James Woods used to be a Hollywood star, though in 2017 he announced he was essentially done with acting as he had been blacklisted from Hollywood and didn’t need the work thanks to having bought Apple stock in the 1980s,saying:
Absolutely. The only reason I express my views is that I have accepted the fact that I’m blacklisted. Also I bought Apple stock in the 80’s
So, he’s willing and able to be quite open about what he thinks, and routinely uses that freedom to sound off on hot-button issues on Twitter, where he’s known for being a right-leaning dissident, particularly on cultural topics.
And now he’s back at it, this time sounding off on the topic of electric vehicles, cars that have somehow become the current thing despite being almost unusablefor road tripsorbasic tasks expected of them.
Woods, however, in his criticism of electric cars doesn’t focus on those typical, mundane problems with them. Having to wait forever for them to charge, dealing with the tech as it matures and the batteries slowly become more useful, the problems posed by lithium fires…all those problems are real and must be dealt with, but they’ve already been brought up and will be endlessly debated.
So, in his attack on EVs, Woods brought up the safety issue associated with them, something that no one else has really focused on as of yet.
Tweeting about that, Woodssaid:
The unspoken nightmare of owning an electric vehicle is the safety issue. A woman alone forced to sit for an hour charging her EV on a dark highway is not a comforting scenario, except to the roving gangs of hoodie thugs roaming our streets and highways
And while there aren’t many articles on that topic yet, the problem of women being harassed at a gas station is a very real one. Harassment is already a real problem at gas stations, where fill ups currently just take a few minutes. think how bad that problem will be if charging takes an hour or more. Clean Technica, for instance, ran a good article highlighting current problems with gas stations and electric vehicle charging,saying:
EV charging operators need to prioritize safety — especially women’s safety. Our friends at IrishEVs shared two articles with me that touch upon safety issues that women are dealing with while charging their EVs while traveling. They highlight how EV charging operators need to take safety into account in order to not lose/miss customers and also simply make sure their stations are safe places to charge.
I can’t count how many times I was harassed when I ducked by the Circle K just to grab an energy drink for work when I worked in retail — and I don’t even have a car. “Hey, little lady, where you going? I can give you a ride? No? Okay, you ugly b*tch.”
There are countless stories of women being harassed at gas stations. Just last month in Atlanta, a woman wasshot and killedat a gas station. So, our friends at IrishEVs are making an excellent point about safety at EV charging sites — especially women’s safety.
In November, IrishEVs wrote this article
addressing safety and security at EV charging points and then followed that up withthis one
Similarly, there was a good Twitter thread on the subject, in which the author, a woman,said:
I’ve been pondering why I felt so stressed about struggling to find an #EV charger last night… I had 30 miles left and this morning I was able to solve the problem pretty quickly. Then it hit me. It was dark, past 10pm, I was alone in a car park and I was scared. 1/4
I’m fed up of charging in pitch black car parks when I’m by myself (often on the phone to get a machine restarted). I’ve realised one of the reasons I feel vulnerable is because I’m a solo woman hanging about in the dark, in a situation where I can’t necessarily drive away. 2/4
Obviously this isn’t the case for ALL charge points and this only happens when I’m on the road, but so many of them are tucked away in car parks, behind pubs, at business centres etc. Places I would never go by myself at night. 3/4
Why are these public charge points not installed with lights? It would instantly make them feel safer and less intimidating. Am I alone or do other women (or anyone) feel the same?
Gas stations are already problem areas from a safety perspective, particularly as crime spikes and soft-on-crime policies embolden criminals. That’ll likely just get worse as the EVs take long times to charge and criminals continue to be emboldened.
By: Gen Z Conservative
