Comment 65679

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted July 07, 2011 at 00:27:50

I'm not "against" bike helmets. I'm against victim blaming.

It's one thing to suggest that people take practical precautions when it comes to safety. It's another thing entirely to conflate practical and moral concerns, shifting the notions of "blame" and "fault" because the victim just "wasn't careful enough to avoid it". Not only does this tend to add insult to injury, but it totally avoids any actual discussion of who or what is causing the injuries.

For example, I could tell you not to walk down dark alleys at night, to avoid being mugged. If you did, however, and did get mugged, it wouldn't be your fault. It would be the mugger's. You, too, might start recommending to others that they should take my advice. But at the end of the day, if nobody addresses the muggers, the problem never gets solved.

Driving is insanely dangerous - even for the best drivers, the odds of something going wrong in an urban area are just too high. It's a responsibility we all must bare, each and every time we get behind the wheel of a car. We're contributing the lethal factor. Cyclists and pedestrians are deliberately avoiding such a risk - and all too often pay the price.

Comment edited by Undustrial on 2011-07-07 01:06:41

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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