it's more like, "if I don't, the psycho behind me will gut me like a fish and then fashion my skin into an extremely ineffective shower curtain"

yeah i know that he shouldn't do that because it's illegal, but the world is full of highly principled corpses and there are people who are depending on me to be alive.

at least i get to cruise slow and steady when there happens to be no one else behind me... and what's wild is, ever since i grew the fuck up and stopped being a speeder piece of shit, i hardly ever encounter traffic jams anymore, and i don't seem to get where i'm going any later than i would have otherwise.

In the US it indeed is ok to be speeding, because it's a car focused state, and human lives have no value in that country. As long as you have money of course, so you can afford the tickets. So speeding is for the rich, and it's ok. But if you're poor, are speeding and caused an accident, that's also fine. Just another slave in prison. You see? Dystopia full circle.

People will always drive at the speed that feels safe, it's not just Americans. Gradually here this is being recognized, and roads narrowed, speed bumps added, etc. in places where we need to go slowly. At my work complex the stated limit is 10 mph and even on my bike I am speeding, and cars are passing me, but it doesn't feel unsafe at all.

also changing lanes very quickly while driving at high speeds, without signalling, after pandemic, people got worst.

This isn't specific to America...

Here in Europe we occasionally get road construction sites on motorways where the speed limit is temporarily reduced to 80, 60 or even 40 because the lanes are narrower than usual and drivers need to navigate around the construction site. I'm never quite sure how fast to drive there: if I actually drive the posted limit, I'll have 0 cars in front of me, but it looks (from my perspective) that I'm holding up 67 cars behind me who would want to drive faster. If I keep up with what the driver in front of me is doing, I'm technically violating the law...

Lol wtf is all these car lovers doing in /c/FUCKCARS

There are roads where speeding is so common you will in fact be dangerously tailgated if you drive the speed limit

In my experience, American roads are built to support much higher speeds than the speed limit is set. Going 10-20mph over the limit doesn't feel particularly unsafe on the wide, straight roads.

On the other side, it felt crazy to drive the speed limit on (for example) the narrow, windy roads in Ireland. The limit there felt like a literal maximum, whereas in the US it feels like the minimum.