Long haul trains in the U.S. are awful.

If you’re riding it it’s for an experience. Not as a practical realistic alternative to traveling instead of flying.

So yeah, people who believe train infrastructure should be high quality enough that they’re a real alternative to flying for the right distances will not be keen on traveling on the terrible sight seeing focused (I’m being generous here) long haul trains in the U.S.

I agree that train infrastructure isn't good, much less good enough. I was merely making some commentary along the lines of "put your money where your mouth is."

> a two week train ride to Chicago

That about sums up the utility of long-distance train travel in the US.

Taco buyers tend to be a much more balanced and pragmatic sort of truck owner, and I seldom find anything obnoxious about them. Not sure why this is but it doesn't generalize to Tundra owners unfortunately, who are more in the first category. I'm just stating what I see on the ground in my own environment; an area which was somewhat notorious for attracting these types of desperately attention-seeking characters long before the PPP scamming became widespread.

> Taco buyers tend to be a much more balanced and pragmatic sort of truck owner, and I seldom find anything obnoxious about them. Not sure why this is

I can tell you exactly why, in middle America at least. Buying a Toyota means you prioritize reliability and getting work done. Buying a Ford or Chevy (invariably a large cabin, premium leather comfort model wearing a pickup truck as a costume) means you prioritize image. Sure you might get work done with it - though I know way too many who don't - but it wasn't what you set out to purchase. It has to be American, it has to be big and have a fancy grille silhouette, and it has to be nice and cushy to sit in.

This is such annoying generalization that is mostly not true. It's just a smug attitude. Tacos get horrible gas mileage and they're every bit as bad for the environment and are not actually any more reliable than an American full size truck.

Tacos get the same if not worse mileage than full size trucks most of the time. Then they all put huge tires on them, load them up with $20k in overlanding gear that they never use and hurts gas mileage even worse. Maybe they think they are superior to big trucks but the fact is that they're not. It's just a smug attitude that people carry. It's shitty generalization to be honest.