Episode 21: Finally, A Pickup Truck For Protestants

The Ford maverick is pretty darn good. I boss got a whole fleet to replace the Nissan fontiers and dang I love this car/ truck. Only down side is the weak ass tires on the stock. More suited to a civic.

Decoupled Subscription "features" is another infuriating means of Enshittification :(

DECOUPLING is Consultantese/MBA-speak for stripping everything good out of useful experiences and charging a subscription for it. Airline tickets were the most notable; Spirit Air was famous for it until every other airline adopted their business model. Spirit was not aggressive enough with decoupling and folded--eaten by their own invention. ALL sellers have been waiting for this moment where tech is capable of metering and collecting for every little thing. Micropayments were a step toward what you might call MacroPayments. Theme parks are the next notable application. Having a compulsory mechanism of changing $30-$100 per ride came just as soon as technology allowed.

So this is totally Bezos trying to sabotage electric cars, right?

explaining workers' rights to someone who banks at softbank: "so, imagine a goose..."

Look, Jeff Bezos had to make an homage to his dead best friend and co-conspirator in several crimes, Jeffrey Epstein, by including microtransactions in his car

Taylor Swift's Madison Square Garden wedding, which I'm sure is not ominous of anything at all

Oh God I don't wanna drive these fucking things at work. I deliver for amazon (unfortunately) but the rivian vans are KINDA NICE INSIDE? They're all plastic all over and kinda fall apart but they're not hateful. They're so much nicer than like, a transit van or ram van.

Trying to summarize my thoughts on the slate here... 1: It's hilarious that you call it a truck for mormons, while I called it a bolt for guys that work in manufacturing. I've found a surprising number of mormons working in manufacturing. Basically all middle managers in american manufacturing are mormons or weird flavors of protestants. 2: I don't particularly disagree with all the reasons you list for why slate will go bankrupt, if anything I give them less time than you do. Their only real path to success is with fleets, and I don't see big fleet managers choosing a startup over someone like ford. 3: I legitimately love the way it looks, especially the interior. But modern car interiors give me anxiety. 4: All the reasons I love it and think it's important will matter to like 12 other weirdos and no one else, see point 2 lol.

Safety Last... how about the film Safety Not Guaranteed? Despite the homage to Harold Lloyd's clock-cliffhanger scene with Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future, the two Lloyds are not related to each other.

I really wanted to like the Slate, I blindly liked the Slate, but you've successfully convinced me that it sucks. I'm sad now, going to go cry in my 1996 T100.

I just realized the Slate is currently only available in 2WD. With the lift kit, off-road tires and lightning I just assumed it was AWD. An AWD Hybrid Maverick XL is $33k with destination. A basic, easily upgraded, Single-DIN radio with Bluetooth would have been much more interesting. For a truck that's going to be around $27k by the time it gets to you it should at least have a radio and electric windows.

I have thoughts about what a truck should have when you buy it but like that stripped down work truck should be like 7 grand new

The insidious thing about that 7.5k tax rebate is it would only have been really good for people who owed at least that much in taxes. So poor folks making less would not have been able to get that full amount back for the suck truck anyways

The term you might be looking for is "austere". Maybe. The reason conspicuous austerity worked for the homes of the wealthy in 2009 is they didn't use their homes, they paid for lunches and dinners and concerts. Often hotel rooms as well. Try to apply that to a truck and it just falls apart.

Toyota had a concept called the GR HV like ten years ago that did the fake gated manual, just without a clutch pedal.

I’ve seen the pics of the Slate, and my reaction was “as someone who’s lived the minimalist life of a poor person most of her adult life, there is such a thing as too minimalist, and this is way too fucking minimalist. It’s like off-white walls and cheap-blinds. Also, note for Victoria: it’s pronounced in the German way. Like “Kyle”. Or just Titania Bird.

If you make that Shapes Place camo pattern, I'll wrap my Slate with it.

1:02:20. Hey, there's at least a couple of examples from the end of WWII of "journalists" still facing the appropriate consequences for their actions.

Unfortunately, Victoria had no issues pronouncing the name this week, did it so well that I wonder if she practiced it before hand, but I did get a giggle out of Jordan so it's a passing grade for me.

Unfortunately, Ferrari couldn't use their old 6 speed transmissions because some mob guys thew em all into Mt. Vesuvius

Let’s play “what’s the coolest thing from the last few days on BaT that went for less than the Slate” https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2021-land-speed-racecar-corvette-style-land-speed-car/ https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1995-subaru-sambar-12/ $26,050 for this sickass combo, beat that

Time to listen to my woke propaganda at work. 🙂‍↕️