Demotivational Bull$#*!

Here’s something that pisses me off.

Take a car.  Lets say, for example, this one.  Little car.  Jacked up front end.  Hood completely crushed.  Yeah, that’ll do.

Your first reaction is, “Damn, what the hell happened to that dude?”  Am I right?  Perfectly valid response.

But then someone decides that they want to make a statement about something, like texting while driving.  They have an opinion about how horrible it is, and to demonstrate it they use a picture to manipulate their audience with false representation. 

I opened an e-mail chain once (back before we started posting images on Facebook instead), and was confronted with one of the most grotesque images that I’ve ever seen.  A tiny black coupe had crashed with a logging-semi on a highway out in the countryside.  There was nothing left of the car.  I don’t remember if it was head on, or if the coupe had gone under the bed of the semi.  All I remember was the paramedics pulling out the driver’s body.  All that was left was the burned and mangled legs, and the pelvis holding it together.  Otherwise is was a severed mess of guts and entrails.

First off, don’t ever send me something like that, because I don’t want to see that crap.  And I sure the hell don’t want to talk to you again if you do.

What pisses me off even more is that under the images it said something like, “This is what happens when you text and drive.”

Bull!  How do I know that crash is due to inattentive driving?  Just because you put a caption on it doesn’t make it true.  Still, I know plenty of people who don’t think, and just say, “Oh my god.  That’s horrible.  They shouldn’t have been texting!” 

Maybe it wasn’t due to texting.  Maybe the driver was drunk.  Or tired.  Or speeding.  Or better yet, maybe it wasn’t his fault.  Maybe the semi braked quickly for a deer; the coupe driver wasn’t expecting it, and at that speed he couldn’t stop in time.

Instead, some self-righteous prick took an event that wasn’t the driver’s fault and victimized them by turning the event into propaganda bullshit.  Take this car for example.  What if the driver wasn’t buzzed?  And now you slapped a drunk driving on their car.  That’s insulting to them, and shallow of you.

What if car belonged to a pregnant woman at a 4-way stop?  No one else was there, so she went ahead and made a legal left hand turn.  But then a minivan blows the stop sign at 60mph hour and hits her head on.

Someone makes a poster, tosses it online.  Plenty of people just jump on the propaganda bandwagon without ever questioning it.  That’s not you, is it?

Do you realize how easy it is to make something like this?  Anyone can do it.  I found a generator program online, and made these posters in 30 minutes, tops.

As for the pictures, my pregnant wife took them when she went to empty the vehicle out.  She’s fine by the way, but thanks.