Jalopnik Publishes Anti-Pickup Rant: “Pickup Trucks Are A Plague And Should Not Be Sold For Daily Driving”

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
6-18-2018

 

Jalopnik published an anti-pickup harang recently, titled, “My Hot Take Of The Day Is That Big Pickup Trucks Are A Plague And Should Not Be Sold For Daily Driving.” We had a hard time figuring out if the writer was serious or pulling our leg. After a closer look, it seems the writer is sincere.

It’s unclear from the story if the writer has only recently headed out from home, but writes of pickups, “They’ve spread through our streets like a poison, taken over our cities by storm, and now that they’re here, we can’t get rid of them.” Who’s “we” is not clear.

The picture of who would write such an article becomes clear in the text of the story. The writer describes driving a “small, city-friendly, fuel-efficient vehicle” through “tight, downtown city streets” and arriving at an airport after a flight only to have a hard time seeing a vehicle because “… car is hidden between two massive trucks. Which then makes it impossible to see anything when you back up.” Unless you have rear cross traffic alert we presume. 

As qualifications for being a writer at a publication about automobiles, the writer lists, “atx. organic spicy ginger. last seen wearing heart-shaped sunglasses at a race circuit.”

Jalopnik’s spicy ginger writer is calling (on someone) to “make big, huge trucks legal only if you are using them for work purposes.” Sort of an odd position to take for a publication that accepts media fleet pickup trucks and then earns money writing reviews of them. Jalopnik writers also accept press junkets from automakers. A post from March says, “Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had me be flown from Los Angeles to Phoenix and then carted out to a fancy resort in the desert so I could spend a day test driving a few versions of the new Ram 1500.”  Seems like an odd dichotomy.

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[MikeNH]

Jalopnik has become mostly useless. Most of their talented writers left when the lawsuit gutted Gawker. I couldn't care less what some city idiot thinks about trucks.

[Penguin VII]

+1 MikeNH. I used to quite enjoy that site but it's gone downhill hard over the past few years. Sadly a lot of sites I used to enjoy have recently started becoming more political or attacking their base. I found autoblog is just as bad now and used to be one of my daily visits. The Verge is another site I used to really enjoy reading but now it's gotten to the point it's more than 60% political and cultural commentary rather than interesting news about tech. 

[Imcrazy]

I'll drive a big ole gas guzzling pickup truck till the day I die!

[i82much]

The only reason I would ever lift my truck would be to annoy people like the author.  Or maybe drive over their cars.  

Edited June 20, 2018 by i82much

[Nanotech Environmental]

On 19/06/2018 at 8:06 AM, Penguin VII said:

+1 MikeNH. I used to quite enjoy that site but it's gone downhill hard over the past few years. Sadly a lot of sites I used to enjoy have recently started becoming more political or attacking their base. I found autoblog is just as bad now and used to be one of my daily visits. The Verge is another site I used to really enjoy reading but now it's gotten to the point it's more than 60% political and cultural commentary rather than interesting news about tech. 

Same here.

Over the past few years, all of the gawker media sites have become infested with extreme left wing snowflake marxists; both the writers and commenters. I used to occasionally post on their comment sections, but got banned because I called a couple of people out on obvious lies. Every once in a while, I'll pop into Jalopnik to read one of the articles if it appears interesting & there's always a pop-up asking me to disable my adblocker....lol, the nerve of them.

[Daryl Z71]

I think this author needs a hobby...

[CadillacLuke24]

I love how the left wing snowflake easily offended whiner brigade wants to legislate everything they don't like out of existence.

 

HOW ABOUT NO. That's what makes this country great. FREEDOM. 

[waumo1]

Why would anyone read past the opening of "My hot take of the day"?

 

[revrnd]

No different than the 'holier than thou' types that feel the need to comment on how much it must cost to fill my truck. I usually reply while looking @ their 'econobox', "Must be awfully difficult to haul any lumber with your car". That shuts them up pretty quickly.

[dirtfan21]

The hypocrisy is exorbitant in these individuals... The morons that drive hybrids go around screaming about how they are saving the environment by reducing their fuel consumption and lowering emissions. Well folks, in Indiana the number one producer of energy is still coal fired power plants, so that electric your charging your car with is one of the most prevalent polluters in the energy industry. Oh, and those batteries that store that energy, if not disposed of properly, are a major issue as well.

 

I'm tired of the "ban it if I don't like it" mentality. If I don't like it, I don't buy it. I don't go make a big sign and stand on a street corner in protest of you owning it. 

[reelbusy]

 

what? another snowflake lib freaking out at something?

 

hard to imagine that. 

 

 

[j-ten-ner]

On 6/21/2018 at 8:16 AM, revrnd said:

No different than the 'holier than thou' types that feel the need to comment on how much it must cost to fill my truck. I usually reply while looking @ their 'econobox', "Must be awfully difficult to haul any lumber with your car". That shuts them up pretty quickly.

lol

 

Back in Germany, while I was fueling up my J10 at the gas station, a guy came and asked how much fuel the truck is burning per 100km.

I said: "I don't know. I never get that far..."

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[Materialman]

This is America. We drive trucks. Deal with it. 

[diyer2]

I never knew of jalopnik or others.

I avoid all media like this because I don't care what they think.

Everyone  has their point of view on every subject you can bring up.

I don't want to change your view.

 

This type of hype survives because it gets attention.

Ignore it.