focused on the road and driving like a sane human naturally, and here we all are still.
That was good to read, Andrew E.
The most important culture shift is the dumbing down of America. It’s measurable in falling standardized test scores … but also, in political propaganda that’s pitched to an ever-lower lowest common denominator. Consider this doozy from today:
US military says it carried out ‘self-defense’ strikes in Iran, including on missile launch sites
America’s clownish stance is analogous to a burglar (who had no right to be present) suing a property owner for injuries sustained during his break-in. Illustrated:
https://ibb.co/dsRsxLRd
You would literally have to be a retard — or a MAGA fan — to swallow the childish claims of the US aggressor state posing as an injured party.
America died before its 250th birthday.
Morning, Jim!
You beat me to it, almost. See today’s new political article: https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/05/26/orange-man-attacks/
This is the USA right now:
https://youtu.be/YNyV_axxhrk?si=nj3l-MtLVQU5TebN
Yes, and I really want to know who is going to be celebrating “freedom” on the 4th of July, assuming there is gas, and that it is not $10/gal.
How about $25.00/ gal and $250/bbl? Somehow those numbers seem appropriate.
One cannot expect the country to do well when people do not even know what sex they are. When you have a U.S. Supreme Court member that cannot define what a woman is, and is a pedophile sympathizer, how such a country could keep going and NOT crash and burn is a miracle.
Yes, Jim H.. We deserve better war propaganda than that.
The seat belts started it. At around the same we did away with smear the queer, recess, gun racks with rifles in the truck window, and in some places even winning and losing in sports became frowned on. And sadly, it goes back to the girls taking over the schools, around about the time of ‘The year of the woman.’
All the crazy shit we did when we were kids should be brought back. and any government objection should have them put back in their place. The person that worries about everyone else while their own life is a shambles is a neurotic busybody not suited to live in a peaceful society. The worst part is they aren’t happy controlling 90% of all persons places and things. I’m beginning to see there is no living among these people. Many of them now want to kill anyone who ever agreed with Trump on anything. That level of off the hook derangement is dangerous.
How about no?
RE: “The seat belts started it.”
I beg to differ. It was, “Just say, no”. The response/over-reaction – after That – was what started it All. Imho.
Drug testing in the workplace went parabolic well before the seat belt idiocracy. Control. Control. Control.
Exacting Control. …It was almost, probably was, a mania.
Where did this obsession to boss others around originate? I am not saying I know, but I do know the Jewish culture is obsessed with control of it’s members. Jewish Rabbis insist Jews eat certain foods prepared certain ways, wear certain clothes a specified way, believe holy text (fiction) literal. Jews have always lived in a top down fascist society full of rules.
If I was a Jew living in that culture I would run for the hills to another nation where I could live free, wear the clothes I want, eat the foods I like, and most of all believe what I determine to be true, not some delusional control freak Rabbinic priest. Fundamental to human freedom is to not believe any Jewish narrative – like the Holy Babble, Holocaust, Oct. 7th, 911, USS Liberty attack, or who killed JFK and Charlie Kirck. Jews are always lying about everything, about their divine nature, or Howard Lutnick saying he never knew Epstein.
I think most modern Jews are like most people, they want freedom from the Rabbis, tolerate them as a relic from past when Bronze Age cave dwellers believed in the angry sky god. Thunderstorms were a visual display of Yahweh’s wrath. No Jew believes that literal anymore. But over at Hebrew National hot dogs, only the front of the cow is used for meat.
But Jews, as do Christians, still believe the Torah as history. It isn’t: Father Abraham is stolen right out of Hindu myth, Brahma and his wife (sister) Saraswati become Abraham and Sarah (wife+ sister). You have to be a damn fool (like Orange man and Jared Kushner) to believe Abraham story literal.
Trump, of course, reads nothing and knows nothing, and he believes Abraham as a real character ’cause no Jew he trusts has informed him otherwise. Jews have a whole lot riding on the Torah being literal – that is how they get political power. Jews are rolling in pig shit when Trump makes pro-Israel laws, makes peace treaties named Abraham Accords, stuffs his regime full of Jews and shabbos goy Christian lunatics.
Those controlling us with safety laws harken back to the days when priests read from a holy book and told us to obey Almighty God and his Commandments. That religious fascism was passed down to our time of modern “fatherly” governments who like Abraham (or Moses) know best.
It is a short road from controlling others with religion to controlling the society with safety regulations. Back in old days, in pre-scientific superstitious ages, priests made rules not to eat pork, or raw pork – because they made observations that if you did, you could get sick. Only thousands of years later did governments make guidelines or even laws not to eat raw pork because you could be infected with tapeworm eggs.
Who are you to challenge the high priests at the EPA or OSHA? My dad told me a story when I was a teenager, OSHA had showed up at the industrial plant in which he managed, and the steel railings were 1″ to short in height. So he immediately had them all cut and rewelded to the OSHA specified height. It is hard to believe if the factory had kept the railings at their current height any worker was unsafe.
You see OSHA is like father Abraham, you must obey the father. Father knows best. Father Trump must be obeyed if we go to war with Iran. Only his opinion matters that Iran not have nukes. Tulsi gone, who needs that biatches opinion? In a patriarchs mind, women are for sex, not other things that men worry about. Who cares what the IAEA experts say? Only father knows the real score, only Trump’s emotional feeling matter. We are literally under the rule of a lunatic who claims only his morality matters.
I think small cars are coming to Amerika again. When we can no longer afford to drive behemoths, we will import Asian Kei cars, and they will be legalized at state and local level. An example of how the public eventually wins was marijuana legalization in Oregon. Oregon could no longer afford to enforce anti pot laws, court system overwhelmed with growers and users.
If you want to overcome “safetyism” (which I detest as much as Eric), the first thing you must do is stop believing that another person has a right to boss you around and determine what is right for you. No man has one lick of authority over another – no pervert Rabbi is credible, or some bribed politician or unelected bureaucrat. And if you believe that at a soul level, how could you possibly engage in voting?
No seatbelts or airbags on a motorcycle or on school buses with all those precious children. Ridiculous double standards need to be rectified by eliminating this maze of rules and regulations and tell everyone to take care of themselves. Like that Farside cartoon of two fisherman who see nuke mushroom clouds over the horizon.
https://i.imgur.com/WKfJj3q.jpeg
How do we get back to freedom? Stop believing in father god, the Holy Bible, Rabbis and politicians, deep state control freaks. As the system collapse, now in an accelerated phase, work to get cars we want legalized around Federal laws.
https://imgur.com/gallery/no-more-nationalist-christians-GFB0NJu
Most people like being told what to do.
To the point that when they encounter someone who doesn’t, it does not compute. They genuinely don’t understand why it’s such a big issue for you. Best case they’re merely puzzled; worst case they feel challenged and actively start trying to cut you back down to size and bring you back into line with the herd. The herd is perceived to be safer.
This is the sad truth. That libido dominandi is one of he fundamental evils in human nature. I can’t do that, so nobody should be allowed to. And it’s in everyone, even the staunchest anarchist has a touch of it. And most especially it is found in the ranks of society, in the rich and powerful, who believe themselves entitled to a little god status because they have more or were born luckier than their fellows.
Great points you made. Had similar ones inspired by Kevin MacDonald’s books and other stuff like “The Jewish Civilization” by Feliks Koneczny, Polish author – translated to English, but it can still be diffuclt to find, though I strongly recommend.
Jews are the frist in line to condemn any form of fascism and many things that are not fascism, themselves coming from a fascist society.
When the government tries to kill of the population with the death jab, you think people would start realizing the government is not trying to make us safe.
A government constantly at war with other nations is not making us safer, they are pissing off other people in other lands, motivating them to come here and kill us, or blow shit up. Government idiots like Shrub said “the hate our freedoms”. No, they hate that our government killed their wives and children and blew the shit out of their communities.
The government is always warning us about terrorism coming here, when in fact they are the ones causing the terrorists to come here. Recent wars have displaced tens of millions of people. People who should stay in their homelands, who have different values, who have no business invading our high trust society.
At the center of all this insanity are Zionists, Neocons, Bible believers, followers of Yahweh, supporters of Israel. The book these mayhem murderers orbit around is the Holy Bible. I say that book is the most evil book ever written – because look at what that book is doing to our world – the followers of the Holy Bible are making this world hell. The current POTUS promotes the Bible, as does his war secretary Hogsbreath.
Of course, the Bible believers do not see themselves as hell mongers, they view their deeds necessary to save souls or make us safe from Arabs or Islam. Jews believe they have a godly mission to conquer the earth because God chose them. Those who go to war to protect the nation often take Bibles to read for comfort, always in fear of death.
Any rational loving outside observer can see that these wars are unjust and unnecessary, that these stupid evil wars are started by Bible zealots, like this Mileikowsky PM who wants a Greater Israel. How about no Israel, how about we put all the Likudniks and their shabbos goy whores in the USA to death. How about we ban Judaism as a death cult, ban the Torah and Bibles, make the Jewish culture illegal.
Sorry jack, the Bible zealots shilling for Israel are only the flip side on the useful idiot coin. You know darn well all ware are banker wars. The real enemies of humanity are the Jewish billionaires stoking hate between right and left. The vitriol is off the charts. When in fact it should all be directed at the main stream media, and every single politician of both parties.
You’re right about this obsession with bossing everyone around. What gives us the right to tell the world what they can and cant do. We cant even manage ourselves (thanks DS/MSM) for all the dissension you’ve sown.
YJ, the Bible is not evil but, people who use it for nefarious purposes are.
Interestingly my daily devotional reading today had this to say:
https://www.heartlight.org/spurgeon/0526-am.html
People who think it’s their duty to “help” God are showing narcissism, hubris and blasphemy. It’s not the fault of the book but “those” people.
I “buckled up” before any laws were passed. It’s your choice because it’s your cocoanut.
I would add that when it comes to the laws of physics, there is no court of appeals.
Huh, re: “I “buckled up” before any laws were passed.”
Do you also wear a helmet when you step into a bathtub/shower?
…I can see that. …Why wouldn’t you? …For the same reasoning.
Hm, I can imagine –, no, I don’t have to imagine, I can *recall* — when –and why — someone might freely choose to wear seat belts long before any law mandated it.
Nobody had to pass a law to convince him he didn’t want to go headfirst through a windshield or get a rear view mirror lodged in his forehead of get impaled on a steering wheel column or spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
He honestly believed driving was inherently dangerous, and not in a fun way, like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft or skydiving or mountain climbing or riding (live or mechanical) bulls might be to some who like to live dangerously.
More like storming the beach at Normandy on D-Day.
If he wanted extra thrills in his life he would seek them elsewhere than on the highway.
He lost friends over his completely free choice. To them, taking any precaution at all was unmanly, cowardly, and un-American. They’d say things like, “If I was *that* scared I just wouldn’t drive.”
Then a day came (about 1982-ish) when a mandatory seat belt use law was passed in his state.
He was so outraged by this that he seriously contemplated taking a knife and cutting all the seat belts out of his car. Just as a matter of principle.
Meanwhile, all his far more he-manlier ex-buddies started dutifully buckling up out of fear of fines. They were much more scared of getting a ticket than of being maimed for life.
Hi David,
I remain a seatbelt refusenik. I never “buckle up.” Not because I am demonstrating manliness – except insofar as thumbing my nose at this business of being told what I must do by people who think they have the right to force me to be “safe.” Rather, I just don’t like wearing them – and that’s reason enough.
Like “masking,” you have every right to “buckle up” if you want to. The thing that’s obnoxious is the forcing others to do so.
On the other hand, way back in the day (Seventies and Eighties) I was trained or indoctrinated in what was once (then) called “the Modern Technique” of the handgun. (It’s no longer seen as so modern. today)
Many of it’s doctrines and practices were radically divergent from then-long-standard NRA “Hunter-Safety” doctrines.
We New Techniquers made no distinction between loaded and “unloaded” guns. To us, *all* guns were *always* loaded. As they should be.
Most of us wore our 1911 .45s and Browning P-35 9mms in what we called “Condition One, also known as “cocked and locked.”
All this and a lot more seemed suicidally reckless to all the old Elmer Fudd-types or “Fuddites,” who preached the dogma that you should never load any gun until you were ready to shoot it at some game. They really believed a gun was likely to go off by itself if loaded.
We were different. Some of us were also recreational hunters , but were mostly about fighting, not hunting.
If our weapon had any mechanical safety we’d employ it, but we relied more on Rule Three — keeping out fingers away from our triggers till the our sights were on the target and/or the decision to fire had been made.
(Of course in a clinch one might have to fire unsighted from below eye level.)
I could go on in much greater boring detail but my point is just that what is safe and sound and optimal practice to some looks like, well, courting disaster to others.
In all these decades I have never been able to get across to anyone that while I thought seat belt use was a very good idea in most cases, I didn’t think it ought to be legally mandated.
Everyone but me I ever talked to thought that anything that was good or good for you ought to be compulsory, and anything that was bad or bad for you (or questionably so) should be outlawed. I don’t look at things that way at all.
But they always think if I advocate using seat belts I want to make it mandatory. And their arguments *against* seat belt use are invariably something along the lines of
“The seat belts will jam and trap you in a submerged, or burning, vehicle.” They seem to really believe that is a common thing.
Just because it’s a good idea, does not mean it needs to be mandatory. And just because it is mandatory does not mean it’s a good idea.
Use your own judgement & operate at your own risk FFS
Yes. I think* that was what I just got through saying. Did It somehow come across otherwise?
I would have sworn that I just said that very thing. Did it somehow come across otherwise? Then I posted a reply to yours, which vanished into the ether the instant I pushed Post.
RE: ” I didn’t think it ought to be legally mandated.”
That’s good on you. It came across perfectly clear where you stood.
That said. Of every fella I knew in my youth who died in a car crash – numerous – not a single one of them would have been spared had they been wearing a seatbelt.
…Odd, that.
Also, no one I know of was ever saved because they wore a seatbelt.
…Odd, that. Too.
I wonder, how many people were strangled and such by their seatbelts in a crash? I’ve never seen any stats on that.
how many lives and injuries do seatbelts save each year in the us?
Seat belts save approximately 15,000 lives every year in the United States, while preventing hundreds of thousands of serious, non-fatal injuries
the author is an anarchist who wants to encourage others not to buckle up )as he is their hero). never mind the laws. never mind that seatbelts actually work well to save lives.
comparing seat belts, that do work, to masks that do not work. is:
The primary logical fallacy for this situation is the false analogy (also called a faulty analogy)
only reckless drivers sit on their seat belts and drive over the speed limit more than about 10 percentage points. It takes bad character to encourage others to break laws, especially if you encourage passengers to not use seatbelts by setting a bad example
OK, so seatbelts work much like vaccines. Yours protects you, mine protects me, if I choose. That is where it should end, Nothing gives you the right to impose that belief of yours on me. Although, living in this low vibrational matrix, on this insane prison planet, everyone believes they have some kind of obligation/right to be all up in others business. How about you just do you, and thats the end of it.
Yes.
And they also (can) protect others from being on the receiving end of your Rocky the Flying Squirrel act, which is what people usually bring up. And they can prevent you from getting thrown gracefully out the window and into a nice mud puddle where you end up filthy but basically unhurt (I know of exactly one case where this actually happened…don’t count on it, kids).
You have to draw the line somewhere.
And if you stay out of accidents (maybe not always, but definitely almost-always possible) the whole discussion becomes moot and all those “devices” become about as meaningful as Linus’ security blanket.
Richard,
Why do you lie about what I’ve said? I’ve repeatedly stated that my issue isn’t with seat belts, per se – but with the forcing of them on people. You wear one if you want to. But neither you nor anyone else has any right to order anyone else to wear one. Maybe you should be required to wear Depends. After all, you might shit your pants!
You characterize me as a “reckless” driver. That’s interesting, given my record of decades of accident-free driving. How do you account for that? Just luck?
PS: Do you also think the government should order people to eat a “balanced” diet? Stay out of the sun?
Working out has probably done more to “save lives” – to extend them – than seat belts ever have. Should people be required to work out? Fined, if they don’t?
In my case, seat belts have “saved” exactly nothing.
You are reckless by telling your fans
that you do not wear seat belts and drive very fast
i’m confident that this macho view encourages some of them to sit on their seatbelts too
Do you encourage passengers in your cars to not wear seatbelts?
You brag about your driving ability and claim to have never had a car accident. Of course your life isn’t over yet and we can’t say NOW that you will have a perfect record for your whole life. so far you do. Being an expert driver … but someone else, perhaps a DUI, might crash into you someday
Only 23% of U.S. drivers go through their entire lives without ever getting into a car accident. That means 77% will have a car accident and their life and that means wearing a seat belt is a good idea.
Wearing a seat belt has nothing to do with vaccines, masks or any other safety regulations.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I personalky do not take orders from the government, or from Eric, or Richard, or anyone else.
What I said to my parents years ago, apies here: I can promise to listen to advice, and take it into consideration. But I will not promise to implement any of it.
Richard writes:
“You are reckless by telling your fans that you do not wear seat belts and drive very fast.”
Oh fuck off, asshole.
I mean that.
If passengers in my car wish to buckle up, they are free to do so. The thing you seem unable to get – or do not want to discuss – is the issue of compulsion. Busybodies like yourself are afflicted, sick. You think you are other people’s parent and Mommy (that’s you) knows best!
Piss off. I try hard not to use profanity but people like you have worn out my patience. I look forward to civilizational collapse when people like you can be dealt with appropriately.
“I look forward to civilizational collapse when people like you can be dealt with appropriately.”
This is why I come here. Eric is my kind of people.
Seat belts most assuredly do NOT save 15000 lives per year. This is a brazen and unprovable assertion, but also the fact that most people knuckle under and wear them and the rate of serious injury and death has not dropped in any statistically significant way in the last 25 years.
Also having been on the front lines as a first responder fire/EMS for a very long time, you would do well to note that cops (gasp) routinely lie and claim someone who was injured or killed was not wearing the belt. And while everybody knows of some instance where a belted driver was hurt or killed, the propaganda mills will NEVER report it.
In the U.S., roughly 91% of people wear seat belts.
However, that remaining 9% of unbelted drivers accounts for nearly 50% of all traffic fatalities.
you don’t like the statistics
you have no idea how they are calculated yet claim they’re all wrong simply because you don’t like them
The Internet Robot says this, “While it is clear that a substantial portion of traffic fatalities involves unbelted individuals, the assertion that 9% of unbelted drivers specifically account for nearly 50% of all traffic fatalities lacks confirmation.”
Richard,
Your stats are non sequiturs. The issue is compulsion. I could cite similar stats re the “risk” of being overweight and sedentary. So? It’s fine to suggest that people maintain a normal-range BMI and that it is good to exercise and stay fit. It is another to sanction them if they do not. It is precisely the same as regards seat belts. You can make a valid argument that wearing them can reduce the risk of injury/death if you crash. That’s fine. But when you cross over to forcing people to “buckle up,” you become a control freak tyrant. Also an arbitrary one. I am certain there are many things you do (because we all do them) that could be regarded as “unsafe” or “risky” by some ninny. Do you like to be told what to do by ninnies?
I don’t.
CHP motorcycle officer once stated (lunchtime seminar) that CHP puts 5% of miles on motorcycles, which account for 95% of serious injuries. Do they quit riding? Perhaps some do, but others willingly assume the risk.
No doubt you know the saying about two categories of motorcyclists. Assume the risk, accept the consequences.
Personally, I think you are a damned fool for not wearing a seat belt, but it is your life, and your choice. I promise to *not* visit you in hospital, should you get t-boned by an incompetent, drunk, or AGW and ejected from your beloved TA. No sympathy whatsoever. I would miss your articles, though. So, stay safe, my friend.
Roger, Adi –
My thesis is this: Most “accidents” are avoidable because they are caused by driver error. I am a very careful drive (and rider) even though I drive and ride fast. The two are not mutually exclusive and I submit as evidence that I have not had an “accident” in decades. I do not say “accidents” are entirely avoidable; that would be idiotic because it is obviously false. I simply state that one can greatly reduce the chances of being involved in one. Just the same as one can greatly reduce the chances of diabeetus by avoiding obesity and sugar, etc.
Eric,
Hypothetical:
Suppose you had children (neither do I).
Would you buckle them up (or put them in kiddie car seats, when younger), or not?
Could you be charged with “child endangerment” in VA if you did not?
FWIW, here in CA, seat belt laws, as you may know, are not considered “primary enforcement”, which means a cop will not chase you down and cite you for not wearing one. Just something else they can charge you with if you have, say, a burned out taillight, etc.
At the moment, the driver’s seat belt in my Ford is broken, so I am driving around “unbelted” even though I am in favor of seat belts. I have bought a new belt, have not yet installed it. No “interest” whatsoever from “law enforcement”, so far.
By contrast, I have been “pulled over” twice by AGWs who thought I was talking on a cell phone, when in fact I was resting my left elbow on the door (window down). At the time, I did not own a cell phone. Joke was on them.
Hi Adi,
No, I wouldn’t – because I would want to teach them not to be afraid of cars and driving. I would want to raise them as I was raised. Yes, that would risk a “ticket.” Screw it! I think all this “safety” crap has been a significant inducement for many men to not have kids. The “safety seat” thing effectively forces you to buy a transportation appliance and then every time you take the kid somewhere, it’s this ordeal of strapping them in (and then out). If you have more than two kids, now you have to buy a three-row SUV or crossover because it’s not allowed to have three kids in the back, not strapped in for “safety.” It is effeminate. It is neurotic.
It makes my teeth hurt…
I say this as member of a generational cohort that grew up free. We were outside – unsupervised – until the sun went down. We jumped our bikes without helmets on. Only retards wore helmets, once. We rolled around in the back seats of our parents’ cars; it was wonderful. Remembering how it was makes me angry about the way it is, now.
The fags have taken over.
No kids?? Must be subversive!
What if we males were all *required* to impregnate one or more females (no doubt selected by the state) in order to be “normal” and “fulfill our role in society”?
Wouldn’t that be “double plus good”, comrades?
Indeed, Adi!
I came close. It didn’t happen and maybe it was for the best. At least, in that particular situation.
Hey, Eric,
Within a CH (BCH, actually) here. 🙂 College sweetheart.
If they make it mandatory that basically just proves it was a bad idea.
The question is, in part, which is the most feasible way to throw sand into the gears of the great social machine?
And sadly, vehicles have morphed from appliances to computers (on wheels) that will “allow” the “owner” (cough, cough) to use said device (that THEY have to pay for) when the computer is feeling generous. Or not….
Statistics are irrelevant. The only way to prove that seat belts save 15000 lives per year is to take those 15000 allegedly saved by wearing restraints and then stage identical wrecks without the restraints and document that all the survivors were killed.
The assertion is thus brazen and unverifiable.
Statistics are useful tools. They are also absolutely subject to manipulation. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Your complete lack of understanding of the science of crash testing, instrumented crash test dummies, controlled crashes, and crash simulation is staggering.
For an automotive site it’s really depressing how ignorant you all are.
Hi Curt,
All of this stuff about the effectiveness of seatbelts is not the issue! It is this business of forcing people to “buckle up.” This being an act of parenting other adults, which is the worst manifestation of tyranny, just about. “Buckle up” laws are of the same species as “eat your veggies”!
Like seat belts? Wear them all day, if you like. But no one has any business siccing the law on people who don’t wear them. Same goes for helmet laws. What’s next? Underwear checks?
“Your complete lack of understanding of the science of crash testing”
Which is in no way the same as real world realities of crashes.
“instrumented crash test dummies”
Which arent people. They arent the same. And while the data from them is useful, its not the same as human bodies.
“controlled crashes”
Which dont happen in real life.
“and crash simulation…”
Key word simulation. Attempting to use scientific method to control human freedom is a really bad idea. See eugenics… or climate change carbon panicking.
My marker of change in the culture to the safety cult is the “baby on board” sign people started putting on their cars in 1985.
That’s when the shift happened IMO. It’s also shortly after the car makers figured out how to sell safety. Something they had tried to do since at least the 1930s. Of course the version we are told is the automakers fought against safety. They didn’t, they fought against mandates of things they couldn’t sell. Joan Claybrook didn’t invent the airbag, the big three had put it in cars starting in the early 1970s. People wouldn’t buy and they found safety issues with them and thus discontinued to offer them. But the evil car maker story sells better.
Hey Brent,
I saw an updated version of the “baby on board” sign a few months back. It said “Babies All Up In This Bitch.”
The parodies were classic. “Pervert On Board” is one I remember.
I’m telling ya, it wasn’t, “the “baby on board” sign people started putting on their cars in 1985”.
It was, The War Against Some Drugs, which was launched long before that.
Think: child-proof caps.
The Internet Robot says, “Child-resistant caps were first developed in 1967”
…It’s been a Long time in the works.
Remember Married with Childred?
In one episode Al gets back to work and enters the garage in his Dodge and then there is Bud with his fellow geek student club making some silly ceremony there. Al, of course, nonchalalantly drives into the food table and it gets pushed and falls “dangerously” close to the actors there, not far from hitting them. I thought they for sure had not used no stunts for this, probably didn’t even think of it because who cares.
>Seat belts were in cars for decades before most people wore them.
FWIW, I installed lap belts in my 1960 MGA (bought used, i.e. thrashed, in 1968) and insisted my passenger (GF, typically) use the belt.
that said…
Fear mongering by “those who influence things” seems to have become the national “religion”. No better example than the “hair on fire” “reporting” of the current *potential* for a chemical leak in Garden Grove, CA:
https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/05/24/no-contaminants-found-in-air-near-garden-grove-chemical-plant-tank-remains-intact/
Five “reporters”? Seriously? Calm down, boys.
I have no idea why they are engaging in this sort of fear mongering, using such terms as “impact zone” “chemical fallout” “severe damage blast zone”, as if this were a nuclear weapon about to detonate.
So far, there has been no actual leak.
In Australian,
“No worries, mate. Professionals have got this under control.”
Morning, Adi!
Yup. It’s of a piece with the way it no longer just snows. It is a “bomb cyclone” or some other over-the-top thing. It’s no wonder so many people live in a state of enervated perpetual panic – and I think it’s on purpose!
Yesterday, Sunday, I gave a Fellowship Service at the race we were working. Long story short, I read Twain’s War Prayer as the focal point of the service. Afterward, as part of the comments from the attendees, it was mentioned that America’s “enemies” are to be feared. I asked what the most common phrase or variation thereof was in the Bible. No one got the right answer. It’s “Fear not” or something akin to that.
I emphasized that when anyone tries to use fear to come around to their way of thinking it was more akin to the words of Satan than God or Jesus.
I’d like to think I made some headway with at least a few.
Cool. Fear Not.
Right on cue, here’s a new version of Safetyism that just popped up in my face after reading Eric’s essay:
Google
Hi Jim, we updated your settings
Google couldn’t confirm you’re an adult, so some account settings have changed.
SafeSearch is on
Google may hide explicit content, like pornography, from your search results
____________
I may not be an adult, but I can curse like one.
F U, Evil Google!
Hi Jim. Yes, I got the message from Google/Screw Tube about having to verify my identity and age with a driver’s license. Many states force serfs to use their Social Slave Number as an ID number. No there, thankfully, but Screwgoogle has no business knowing that information. I replied to the response with telling them where to go and how to get there. And that with them being CIA (or NSA), they should already know that information already. LOL, I got the reply message that I am considered “under age”, and, like you, do not get adult content. Bwa ha ha.
If you watch YouTube on your phone, install Newpipe (https://newpipe.net/)
On your computer use yewtu.be instead
Perchlorethylene was delivered to 2 of our drycleaning plants in 55 gal drums. I deep lunged it for years as a child. My entire alcoholic family smoked constantly. Ive not been to doc lying psycho in decades. Ive never paid usery to the filth. Ever.
Fk the neurotypical herd program and its pathetic wet dreams
Its good to be king. . .
As I’ve said here and elsewhere before and will say again, Safetyism (along with Healthism and Environmentalism) are what happens when we as individuals and as a society stop believing in God.
You see, when people stop believing in God, that does not mean that they believe in and worship nothing—it means they believe in and worship anything. So instead of worshipping God, they worship safety, health, and the environment.
The way that people worship safety, health, and the environment is along the lines of a doomsday cult, particularly with respect to the environment: Our actions have harmed the earth, and we will be punished for doing so, unless we make sacrifices, including sacrifices of our very own lives. And there is no hope of forgiveness, redemption, and salvation—it’s just fiery doom.
What’s more, when people stop believing in God, they believe that this life is all there is and when you die, you’re dead, end of story. So they must protect and prolong this life at all costs, even though it means that nobody ever truly lives life, and even though they fear death because they never really lived.
Lao Tzu #75.
Amen Bryce,
We’re all going to die someday so what’s the point of a long life if you’re miserable for all those years?
Another interesting trend (this is California so year round good weather). Is the recent explosion of ebikes. A few years ago traditional cycling groups were popular. This was a bay area import they’re everywhere there because people use them for fitness and recreation as well as commute so they rule the surface streets. They were just starting to proliferate here but since there is more space and our area is not as compressed they never really took off. Recently – they all suddenly vanished. Now everyone from the ages of 7-70 rides an ebike. It has become like a mad max movie out here with hordes of ebikes and these things are silent and speedy. People stay out of the way because hey if you’re walking and get hit clipped because you ignored an ebike you will be toast while they are long gone. Remember it could be a 13 year old and 13 year olds don’t have rules. Just when you thought safteyism was going to take over the laws of nature still rule!
Good. It’s good to see end runs being developed.
Hi Swamp! Unrelated, but you’ll appreciate this: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/05/19/former-pray-away-the-gay-activist-charged-in-child-sex-sting-orange-deputies-say/
Remember the billions of signs by ALL bike path just 10 years ago:
NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES
Disappeared faster than those grocery store floor arrows appeared.
As F² packs on ever more. . .
The driving/biking situation has been trending spicy in our area. The past 15 years there have been more people moving out here to get away from the overpriced and congested bay area. Our roads have now become legit congested. The congestion and absence of highway patrol has allowed drivers to be very agressive. On our two lane expressway, people now drive autobahn style. There is no speeding enforcement and hasn’t been in years. It is no longer acceptable to drive in the left lame unless there are at least 3-4 cars ahead of you. Traffic jams are rolling so can clear up after a particularly busy interchange. When that happens traffic immediately speeds up to at least 15 – 20 mph over the speed limit and there is always at least one super aggressive driver. Defined as someone who just wants to be “in front”. Doesn’t matter how fast you are going. This driver will get within inches of the car in front of theirs, even honking if the driver doesn’t pull into the right lane. You can see these aggressive drivers coming up way behind you -they’re easy to spot because they are impatiently changing lanes multiple times to try to get ahead. Do not, repeat not stay in the left lane long enough for them to come up behind you. You will not be ok. I have been a fast driver all my life but can’t compete with the sheer recklessness of these drivers. They tend to be under 40 and can be driving anything, sedan, suv, pickup.
I view this as a backlash to all the safetyism. People’s frustrations are surfacing now.
I agree, RS –
Tomorrow’s lead article is about this very thing!
So? If you are traveling in the left lane, get out of the way of people trying to pass. It’s as simple as that. Speed limits haven’t been relevant since the 1960s. Speed limits have not reflected the prevailing traffic speeds since then. For 21 years we were forced to drive 55 mph on a rural highway that was designed for 70, or at least 80 with today’s cars. Most states post proper limits on the interstates, if about 5-10mph too slow, but on rural highways, the speed limits are stuck at 1974 levels in many areas. In my state of Texas, you can drive 70 on a rural two lane. Sometimes 75.
Speed up and get used to it.
My dad got his last speeding ticket when he was 77 years old, so being old is no excuse.
Im not complaining swamprat. I definitely stay to the right and do not miss all the highway patrol. Just observing what is going on. I really think its a backlash to all the kinds of safetyism.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m seeing some of the same here in Iowa.
…It sorta reminds me of driving in Mexico in the 80’s.
…The ugliest, beatup vehicle, gets yielded to.
I may have to uglify my vehicke more?
“Make Way!”
Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame had a good treatise on why safety is not #1. His premise correctly stated that if safety is #1, nothing would get done. Common sense is what makes jobs and life itself safe.
There are risks in life which start with getting out of bed in the morning…
And the “environment.” I had to live with someone who was into this recycling nag nonsense. There were plastic wrappers, cans, glass bottles, and the like everywhere. I was tripping all over all kinds of crap to just get across the damned room.
One day, I was cleaning the kitchen. I decided to use the vacuum to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Well, said person came out and started to show the environmental way of cleaning.
This is a microcosm of how these people think. The elevate teh trivial above everything practical.
In positions of power, they implement every rule, restriction and whatnot to make life more difficult and expensive to the average American.
In a less tolerant society, people like Rachael Carlson would have been laughed out of the room and tossed in a landfill. Our society instead allowed people like that to flourish.
God help us all.
Environmentalism is the corrolary of safetyism.
It’s also variable.
Ami I risking a paper cut, or certain death? And are we talking about all it takes is one tiny thing not going right, or is it pretty much idiot-resistant? Because these situations are not the same.
You know, common sense. That thing that laws tend to discourage us from using.
I find the seat belt nanny to be annoying as hell. I do NOT need to put my saaaafety belt on, when I am on a back, gravel road out in BFE driving. Or, just driving up the road a mile or two. Good grief, I am willing to risk my “saaafety” for that. At least I can still drive in reverse, and pop the driver’s door open to check behind me without the car stopping for me, or adding in another annoying alarm.
Amen, Shadow!
The bottom line issue here is it’s our own business – as adults – to decide whether to “buckle up.” Just as it is our business to decide whether to work out. Our “safety” – and our “health” – is no one else’s proper business. Anyone who thinks it is, is a control freak asshole who needs their face punched in.
> it’s our own business – as adults – to decide whether to “buckle up.”
Sure.
But don’t come begging anyone for money* when a maniac AGW offs himself on your front bumper (BTDT, 1989) and you go flying through your windshield because you were sitting on your seatbelt (didn’t happen to me, because I *was* buckled up).
————
*assuming you survive
Of course, Adi!
I am many things, but dishonorable is not one of them. I always pays my own bills. I just do not want to pay other people’s bills.
Te salud, Eric.
RE: “But don’t come begging anyone for money* when […] you go flying through your windshield”
Yah, and no pity for you when your seatbelt decapitates ya, or strangles ya, or crushes your guts.
…Hab a nice day, smug safety nazi.
Nannys next step was around 2000 when drivers started getting “punished” with a frustrating plethora of seeming glitches for EVER daring unlock a door with the car running. The electromechanical beatings have steadily ramped up and are now firmware idiots pay interest for years to you know whoo to rent.
Beware post ’15 tracking devices designed to kill by drowning fr inatance.
Saddam Hussein told his people they could clean their carpets with kerosene – saw it in the documentary “Uncle Saddam”.
That’s what my grandmother used too according to my mother–she wrung them out in it. Per AI: Yes, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (had to be after 1930 for my grandmother), it was common for people, including those on farms, to use kerosene or gasoline for “dry cleaning” at home. Because these petroleum-based liquids could dissolve heavy grease and oil without water, they were effective for cleaning rugged work clothes and delicate fabrics that would shrink in a traditional wash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRqZGw6JgGI
Not to mention that SAFETY is an illusion/delusion in the first place. Barring accident or violence we all get sick and die. No doctor/fireman/EMT has ever “saved” a single solitary life. Extended and sometimes shortened them, but never saved one.
I’ve mentioned this before, but during COVID, the whole Saaaaaaaaaaafety thing was even weaponized to get people taking the experimental COVID vaxx that turned out NOT to be “Safe and Effective!” Remember the vaxx campaign from the billionaire elite & corporate media saying “Nobody is safe unless everyone is safe!” and “Nobody is safe unless everyone is vaccinated!”?
Good article. Though I think the start might have been child seats. It was perfectly safe for my infant little brother to ride cross-country in my Dad’s arm while he drove a stick-shift U-Haul, but the very next year, it was too dangerous for my younger siblings to ride the 3 blocks to the grocery store without being buckled in. 1970 was a bad year.
I’ll never forget the madness of racing a 45-year-old open-wheel racecar and coming within inches of touching wheels with others at triple-digit speeds only to get out of the car and be told by the organizers to “mask up for safety” in the paddock.
Fuggin’ crazy world, Mark in BC. Wow.
ZeroHedge covered an Epoch Times article on this. It seems that adults treating kids like toddlers winds up having adults being just larger toddlers. You see a similar attitude in foreign countries when they tell adults that they can’t smoke if they were born after a certain date.
Perhaps “camps” should be set up for people that come up with ideas like that.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/bubble-wrapped-world-how-safety-culture-has-destroyed-our-sense-of-adventure-6036528
Human sez:
I dont believe I recall signing up or verbally agreeing to hand whatever I am over to anothers will. Until Satan or whatever produces a signed contract to the contrary, “You’re not the boss of me” seems to work nicely and has for close to 70 years.
It’s not that there wasn’t any talk of safety. There are plenty of old ephemeral short films about on the job safety, driving safely and even this gem from the archives about the dangers of using gasoline to wash clothes. Was that a common practice? Seems like probably not, but who knows?
Life used to be a lot riskier, but people managed to survive. Probably a lot of close calls. But close calls are more likely to cause people to take action on their own, at least if they’re paying attention. A bruise or sore neck for a few days is a good reenforcement for practicing common sense safety. Trying to anticipate and eliminate every possible danger just escalates everything to a life-ending event.
Funniest comment from your link RK regarding washing clothing with gasoline was:
With the price of gasoline these days I have been forced to stop washing my clothing by hand with gasoline and have reverted back to laundry detergent.
For what it’s worth who here hasn’t tried to get grease stains out with gasoline? Carbon Tetracloride used to work great but you can’t buy it anymore and even the older brake clean spray lacks effectiveness. Common sense combined with spot cleaning is recommended though.
My dad taught me at an early age that after working on greasy job, just rinse your hands with a splash of gasoline. Works every time!
I learned from a trucker that if you get stung by a bee, to put gasoline on a rag, and place it on the affected area. Tried it once when I got stung on the top of my hand and it worked wonders.
“using gasoline to wash clothes”
What do you think dry cleaning is (basically)?
I can wash up with poison oak too. .
Laughing at the terrified herd of stupidity is a full time retirement hobby.
It was Dale Earnhardt that summed it up best
https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_drafting/video/7553452494685277453