# Back to basics of fighting ignorance, starting with Thursday's "no gas day" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 29, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390 "2011-03-29T15:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/21 "2011-03-30T15:02:03Z")
[Snopes on gas outs/no gas days.](http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp) They’ve been going around on the internet since at least 1999. They don’t work if they don’t involve people driving less or buying more fuel-efficient cars. Never have, never will. Those of us who remember what gas prices were like in 1999 have some idea of just how effective twelve years of “gas-outs” have been. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/22 "2011-03-30T15:47:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I propose a national “I’d Rather Feel Good Than Do Good Day” page that would link to all these useless efforts. It would have a large picture of a guy with a finger up his nose and the caption “At least I’m doing _something_!” [Monty Python] And now for something completely different: A man with slacktivism up his nose. [/Monty Python] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/23 "2011-03-30T16:07:09Z")
Now, what would work, to at least some degree, would be for everyone, for one day, to not _use_ any gas (or as little as they can get away with). Walk to work or ride a bike, or if that’s too far, ride public transportation (preferably an electric-powered train) or carpool. Or telecommute. Get your groceries on foot or bike, too. Best of all, if one day isn’t enough to make an impact, you can keep doing it the next day, and the day after that, until it does. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/24 "2011-03-30T16:10:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now, what would work, to at least some degree, would be for everyone, for one day, to not _use_ any gas (or as little as they can get away with). Walk to work or ride a bike, or if that’s too far, ride public transportation (preferably an electric-powered train) or carpool. Or telecommute. Get your groceries on foot or bike, too. Best of all, if one day isn’t enough to make an impact, you can keep doing it the next day, and the day after that, until it does. If your goal was to shut down small mom-and-pop operations that are barely getting by, it might work. Please remember that the oil companies have already made their money off the fuel when it gets to the station. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/25 "2011-03-30T16:16:25Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > They don’t work if they don’t involve people driving less or buying more fuel-efficient cars… Well, that’s obvious, so what exactly is a “no gas Thursday” supposed to do? If I just wait until Friday to get gas, who cares? How do these people rationalize the thing in their own minds? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/26 "2011-03-30T16:20:24Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, that’s obvious, so what exactly is a “no gas Thursday” supposed to do? If I just wait until Friday to get gas, who cares? How do these people rationalize the thing in their own minds? Easy: “I got a million hits on my Facebook page!” That is the only purpose of pages like these. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/27 "2011-03-30T16:31:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Now, what would work, to at least some degree, would be for everyone, for one day, to not _use_ any gas (or as little as they can get away with). Walk to work or ride a bike, or if that’s too far, ride public transportation (preferably an electric-powered train) or carpool. Or telecommute. Get your groceries on foot or bike, too. Best of all, if one day isn’t enough to make an impact, you can keep doing it the next day, and the day after that, until it does. Think about the people posting those status and posting things about cancer and, well, really anything that ends with “93% of you won’t repost this” or “keep this as your status for the next hour” and decide if you really want to get in to this argument with them or if it’s easier to just let them not get gas on that day. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/28 "2011-03-30T16:45:35Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, that’s obvious, so what exactly is a “no gas Thursday” supposed to do? If I just wait until Friday to get gas, who cares? How do these people rationalize the thing in their own minds? They want to feel like they’re sticking it to the people who are responsible for high gas prices, but they don’t want to actually have to inconvenience themselves to do it. Driving less or buying a more fuel-efficient car would be inconvenient. It’s wishful thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/29 "2011-03-30T16:48:44Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > [Snopes on gas outs/no gas days.](http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp) They’ve been going around on the internet since at least 1999. They don’t work if they don’t involve people driving less or buying more fuel-efficient cars. Never have, never will. Those of us who remember what gas prices were like in 1999 have some idea of just how effective twelve years of “gas-outs” have been. 1999? 95 cents a gallon near me, so if anything gas-outs could be harbingers of higher prices. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/30 "2011-03-30T16:56:15Z")
The really ironic bit is, according to snopes, most “gas-outs” in the past have turned out to be non-events. Gas station owners don’t notice much, if any, difference. Seems that actually not getting gas is more inconvenient than emailing a message or posting it on Facebook, and is more inconvenience than most of these people are willing to stand for. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/31 "2011-03-30T17:27:01Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > …but they don’t want to actually have to inconvenience themselves to do it. That’s the case with a lot of internet activism. It lets people feel like they’re doing something, without actually requiring much sacrifice/effort; the flip side is that not a lot actually gets accomplished. Gladwell [wrote an interesting article](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true#ixzz10vnpdC2p) on activism and the limitations of social media. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/32 "2011-03-30T17:42:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I propose a national “I’d Rather Feel Good Than Do Good Day” page that would link to all these useless efforts. It would have a large picture of a guy with a finger up his nose and the caption “At least I’m doing _something_!” What I would like to see is a “No Shave 'Til $3” movement. Or, alternatively, “No Shave 'Til Brooklyn.” I’m not sure what that one would entail, but the theme song could be by the Beastie Boys. Really, I’m just about to run out of razor cartridges, and they’re the $11 kind, and once you start using them, you really can’t go back. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/33 "2011-03-30T18:27:41Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > What I would like to see is a “No Shave 'Til $3” movement. Or, alternatively, “No Shave 'Til Brooklyn.” I’m not sure what that one would entail, but the theme song could be by the Beastie Boys. Really, I’m just about to run out of razor cartridges, and they’re the $11 kind, and once you start using them, you really can’t go back. The irony of course is that Brooklyn is home to large communities of Hasidic Jews, Sikhs, and other long-bearded religious groups. So even when you get to Brooklyn, there may not be shaving, or cutting of earlocks (payot). ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/34 "2011-03-31T03:53:00Z")
Also in Brooklyn you can probably get by alright without ever getting gas (in your private vehicle). ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/35 "2011-03-31T21:01:56Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, that’s obvious, so what exactly is a “no gas Thursday” supposed to do? If I just wait until Friday to get gas, who cares? How do these people rationalize the thing in their own minds? from this particular event: > [@](#): > > And since there seems to be so much confusion about what we are trying to do here, let me clarify now. This is NOT about thinking we are going to send gas prices plummeting downward because of this one day. This is about taking a stand, together, against greedy people whose commodity happens to affect ALL OTHER commodity’s prices. What other commodity does that? Let’s be the nation of innovators that we are and come up with something better! which is… another form of ignorance in itself. it just makes me sad that people actually join this thing in earnest. sorry for the lame, one-lined-can’t-access-at-work-link topic. i’ll do better next time. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/36 "2011-03-31T21:51:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Think about the people posting those status and posting things about cancer and, well, really anything that ends with “93% of you won’t repost this” or “keep this as your status for the next hour” and decide if you really want to get in to this argument with them or if it’s easier to just let them not get gas on that day. Yeah there’s an event page that’s Sooper Sekrit Don’t Tell the Boys TeeHee about supporting breast cancer awareness by posting the name of a fruit in your status, as a code for your relationship status. No, I’m not kidding. When I pointed out that this accomplishes exactly nothing in terms of awareness of anything at all, I got a diatribe from some chick who’d “lost family members” to cancer and how dare I? I pointed out that I was a cancer survivor, and I dare because I’d like to see _results_, not just go around patting myself on the back for empty feel-good gestures. Although, to be fair, I got more of “Thank GOD someone said this” than bitchery. And Czarcasm, please please create that event page so I can join in and spread it all over Facebook! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/37 "2011-03-31T22:28:36Z")
i remember last year’s was… “where do you put your purse?” or something to that effect, and women were supposed to write “i like it at my desk” or “i like it next to the bed” or “i like it at my side at all times” which to guys sound like sexual innuendos (moreso than usual). yeah… but it’s not facebook that’s stupid. it’s the people. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/38 "2011-03-31T22:37:33Z")
I am pleased to announce that I did not buy gas today. That’s because I bought gas yesterday. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/39 "2011-03-31T23:25:35Z")
I don’t need any gas, but I was tempted to go buy some anyway just to show them. Then I remembered that it’s 100 degrees outside. My sense of outrage doesn’t really operate when ambient temperatures are that high. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390/40 "2011-03-31T23:49:39Z")
> [@](#): > > And since there seems to be so much confusion about what we are trying to do here, let me clarify now. This is NOT about thinking we are going to send gas prices plummeting downward because of this one day. This is about taking a stand, together, against greedy people whose commodity happens to affect ALL OTHER commodity’s prices. What other commodity does that? Let’s be the nation of innovators that we are and come up with something better! I’m still not clear on what they want to happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-basics-of-fighting-ignorance-starting-with-thursdays-no-gas-day/576390.md?page=1)