Day 83. 72 pages, 29,572 words. Ran out of steam a bit and had this interlude bubbling under, so here you go.
I’ve been commuting lately, and it inspired me to create this Twitter thread. I threw it down in graphical form below, so you could enjoy it. Today, Edpool waxes philosophical.
– Posted from my Huawei mobile phone on my lunch break.
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About Hatboy
I’m not often driven to introspection or reflection, but the question does come up sometimes. The big question. So big, there’s just no containing it within the puny boundaries of a single set of punctuationary bookends.
Who are these mysterious and unsung heroes of obscurity and shadow? What is their origin story? Do they have a prequel trilogy? What are their secret identities? What are their public identities, for that matter? What are their powers? Their abilities? Their haunted pasts and troubled futures? Their modus operandi? Where do they live anyway, and when? What do they do for a living? Do they really have these fantastical adventures, or is it a dazzlingly intellectual and overwrought metaphor? Or is it perhaps a smug and post-modern sort of metaphor? Is it a plain stupid metaphor, hedged around with thick wads of plausible deniability, a soap bubble of illusory plot dependent upon readers who don’t dare question it for fear of looking foolish? A flight of fancy, having dozed off in front of the television during an episode of something suitably spaceship-oriented? Do they have a quest, a handler, a mission statement, a department-level development objective in five stages?
I am Hatboy.
https://hatboy.blog/2013/12/17/metalude-who-are-creepy-and-hatboy/
Hatboy's Hatstand 
The best thing about this is, I don’t think it’s even a metaphor. There’s going to be a strong correlation between late mergers and conservatives, and early mergers and liberals, because the mentalities are pretty much codependent.
This is my entire commute, every day after work, on about 4 different occasions. I’m pleading the fifth on this one but let me just say, if you deal with this ALL THE TIME like I do, and you see oodles of noodles passing you in the “cheat” lanes ALL THE TIME, well…you start to feel more like a chump than I can handle. YMMV, since you didn’t defang that joke ;P
The political analogy continues to be appropriate, because after enough time don’t we all start to feel like we must be chumps for continuing to do the right thing, and be punished for it, while people who are selfish jerks seem to just keep winning? So much winning, to coin a phrase?
Still pleading the fifth while agreeing with you at the same time!
Now then Contro, we all know that refusing to commit to a philosophy means you are definitely a late merger now. *grin*
I believe while admitting to nothing I have still justified my position that our MMV.
Hee hee, alright then.
I’m afraid your metaphor breaks down right at the start as apparently you’re /supposed/ to use both lanes up until the merge point and then merge in turn. See https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/ for a more detailed explanation.
I guess this means by extension that the right wingers are correct, which is an unfortunate conclusion!
Devastating!
But perhaps I can salvage this. I (a pretty far leftist) have already indirectly admitted merging in accordance with this driving advice and against Hatboy’s wishes. And, I wasn’t going to admit this, but I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve raged at a rude, cutting driver, thinking to myself “another damn Trump voter” only to look down at their bumper stickers and see Obama, Hillary, and even Bernie Sanders!
So the political assumptions really don’t wash, sad to say. Or, with your new information provided, happy to say?
Supposed to, but nobody can and nobody does. This falls under (3), hopelessly naïve at best, dangerously obtuse at worst.
If everybody acted according to the rules, late mergers under the (3) rule would be fine. But it’s absolutely not the case.
In fact, and forgive me if I’m just being irritable, but this is completely missing the point. Of course the law says that, because the merging stretch is what it is and obviously there are two lanes up to that point.
In fact…
How perfectly does it encapsulate the human political mindset, that late mergers would think it’s better to adhere to the letter of an old law that clearly doesn’t work because traffic volumes and rush hours have changed over the years? The late mergers are using the law to excuse (and maximise, against the spirit of the law) their selfish queue-jumping, and the early mergers are trying to adhere to a more human approach but still being jerks about it.
Seems to hold up to me. If the political comparison has exceptions because there are late mergers among the progressives, that’s just a sad sign of the times.
Before I dive further into this I have to ask: does your calculus change if there are SO MANY DAMN CARS that all lanes are bumper to bumper for at least a mile, even the merging lane?
Because that’s my life. Yes, it moves a little faster in the merging lane, but it’s full too.
Of course that changes it, because that’s not the situation I described in the scenario!
I mean, let’s be honest, there’s probably more selfishness going on there than would ideally be going on in a perfectly operating traffic jam, but I’m definitely being unrealistic 😀
Well, fair enough then. And yes the merge lanes I may or may not be using until the last minute do move a bit faster than the main highway, just not as extreme as your blog story. However, there are also highway entrances and exits into those lanes, in the process, so everything gets a bit muddy.
But if I were using them, I wouldn’t be exiting or just entering. But the fact that there are entrance lanes along the way provides a bit of deniability and cover for those who do use them, if you follow.
I have been in your shoes and I agree, people merging at the last minute as onesy-twosies seizing this great opportunity to get in front of hundreds of suck–other cars–in the process are enraging. In my shoes, however, if I were to be doing what I’m not saying I’ve been doing it would be perfectly understandable XD
Heh, there are plenty of different cases. And four lane highways is about as big as we get in Finland so it’s all very simple and rustic.