MAGA fans are rejoicing on social media in favor of President Donald Trump’s plan to sign an executive order requiring commercial truck drivers to speak English.

Breitbart News reported that Trump would sign the order Monday evening because “President Trump believes that English is a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers.” Last month, Trump designated English as “the official language of the United States.”

“This is such a big deal! So grateful for this, the roads will be much safer. Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers,” posted @coffeegirlvegas.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    I keep on thinking of the mad tv skit with the woman who says she can’t understand people with accents.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    I guess he’s not wrong

    However this is useless as you need to speak English to get a commercial license

    • notabot@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Perfect, he gets to make a big fuss for the racists, but doesn’t actually have to change anything. That way there’s less risk of breaking anything, and he’s probably looking for a win right now.

      It’s a bit like decreeing that all English week day names must henceforth end in the letter ‘y’. It’s low risk, makes certain people think you’re busy taking action, and leaves everyone else wondering what you’re up to with this, taking some of the heat off of other issues.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        People on both sides talk about how he’s all powerful but the courts still have more authority. This whole thing proves it

    • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      That is not correct. There are many CDL drivers who only speak Spanish. If you’re talking about the test, that’s a joke.

  • DBT@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “This is such a big deal! So grateful for this, the roads will be much safer. Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers,” posted @coffeegirlvegas.

    Oh yea? You and many others have witnessed many accidents that were due to a truck driver’s inability to speak English?

    You dumb bitch.

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Meanwhile how many accidents are caused by dumb bitches on their phones?

    • socphoenix@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      It’s already part of the federal commercial driver regulations too… so no. No they have not. The most they’ve seen is someone with a heavy accent and maybe broken English.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s already part of the federal commercial driver regulations too

        If it is already part of the rules, what makes this EO a bad thing? Sounds like it’s just enforcing a status-quo that nobody had an issue with.

        “Interpreters are prohibited during the administration of skills tests. Applicants must be able to understand and respond to verbal commands and instructions in English by a skills test examiner.” CDL Standards

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          What’s bad about performative actions in the form of executive orders applying rules to situations the president has clearly demonstrated he doesn’t understand?

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          If it is already part of the rules, what makes this EO a bad thing?

          It’s a power grab by the executive that will be used to, for example, harass minorities driving on the street. If it’s already part of the rules then it doesn’t need an executive order.

        • socphoenix@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          From my personal experience the bigotry towards non white non male folks in the industry can be pretty extreme, so off the very top of my head I can think of several ways a bombastic EO could inflame that worse. Not to mention I’d like my government to focus on fixing shit instead of meaningless performative bullshit

        • Thistlewick@lemmynsfw.com
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          2 months ago

          Because this EO isn’t about speaking English for road safety. The same way locking trans people out of bathrooms isn’t about protecting women. Or how deporting green card holders and naturalised citizens isn’t about US Security.

          There are so many examples of this from the last 100 days. The US is honestly a lost cause at this point.

      • DBT@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m willing to bet the most they’ve seen is some accidents involving trucks, with no knowledge of what happened or who was driving.

    • Secret Music@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      That’s one of the infuriating things about these people. They’ll just make up BS that makes Trump seem reasonable. Trump does this English only thing, and now suddenly non-english truck drivers causing accidents is a thing, something that’s been a problem all along and thank Jesus he’s finally fixing it. Even though this was never actually a real issue that anyone even imagined before today.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        The number of truck drivers whos first language wasn’t English who made deliveries for the distributer I worked with recently was high. The number of times that speaking to them came into the scope of their job was 0. They pulled up, backed a truck up at 3:30am once a week and handed us an invoice. They take a nap while we unloaded the back, then they left. Driving through the night doesn’t require you to speak, it requires you to be awake and have decent eyesight/perception. They could have been missing their left leg for all we cared. Trucking is like clock work. If you want groceries with the freshest dates in stores when they open, you need as many people willing to drive overnight and early morning workers to get them from the distributors to the stores and on the shelves before anyone wants to wake up.

          • superkret@feddit.org
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            2 months ago

            Being able to identify traffic signs would be enough.
            You don’t actually need to be able to read, just memorize what the writing on a dozen-or-so signs means.

  • Darkard@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Ah yes, those unqualified drivers that are being hired as professional truck drivers. It’s their lack of English skills that are the problem.

    How was their totally legitimate and law abiding employer supposed to know about their lack of ability or driving licence? They are the real victims here, being forced to hire them and all.

    • toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      ah, there’s the old rub. how many of trucking companies are going to be held accountable for hiring them? i’d wager it’s just about as many farmers that get fucked for hiring lettuce pickers. oh yeah, how’s that lettuce picking going now?

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    The same people who said they would remove big government that tries to control everything and everyone

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      oh, they still want total control… but only of those deemed ‘unworthy’. the ‘big’ government they want to get rid of is only the bits that watch what they (the rich fucks and their companies) do and might enforce laws that they break.

  • 野麦さん@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    I have a CDL, Class A with X endorsement.

    This changes nothing. CDL manuals, exams, and paperwork are all in English. What I think Trump thinks he’s doing is banning Mexicans from driving trucks in the US, but this is controlled by a reciprocity agreement between the US and Mexico. Surprise, Mexicans don’t have to take American exams for a CDL when they can have a license issued by the Mexican government.

    Basically all this is is white supremacist virtue signaling.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      I would love to see the US go a month without Mexican truck drivers. The UK pulled the same stunt with Polish truck drivers. People were rejoicing at empty shelves and overflowing garbage bins.

    • Tetragrade@leminal.space
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      2 months ago

      Nah you’re still thinking about it within the the UN/long peace legal framework. They can just do a decree that says no mexicans, and their extrajudidical thugs will take the signal to harass and murder truck drivers.

      B-but that’s illegal ☝️🤓

      Are you going to stop them?

      • 野麦さん@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Are you going to stop them?

        Truck drivers aren’t the most progressive, but if they see fellow drivers getting harassed/attacked by four wheelers you can bet your ass they’re gonna go Mad Max on their asses for that

    • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      Good news! With the tarriffs throwing cold water on freight all across the US, we won’t need as many truck drivers!

      …I really wish I was joking, but the fiance is OTR and freight has already slowed for him. Here’s an article from February that talks about how it was already slower than expected.

      • General_Effort@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Ouch. Things are about to get real harsh before they get worse. I hope you are prepared.

        It’s been speculated that Trump is doing this to prepare for the drop in cargo transport in the next few days. Me, I have doubts because nothing that Trump has said or done so far makes me believe that he or his sycophants are intellectually capable of that kind of rational planning. What do you think?

        • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          He has no goddamned clue what he’s doing. Whoever is speculating that is welcome to point to even one time where Trump prepared to keep people from economic harm in such a fashion, but I’ve only ever seen him walk things back, not actually insulate someone from harm.

  • YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    So if you happen to have a thicc Indian accent you need a second guy with you to translate English to English. Gotcha

      • stembolts@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        I read comments like this and all I can feel is astonishment that anyone’s life is so empty that they can dedicate time to caring about this.

        Like, it sounds made up, but honestly whether true or not… like, who cares? It’s so trivial and life has so much to offer. This comment is the first and last time I’ll ever think about this.

        • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Well, it’s fact. Some truckers and trucker’s groups have theorized that the increase in CDL involved accidents since the relaxing of this rule are caused instead of simply correlated.

          I actually agree with enforcing rules like this so even though trump’s an asshole, this one might improve safety.

          • coherent_domain@infosec.pub
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            2 months ago

            I think it would be great if you can list some credible source before asserting a fact.

            Also I have a question, why do truck drivers speaking English makes the road more safe? As long as they understand the required knowledge, I don’t see the language they speak matters in terms of safety, but that could just be my lack of understanding in this area.

              • uselessRN@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                You know what also happened in 2016? They revised the definition of “large truck” to include 329 more vehicles. By increasing the sample size you’re going to see more accidents. Common cause of accidents is fatigue from drivers working too many hours. That gets better if there’s less drivers and they have to know English though right?

              • coherent_domain@infosec.pub
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                2 months ago

                The article states: “Republican Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming … [states] a consistent rise in fatal truck crashes since its implementation.”

                Whereas your statement is “[Requiring truck driver to speak English improves safety] is a fact”.

                I am not saying what you said is necessarily wrong or the policy is necessarily harmful; but I feel we probably need more proof than “a republican representative said so”, to assert a certain statement as “fact”.

                BTW, neither you nor the news article provided the relevant data, which IMHO doesn’t really inspire confidence in your argument. Let alone all the potiential confounding variable others have mentioned.

            • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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              2 months ago

              Doesn’t the US have a shitton of unstandardized road signs which are just words?

              I feel like you have to have some English proficiency to understand them.

              • superkret@feddit.org
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                2 months ago

                If all those signs were in Chinese, it would take a commercial truck driver about a week to memorize the writing for each and learn what it means.
                You don’t need to speak the language for that.

                • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  2 months ago

                  But the inconsistency is the problem.

                  Take a look at the top signs about driving on the shoulder. Who is to say there aren’t twenty more variations?

                  Maybe a couple of

                  “Driving on shoulder mandatory”

                  “Trucks on shoulder only”

                  “Passing on shoulder permitted”

                  “$100 fine for driving on shoulder”

                  “Keep shoulder clear”

                  “No trucks allowed on shoulder”

                  There doesn’t seem to be any standard. It’s just text.

          • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

            • Benjamin Franklin
    • sowitzer@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I keep seeing comments from people pretending that the way it is meant to be is the way it is. Trump has said the law is what he says. There is no effective defense against him declaring laws if there is no enforcement. He has defied judges orders and will continue to do so. The EOs are laws because they are being followed and nobody is stopping them.

      Saying he can’t do that comes across like a right wing talking point. Trying to convince people that he can’t do what he is clearly doing, so those who are opposed will just sit around thinking the natural order will take care of it.

      And it’s working. Sure there have been some protests. But no where the amount needed to make a change. Trump is now a dictator, and far too many Americans are ok with it, directly and passively.

      • Necroscope0@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Actually there have been some massive protests against all this BS Trump has done. The media is just complicit and basically none of these protests have been covered in any mainstream outlets. The protests ARE there but if you are not driving by them on the way to work you probably do not even know about them. Thanks MSM~!@

    • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      Many laws are written to give the executive branch leeway in defining the details of how a law is to be implemented. This makes sense, assuming everyone is acting in good faith; technologies, science, standards, and best practices all evolve over time.

      Laws are usually written in a way to ensure Congressional oversight, to prevent the executive either intentionally or accidentally from subverting their will. But with a treasonous President and a complicit Congress, here we are… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    yet another thing that has no legal standing and only exists to make the idiots think trump is accomplishing something