cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25961823

It’s probably time we admit cars that are a bit too useful as weapons to continue affording them the vast uncritical access they currently enjoy in our built environments.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’d be alright with it standing as an illustrative example of how the media perpetuates vehicular violence with their choice of terminology, if you don’t mind.

    • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      You are welcome to modify the title to make it more accurate and less exonerative if you’ like.

      I’m for one quite impressed that you stood your ground here and went with the non-editorialized title.

      We’ve had it for years in /r/Android and has worked very well. +1 u

    • amino
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      could you expand a bit more on that? I’d like to learn more about how they’re perpetuating that violence?

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        It’s the wording. Commonly:

        • The use of the passive voice
        • Placing emphasis on the car instead of the actual perpetrator in the driver (as seen in this case)
        • Using words like ‘accident’ (implies chance, no culpable party, no necessary remediations) instead of more accurate words like collision or crash

        All of these help exonerate the whole system of cars and the damage they inflict.

        • amino
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          for point 2, I guess they might’ve worded it that way to try and avoid a race riot? you’re right it does sound passive in that way, but whenever car attacks happen, the hate speech shoots up in Germany.

          by accident do you mean how the media frames car injuries in general or in this article? I don’t see accident mentioned anywhere

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlOP
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 days ago

            In general.

            The passive voice was not used here, nor was this a matter of an accident - those were examples of other cases where media covers for cars.

            I think it’s perfectly possible to mention that a driver was the perpetrator without bringing in their race into the headlines. This is also how they always write these things, so I doubt this time was anything special.