Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
I am guilty of this, but I think you and I are mixing up adjectives. You are probably thinking vehicle enthusiast, which is more general, and I am thinking driving enthusiast. Specifically, car driving enthusiast and not the off-road driving enthusiast or the cross-country-touring enthusiast. Like how ‘sports car’ is now overused, muddling the definition and requires a nuanced explanation, so does enthusiast, as you have highlighted.
I tend to think of the car enthusiast in articles as often referencing the driving enthusiast who wants a lightweight, great handling, analog, quick car that has a communicative chassis that makes the car engaging for spirited driving. If I was reading a truck magazine, a truck enthusiast would bring to mind the same thing for that genre, so a rugged, engaging and capable truck for off-roading, mudding, rock crawling, trail driving, etc. The high-mileage and cross country driving enthusiasts could be driving on cruise control or in the passenger seat, so I don’t know how much of an enthusiast they are for driving—more like they just enjoy getting out on the open road whether that is in a Winnebago or whatever.
I think we hear and read of enthusiasts being referenced in the vein that I described because we have seen a precipitous drop off in the models and production of sports cars and of the features classically enjoyed by the driving enthusiast: cars are heavier, DBW, electric steering, less or no manual transmissions, etc. I don’t think it is a matter of us just being in our bubble or echo chamber.
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the issue is that we all want to distill the word down to a specific subset of the grouping. human nature is annoying.
if i say someone's autistic, or color blind, most people jump to wheelchair-bound/rainman characters, or people that see in black and white only and can't tell if that stop light is red or green.
the reality is there's a nearly infinite spectrum of diagnosable symptoms from 'normal' to outright vegetable state/blindness that count for either of those conditions.
same with 'enthusiast'. an enthusiast is anyone that has an interest in the subject. we are all car enthusiasts, as we all have had enough of an interest to sign up for a car-specific forum at least once.
wtf is a 'real enthusiast'? the distinction is what annoys me. it implies some of us are just here for improving our status somewhere, and actually have no interest in the subject.
but honestly, i'd rather be a 'fake enthusiast' than be associated with the groups of people constantly screaming for attention that they're 'real enthusiasts'...