My brother’s old ass Mazda had these. I thought it was a neat idea, but obviously flawed, even for the time they were new.
Side thought: One thing that I have been thinking about from time to time recently is how the culture war on seatbelts was finally and definitively won. You don’t hear people complaining on television anymore about how their freedom is being infringed by having to spend 3 extra seconds to buckle a seatbelt. I think kids today would be blown away with how much people argued about this back in the 90’s. It was no joke the dumbest shit that people argued about at the office watercooler day in and day out for years.
We really did have it good back then when the worst political bile we could muster was grumbling about whether or not seatbelts should be required to be worn while in vehicles. Meanwhile, fast forward to the modern day and we are seriously debating with each other whether or not certain people should have rights…
New Hampshire doesn’t require seat belts on anyone over 18. They actually sell seat belt male ends to insert into the female end to keep the car from chiming at the driver. I was surprised when someone got into my car annoyed about wearing a belt, they were from New Hamphire.
Obviously there are still going to be holdouts no matter what the issue, but by and large people have come to accept that seatbelts are inherently good and should be worn at all times when in a moving vehicle. It’s no longer a debate in the public discourse, there’s just people who wear seatbelts and people who make excuses for why they shouldn’t have to or don’t want to.
I see smoking in a similar light - it was a culture war that raged on for ages before finally the general zeitgeist came around to accepting the facts that the tobacco industry tried for so long to bury - smoking is bad for your health. Whether or not people chose to continue smoking or not is irrelevant, I just marvel at the fact that we actually won that culture issue. The good guys won, and justice prevailed.
I just can’t see us collectively coming together as a culture and agreeing on anything like that ever again. It’s not that those topics were not politicized - they were - but we now live in a post-truth society where if we were still trying to debate about seatbelts or cigarettes there would be no way to break through the stubborn political trenches people have dug themselves into.
I met two people who hate seatbelts to this day: a old coworker and a pregnant woman. Both were able to wear without complaint with a large binder clip releaving the tension (on the belt at the shoulder)
My brother’s old ass Mazda had these. I thought it was a neat idea, but obviously flawed, even for the time they were new.
Side thought: One thing that I have been thinking about from time to time recently is how the culture war on seatbelts was finally and definitively won. You don’t hear people complaining on television anymore about how their freedom is being infringed by having to spend 3 extra seconds to buckle a seatbelt. I think kids today would be blown away with how much people argued about this back in the 90’s. It was no joke the dumbest shit that people argued about at the office watercooler day in and day out for years.
We really did have it good back then when the worst political bile we could muster was grumbling about whether or not seatbelts should be required to be worn while in vehicles. Meanwhile, fast forward to the modern day and we are seriously debating with each other whether or not certain people should have rights…
New Hampshire doesn’t require seat belts on anyone over 18. They actually sell seat belt male ends to insert into the female end to keep the car from chiming at the driver. I was surprised when someone got into my car annoyed about wearing a belt, they were from New Hamphire.
I believe NH is the only state left without a seat belt requirement!
Obviously there are still going to be holdouts no matter what the issue, but by and large people have come to accept that seatbelts are inherently good and should be worn at all times when in a moving vehicle. It’s no longer a debate in the public discourse, there’s just people who wear seatbelts and people who make excuses for why they shouldn’t have to or don’t want to.
I see smoking in a similar light - it was a culture war that raged on for ages before finally the general zeitgeist came around to accepting the facts that the tobacco industry tried for so long to bury - smoking is bad for your health. Whether or not people chose to continue smoking or not is irrelevant, I just marvel at the fact that we actually won that culture issue. The good guys won, and justice prevailed.
I just can’t see us collectively coming together as a culture and agreeing on anything like that ever again. It’s not that those topics were not politicized - they were - but we now live in a post-truth society where if we were still trying to debate about seatbelts or cigarettes there would be no way to break through the stubborn political trenches people have dug themselves into.
This is still a thing in any community that needs helmets and/or elbow and knee pads.
It never stops surprising me how eager some people are to become meat crayons
I met two people who hate seatbelts to this day: a old coworker and a pregnant woman. Both were able to wear without complaint with a large binder clip releaving the tension (on the belt at the shoulder)