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r/NoStupidQuestions

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U.S. Politics Megathread

Why do Americans drive such huge cars?
Why do Americans drive such huge cars?

I’ve recently visited the US for the first time. I saw lots and lots of really big cars on the streets (like Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Silverado and so on), even in big cities! Their trunks were empty in 99% of cases, so it’s not like people are hauling cargo all the time. And there was only one person in the car most of the time.

I checked that the engines on those things are enormous, I can’t imagine how much the gas must cost.

What do Americans need such huge cars for, especially in the cities?

EDIT: well, that was enlightening! So from your responses I gather that the primary reasons are:

  • small dicks

  • arms race on the road, getting bigger vehicles to be safer

  • freedom

  • chickens

  • cheap gas

  • comfort while driving long distances

  • some people actually need such large car for work or they have big families

  • regulations which make a big car the best choice

  • some people live in places where the conditions require this

EDIT2: with Ford Ranger I meant something like this


If you have vision loss caused by diabetic macular edema (DME), open up your world with VABYSMO®.

Read Prescribing Information at bit.ly/VABPI.



When 9/11 was happening, why did so many teachers put it on the TV for kids to watch?
When 9/11 was happening, why did so many teachers put it on the TV for kids to watch?

As someone who was born in 1997 and is therefore too young to remember 9/11 happening despite being alive when it did, and who also isn’t American, this is something I’ve always wondered. I totally get for example adults at home or people in office jobs wanting to know wtf was going on and therefore putting the news on, and I totally get that due to it being pre-social media the news as to what was actually happening didn’t spread quickly and there was a lot of fear and confusion as to what was happening. However I don’t understand why there are accounts of so many school children across the USA witnessing the second plane impact, or the towers collapsing, on live TV as their teachers had put the news on and had them all watching it.

Not only is it really odd to me to stop an entire class to do this, unless maybe you were in the closer NY area so were trying to find information out for safety/potential transport disruption, I also don’t understand why even if you were in that area, why you would want to get a bunch of often very young children sit and watch something that could’ve been quite scary or upsetting for them. Especially because at the beginning when the first plane hit, a lot of people seemed to just think it was a legitimate accidental plane crash before the second plane hit. I genuinely just want to understand the reasonings behind teachers and schools deciding to do this.

At least when the challenger exploded it made sense why kids were watching. With 9/11 I’m still scratching my head.