May 9, 2025
Newsmax Argues Bike Lanes Are COMMUNIST
A Newsmax TV panel mocked support for bike lanes, calling them communist.
- 14 minutes
By the way, I would beg to Sean Duffy
to also declare war on bike lanes.
These are some of the most un-American
European communist garbage.
You never bike around.
Absolutely not.
I have a car like a normal American.
[00:00:16]
Well, if you didn't know.
Now you know bike lanes
are communist and un-American.
That was a segment on Newsmax and during
a bit disparaging former Secretary
of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Bike lanes caught a few strange.
And let me tell you up front,
I think about bike lanes a lot.
[00:00:34]
I don't bike, I'm not a bicyclist.
But I might be
if we had better bike lanes.
So the arguments against bike lanes
that were that were mentioned was
that one, no one's using them.
Two the weather is no good.
And also bus lanes are terrible,
which is not about bike lanes.
[00:00:51]
But you know, I got to say, I hate
the argument that no one's using them
because it's like anything with
the government, they do something badly.
Then when it doesn't perform well,
they say, see, they're no good.
And then they use that now documented
poor performance as an excuse
to cut funding from that program
and just scrap it all together.
[00:01:09]
It's like performative bureaucracy.
And it's honestly,
it's a waste of taxpayer dollars.
It's a waste of everyone's time.
And if they had actually implemented the
bike lanes properly in the first place,
perhaps more people would use them.
Bus lanes are not ideal, I will admit.
But again, the solution to poor city
infrastructure is not to abandon the idea
[00:01:28]
of public transportation completely.
The right has abandoned reality
to this extent now that they
they've equated walking and biking
and riding busses to communism.
It's so unhinged
and no one is even talking about trams.
Why not?
We should all be talking about trams.
[00:01:45]
And this isn't the first time
that any of this has come up, by the way.
So 15 minute cities,
they promote the idea that places
where people live should be walkable,
and that people should be able to access
grocery stores and city centers and most
places that they need to get to within
just a 15 minute walk from their homes.
[00:02:04]
It's just an idea.
Something to think about,
possibly to work towards.
They're not perfect, but I personally
wouldn't mind living in one.
But walkable cities would reduce
car dependency across the country,
and the United States is nothing
if not car dependent.
This doesn't mean that cars won't still
be around, but it would de-center the car
[00:02:23]
from the city, meaning that the city
would be more people centric instead.
Notably, it would also reduce
oil and gas dependency,
resulting in low emission cities.
It would reduce the need
for ongoing road construction,
and we all know how annoying that can be.
It would get more cars off of the roads,
resulting in safer,
[00:02:41]
quieter cities with cleaner air,
and it would reduce the need for these
giant parking lots that you see everywhere
you look, which require green spaces
and floodplains to be paved over.
So anyway, right wingers interpreted all
of this as leftist communism and disguise,
[00:02:58]
saying that this was just a way
to pacify the population to make it
impossible for us to move around freely,
even though it would actually
do the opposite in a lot of ways.
Saying that the left wants
to take their cars from them,
and basically saying that real Americans
love being oil and gas consumers.
[00:03:16]
And as always, they're wary
of incessant government control.
Take a look.
Local authority bureaucrats would like
to see your entire existence boiled down
to the duration of a quarter of an hour.
You in your area will only be allowed
within that 15 minute zone
[00:03:34]
that you've been allocated.
Echoes of that language have recently
been heard in the House of Commons.
Will the leader please set aside
some time in this House for a debate
on the international socialist concept
of so-called 15 minute cities
and 20 minute neighborhoods?
Disinformation researchers say
this all started with the pandemic.
[00:03:52]
So the idea of climate lockdown
first appeared in March 2020,
when news of lockdowns in Wuhan
as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic
first broke into international news.
And the terminology came
from a set of accounts in the U.S.
Who were linked to a fossil fuel think
tank called the Heartland Institute.
[00:04:13]
You wouldn't be relegated
to your designated 15 minute city.
You can leave like no one's saying you
can't, just, like, go outside of that.
It makes me crazy.
And anyway, you know,
we should just have trams.
But I've already said so much about this,
and I could honestly talk about this
for much longer, but was.
[00:04:28]
We'll start with you.
The current American landscape
in most places, really,
just like a handful of cities
in this country are exceptions to this.
But most places require people to have
cars to get around, and it's incredibly
restrictive for anyone who doesn't have a
car or for anyone who just doesn't want to
[00:04:45]
or can't drive at all the time.
Driving is dangerous. It's ableist.
It keeps us separate from our neighbors.
It's incredibly expensive.
The vehicles themselves,
but also insurance, maintenance, gas, etc.
But the propaganda here is that cars
and driving and pumping gas
[00:05:01]
is practically a patriotic duty.
And now we're seeing trends
where more and more young people
are putting off getting their driver's
licenses because they just don't want
to do it or they can't afford to,
but instead they have
to be dependent on their friends
and family members who do drive.
So they're sacrificing their own mobility
almost entirely because apart from ubering
[00:05:20]
everywhere, most of them don't have access
to any kind of public transportation.
And now people who want public
transportation are communists.
And you know what I say, if that makes
me a communist, and so be it.
I want, I want. Why?
When I went to Austin last week,
I had to drive three hours to get there.
[00:05:37]
Why can't I take a train anyway?
Why is Utah?
I like, first of all, just the idea.
Sorry that getting a car
makes you somehow more American
when these cars are expensive.
[00:05:55]
We're talking about on the cheap
side of $450 $400 car note God knows
how much for insurance and then gas.
Forget about it.
Like your pockets
is just getting smoked at that point.
So yeah, if somebody wants to ride a bike
to work, ride a bike to the bar,
[00:06:13]
which I wouldn't recommend
after you have a couple, but whatever
to ride a bike wherever they want to go.
I see no problem with that.
Like I live in LA, which is, you know,
one of the most nightmarish car cities in
America where I essentially try to avoid
leaving my house before sundown.
[00:06:33]
In my car.
I'm blessed enough to work from home
not to have to commute every single day.
But that's not everybody's reality.
And like Yasmeen said, like, yeah,
people would love to get on a train,
you know, 30 minutes on that train boom
at their office in a 5 to 10 minute walk.
[00:06:48]
But this idea that you're a,
you know, that you're a squish,
that you're some lefty communist,
you know, Chairman Mao loving leftist.
If you want to ride a bike,
God forbid, in your freaking city.
It's some of the stupidest things
that people on the right do.
[00:07:08]
Like, I'm not even trying
to ride the bike.
I just want other people
to be able to ride their bikes, you know?
- What do you think?
- Freedom for the bikes?
Well, I don't know. I've listened to your.
I think you're very passionate about it,
and I can't say.
[00:07:23]
I can't say I disagree with you.
My bike has a flat tire.
But I see people on these scooters
and things, and they're all over Atlanta.
It does present.
I'm again. I'm with you.
Yes. Okay.
I'm just telling you,
they're on the sidewalks.
[00:07:39]
They're doing things.
Yes, the bike lanes are there, but people
are going to do what they want to do.
And there's a lot of accidents
and potholes and things.
And look, I'm with you, I. But
but here's the thing too, with that.
[00:07:54]
- Right?
- Yeah.
There's accidents because there
aren't always designated areas
for people to do things right.
So here bicycling, you know,
the law is you're supposed
to do it on the road, right?
There's so many accidents because people
don't understand what the laws are.
They don't understand
how things are supposed to work.
[00:08:10]
If I wanted to ride my bicycle to my gym,
which is a four minute drive
from my house, right?
And would it would take me
seven hours to bike there.
Right. I looked it up.
And maybe half an hour to walk there.
If I take my bike, I'm having to weave
in and out of parked cars on the street.
[00:08:26]
And even just in my neighborhood,
that would be dangerous for me to do.
You're also not supposed to ride your
bicycle on the sidewalk and the sidewalk,
even, like they'll put a sidewalk there,
and then it just ends, right?
Like they don't build.
It doesn't have
the little off ramp for you guys.
- No, no, it just.
- Stops like an off ramp to put.
[00:08:43]
The next slab there.
You know, like they really just don't
build cities or towns or neighborhoods
with any of this in mind, right?
They do it around the car first
and everything else comes second.
And if you just started
putting the people first, then the cities
[00:08:58]
and the towns and the neighborhoods,
they would all look a lot different.
But that is a big ask, right?
Because that's a huge infrastructure
change, because right now all
of the infrastructure in this country is,
Car centric, right?
It's all catered to the car, right?
[00:09:14]
That's why you have these big old streets
instead of more narrow streets
where maybe a tram could go.
Right?
That's why they have
to pave over all these places.
Here in Texas, we have sprawl.
Everywhere you look, we have these giant
strip centers, one story strip centers.
And then what do we have?
Giant parking lots in front of them.
[00:09:32]
So even if you wanted to walk
from one place to another to the next,
you're walking over like hot tar,
like pavement and concrete.
In the Texas heat, there's no trees,
there's no shade, there's nothing there.
- It's, I. Really think.
- Nonsensical.
[00:09:47]
It is. And you make perfect sense.
But I think it's going to take more
than just give them the infrastructure,
because I don't see why anyone would
be against biking, health, whatever.
Right? A choice, right?
You have choices, but the minute
you're stuck in rush hour traffic,
[00:10:04]
you're going to have to change the will
of the people, because around here
they just go into the bike lane.
We're not waiting, okay?
That's how people well,
that's how people are.
The congestion, white flight 30 years ago.
And so now we don't have
the correct planning and engineering.
[00:10:19]
This is what this is where we're at. Okay.
And so, yes,
I think you're on to something.
But even people who would say I'm
with you, it's very ideal in traffic.
- But then they're saying.
- Here's another thing too.
What's funny about hearing
you guys talk about this?
[00:10:35]
It's like in New York,
especially in Brooklyn.
For a while,
bike lanes were synonymous with.
- Your rent's about to go up.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It's like, oh, here come the whites.
And then bike lanes and that high roller.
All right. Yeah we're done.
[00:10:50]
We're going to start looking
for some section eight.
It's over. Yeah.
That used to be like the association
that so many people that I knew had
with the bike lane when they were living
in places like Bed-Stuy and Bushwick
and other places in the city.
It's like the second one
of those bike lanes get painted.
[00:11:08]
Yeah.
Them high rents is coming right behind it.
Yeah.
But that's the thing.
Like, New York is maybe one
of the only cities
in the in the country like major cities.
Not even Houston, Chicago, LA.
I can say this for, you know,
New York is one of the only cities
where you can go without a car
[00:11:24]
and not get in a car the whole time
you're there and actually be able to get
around the entire city, right?
Yeah.
Yes. You can get an Uber.
Yes, you can get a cab,
but you don't have to.
Right. Because they have a subway.
But the thing is,
how old is that infrastructure.
How old are these subways?
[00:11:39]
It's literally a hundred
and plus years and.
They haven't updated it. Right.
So it's crumbling,
like getting into a New York City subway.
Some of them are really nice
and most of them are not.
Most of them are obviously aging
and need upkeep.
So yeah, like these are
idealistic things, right?
[00:11:56]
Because it would require
a complete revamp.
But the cultural like ideological aspect
of like trying to convince people
that this would be good in the first place
is crazy to me.
Like, like the the best argument
that I can think of
is that it would be a lot of work.
[00:12:11]
It would take a lot of time
and it would cost some money, right?
But at the end of it, you would have
a much more livable place because
like right now, if it's a nice day,
I can't just walk out of my house
and go get a cup of coffee from, like,
the neighborhood coffee shop, right?
The best neighborhood coffee shop
is a ten minute drive from my house, which
[00:12:29]
is like over, like, several miles away.
And it's crazy.
You know, my nearest grocery store
is about that far as well.
Just to get to my gym again,
I would have to drive
just to get out of my neighborhood.
I have to drive anywhere
that I want to go.
I have to drive.
And I don't think that that's fair.
[00:12:44]
I think that it excludes
a lot of the population from being
able to live a life in a certain way,
but it is also I live in Texas,
so, you know, everything comes back to oil
and gas and you know what they're up to.
So anyway,
I think I've talked about this enough.
[00:13:00]
No, no, I love I love the passion.
And I agree with you.
Because I could keep going.
My local Trader Joe's boy,
it's a three minute drive.
I it's the only place
I love more than my own house.
I'm in there all the damn time.
- I love.
- Trader Joe's.
We have the Belt line.
[00:13:16]
And when that was, you know,
envisioned years and years ago
now it's like every property that's on
the belt line, like everybody wants to be,
you know, right there.
Because that's almost.
Actually. Yeah.
Most like really nice neighborhoods
and suburbs, like, they, they popped
[00:13:32]
up around the old streetcar lines.
You know, in Houston
we have the light rail.
It's not very extensive, but that part of,
you know, it is pretty nice
where the light rail is, you know, but a
lot of people, like the culture isn't such
where we know how to use public transport.
So it's like, you know, we have to learn
as a city and as a people because
[00:13:49]
so many of us are used to just getting
into our cars and going places, but.
The city around pickup trucks,
that's the ideal way to plan a city.
Texas. There's a bunch of pickup trucks.
Texas, man. Yeah, it's crazy.
Like they have to make the roads wider
and like, the parking spaces, like you
[00:14:05]
can't fit a truck in these parking.
And the trucks are getting bigger.
It's like, so ridiculous.
Every time you ring the bell below,
an angel gets his wings.
Totally not true.
But it does keep you updated
on our live shows.
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