Attitudes to EVs hit a new low on Facebook

Now look, obviously I know that Facebook is a dark and dangerous place populated by angry idiots who would have, in previous generations, just stayed at home and howled at the moon while covering themselves in excrement and gibbering like baboons.

Incredibly, the existence of Facebook has somehow encouraged a lot of these pin-brained fools to learn to type, or at least hit keys semi-randomly.

I also know that we all live in our bubbles, and that when we post a story on the rather nicer Facebook page for EV Central, with its intelligent, thoughtful readership, it’s only really being read why people who believe in things like science and facts and accept that the internal-combustion engine needs to go the way of the horse (only rich people will ride them in 20 years, you watch).

And yet still it genuinely surprised me recently when I was asked to write and Op-ed piece for a classy publication called CEO Magazine about how Australia is being left behind in the global shift to EVs, and how embarrassing that is.

CEO Mag put this piece online and told me that it was getting many views and that I should go and read the comments. I wish I hadn’t.

At last count, there were more than 500 of them and what shocks almost as much as the individual acts of grand stupidity was the fact that ALL of them were negative. You might expect at least some Australians to be on board the EV train by now, or to at least grasp the concept that, as other countries move to ban sales of ICE – the UK will do so by 2030 – we are going to be left behind, and car companies aren’t going to make cars just for a tiny country like ours.

And yet this random sample of people who cared enough to respond was overwhelmingly anti-EV, and largely angry at the very idea. The pig-headed ignorance was also mind boggling, like Bill who advised Aussies to stay the course because “it’s all delusionary”.

Then we had his conspirator in chief, Matthew, who advised us that it was all a “giant media\government fascist push everywhere for electric cars because that tech is owned by the corporations aligned with that faction, the globalist fascist faction”.

That’s a double fascist there, for anyone who’s counting.

He went not to say that “Technologies that are actually superior don’t have to be sold with propaganda and subsidies, buyers voluntarily choose them.”

Except if the technology is too expensive even for those who’d like to buy it, eh Matt? Audi’s research suggests more than half of Australians would be interested in buying an EV if they were more affordable, which might suggest that subsidies, as seen in other countries, are not propaganda but a good idea.

Then there was Stan, one of my favourites, who suggested EVs would cause a rise in violent murders by outback-haunting serial killers.

No, really.

“And if there’s no charging station around for miles when your EV stops, guess you can hitch a ride and bring back a can of electricity, wonder if very bad people will roam the vast open areas looking for folks whose ev s have exceeded their range, victims without witnesses, not a thing”

Does it sound to you like Stan might be planning something?

More predictably, David shouted: “Get the hell out of here tree hugging hippies”, Denise called us “the wisest country around”.

Elliot reasoned that Australia would be the only decent place left soon because “electric cars ain’t worth the steam off my piss” and Brian chimed in with: “Thanks for bullshitting us to your reality! I’ll live in the real world!”

Chris was even angrier: “I could CARE LESS. I’m NEVER giving up my V8. You spineless gender neutral wankers can have your electric cars.”

This gave me pause for thought. If I HAVE to be gender neutral to drive an EV, I might be out.

There were some politically motivated haters as well, like Alan: “I’ll take the past any day over the future with socialism. Our forefathers got it right”. And Larry: “Electric cars are a figment of the liberal Democrats.”

A figment Larry? Like climate change?

And the Australia First types chipped in too: “So am I to assume We Australians can’t think what’s best for us; we just follow other countries’ leads…..sort of like lemmings,” wrote Lindsay.

Well, we followed other countries into buying and then building cars in the first place. And computers.

Dave was similarly riled: “Yeah cause the Aussies take no crap. Don’t just bend over to every daft idea. Be more Aussie!”

And perhaps he’s right, perhaps we should all just drive Australian-built cars.

A lot of the time I had to resist the urge to fact check people, because I know it would only start a fight, or what’s called a “flame war” I think. Which would be difficult when fighting with someone who’s less bright than a candle.

Wal showed his knowledge of geography was second to everyone:

“Isn’t it a great to compare Europe to Australia as far as electric cars are concerned. An electric car can get from one end of Europe to the other, North to South. East to West with maybe one recharge in the whole distance. Now dippies, welcome to Australia. North to South, maybe 20 charges. East to west maybe 20 + charges. PER TRIP. !!!! Australia being left for dead??? Electric cars cannot operate over our distances. Or is your propaganda based on travel within city limits???”

Again, propaganda, fake news, I felt like an American journalist all of a sudden. Of course, when EVs can drive from Portugal to Italy on a single charge, I’ll have to apologise to Wal for thinking he’s an idiot.

Occasionally, I’m fairly sure, some Americans dropped in, too, like Paul: “I drove 600 miles today and let my pickup idle for hours. No electric car for me.”

Sadly, out of all the comments, only one of them was funny. Step forward Joy: “How much is this car going to cost me I’m not Mrs Musk.”

The whole experience has left me somewhat depressed about my fellow humans, or at least the replicants who lurk on Facebook.

If any of you would like to go and argue with these people about the facts they’re wrong on and the short-sightedness they’re suffering from, I encourage you to do so. I’m moving to Norway.