Happy April Fool’s Day?

Jokes on us.

It’s April Fool’s Day. And we all know what that means—shenanigans—but how often are those shenanigans built around bad news, fear, and anger? Have we been so conditioned to bullshit sensationalism we engage in it for fun ourselves?

I saw an April Fool’s prank on Facebook last night out of Australia. It looked like ARB—known around the world for their beefy, bull bar truck bumpers—was sharing that Australia had banned bull bars overnight. Considering New Zealand’s recent response to domestic terrorism, we all know it’s possible to see sweeping change literally happen overnight in that corner of the globe. Had me going for a minute.

There are some clever, positive pranks out there. Totally. I found myself thinking about what kind of prank I could do here and it struck me it’s just too easy to prop up some kind of negative thing like, “OMG, they killed Kenny” or “Screw you guys, going home”.

I care too much about what we’re doing here to joke about quitting.

So on this day of trickery—when we’re all on higher alert for bullshit than usual—I’d like to remind you that, yes, the world is full of problems and legitimate evil. It’s always been this way. Maybe make a point of noticing how often you come across this formula:

1. What you need to be afraid of or angry about, and
2. who you should blame for it.

It’s pretty much every news story on every network in every country these days.

And it’s not funny. In fact, it’s tearing us all apart.

You know as well as I do that anyone can bitch about what’s wrong. Any coward with no skin in the game can tell you all about who’s to blame and why you should be outraged.

But you also know bitching about problems and pointing fingers does nothing to fix the problem.

We’ve all seen that guy who joins the forum or group and immediately starts bitching about how shitty and unreliable these things are. He hasn’t done any troubleshooting. He’s spent 15 minutes googling around, didn’t immediately see a fast, cheap, and easy fix, and now he’s off on a tear, butthurt to the max—and we all know that guy is full of shit.

Why do we know that guy is full of shit?

Because we’ve done our homework. We’ve done our research. We’ve got the FSM. We’ve followed the troubleshooting steps and while we know it’s not always a quick, easy fix, there’s always a solution.

We’re gearheads. Whether by necessity or curiosity, we’ve learned that bitching about what’s wrong with our vehicles is a waste of time. Sure, you gotta vent from time to time, but ultimately, you roll up your sleeves and get shit done.

THAT’S how we make things better.

Not by bitching about what’s wrong. Not by pointing blame.

We make our lives better by ignoring all that bullshit and putting our energy into getting things done that matter. We turn our own wrenches. We fix what is broken. We take what is good and we make it better.

That’s what gearheads like us do.

Why should that stop at cars?

April Fool’s Day, today, tomorrow—next time you read or hear something that makes you angry or concerned that scary, stereotypical boogeymen are out to get you—remember it’s mostly bullshit peddled by those doing absolutely nothing to actually fix the problem.

When a few of us get together for a Saturday morning wrenchfest we can do anything to a car. Just imagine what we can do likewise elsewhere in our communities if we show up and work.

Gearheads never say die.