Oh, the Humanity!

So, you shouldn't read comments on news websites.  We'll accept that as an axiom. 
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But HOLY COW what is wrong with those people?  I made the mistake of looking at the comments on this article from WSJ/Marketwatch, about how municipalities want to encourage bikes but are avoiding using ObamaCare federal dollars to do it.  What's not to like?  Municipalities are accountable to their citizens more immediately than DC is, and they're not grabbing that tax-cash with both hands to make a stash, so they must be doing something that enough locals like to get the programs through, so woohoo, right?

I'll reiterate: HOLY COW.

It's like these trolls personally resent the idea that maybe they'd be healthier if they added exercise to their routine?  Maybe a great way to get exercise is to require it of yourself via bike commuting?  OH NO.  Encouraging healthy behavior is NOT THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT (cough, why do we have prisons & beat cops?), and MY FAT BEHIND is going to sit in MY LARGE CAR while I try to run down those SOCIALIST SAPS on their two-wheeled COMMIEMOBILES!

Ok, so now you don't have to be tempted to click on those comments.  I have summarized them for you here, and with a good deal more bonhomie and goodwill than the originals. 

God Bless America, the land where we are free to do basically what we like, and I want to keep it that way.  But for crying out loud, the idea that bike-friendly cities are the tip of the iceberg that will slash through the watertight compartments in the ship of state and doom us all is quite overblown.  We already live in a nanny state, and until people choose to try to walk that back, maybe we can try for some better lifestyles?  Maybe the perpetual hand-to-mouth first-world existence most Americans lead actually is a form of economic serfdom?  Maybe you can change that for yourself, and then have the guts and grounds to stand up against the nanny state?  But (read from OH NO above if you like).

If you think you MUST drive a car forty minutes to your job, you are wrong.  You can move.  Or get a different job.  Or mensch it up and bike that distance (hey, it's an option).  Perhaps people should be more open to structuring their lives around their life, and not their work? 

I can accept that people in the process of correcting bad life decisions may need to drive for a while to earn their way out of a hole.  I accept that certain professions are inherently car-locked (realtors, estimators, project engineers, carpet guys, etc.).  I know that riding a bike regularly is hard work.  But maybe once you start to reduce your car use, improve your health, and think about your life as a process of optimizing to minimize waste and maximize the work of glorifying God and enjoying Him, you'll have a better outlook on life.  Perhaps suggestions won't be taken as threats, people will slow down and drive less, and you'll find that biking to the grocery store actually makes you MORE free than being tied to a depreciating hunk of aluminum and steel that only goes on ROADS?!

Where we're going, we don't need roads.