Cars rule my brain. I would think that its pretty obvious. I mean I do run a Facebook page devoted to them. On reflection, while the reasons I’ve been able to remain so relentlessly in love with cars are legion. I would have to say chiefly amongst them are folks like you. The people that I interact with and that make up this life/hobby. In my experience car folks at our core are overwhelmingly positive. Yes there are exceptions insert a few bad apples reference but in my less than humble opinion, by and large car folks are the best. Sure, sure occasionally things go wrong. I like you, I have had my share of accidents and equipment failures. Shops that I felt over charged or took advantage of me. Lord knows the cost of cool is high. But all in all road trips and cruising with friends, cars and coffees, shows and races. The automotive lifestyle and its fellow practitioners are a fun loving good time.
As the HMFIC of The Lowered I can honestly say I can’t remember any post before this that I regretted. It just doesn’t happen. By design, The Lowered is about exploring different styles and genres. Finding inspiration and well… It just never made sense to me to post negativity. Theres plenty of that bullshit every where else. I figure no reason for me to add to the the pile of bullshit already out there. I admittedly have posted new vehicle reviews that might not have been glowing but even then I try and focus on the positive.
Today, for the first time I came across a comment that changed all that. For the first time I second guessed myself, I wondered if I’d done the right thing by posting a car. Had I fucked up? Much like these longer format posts, when I am posting on The Lowered its a stream of consciousness. It’s me sharing with you my wide brush largely first impressions of an image or interaction with a hope that you’ll get something from it. I obviously know and understand that I can’t have control over what that image or comment will have on you. At the same time though the last thing I’d want to do is ruin someones day.
Early on I committed to not allowing any politics or religious posts on The Lowered. It’s just not relevant to my/our mutual appreciation of the art form. So what happens when a particular model of car is so tied to a personal experience, so tied to politics and a regime that the experience and the car are inseparable. When the car posted elicits a reaction so severe and ingrained that the viewer is taken to a place of Anger and fear?
A Car did that? What? How?
I’ll explain.
It all started out like this. Woah! Check out this weird ass four by four Peugeot Wagon! As an American in Northern California Peugeots are not only uncommon they are rarer than hens teeth around here. A 4X4 version even more so. In fact I can count on one hand the amount of French cars I’ve seen in the last six months, let alone a Peugeot specifically. So seeing one thats not only a clean wagon but with neato mosquito head and tail light covers and a lift and off-road tires…. So cool. My next thought was, I guess wide body/Low ride all the things is switching to safari all the things? I collected as many images as I could find, wrote a quick impression and posted them up.
I will say this, I never know with you guys. Cars that I think are meh sometimes blow up and cars that I think are amazing dont seem to get much traction at all. I kind of figured this Peugeot would be the latter, just something I thought was cool and the rest of you couldn’t give two shits about. It wasn’t even low after all. At first the comments were what I expected. French cars are garbage, I had one and I am still traumatized. I had one and I loved it! These cars are great. I really do try and respond or at least acknowledge every comment I get. It’s the least I can do since you took the time to comment. Then I saw this
Man… I felt terrible. I am so appreciative of you guys and gals. It blows me away that anyone cares what I have to say, let alone likes my ramblings enough to follow and comment on my posts. I won’t share the Private messages we sent back and fourth. What I will say is the guy was classy and kind to me and patient with my stupid questions. I really do have the best folks with me here on The Lowered.
There’s a lot of shit going on in the world and being from “fortress America” we are incredibly insulated from the vast majority of it. Who among us hasn’t had that, oh shit feeling when seeing Crown Vic headlights in our rear view? Imagine if every time a Crown Vic or Dodge Charger showed up someone dissafuckinpeared… Like forever. Now I guess this is where some folks might want to bring up Cop on civilians violence here in the states and yes it absolutely happens but nothing like what this guys is talking about, so please just dont. Not only isnt this a contest, it’s just not the same.
The interaction got me thinking, as you can see from my response, if this is an entire countries interaction with a brand… how do they feel about the brand? How do they feel about the country making them? Is it even possible to separate brand from its use by the Regime? Stupidly it reminded me of a Marvel movie, remember that scene where The Scarlet Witch is a child and her civilian parents are killed in a bombardment. She’s trapped, laying in the rubble, of her home with her parents bodies and is forced to stare at an unexploded munition with Stark Enterprises stenciled on the side. Causing her hatred for Tony Stark (Iron Man) Nerdy reference aside… I tried to think of other manufacturers that might be in the same position.
It occurred to me, maybe, Toyota? Even in the US we’ve seen tons of news footage of Toyota trucks full of guys with Ak-47s or massive machine guns and improvised rockets mounted in the bed caravanning through the desert. So much so I once had an interaction at a Toyota dealership looking at several rows of Tacomas all in white and tan where the Sales guy instead of using the official Toyota Paint names “Super White and Desert Tan” the guy, whose lineage I couldn’t decipher, referred to them as “Taliban Tan and Turban White”. Racist… I mean kinda? But I admittedly understood what he meant as it painted the picture perfectly in my mind. The images of every time I’d seen those news reports. The before mentioned ones of these trucks full of heavily armed middle eastern local militia/terrorists/freedom fighters/ religious zealots or whatever you want to call them skipping along through the desert looking for trouble. Now I cant help but wonder if the people of Iraq or Afghanistan or any one of the many countries in turmoil over there feel the same way as the previous guy does when they see a Toyota truck or SUV coming their way? I wondered if there are other examples, other marks that people have come to see as symbols of an oppressor?
After our Private messages I felt less bad about having posted the car. I obviously didn't have any idea of its relevance to the Syrian People and I think he understood that. As he also was sporting a “Top Fan” flag on his post I can only assume he’s been following and commenting for sometime and knows any offense or bad feelings were unintended. The interaction will stay with me though. I cant imagine what living under a Regime like that must have been like and it served as a reminder of how truly fortunate I have been.
James
The Lowered HMFIC
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