If your country is one of those where the traffic is insane, and everyone just point-blank refuses to obey 75-100 percent of all signals and rules of the road, I don't respect your nation, at all.
I don't care what reason you think you have, to explain this bullshit behavior. There is no good reason. Even if your government literally refuses to put signals, stop signs, etc, that's still no excuse.
If your civilization can support motor vehicles, then I expect your asses to go out and paint your own lines on the road, make your own signs out of plywood and paint, and then DO YOUR BEST NOT TO ACTUALLY ACTIVELY MURDER EACH OTHER ON THE FUCKING ROAD. If you can't do that, and you all just drive as if you're the only car in the whole country, then I think your country fucking sucks. Period.
America is bad enough with our road safety. Thousands upon thousands are injured and killed on the roads, every year. But, ya know, the vast majority of us do actually STOP AT STOPLIGHTS AND STOPSIGNS, rather than just blasting through, with multiple lanes of cross-traffic just filtering insanely through one another.
When I see footage of that shit, it makes me feel projected embarrassment for your fucking country, whichever one it happens to be. Get your fucking shit together. It's fucking pathetic.
I fucking KNEW one of the first comments would be like this. I would have bet everything in my house on it, plus my entire right leg.
I just fucking absolutely KNEW someone was going to come at me, like I'm a colonial apologist, merely because I don't want people to get squished by cars.
If your country isn't modern enough to have road safety, then your country isn't modern enough to have fucking cars. Period. There's no cogent, honest argument to be made about that shit, and you fucking know it.
You might have deep and powerful feelings about the concept of cultural relativism. The 1,000-to-100,000 pound metal squishing machines that we call motor vehicles DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THAT CONCEPT, AT ALL. Basic road safety is not optional. Basic road safety is not a matter of culture. It's a necessity. And I won't pretend it's anything less. Neither should anyone else.
Also, like I said in my original post, there is NOTHING about being a non-industrialized, non-wealthy country that obliges people to drive like fucking maniacs. Okay, so you don't have a uniform system of signal lights? NOBODY DID, FOR THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF MOTORING. You don't have great government-provided highway markings? MAKE THEM OUT OF PLYWOOD AND PUT THEM UP, YOURSELF. Or maybe you just don't feel like obeying any sane traffic conventions, because your country's GDP is low? THAT MAKES NO SENSE. WHY THE FUCK WOULDN'T YOU WANT TO SURVIVE? WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL PEOPLE AND ANIMALS, LIKE CRAZY?
You know what I have HUGE respect for, when it comes to people in non-modern countries and their motor vehicle situation? The way they can fix major, catastrophic engine and transmission problems, using bailing wire, twine, hammer handles, chewing gum, and bottlecaps. That automobile MacGyver shit is amazing. But you know what? IF YOU CAN DO THAT SHIT, WAITING YOUR TURN AT THE FUCKING INTERSECTION SHOULD BE A PIECE OF FUCKING CAKE.
Waiting your turn at the intersection, instead of just filtering through traffic is SIMPLE. You can successfully replace a timing belt with a chain of paperclips, but you think turning directly into cross-traffic without slowing down is a good idea? REALLY? Fuck that. It's a choice. A fucking irresponsible choice.
Like I said originally, there is no excuse for point-blank refusing to adopt basic road safety conventions. It's not a cultural thing. It's not an income thing. There is no excuse for it. If your nation is just like "nah, we don't do road safety," it IS perfectly valid for me to judge your whole nation for that shit.
I mean, goddamn, people all over the world call Americans stupid, because we don't want to switch to the metric system. I'm apparently an imbecile, ripe for public judgment and derision, because I still think of the nearest grocery store as 2 miles from my house, rather than 3.21 kilometers from my house. Making that switch won't make me a better driver, won't make me safer, and truly won't make me smarter either...but people will still call me a "dumb 'Murican" straight to my face, for that shit.
Be fair about that shit. If all these countries were able to switch to the metric system, why can't they switch to safely navigating intersections?
Downvoting not because it is unpopular - I actually agree with parts of it -, but because it's an incoherent rant fueled by anger against some "undeveloped" country where magically everyone can fix engines with a piece of string. Big "hate the global south" vibes from this one.
Not hate. Just an unwillingness to infantilize people.
I'm not going to throw up my hands and say "well, we can't expect anything better from these people."
I'm judging people based on their own faults, as equals. That is an attitude of RESPECT. I'm not willing to say "awww, it's cute that these little brown motherfuckers can even drive. Of course we can't expect them to wait their turn at intersections."
THAT would be fucking hatred. All I'm doing is holding equal, intelligent, capable people to an equal standard. If you drive like a pack of psychos, it's not because you're "primitives" who are somehow incapable of doing any better. If you drive like psychos, it's cause you're choosing to drive like psychos. I think they should do better, and they CAN do better.
Oh, for sure. Anyone wants to look down on us for our crazy shit, go right ahead. But don't ever fool yourself into thinking multiple parties can't be in the wrong.
No matter how much dumb shit Person A does, it will never have any power to make Person B's dumb shit into smart shit. That's just a fact.