So I helped someone change a tire today in the parking lot at one of the facilities that I work at. He asked, I obliged. Actually “helped” might be understatement as I basically performed the entire process – mindless process at that. (Of course I am packing – I don’t care how “Grey Man” you might be or how many people are around in a busy parking lot. You take advantage of me day or night and you’re going to whistle when the wind blows – bonus whistling if I was being a productive member of society at the time.)
Here’s what gets me; this was an early-to-mid 30’s guy in a 2010’ish Ford F-150… in TEXAS. Ok, well near the city of Austin, which is basically a Libtard mecca and not hardly comparable with the reset of the state. Anyhow, I ask this guy to dig out his tool kit and hand me the tire iron so I could start breaking torque on the lug nuts. He had no clue what I was talking about. I then repeated the statement, but used the term “lug wrench” instead – still, clueless. Says that he’s not very good with this stuff. What the fuck guy? Are you telling me that you’ve survived 30-something years (who knows, kid could have been like 20 or something) without either identifying for yourself or another what a tire iron/lug wrench looks like? I basically help him find that then go around to the rear of the truck to lower down the spare and fuck me running – this guy has a frigging Beto sticker, a Bernie sticker and some other shit that I didn’t recognize. Great, what have I gotten myself into? Not being as huge of an asshole as I used to be I went ahead and completed the job rather than telling him what I thought and promptly speeding away.
Here’s the kicker. Before I departed on my way I asked him if he thought he could handle the process now that he has seen someone else do it, as simple as it is. He had the nerve to respond, “probably, or I could just look it up on YouTube I guess”. Well you neck-bearded son of a bitch why didn’t you do that before asking for help? You learned nothing and got free work out of it!
The point, or question rather here is simple. How do people truly survive like that? Pretend there was no magical video site (or Google in general) where you can watch or read about someone performing the task in question. Pretend that roadside assistance wasn’t “a thing” and that tire changes were $10,000 a piece anywhere but a tire shop unless you did them yourself. Such a mindless task that could very well threaten someone’s existence to the core – no knowledge. Essential life skills = zero. If Whole Foods doesn’t have it on the shelf then we’ll just starve right? In today’s society this guy in particular would have probably eventually called a tow service or perhaps roadside assistance at his expense. Can’t confirm and also don’t care but I doubt his contacts contained anyone that could have been of assistance without a quick checkup Googling themselves. This is just a single example. Think of all of the mundane tasks that are thought of lightly but could turn very critical in milliseconds. How do “these people” handle everyday simplicities? I’m sure that just paying people to do it works, at the lack of gaining experience. I’m excluding things one might contract out or have a specialist perform due to the nature of specialty tools that may be required. Anyone would logically do that if the likelihood of reusing said tools was remotely slim.
Is this a political thing (my reasoning for even mentioning the bumper stickers)? Locale (City versus Rural)? Laziness? Servitude (too good to get dirty)? Upbringing? Daddy didn’t show me so I must not need to know it? Age is an obvious factor – look up the Fortnight thread if you need a glimpse into the next generation’s objective. Fucking sad.
Even if one didn’t have training and experience in engineering (I do), one would think that anyone could learn the basic functions and details – not even that really – just the most basic rudimentary and fundamental skills to perform simple tasks without assistance. Hell, especially today with as much information as one can get at their fingertips. But perhaps this is truly the problem also; it’s too easy – why retain it when it’s readily available. At least that’s what most think, until there is no more signal.
Thoughts?
Here’s what gets me; this was an early-to-mid 30’s guy in a 2010’ish Ford F-150… in TEXAS. Ok, well near the city of Austin, which is basically a Libtard mecca and not hardly comparable with the reset of the state. Anyhow, I ask this guy to dig out his tool kit and hand me the tire iron so I could start breaking torque on the lug nuts. He had no clue what I was talking about. I then repeated the statement, but used the term “lug wrench” instead – still, clueless. Says that he’s not very good with this stuff. What the fuck guy? Are you telling me that you’ve survived 30-something years (who knows, kid could have been like 20 or something) without either identifying for yourself or another what a tire iron/lug wrench looks like? I basically help him find that then go around to the rear of the truck to lower down the spare and fuck me running – this guy has a frigging Beto sticker, a Bernie sticker and some other shit that I didn’t recognize. Great, what have I gotten myself into? Not being as huge of an asshole as I used to be I went ahead and completed the job rather than telling him what I thought and promptly speeding away.
Here’s the kicker. Before I departed on my way I asked him if he thought he could handle the process now that he has seen someone else do it, as simple as it is. He had the nerve to respond, “probably, or I could just look it up on YouTube I guess”. Well you neck-bearded son of a bitch why didn’t you do that before asking for help? You learned nothing and got free work out of it!
The point, or question rather here is simple. How do people truly survive like that? Pretend there was no magical video site (or Google in general) where you can watch or read about someone performing the task in question. Pretend that roadside assistance wasn’t “a thing” and that tire changes were $10,000 a piece anywhere but a tire shop unless you did them yourself. Such a mindless task that could very well threaten someone’s existence to the core – no knowledge. Essential life skills = zero. If Whole Foods doesn’t have it on the shelf then we’ll just starve right? In today’s society this guy in particular would have probably eventually called a tow service or perhaps roadside assistance at his expense. Can’t confirm and also don’t care but I doubt his contacts contained anyone that could have been of assistance without a quick checkup Googling themselves. This is just a single example. Think of all of the mundane tasks that are thought of lightly but could turn very critical in milliseconds. How do “these people” handle everyday simplicities? I’m sure that just paying people to do it works, at the lack of gaining experience. I’m excluding things one might contract out or have a specialist perform due to the nature of specialty tools that may be required. Anyone would logically do that if the likelihood of reusing said tools was remotely slim.
Is this a political thing (my reasoning for even mentioning the bumper stickers)? Locale (City versus Rural)? Laziness? Servitude (too good to get dirty)? Upbringing? Daddy didn’t show me so I must not need to know it? Age is an obvious factor – look up the Fortnight thread if you need a glimpse into the next generation’s objective. Fucking sad.
Even if one didn’t have training and experience in engineering (I do), one would think that anyone could learn the basic functions and details – not even that really – just the most basic rudimentary and fundamental skills to perform simple tasks without assistance. Hell, especially today with as much information as one can get at their fingertips. But perhaps this is truly the problem also; it’s too easy – why retain it when it’s readily available. At least that’s what most think, until there is no more signal.
Thoughts?