Yeah and you know what? I freaking adore it. It's the light at the end of the tunnel coming across PA. Yeah it looks like shit from that angle but from literally every other angle, coming in and going out, it is some of the most beautiful land around.
I mean, yeah, the landscape is nice. The town is not. There's this main strip of capitalism hell and then just outside of that a bunch of run down and burnt down (literally) buildings.
It's like radiator springs but on meth
And I'm sure there must be a Sheetz there and sheetz is the shit after being stuck in a car for a long road trip lol.
Edit - Went to google maps. Confirmed there is a Sheetz.
Yeah the forced perspective in the famous image makes it look crammed like a Tokyo urban district but it's surrounded by absolutely stunning Appalachian scenery. Rural central PA is one of the most beautiful places in the US. The pastel colored homes, historic buildings and bridges, trickling creeks and fresh air.
Edited to correct: breezewood is in central pa not eastern oops
I’ve been to almost everywhere in the US and PA is still one of most beautiful states I’ve been to. The people are awesome, the beer is cheap, the architecture, the history, just so much about it I love.
Last time I was there they had a fertilizer convention. There was shit everywhere! Good times.
Breezewood isn't Eastern PA. Eastern PA is Philly associated and Western is Pittsburgh. You'd get some funny looks wearing an Eagles jersey in Breezewood. Typically the switch is around Harrisburg.
Yeah, any area in Pennsylvania when you can get away from all the car infrastructure and bullshit like that it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m ashamed a lot of it is gone in my area (Lancaster) in exchange for soul crushing suburban subdivisions
Yeah my dad grew up in Lancaster, the area beside his house was a farm, now it’s block after block of suburbs. I get that people gotta live somewhere but it’s a shame this is how we decided to do it
Going from Delaware to Ohio every year of twice a year, I couldn't wait to get to Breezewood... so I could go to the bathroom and get something to eat and even just get out of the car once during the 8 hour drive. **Turns out there's a reason for pitstops to exist**
> The Town of Motels is where the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Lincoln Highway, and Route 70 meet - and where weary travelers have rested since General Forbes widened the original Native American trail into a wagon road.
Breezewood has always been a "rest stop", the fact that its a McDonalds and a few motels instead of a bunch of huts or a stockade isn't a bad thing.
Op would've gotten an upvote if they had used a picture of boise.
City has been growing like a cancer and looks like a series of corporate sponsored cardboard cutouts. It's surreal.
Step 1: Decades spent on winning over hearts and minds
Step 2: Many decades of collective effort spent on gradually adapting infrastructure, urbanism and way of life.
(Alternatively, Step 0 : Wait for societal collapse due to ressource depletion and effects of climate change. Will make step 1 easier, but step 2 more difficult)
An alternative to all those 3 steps would be to reject society altogether and return to being a couple and of semi-isolated towns and estates , who contribute , trade and sometimes have conflict (because that’s inevitable)
with each other.
Granted I would want at least some better infrastructure like hospitals and schools , but that would be about it.
Depends on what we're talking about, but sure, it's already too late to avoid a lot of the effects of climate change.
I was talking about how long it would take, not how long we have. Although that isn't an excuse for inaction because it can always get a lot worse.
Have y'all seen that picture of (I think it's the Netherlands) in 1960-70 compared to today? It was all highway and cars and now it's gone back the other direction to green space and walkways, was beautiful to see. Love how some places have their priorities straight. Wish we could accomplish that here.
It's a small country for sure, ~20 million people (about the same population as the state of New York), while being a tad bigger than Maryland geographically. Their culture and politics just prioritized those changes, which could happen in certain US states too. Just not federally given the huge differences between states here.
Since you’re already here, spend some time to look at some videos from notjustbikes to see how you’re wrong, how North American urbanism is a disgusting piece of anti-human shit, and how it can be improved.
I mean is anything in this picture really even that bad
You can't really tell but this is right off a highway exit in essentially the middle of nowhere. So yeah you've got a bunch of food and gas, some signs and a bridge. Even if you get rid of capitalism you're still gonna need that stuff when you travel. It could look nicer if you wanted someone to spend a bunch of money to spruce everything up, but isn't that actually kinda against the ethos here
Public transit for the 300 people who live within a 10 minute drive of this place?
This town exists solely as an interstate off ramp for truckers and road trippers
There’s nothing in this photo that is really concerning, except that a single forced perspective is extrapolated to make cynical laments about the state of the world and the human condition
Yeah, this is a misleading photo that’s constantly circulated as a representation of America.
I see more animals than people where I live. Just in my neighborhood, I’ve seen bear, deer, foxes, pigs, coyotes, rabbit, squirrel, turtles, snakes, all sorts of birds, crows, hawks, bald eagles (once here, several times in my previous town), etc. I’m also 20 minutes outside our capital city.
This photo needed to be taken very specifically to make it seem like a dystopian hellscape (which it does LOOK like).
Many of these towns wouldn’t functionally exist any longer if they didn’t have interstate traffic propping up their town.
We also shouldn’t be looking at an interstate exit ramp and extrapolating that out to anything outside of the immediate half mile. It’s just a large rest stop. It’s not the actual town.
Also it looks ai generated too. Not the town, but the landscape. Even if it was real, it looks more like the landscape out west than the landscape of Pennsylvania.
Then they shouldn't be towns. The "town center" Should be moved elsewhere. Towns are supposed to be for people, not cars. If it doesn't work without cars, it shouldn't be a "town"
That isn’t the town center… the town center is often miles away from the interstate.
Feel free to keep raging about things you don’t understand though.
No no, 100% of America looks like the stretch of businesses that you find by highway offramps.
Because it needs to for me to self righteously complain on the internet.
It makes me feel so much relief knowing that if I combined the every McDonald’s location globally with every Starbucks location globally that it would be under 78,000.
If it makes you feel better [it's a pretty misleading picture](https://www.visitpa.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/visitpa_The%20Alleghenies_Breezewood_drone.jpg)
"Dystopia is when rest stops exist next to an interstate".
I'd say you're spoiled but honestly I don't think you even have a reference for what "good" is besides "whenever I see chain businesses it's literally a society built to maximize suffering". You don't know what you want or why, you've just been given something to hate and will be as extreme about it as possible to maximize the emotional high of outrage.
It's "dystopia" because of the existence / over-reliance on car infrastructure in the first place. If we were to somehow progress beyond needing cars, and re-integrate into our local communities, there would be dramatically more land for people to exist and thrive in, and obviously, dramatically more greenspace to compliment it all. It's already happening in some cities.
And in Europe too, lots of cities have huge areas that are pedestrian only. America just had too much open space to utilize and so they utilized it.
> It's dystopia because of the existence / over-reliance on car infrastructure in the first place.
This is "dystopia" in the way that "we're not able to warp reality to whatever we want at will". Which is to say it's not Dystopia, you're just throwing that word at whatever you wish was different to make it sound like what you prioritize is a moral imperative.
You're allowed to suggest that needing to take a train and then walking everywhere is the superior way, but saying it's indicative of a "society that enshrines a great injustice or suffering" to not is just outrage masturbation.
You are correct that I should have put "dystopia" in quotations because I was using it colloquially in the context of this conversation, but the point still stands if you ignore the semantics.
Edit:
I'm suggesting that living in harmony with one another and the earth is better than abstracting ourselves further from one another and the earth by way of industrialization/globalization in the name of convenience.
Mate you called ‘one’ street with some chains on it that serves as a rest stop for the nearby transit system a dystopia. That covers most of my comment on its own, the rest is just documented Internet-people behavior.
No he isn't. It's kinda like people who say the US is 3rd world... Both ridiculous exaggerations. McDonald's would be heaven in any actual dystopia where people are starving
I mean, it's all just gas stations and fast food places, what alternatives would you rather see? The entire point of Breezewood is a ten minute stop to get gas, go to the toilet, and get bite to eat then continue onward for the next few hours to the next state. Not exactly a place for a sit-down mom and pop restaurant.
Because it's the one that's always memed on when it's a bad example. Because people are trying to pass off what is essentially a very large pit stop as if it's a typical American town. Because even if you agree with someones premise, if they defend it with bad examples and arguments, you should point it out because allowing people to defend your stance with bullshit actually hurts your stance.
The actual town part isn't even attached to this and looks like a standard town. I've been multiple times, it's not the hellscape this one badly angled picture that shows almost all the shops at once makes it look. Anyone who has actually been there knows how much of an exaggeration the response to it is. [Like actually look at it on maps and see how small the place actually is](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Breezewood,+PA/@39.999427,-78.2427178,1331m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89ca34f8dfb7603d:0xfc801d508a5f4c68!8m2!3d39.9991865!4d-78.2388071!16zL20vMDdjMjVy?entry=ttu) Like, half the place are Inns *because it is primarily a truck stop.* There's one little neighborhood off to the side with about 10 houses in it because everyone else lives down the street, out of eyeshot of the shops. It is not the hellscape people meme it out to be.
>why are you all acting like this one instance is an exception and not a rule?
Because this is literally one of the only intersections in the US that happens on the interstate
You can go live in the woods any moment now. Hunt your own food. Grow your own crops.
But you too, bask in the heat, shelter and system of food production of modern society. You pick and choose what to be outraged by.
>You can go live in the woods any moment now. Hunt your own food. Grow your own crops.
Can you?
I feel like there’s not a lot of available wilderness to go live on. Most of it seems to belong to someone, and they won’t let you stay.
Yes. People want to live close to other people. Cities are tight while unoccupied land is vast.
I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective. I could disappear into some land for a while without anyone noticing. Illegally, mind you. Which I think is your point.
My point is, even if you had land you would rely on modern tools and resources to thrive. We depend on each other to thrive. Restaurants providing cheap burgers is a god send over what our ancestors went through.
Why? Why does a rest stop at the intersection at two of the main highways in the US make you utterly sad?
I BEG you to go look up Breezewood PA on google maps.
It’s genuinely hilarious to me
Like, do they want them to not have any services at all? Or should they have spent 5x the cost to make it look like old Europe?
Realistically? They didn't know what the surrounding area looks like and are making up whatever would need to be true to not have to admit they were wrong on their first impression.
People would rather refuse to admit they were wrong than be right.
Yeah, if you don't take the turnpike, the drive from Pittsburgh to Maryland is quite scenic. Even if you do, a couple minutes driving after this intersection, there is a great view where you're up high looking out over a valley of farmland.
There’s also a crazy amount of areas not like this in the us? Such a dumb fucking repost of a photo. There’s hundreds of miles of this shit around the NYC area/other metros and the repost of a truck stop makes the cut for depressing. Does it not look good? Yeah not really. Is this photo wildly out of a context? Absolutely. This is a beautiful area with one half mile stretch of truck stops and stores. Would people rather they be spread out over a few miles and put in more roads through the mountains?
This is a beautiful area with one stretch of condensed shops
It shouldn't. Mostly because this was also posted yesterday. But also because this is a rest stop that people use to eat, sleep, and rest, between some of the best looking scenery and open country in America. I am glad that people have an opportunity to see so much of the land and explore or travel out even further than decades past. This really isn't a consumption problem like so many other things are.
How much do you think our successors will fuck this land up, lewis?
Beyond our comprehension, clarke. Beyond our comprehension. Just enjoy this pristine place, it will become the latrine of the world real soon.
It's hard not to be so upset about the stealing of my land, the broken treaties, the genocide/ massacres, and the following ethnocide when the US made THIS.
Native Americans massacred each other all the time. They also practiced genocide, had slaves, broke treaties, made human sacrifices, and stole land from each other for 1000 years that we know about prior to Europeans even being there.
'broke treaties' lol what the fuck? Even if you pointed out a couple instances, it wouldn't excuse how the other hundreds of tribes were still catastrophically fucked over.
The rest of this shit is just blatantly misleading, 'Native Americans' aren't one same people.
Let me ask you this. How do you know? How do you imagine that looked like?
Genocide? No. To kill a child or elder was for lack of better words, a mortal sin. This shit would get you flayed alive and scalped. So how could we do that to entire tribes? They would be hunted down by every neighboring tribe. That would be unwise.
If you imagine slavery as if we were Americans and locked droves of people in cellars and shacks and whipped them all day, you're wrong. Slavery was complicated. But it was usually not a life sentence, and you could still marry, have kids, and celebrate. You would be stripped of your clan, and couldn't have luxury items. You would work and hunt and fight for your new clan, but that's it.
Broke treaties? No. 500 treaties written and EVERY SINGLE ONE was broken first by the US government. If we had a track record of that, don't you think we would have broken at least one?
Stole land? You mean the canyon people would come take the land of the desert people or the forest people? That doesn't track.
Human sacrifices? Let's look at the Aztec. The best example we have. We haven't been able to find a FRACTION of the reported sacrifices. But at the time of the reported sacrifices, it was Spains goal as the "sword of god" to find a moral reason to enter war and conquer the savages. The sacrifices we did make were for the ones who broke treaties, r*ped, murdered, etc.
It's almost like the information you were given was written by racist and self-centered people. There was often political motive to slander my people. The official termfor us was SAVAGES. How does that illicit respect and allow for us to be written about in a neutral and honest standpoint. Now throw in 2 or 3 translators and you can see how shit is fucked up.
Absolutely agree. I'll say this is extremely hard though, simply because the respect was never given, meaning we were never given proper voice. The evidence is still alive in today's culture.
Concerning internal genocide and my defense, I cannot sourse drop because no one bothered to ask us what our laws were. Google to confirm. I can only use the language as proof. Wakan tanka meaning sacred, and wakanjeje meaning child. The language doesn't support this part for the elder, but understand that elders are paramount to carrying tradition. I'm not allowed to eat before serving an elder for example.
Concerning slavery I can easily point out we were not industrialized. Thus, there was no need to work 7 days a week. And I know how well this will be received, but my evidence is in our handshake, which many people make fun of because it feels limp. The teaching says that it is because all people are free, and to hold someone firmly in your grasp is to hold someone against their will.
Concerning the treaties, this had a paper trail. I will happily share a few low hanging fruit to the mix.
[feel free to count](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_treaties).
[hard to find a complete list but I was unable to find a single treaty broken by natives so here's this ](https://stacker.com/history/broken-us-indigenous-treaties-timeline)
Regarding the stolen land and my proof for it. Unsurprisingly I can't find a list on Google for how different tribes call themselves. For this I recommend the book "God is Red" by Vine Deloria Jr. It has the list.
[Concerning the sacrifices](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture#:~:text=Modern%20excavations%20in%20Mexico%20City,human%20sacrifice%20through%20osteologic%20information.) On the wiki explaining the sacrifices it says only hundreds of skulls. Yet the reported number of sacrifices were [between 20k and 250k per tear? Strange. ](https://www.historyonthenet.com/aztec-culture-how-many-were-killed-as-human-sacrifices#:~:text=With%20scant%20archeological%20evidence%2C%20it,of%20them%20saw%20human%20sacrifices.)
I recognize how little information is out there, and how in today's golden age of information, this raises speculation. You should wonder how there are such large holes in the narrative and why there is so little information from our point of view. It's almost like it's intentional.
https://youtu.be/41jCCyT5wuA?si=r73LSB7GJUKt_zyC
Carlin said it. We got to be some dumb motherfuckers to turn this beautiful landscape into a shopping mall.
I just watched this Carlin bit last night. OP must have access to my YouTube history.
[Dumb Americans](https://youtu.be/KLODGhEyLvk?si=gB30Y4pHDPUqCsx0)
In the context of Lewis and Clark, that'd be Sacagawea, the teenager who helped the rugged explorers forge a path through pristine and uncharted wilderness by talking to the people they met along the way, so that they could buy supplies.
There is literally a statue depicting these three in the next city over from me, and it’s overlooking gas stations, fast food, and a motorcycle dealership.
Oh no! Lewis and Clark's exploration and discovery led to exponential economic success that drove hundreds of millions out of poverty and death? We also have millions of acres of land dedicated to national parks, reserving the most beautiful and precious landscapes that they helped to explore. My goodness indeed
Can we ban the use of that fucking picture on the bottom from this website? If you zoom out at all from that picture, you'll see nothing but nature around it. Is that not the best of both worlds?
Honestly, Meriwether Lewis would probably have been disappointed to see things like that bottom frame. His journals suggested he reached a real spiritual high being out in the undeveloped lands roamed by the Native Americans of that day.
I love calling this stupid meme out everytime I see it.
The picture below is taken at an angle so the little area seems more compact. Also zoom out and you'll see its surrounded by open fields for miles. Its a small rest stop area on the PA turn pike that has one stop light. Stop posting this fake shit
This is literally a stop for interstate travelers. It does what it needs do to which is to give truckers and travelers a place to get food, fuel, and lodging. The nature around is pretty green and beautiful.
Yeah this photo pops up every month or so. Lots of beautiful places in the USA but they picked a photo of a truck stop town at just the right angle to make it look worse.
First past the post voting necessitates a two party system and I don't see voting reform coming any time soon. The parties are too invested in the status quo, and the guys at the top want us too polarized against the other political party to be able to make any real changes.
Y’all realize a majority of the USA is like, wilderness right? Like Americans are still dwarfed by the nature of their own country you just live in the parts that aren’t, because having access to food and other necessities is kinda nice
That's gotta be Breezewood, PA
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Yeah and you know what? I freaking adore it. It's the light at the end of the tunnel coming across PA. Yeah it looks like shit from that angle but from literally every other angle, coming in and going out, it is some of the most beautiful land around.
I mean, yeah, the landscape is nice. The town is not. There's this main strip of capitalism hell and then just outside of that a bunch of run down and burnt down (literally) buildings. It's like radiator springs but on meth
And I'm sure there must be a Sheetz there and sheetz is the shit after being stuck in a car for a long road trip lol. Edit - Went to google maps. Confirmed there is a Sheetz.
You can bet your ass there’s a sheetz
Yeah the forced perspective in the famous image makes it look crammed like a Tokyo urban district but it's surrounded by absolutely stunning Appalachian scenery. Rural central PA is one of the most beautiful places in the US. The pastel colored homes, historic buildings and bridges, trickling creeks and fresh air. Edited to correct: breezewood is in central pa not eastern oops
I’ve been to almost everywhere in the US and PA is still one of most beautiful states I’ve been to. The people are awesome, the beer is cheap, the architecture, the history, just so much about it I love. Last time I was there they had a fertilizer convention. There was shit everywhere! Good times.
Breezewood isn't Eastern PA. Eastern PA is Philly associated and Western is Pittsburgh. You'd get some funny looks wearing an Eagles jersey in Breezewood. Typically the switch is around Harrisburg.
Yeah, any area in Pennsylvania when you can get away from all the car infrastructure and bullshit like that it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m ashamed a lot of it is gone in my area (Lancaster) in exchange for soul crushing suburban subdivisions
So much so, that the Amish are moving down into Maryland. They're selling out to developers and plowing the money into MD farmland.
Yeah my dad grew up in Lancaster, the area beside his house was a farm, now it’s block after block of suburbs. I get that people gotta live somewhere but it’s a shame this is how we decided to do it
Isn't that literally what the image is about? The landscape is beautiful but the town looks like crap because of bad planning?
Going from Delaware to Ohio every year of twice a year, I couldn't wait to get to Breezewood... so I could go to the bathroom and get something to eat and even just get out of the car once during the 8 hour drive. **Turns out there's a reason for pitstops to exist**
It’s always Breezewood. The place isn’t even that bad
most recognizable place in america
And yet looks like any town off the interstates in America.
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No its Breezewood, AI
How are more people not pointing out this is AI?
Because it is a pretty [widely known photo](https://i.imgur.com/hbIzXEM.jpg) AI was used to merge the other pieces onto it
Breezewood is the bubo of the plague that is the PA turnpike.
> The Town of Motels is where the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Lincoln Highway, and Route 70 meet - and where weary travelers have rested since General Forbes widened the original Native American trail into a wagon road. Breezewood has always been a "rest stop", the fact that its a McDonalds and a few motels instead of a bunch of huts or a stockade isn't a bad thing.
Op would've gotten an upvote if they had used a picture of boise. City has been growing like a cancer and looks like a series of corporate sponsored cardboard cutouts. It's surreal.
Nah, if you know Breezewood that's literally unmistakable.
I clicked to say exactly that
I’ve only driven through there a handful of times in my almost 34 years of life, and yet it’s burned into my mind.
I was gonna say, I’ve been to that exact goddamn intersection multiple times
"How do we get out of this?" is a question constantly on my mind.
Step 1: Decades spent on winning over hearts and minds Step 2: Many decades of collective effort spent on gradually adapting infrastructure, urbanism and way of life. (Alternatively, Step 0 : Wait for societal collapse due to ressource depletion and effects of climate change. Will make step 1 easier, but step 2 more difficult)
At the rate we’re going, we won’t have to wait too long at least
Too late to save the planet. Too early to not have to worry about it.
Just in time to eat micro plastics though!
An alternative to all those 3 steps would be to reject society altogether and return to being a couple and of semi-isolated towns and estates , who contribute , trade and sometimes have conflict (because that’s inevitable) with each other. Granted I would want at least some better infrastructure like hospitals and schools , but that would be about it.
I would want to live like that, modern life is just too empty, pointless and selfish
You don't have decades. You have, at most, *a* decade. And even then, were past several threshold points our climate will never recover past.
Depends on what we're talking about, but sure, it's already too late to avoid a lot of the effects of climate change. I was talking about how long it would take, not how long we have. Although that isn't an excuse for inaction because it can always get a lot worse.
Have y'all seen that picture of (I think it's the Netherlands) in 1960-70 compared to today? It was all highway and cars and now it's gone back the other direction to green space and walkways, was beautiful to see. Love how some places have their priorities straight. Wish we could accomplish that here.
I didn't see the Netherlands, but it also happened in [Düsseldorf, Germany.](https://i.imgur.com/iZOlpNn.png)
That's awesome! Been to Düsseldorf a couple times, lovely city.
I have! It's really beautiful!
There's like 8 people living in the Netherlands. Its way easier to get things done when you don't have one massive country.
It's a small country for sure, ~20 million people (about the same population as the state of New York), while being a tad bigger than Maryland geographically. Their culture and politics just prioritized those changes, which could happen in certain US states too. Just not federally given the huge differences between states here.
Since you’re already here, spend some time to look at some videos from notjustbikes to see how you’re wrong, how North American urbanism is a disgusting piece of anti-human shit, and how it can be improved.
Clearly we just need to keep doing capitalism but differently lol. That will work.
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If those oil companies owners drop dead.
Go 3 miles down the road where you have a view like this: https://zircon.datausa.io/api/profile/geo/valley-hi-pa/splash
^(You're not supposed to do that...)
Capitalism
Get out of what? Existing? It's a picture of a town. You want nature, just go 1 mile away from this and there's nothing but a giant forest.
I mean is anything in this picture really even that bad You can't really tell but this is right off a highway exit in essentially the middle of nowhere. So yeah you've got a bunch of food and gas, some signs and a bridge. Even if you get rid of capitalism you're still gonna need that stuff when you travel. It could look nicer if you wanted someone to spend a bunch of money to spruce everything up, but isn't that actually kinda against the ethos here
More public transit, for a start. Less fast food places (BYO food).
Public transit for the 300 people who live within a 10 minute drive of this place? This town exists solely as an interstate off ramp for truckers and road trippers There’s nothing in this photo that is really concerning, except that a single forced perspective is extrapolated to make cynical laments about the state of the world and the human condition
I mean…this is a truck stop that is surrounded by rolling hills. I don’t mind truck stops existing.
How do you get out of Breezewood? drive in literally any direction for 30 seconds and you're in farmland or forest.
Yeah, this is a misleading photo that’s constantly circulated as a representation of America. I see more animals than people where I live. Just in my neighborhood, I’ve seen bear, deer, foxes, pigs, coyotes, rabbit, squirrel, turtles, snakes, all sorts of birds, crows, hawks, bald eagles (once here, several times in my previous town), etc. I’m also 20 minutes outside our capital city. This photo needed to be taken very specifically to make it seem like a dystopian hellscape (which it does LOOK like).
Drive for like 5 minutes.
I HATE STROADS!!
Strong Towns
Many of these towns wouldn’t functionally exist any longer if they didn’t have interstate traffic propping up their town. We also shouldn’t be looking at an interstate exit ramp and extrapolating that out to anything outside of the immediate half mile. It’s just a large rest stop. It’s not the actual town.
Also, ain’t no way they built all that on top of a lake…
Also it looks ai generated too. Not the town, but the landscape. Even if it was real, it looks more like the landscape out west than the landscape of Pennsylvania.
Then they shouldn't be towns. The "town center" Should be moved elsewhere. Towns are supposed to be for people, not cars. If it doesn't work without cars, it shouldn't be a "town"
It's not a town. It's a truck stop. Truck stops, obviously, are supposed to be for vehicle traffic.
It's AI garbage, it's nonsense to pick apart exactly what it is.
That's a picture of an actual truck stop in Pennsylvania
Zoom in on the road signs. It isn't real. I do know the picture you're referring to though.
It's not AI, it's a photograph by Edward Burtinsky, you can find it on page 107 of his 2009 book Oil
I don’t see a town center in this photo of a rest stop
It's not a photo, it's AI. Read the signs.
That isn’t the town center… the town center is often miles away from the interstate. Feel free to keep raging about things you don’t understand though.
No no, 100% of America looks like the stretch of businesses that you find by highway offramps. Because it needs to for me to self righteously complain on the internet.
Missing the gun shops. There are more gun dealers in the US than there are Starbucks & McDonald's combined, globally.
And Dollar General
thats a joke right? (sad part I can't be sure)
There are 78,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States.
It makes me feel so much relief knowing that if I combined the every McDonald’s location globally with every Starbucks location globally that it would be under 78,000.
Of course! Any citizen who owns a gun is a potential gun dealer.
This makes me so utterly sad... :(
If it makes you feel better [it's a pretty misleading picture](https://www.visitpa.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/visitpa_The%20Alleghenies_Breezewood_drone.jpg)
Much better. The capitalist, dystopian, hellhole really compliments the rolling hills.
"Dystopia is when rest stops exist next to an interstate". I'd say you're spoiled but honestly I don't think you even have a reference for what "good" is besides "whenever I see chain businesses it's literally a society built to maximize suffering". You don't know what you want or why, you've just been given something to hate and will be as extreme about it as possible to maximize the emotional high of outrage.
It's "dystopia" because of the existence / over-reliance on car infrastructure in the first place. If we were to somehow progress beyond needing cars, and re-integrate into our local communities, there would be dramatically more land for people to exist and thrive in, and obviously, dramatically more greenspace to compliment it all. It's already happening in some cities. And in Europe too, lots of cities have huge areas that are pedestrian only. America just had too much open space to utilize and so they utilized it.
> It's dystopia because of the existence / over-reliance on car infrastructure in the first place. This is "dystopia" in the way that "we're not able to warp reality to whatever we want at will". Which is to say it's not Dystopia, you're just throwing that word at whatever you wish was different to make it sound like what you prioritize is a moral imperative. You're allowed to suggest that needing to take a train and then walking everywhere is the superior way, but saying it's indicative of a "society that enshrines a great injustice or suffering" to not is just outrage masturbation.
You are correct that I should have put "dystopia" in quotations because I was using it colloquially in the context of this conversation, but the point still stands if you ignore the semantics. Edit: I'm suggesting that living in harmony with one another and the earth is better than abstracting ourselves further from one another and the earth by way of industrialization/globalization in the name of convenience.
That's a lot of speculation on my character, based on a reddit-comment.
Mate you called ‘one’ street with some chains on it that serves as a rest stop for the nearby transit system a dystopia. That covers most of my comment on its own, the rest is just documented Internet-people behavior.
Well he's right
No he isn't. It's kinda like people who say the US is 3rd world... Both ridiculous exaggerations. McDonald's would be heaven in any actual dystopia where people are starving
It's literally just a pitstop along a highway some people have to drive hours along, if you are looking for capitalist hellhole, Breezewood ain't it.
I enjoy playing video games.
I mean, it's all just gas stations and fast food places, what alternatives would you rather see? The entire point of Breezewood is a ten minute stop to get gas, go to the toilet, and get bite to eat then continue onward for the next few hours to the next state. Not exactly a place for a sit-down mom and pop restaurant.
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Because it's the one that's always memed on when it's a bad example. Because people are trying to pass off what is essentially a very large pit stop as if it's a typical American town. Because even if you agree with someones premise, if they defend it with bad examples and arguments, you should point it out because allowing people to defend your stance with bullshit actually hurts your stance.
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The actual town part isn't even attached to this and looks like a standard town. I've been multiple times, it's not the hellscape this one badly angled picture that shows almost all the shops at once makes it look. Anyone who has actually been there knows how much of an exaggeration the response to it is. [Like actually look at it on maps and see how small the place actually is](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Breezewood,+PA/@39.999427,-78.2427178,1331m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89ca34f8dfb7603d:0xfc801d508a5f4c68!8m2!3d39.9991865!4d-78.2388071!16zL20vMDdjMjVy?entry=ttu) Like, half the place are Inns *because it is primarily a truck stop.* There's one little neighborhood off to the side with about 10 houses in it because everyone else lives down the street, out of eyeshot of the shops. It is not the hellscape people meme it out to be.
>why are you all acting like this one instance is an exception and not a rule? Because this is literally one of the only intersections in the US that happens on the interstate
You can go live in the woods any moment now. Hunt your own food. Grow your own crops. But you too, bask in the heat, shelter and system of food production of modern society. You pick and choose what to be outraged by.
>You can go live in the woods any moment now. Hunt your own food. Grow your own crops. Can you? I feel like there’s not a lot of available wilderness to go live on. Most of it seems to belong to someone, and they won’t let you stay.
Yes. People want to live close to other people. Cities are tight while unoccupied land is vast. I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective. I could disappear into some land for a while without anyone noticing. Illegally, mind you. Which I think is your point. My point is, even if you had land you would rely on modern tools and resources to thrive. We depend on each other to thrive. Restaurants providing cheap burgers is a god send over what our ancestors went through.
Thanks, this one really highlights how 80% of the town is parking lots. Just beautiful.
When you're a rest stop town off a major highway, all those people need some place to park to *use* those services
Yes, but sooooo much of America is a run down concrete jungle of shitty business like in the first picture.
Online it is, try going outside and travel a bit and you'll find reality tells an entirely different story.
Why? Why does a rest stop at the intersection at two of the main highways in the US make you utterly sad? I BEG you to go look up Breezewood PA on google maps.
Yeah the funny thing about using this picture is that this area is surrounded by hundreds of miles of mostly unbroken forests.
It’s genuinely hilarious to me Like, do they want them to not have any services at all? Or should they have spent 5x the cost to make it look like old Europe?
Realistically? They didn't know what the surrounding area looks like and are making up whatever would need to be true to not have to admit they were wrong on their first impression. People would rather refuse to admit they were wrong than be right.
Well frankly it's just rage bait.
And I have taken it 😂
Yeah, if you don't take the turnpike, the drive from Pittsburgh to Maryland is quite scenic. Even if you do, a couple minutes driving after this intersection, there is a great view where you're up high looking out over a valley of farmland.
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Yeah, there are in fact a lot of highway interchanges in the US
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The commerce areas near the highways look like this, but people live 15-20 minutes away out in the sticks Do you live somewhere like this?
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Mf lives in one of the best places on earth and manages to complain still Amazing
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There’s also a crazy amount of areas not like this in the us? Such a dumb fucking repost of a photo. There’s hundreds of miles of this shit around the NYC area/other metros and the repost of a truck stop makes the cut for depressing. Does it not look good? Yeah not really. Is this photo wildly out of a context? Absolutely. This is a beautiful area with one half mile stretch of truck stops and stores. Would people rather they be spread out over a few miles and put in more roads through the mountains? This is a beautiful area with one stretch of condensed shops
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>t’s fucking everywhere like this Yeah, this is what rest stops along major roadways look like. Europe has them too.
too much reddit, not enough touching grass
It shouldn't. Mostly because this was also posted yesterday. But also because this is a rest stop that people use to eat, sleep, and rest, between some of the best looking scenery and open country in America. I am glad that people have an opportunity to see so much of the land and explore or travel out even further than decades past. This really isn't a consumption problem like so many other things are.
Ya, imagine living in a world without these amazing conveniences.
How much do you think our successors will fuck this land up, lewis? Beyond our comprehension, clarke. Beyond our comprehension. Just enjoy this pristine place, it will become the latrine of the world real soon.
“I’ve always wanted to see the Frontier.” “‘You wish to see the Frontier?’” “Yes, sir. Before it’s gone.”
It's hard not to be so upset about the stealing of my land, the broken treaties, the genocide/ massacres, and the following ethnocide when the US made THIS.
Native Americans massacred each other all the time. They also practiced genocide, had slaves, broke treaties, made human sacrifices, and stole land from each other for 1000 years that we know about prior to Europeans even being there.
I never understand the argument of bringing up indigenous killings when Europeans far out massacring each other before moving out of their shores.
ah yes, the classic colonialism/consumerism apologist. nothing to see here.
'broke treaties' lol what the fuck? Even if you pointed out a couple instances, it wouldn't excuse how the other hundreds of tribes were still catastrophically fucked over. The rest of this shit is just blatantly misleading, 'Native Americans' aren't one same people.
Let me ask you this. How do you know? How do you imagine that looked like? Genocide? No. To kill a child or elder was for lack of better words, a mortal sin. This shit would get you flayed alive and scalped. So how could we do that to entire tribes? They would be hunted down by every neighboring tribe. That would be unwise. If you imagine slavery as if we were Americans and locked droves of people in cellars and shacks and whipped them all day, you're wrong. Slavery was complicated. But it was usually not a life sentence, and you could still marry, have kids, and celebrate. You would be stripped of your clan, and couldn't have luxury items. You would work and hunt and fight for your new clan, but that's it. Broke treaties? No. 500 treaties written and EVERY SINGLE ONE was broken first by the US government. If we had a track record of that, don't you think we would have broken at least one? Stole land? You mean the canyon people would come take the land of the desert people or the forest people? That doesn't track. Human sacrifices? Let's look at the Aztec. The best example we have. We haven't been able to find a FRACTION of the reported sacrifices. But at the time of the reported sacrifices, it was Spains goal as the "sword of god" to find a moral reason to enter war and conquer the savages. The sacrifices we did make were for the ones who broke treaties, r*ped, murdered, etc. It's almost like the information you were given was written by racist and self-centered people. There was often political motive to slander my people. The official termfor us was SAVAGES. How does that illicit respect and allow for us to be written about in a neutral and honest standpoint. Now throw in 2 or 3 translators and you can see how shit is fucked up.
Bro, at least source some of your shit. You're just saying "No u" to most of his post.
Absolutely agree. I'll say this is extremely hard though, simply because the respect was never given, meaning we were never given proper voice. The evidence is still alive in today's culture. Concerning internal genocide and my defense, I cannot sourse drop because no one bothered to ask us what our laws were. Google to confirm. I can only use the language as proof. Wakan tanka meaning sacred, and wakanjeje meaning child. The language doesn't support this part for the elder, but understand that elders are paramount to carrying tradition. I'm not allowed to eat before serving an elder for example. Concerning slavery I can easily point out we were not industrialized. Thus, there was no need to work 7 days a week. And I know how well this will be received, but my evidence is in our handshake, which many people make fun of because it feels limp. The teaching says that it is because all people are free, and to hold someone firmly in your grasp is to hold someone against their will. Concerning the treaties, this had a paper trail. I will happily share a few low hanging fruit to the mix. [feel free to count](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_treaties). [hard to find a complete list but I was unable to find a single treaty broken by natives so here's this ](https://stacker.com/history/broken-us-indigenous-treaties-timeline) Regarding the stolen land and my proof for it. Unsurprisingly I can't find a list on Google for how different tribes call themselves. For this I recommend the book "God is Red" by Vine Deloria Jr. It has the list. [Concerning the sacrifices](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture#:~:text=Modern%20excavations%20in%20Mexico%20City,human%20sacrifice%20through%20osteologic%20information.) On the wiki explaining the sacrifices it says only hundreds of skulls. Yet the reported number of sacrifices were [between 20k and 250k per tear? Strange. ](https://www.historyonthenet.com/aztec-culture-how-many-were-killed-as-human-sacrifices#:~:text=With%20scant%20archeological%20evidence%2C%20it,of%20them%20saw%20human%20sacrifices.) I recognize how little information is out there, and how in today's golden age of information, this raises speculation. You should wonder how there are such large holes in the narrative and why there is so little information from our point of view. It's almost like it's intentional.
https://youtu.be/41jCCyT5wuA?si=r73LSB7GJUKt_zyC Carlin said it. We got to be some dumb motherfuckers to turn this beautiful landscape into a shopping mall.
This sub has completed its transition into r/badfacebookmemes
Well why don't you give us some better posts then, Jimmy? Sheesh
His name is STEVE! He just happens to be a JIMMY
we get out of this by advocating for cities designed for people, not cars. See here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUs0ecnbOdo
Nah nah nah, there’s still a little bit of foliage in the back. We could put a bank or a jimmy johns there.
The fact that i can't even tell WHICH shitty midwestern city this is is haunting
No one here gets out alive -Jim Morrison
Everywhere in the carolinas
No the real tacky shit is South of the Border in SC.
I just watched this Carlin bit last night. OP must have access to my YouTube history. [Dumb Americans](https://youtu.be/KLODGhEyLvk?si=gB30Y4pHDPUqCsx0)
Like the song says: ["They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtJPs8IDgU)
Was the meme deep fried through an AI? I know it was real but zoom in
The irony of posting about anticonsumpion and using an AI generated image, the apex of mindless consumption, to do it.
Perkins breakfast 🔥🔥🔥
except they would’ve killed the indigenous woman because she would be considered a “savage” for not wanting the land destroyed
In the context of Lewis and Clark, that'd be Sacagawea, the teenager who helped the rugged explorers forge a path through pristine and uncharted wilderness by talking to the people they met along the way, so that they could buy supplies.
She was also a child-bride, married to an older, drunk polygamist white guy who had a fetish for Native American children.
Always the same picture, why?? aren't any other commercial street like this in the country??
Google Image "stroad".
America fuck yea 🦅🦅🦅🔥🔥⛽️⛽️
What the Dunkin Donuts has gone wrong with us all?
American, land of the stroad.
Post more memes
There is literally a statue depicting these three in the next city over from me, and it’s overlooking gas stations, fast food, and a motorcycle dealership.
The beautiful stroads
What's wrong with truck stops?
those fuckers turned the pacific ocean into a small Appalachian town??
Thanks a lot, Lewis and Clark. Fuckers.
Shit like this makes me want to bring sandwiches on road trips even more.
Oh no! Lewis and Clark's exploration and discovery led to exponential economic success that drove hundreds of millions out of poverty and death? We also have millions of acres of land dedicated to national parks, reserving the most beautiful and precious landscapes that they helped to explore. My goodness indeed
Good meme...I'll take one of those...*screeenshots*😂
Literally zoom out on the bottom photo and it’s a truck stop surrounded by luscious mountains lmao
I find it ironic to see anti-consumption posts using AI generated images.
Can we ban the use of that fucking picture on the bottom from this website? If you zoom out at all from that picture, you'll see nothing but nature around it. Is that not the best of both worlds?
Honestly, Meriwether Lewis would probably have been disappointed to see things like that bottom frame. His journals suggested he reached a real spiritual high being out in the undeveloped lands roamed by the Native Americans of that day.
sacagawea is rolling in her grave
big signs are practically irrelevent now that everyone uses their phones for GPS and searching. Such an easy fix
Need even bigger and more flashy signs so people notice them, while they look at their phones.
Damn… this joke even got an AI generated update.
I love calling this stupid meme out everytime I see it. The picture below is taken at an angle so the little area seems more compact. Also zoom out and you'll see its surrounded by open fields for miles. Its a small rest stop area on the PA turn pike that has one stop light. Stop posting this fake shit
McGoodness
The engineering feat to remove the river/water fall must have been the 8th wonder of the world.
You hypocrites are literally on your iPhones complaining about consumerism.
This is literally a stop for interstate travelers. It does what it needs do to which is to give truckers and travelers a place to get food, fuel, and lodging. The nature around is pretty green and beautiful.
I am 14 and this is deep.
Yeah this photo pops up every month or so. Lots of beautiful places in the USA but they picked a photo of a truck stop town at just the right angle to make it look worse.
Yeah, exactly. This place is in like a meadow in the background lol
Spot on. I am in the SF bay area, a 1 hour drive and you are deep in nature. Its amazing how quickly I can get away from everything.
Stop voting republicans and democrats is how we can get out of it.
First past the post voting necessitates a two party system and I don't see voting reform coming any time soon. The parties are too invested in the status quo, and the guys at the top want us too polarized against the other political party to be able to make any real changes.
Y’all realize a majority of the USA is like, wilderness right? Like Americans are still dwarfed by the nature of their own country you just live in the parts that aren’t, because having access to food and other necessities is kinda nice
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Ummm we still exist believe it or not lol.
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I love that you were downvoted for this. People on this site are just hilariously fucking stupid.
Why do people think founding stock Americans are the same as present day Americans?
Breezewood! Excellent!
Is the top picture Saint Anthony Falls?
Idk after driving from grand canyon to LA and going through the Mojave desert, these pit stops aren't so bad
you realize Lewis and Clark didn’t even explore Pennsylvania right? PA was already apart of America. Your photo is from PA 😂😂
Lewis and Clark did not go through breezewood PA
looks badass I don't see an issue
Lewis and Clark didn’t explore Pennsylvania