It might seem like something of a stretch, to some of you out there. Would that it were so.
The Diesel Ranger That’s Probably Not for Us
The redesigned 2022 Ranger – it’s bigger than the current model we can buy here in the U.S. – has just been launched “globally.” Actually, hemispherically – since our hemisphere (the North American chunk of it) will not get the new Ranger until 2023.And we will probably not get the new turbodiesel V6 that will be optional in the new Ranger in other hemispheres. Including even Australia – where people are tackled by armed government workers for not “masking” outdoors…but diesels are still largely free to roam.
Not so much here.
It is harder to get a diesel engine past through the needle’s eye of government ukase pertaining to allowable emissions than it would be to stuff an actual camel through such an attenuated aperture. Even with the grafting on of chemical exhaust scrubbers, DEF tanks and the re-engineering of the once-simpler, once less-complex diesel engine to a state of greater complexity than a current gas-burning engine, they still have difficulty making the cut.
The few – and it is very few, indeed – that do are very expensive as a result.
As a for-instance, the only Ranger-sized truck that’s available with a diesel engine in America as of the 2022 model year is the Chevy Colorado and its GMC-badged twin, the Canyon. The diesel is, however, only available in crew cab Canyons and Colorados near the apex of the trim pyramid and then only if you buy it as part of a $5,185 package, which means spending at least $35,000 to get the diesel in this truck.
That makes it too rich for most Americans.
Or rather, makes it too expensive to make much sense – especially in view of the slight – about 6 MPG – fuel economy benefit vs. the gasoline V6 that’s available as a much less costly option in lower-trim/lower cost versions of this pick-up.
It’s likely that these same factors will keep the diesel engine outside this market – precisely because it no longer is one.
The balance has tipped decidedly in the direction of a fascist economy.
It’s a case I’ve made here myself numerous times over lo, these many years. The depressing thing is that, rather than dwindling over time, supporting evidence is piling up faster than ever before. More depressing realizations yet to come, which we will be addressing anon.
The relevant – the defining – element of fascism is: private property allowed – but controlled and directed by the state.
You’re allowed to build cars – and trucks – but only within the parameters laid down by the state. You can buy a car or truck, but only those cars and trucks the state says you may buy (and then, you may retain possession only so long as you pay the required – and ongoing – mandatory tithes and use it in accordance with the state’s allowable usages).
That is fascism – which doesn’t fundamentally alter whether said in German, Italian or American.
Unlimited power to decree what they (the car companies) can sell and what we may buy. It is why we cannot get the diesel engines – plural – that are already available in the current Ranger, on sale in places like Australia.
Which, by the way, is also available with a manual transmission. But not for us. The Ranger we get – now and pending – is and will be automatic-only, for the same reason we won’t get the diesels.
It’s not just cars and trucks, either – as hardly needs to be stated. It is everything. Or rather, there is nothing – in principle if not in actual fact – that the government hasn’t asserted its power to allow or not and if the former, under what conditions.
It’s a shame there aren’t goose-stepping soldiers saluting the Leader – in high definition color.
People might notice it then.
Possibly, some might even object.
SOME will object, of course. But how many of us won’t? Worse, how many would actually be in favor of such a development, even enthusiastically so? Which brings us to the worst, most depressing realization of all: In light of how radically the Left has retailored the national fabric—altering the nation’s character and identity with malice aforethought—could those dangerously deluded fools have become a majority of Americans? Because if that’s the case, it strongly suggests that those guilty of “not noticing” just became the very least of our concerns.
On the other hand, I do have to confess that, on my most jaded and cynical evenings, a correctly-aligned dictator or military junta seems like it could well be a significant improvement over the Democracy Theater™ shit-circus we’re being thorougly and painfully snootered by at the moment. A Royal Highness, Generalissimo, Emperor, or scowling, beetle-browed Il Duce might come as a breath of fresh air, long as he hated Leftists with a fierly passion that burned with the heat of a thousand Suns and wasn’t above the judicious application of thumbscrews, stretching ’em on the rack, or tossing their sorry asses in the Iron Maiden for a goodish spell now and again, just to keep the conniving, nefarious bastards in their place and freshen up their memory as to who’s really in charge around this joint.
Perhaps a dictator is no different than a great many other things in this life: Neither entirely good nor entirely bad overall, necessarily. The main thing is making sure you get yourself the right kind of dictator, that’s all.
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Well never forget that Uncle Shithead approved Ford’s 6.0 liter Powerstroke diesel. And THAT proved to be such a winner…
OK, I’ll bite. Why would anyone want a tiny truck to have a diesel engine?
Since a Ranger by definition isn’t capable of towing heavy trailers, a diesel would be a waste IMO. Any mileage improvement would be mostly negated by the higher diesel price at the pump.
And the bucket of cat piss you have to buy every few hundred miles.
Ha! And every single rule makes it that much harder for anyone to compete with an internal combustion engine. They have selected a winner. These rules even apply in Alaska, where the ratio of people to air is better than any place but Siberia or Antarctica.
America has been fascist for a long time. Do you ever hear local governments and chambers of commerce touting “public-private partnerships”? That’s locally applied fascism.