What is it about bikes that sends right wingers into a paranoid, frothing rage? [View all]

[phantom power]

The wingnut echo chamber, where conservatives convince themselves that urban planning, walkable neighborhoods and bikes are the camel's nose of One World Government. Or something.

...right wingers have their own version of a dystopian sci-fi world, but being a rather literal group, they are convinced that it’s real. They call it “Agenda 21″ and the claim is that it’s a shadowy U.N. conspiracy to remake the world into an a dystopian hellscape from which there is no escape. Raw Story’s own Travis Gettys has a report on the conspiracy theory and how it’s creating problems in the real world as paranoid wingnuts flip out when local governments try to engage in any kind of environmentally sustainable development or try to make community spaces more accessible and easier to use.

An article on Jones’ Infowars website says simply,“Agenda 21 = Death,” and Beck has published a fictionalized account of a dystopian future under the imposition of the U.N. guidelines.

Urban planners are sometimes surprised when they’re accused of plotting to undermine capitalism and sovereignty by taking away their neighbors’ cars and forcing them to live in cities, reported The Post and Courier.

Death! Destruction! Forced relocation! Soooo scary.

What is going to be the source of all this dystopian misery and destruction? Well, when you dig in a little, you realize that it all basically comes down to one thing: Bicycles.

“High-density urban development without parking for cars is the goal,” said Rosa Koire, of Democrats Against U.N. Agenda 21. “This means that whole towns need to be demolished and rebuilt in the image of sustainable development. Bike groups are being used as the ‘shock troops’ for this plan.”
And:

“Sustainability is a buzzword that you hear about all the time, and you hear about how they want mass transit and people riding bikes to work,” said John Steinberger, chairman of the Charleston, South Carolina, County Republican Party. “Blocking a lane of traffic coming in to Charleston from West Ashley to create a bike lane is an example of that thinking.”

Yes, while typical dystopian fantasies involve things like state-mandated murder or an overbearing surveillance state, the deep-set fear that is making conservatives nationwide interfere with attempts to improve urban and suburban development is the fear of having to see people out on the streets riding bicycles. Sure, you might think that seeing the ass wiggles of people who dare venture out without a ton of gas-powered steel around them might be, in the grand scheme of things, so small a sacrifice that it calling it a “sacrifice” does disservice to the word “sacrifice”. But right wingers know: Jesus died on the cross so you don’t have to see those horrible two-wheeled monstrosities called “bicycles” while zooming around in your SUV. You may think a bicycle is just an energy-efficient and fun way to get around, but wingnuts know that it’s actually an attack on freedom itself.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/what-is-it-about-bikes-that-sends-right-wingers-into-a-paranoid-frothing-rage/