Why does motorsport represent a "safe hate"?

[brett_jv]

1. Since you've actually gone out of your way to PM me to engage me in an argument, I'll acquiesce ...

First off, I never dissed Altamont Speedway in my initial post. My point was that it's a JOKE for Trump to use pictures of it in order to imply that the wind farms that sprung up around it 'ruined' the place. It's a very small-time racetrack that's always had financial problems, and it's demise had nothing to do with the Wind Farm.

I've never been to the track, but I've driven through the pass hundreds of times, and there's *nothing* out there to look at. IOW, I very much doubt that the Wind Farm 'ruined the view', such that people stopped wanting to go there.

More importantly, a racetrack is not like a friggin' golf course. People go to Golf Courses in LARGE part because of the beauty of the surroundings. That is NOT so with your average race track patron. It's really not about the 'natural beauty' of the surrounding area, now, is it?

As far as your question about 'safe hate', I think I can sum it up in just a few words:
1) Climate Change
2) Peak Oil
3) People die in races

The idea that we have these cars, tuned for maximum performance (i.e. NO smog control) utterly pointlessly racing around in circles as fast as they can, wasting huge amounts (on a per-car basis) of a limited natural resource and polluting the atmosphere, in a dangerous sport where people die from it on a regular basis ... I'm sorry, but TO ME, it's one of the stupidest, most irresponsible frigging things for society to be engaging in at this time in history that I can imagine.

When the world has devolved into a version of the friggin Road Warrior (which, mark my words, is coming within our lifetimes, unless you're already quite old), because crude oil production has massively crashed due to depletion, and we have to look our starving grandkids in the eye as they're asking 'Grandpa, why did everyone in your generation squander all the worlds oil before I was even born?' ... well, lets just say my concern over something like that happening one day is a big reason I hate auto racing.

Put it this way, I hate auto-racing for the same reason I hate seeing shit-tons of people on the road in the morning, commuting to work in their huge SUV's ... all by themselves.

BTW, I'm not trying to bag on you, or any other racing fan on a personal level. I'm not saying your stupid for liking it or anything of that nature. But personally ... I think it's freaking LAME. It's polluting, it's wasteful, and it's hella dangerous, both for the drivers and even the crowd in some cases.

But I suppose if you just don't believe in climate change, or that petroleum is ever going to run out, there wouldn't really be much reason to hate on it. But I do believe in these things ... so I hate it.

Sue me