Journalists should read the comments

Ryan Cooper of The Week does not like pickup trucks because conservatives drive them. He aired them on Twitter. Conservatives straightened him out.

Cooper tweeted, "Sales of mega-pickups, which have basically been deliberately designed to intimidate and kill pedestrians, are booming. The trend of 6-foot grilles that create massive blind spots and pull people under to be crushed when they are hit is 100 percent a marketing gimmick. Hundreds of conservatives here doing their best to demonstrate that yes, huge trucks are about postmodern culture war signaling and unsubtle Freudian neurosis. A light truck can be a useful tool, and I have owned one myself. making the grille 6 feet high so you can't see if you are running over your kid does not make it more useful. it does the opposite."

Really?

They design pickup tricks to kill pedestrians?

Jeff Vader improved upon the design.

Ford, GM & Dodge are reporting brisk sales of HD models with the optional ‘Antifa blender’. pic.twitter.com/75sYGtPSlR

— Jeff Vader (@chaiseloungery) August 3, 2020

I won't go into the Freudian neurosis nonsense, except to note that he later complained about homophobic replies in another case of someone going elbows out and later complaining about being elbowed.

Ted Cruz noted, "Blue check-marks are afraid of pick-up trucks."

Well, not all of them. One.

Cooper decided to take his argument to This Week where he is safe from counter-arguments because like most media online these days, no comments are allowed. He called it, "The case against American truck bloat."

Which is a shame because the online comments at Twitter forced Cooper to up his game.

He began his column with how he grew up around a 1980 F-150. This gave him some credibility in commenting on trucks.

And he modified his comment about designing the vehicles to kill pedestrians.

He used numbers to try to make the case. But while pedestrian vehicle deaths are up, killer pickup trucks are not solely to blame. Smartphones and more driving have led to the increase

CNBC reported in February, "For starters, America’s growing love affair with pickups, SUVs and crossover utility vehicles means pedestrians are being hit by bigger, heavier, and more powerful vehicles. As a result, pedestrians who are hit are more likely to die or suffer life-threatening injuries, the association said. Pedestrian fatalities involving SUVs jumped by 50 percent between 2013 and 2017, it estimates.

"Another factor is the growing population in many states, which has lead to more deadly encounters between drivers and pedestrians. The report also blames people being distracted by their smartphones and not being focused on the road as contributing to pedestrian fatalities.

"Add in a strong economy with relatively cheap gas prompting more people to drive more miles and it’s a deadly recipe for people walking along roads or crossing streets."

And if Cooper did a little further research, he would find buses are far more deadly than F-150s and the like.

One researcher found, "Compared with cars, buses were 11.85 times (95% CI 6.07 to 23.12) and motorcycles were 3.77 times (95% CI 1.40 to 10.20) more likely per mile to kill children 0–14 years old. Buses were 16.70 times (95% CI 7.30 to 38.19) more likely to kill adults age 85 or older than were cars. The risk of killing a pedestrian per vehicle mile traveled in an urban area was 1.57 times (95% CI 1.47 to 1.67) the risk in a rural area."

I live in a place where there are no buses, but of course plenty of these Born To Kill Pickups. My risk of being run over is 40% lower, according to one research paper.

But my point is comments helped Cooper as much as he seemed ticked by it. Maybe that was his plan, beta test the argument on Twitter and refine it when he made the argument for money. If so, kudos.

I keep comments open and aside from way too much spam, I like them. Communication is a two-way street. I also state at the top of the blog, "All errors should be reported to DonSurber@gmail.com," and I mean it. This has reduced typos.

Jonah Goldberg once wrote, "Never read the comments."

Why?

Because you might learn something?