“H2Oi” Turns Fatal

S3 Magazine Podcast

Looking at what happened during this bootleg-version of H2Oi in Wildwood, it's glaringly obvious that we have a severe culture problem in this country... and now it's spilling over into car culture. What we saw in Wildwood was not ‘a little disruptive,’ it was totally destructive. There’s a difference. Historically, hot-rodding culture has always been a bit disruptive, right? But... there's always been some level of charm to the disobedience. Meaning, there was always enough morality, good judgement, and overall intelligence to respectfully ride-that-line between bad boy & good guy. That’s the sweet spot. What we’re seeing now though, is truly ugly. It’s not car culture anymore. It’s… trash people in trash cars doing trash things. In these cases, 'the car' is just an excuse for destruction. See - this is gonna sting a little bit, but let’s look at where we’re at. Automotive culture already has a target on its back. The current administration wants to push an EV agenda - hard. And the kind of ignorance we saw at Wildwood gives them the silver platter to wake-the-woke & vilify car culture as a whole. People... died. Let’s look at how this scenario always plays out: When a criminal commits a crime these days… we blame law enforcement. When a psychopath shoots up a school, we blame guns. Americans never stand up anymore, take accountability, and blame our diseased modern American culture that's at the root of all of this. And when I say 'modern American culture', I'm talking about the one that glamorizes ignorance, violence, sin, & the breakdown of family. So WHAT DO YOU THINK is gonna happen when these takeover events turn into riots & start getting innocent people killed? They're gonna blame car culture. And they're going to do it loudly with a broad brush. An undeniable part of this infection that is 'the new generation of car culture' - is fallout from the automotive industry abandoning its own traditional/established media. When I say 'traditional media'... I mean MAGAZINES and CAR SHOWS/EVENTS. Traditional media had the integrity to INSPIRE the culture in a positive, inspirational way. Anyone over 35 knows… that’s what magazines did. Car shows & events used to be hosted by responsible, professional, well-staffed organizers. These types of things built-up the culture; not destroyed it. And what I'm calling 'traditional media' was able to exist, because it was funded by the automotive aftermarket through advertising budgets. In other words, advertising dollars were invested back THROUGH the culture... and it made one hell of a strong culture! But about a decade ago... The automotive industry really started pulling advertising budgets from traditional media (magazines & events), in order to put that budget into their own social media pages. They fixated on becoming their own media. It was a selfish play in regards to the broader strength/health of true car culture. But it was one that was easy to justify, because they could count the likes & be the master of their own domain. Many of these auto-aftermarket companies started doing their own car features, Youtube channels, even hosting their own events and/or making their own online mags themselves. The thing is - can you call it true media if it’s really all just self-promotion to sell products? I don’t personally think so.