She/They
Truck is just slang for pickup truck. Ute as a term isn’t really a thing in the US. Coup utilities like an El Camino or Subaru Baja feel pretty distinct from modern American pickups though. It’d be weird to put them in the same category given how different they are in both form and function.
The treatment you’re talking about is conversion therapy - largely considered torture by modern standards. And what happened to the people who received that “treatment?” Statistically they probably fucking killed themselves. Which, like, I guess does solve the issue of you being uncomfortable around trans people and having to see us in public.
I’m not sure if you’re a ghoul or woefully uninformed. I’d suggest reading the medical literature on trans people. Nearly every psychiatric and pediatric organization of note agrees that supporting their transition leads to better healthcare outcomes for trans people by a pretty large margin. This isn’t some kind of social contagion or whatever the fuck you’re talking about. This is evidenced medical practice.
If we want to talk specifically about the drug transphobes shit their pants over, Lupron, it has been in use since the mid-80s. And studies have shown that Lupron as well as other puberty blockers are, by and large, safe for kids. We have like 40 years of data on this.
Different person, but for western comics I’m using Read Comics Online, ReadComicOnline, and XOXO Comics. Haven’t run into any issues finding what I need from at least one of these, but there are more options available too.
I bet a micro van like a Delica or Sambar would fit your needs pretty well. Compact, but large enough to fit like 8 people total and the seats are fully removable so you could totally fit a wheelchair in there. Seen people fit a whole motorcycle in them before.
The safety of the bigger trucks comes at cost to those around it. Statistically pedestrians, drivers, and passengers struck by larger vehicles are far more likely to sustain serious injury or die. The idea that we should drive larger vehicles because those inside of it are safer has lead and will continue to lead to a spiral where we drive progressively larger vehicles to the detriment of literally everyone.
The reason large trucks exist has nothing to do with some kind of democratic capitalism. It’s to get around emission laws in the US. The larger a vehicle is the more emissions they are allowed to produce so rather than create more efficient engines it’s more cost effective to simply build a larger vehicle. The trend of purchasing progressively larger vehicles is driven by marketing. Market forces are not natural phenomena like a tide; they’re manufactured.
You listed a bunch of capitalist nations as examples of nations cured of capitalism.