Marjorie Suddard wrote: I was referring the prevalence of copycatting in the magazine world, which is a bit of a carryover from another thread. As far as hating, actually, we've stolen our fair share of stuff. All's fair in love and war. Margie
Margie, I wasn't referring to your post at all, rather the prevalence on the internets of bashing anything that doesn't fit within one's own very narrowly defined set of desires as if it's worthless trash (and I realize this forum is much, much less guilty of this than most). This phenomenon is embodied by (but certainly not limited to) the topic of this thread. I'm talking about things like railing against the Volt (or any other hybrid/electric vehicles) instead of just realizing that it wasn't made for your specific needs. Or hating the US Top Gear before you've seen it, because it isn't hosted by a caustic englishman. Or immediately discounting a car because of the country it's made in or the logo on the nose. Or whining about a new car not being as light as a 1988 CRX while conveniently ignoring that it's built to a vastly different set of standards that expect it to be much stronger, safer, more comfortable, more efficient, more reliable, and half the price in real dollars. Heck, I'm even getting tired of hating NASCAR at this point.
The vastness of the internet enables us to be so picky and specific about the things we like that it seems like a lot of people are just never happy with anything anymore. When I was a kid, I devoured any sort of information I could gather about cars. I read any car magazine I found cover to cover, I read books about automotive history ranging from the origins of motorized vehicles, to historic racing cars, to american family cars. I loved it all. Does a kid growing up today discover that he really likes, let's say, Porsches, and grow up devouring only the endless stream of information about them, and then hating anything that isn't an expensive sports car built in Stuttgart? I sure hope not.
Isn't the measure of an enthusiast, well, enthusiasm? If you can't find something fascinating in a piece of engineering like the Volt, or an article in Motor Trend that isn't about the same 5 cars you already know everything about, maybe YOU'RE the one who isn't a true enthusiast.
As of now, GRM is my only subscription, but I think I'll add this. For nostalgia if nothing else.
