I’ve seen you say a few places in this thread that reducing caloric intake is related to eugenics. That’s a pretty strong claim to make without any evidence. Can you share any?

How is it seizing power?

There’s definitely an opportunity cost. If you build a road or a parking garage that’s taking space and funds that could go to something else. The same could be said of a park or firehouse or factory. And I’d agree that in many cases something better could have been done than car centric infrastructure.

But an individual owning a car isn’t taking something from someone who doesn’t own a car.

Besides, my point is that cars should not be prioritized over pedestrians, cyclists and public transit. Just that to displace cars we should try to understand what people see in them, contra the last line of the OP image

Gene Hackman!

To create a pedestrian first world I think we need to legitimately understand what advantages a car has. A car is a true source of empowerment.

Sure, I can ride a bike, but I could never ride a bike 300 miles for a weekend trip to any arbitrary destination. I can take a bus but not at any moment, and not the middle of the night. I can take public transit, but not to the place I need to go.

A car is a portable personal space. I can eat lunch in my car, I can take a nap.

A car is a space protected from the elements - I’m not getting rained on. Protection from wind, snow, sun.

Its locked doors are a barrier between me and potential (and sometimes imagined) threats.

I don’t need to list out for this community all the negative things associated with cars. I just list these pros to highlight it’s a challenging task to displace cars. It’s a list of benefits to replicate.