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.

  • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Not sure about other states, but in mine, the ability to read and understand English is a requirement for getting a license…

    Now you could make an argument that’s not the same as speaking English, and my rebuttal is “should we ban mute, or speech-impared people from getting a CDL”?

    • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      , and my rebuttal is “should we ban mute, or speech-impared people from getting a CDL”?

      Well those people are already Undesirables under the rule of el trumpo, so their answer is… yeah?

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m not really clear how they would even enforce this. They don’t have a database or standard test for speaking english.

      FBI: “Do you speak english?”

      Driver: “Sí señor. Aber ich lerne auch Deutsch.”

      FBI: “Fatastich. Guten Abend.”

      • 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 “a 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
  • 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.

    • 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?

  • 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.

  • Wren@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    So…. Let’s get this straight… he is signing orders to make things happen that have been happening for almost a century now??

    What’s next, an executive order to make air breathable??

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      I’m assuming it’s just a way to sneak literacy tests into something. You can speak english, but can you speak it well enough to pass a subjective test administered by someone who hates you for being hispanic?

      • fantoozie@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        Classic authoritarian tactics:

        Target a marginalized group with an issue that you’ve framed as ridiculous or politically suicidal to disagree with, get public opinion riled up by manipulating their grievances through exploiting their internal prejudices, and make everything an extension of preserving national security. Once you’ve manipulated enough people into giving you extralegal power, simply expand the circle of ‘national security threats’.

        In just a few months we’ve watched Trump:

        steal the power of the purse and the power to enact tariffs from Congress,

        create a precedent for the unconstitutional arrest, detainment, and removal of legal residents and dissenting citizens,

        iterate his intentions to restart American expansionism into Canada and Greenland,

        Successfully twist the arm of media companies, law firms, and universities into doing his bidding,

        And his other executive order directs Dept. Of Homeland Security, DoJ, and DoD to create a plan for implementation of military and national security assets to “prevent crime and protect public safety”.

        Welcome to the ‘find out’ stage.

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You’re 100 percent dead-on.

          And alongside this point, I really wonder how many of the kids that were shouting at everyone to not vote because of the “doing a genocide thing” would have done things differently if they had actually believed us all when we tried to tell them this shit would happen.

          And I mean truly and honestly. Not the front they put up when they don’t want to publicly own their part in causing this to happen.

          Because I can say that as a voter, I am not at all in the “find out” phase. I already knew this would happen. There was never anything to find out.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This is already a Commercial Driver’s License requirement. What is the specific issue here?

    “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

      • uselessRN@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        You’re right. You just need to be able to read, write, and understand instructions. Wait that sounds like knowing the language

        • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          Just like reddit to downvote someone who actually knows what the fuck they’re talking about because it doesn’t sound right to you.

          • uselessRN@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            You’re being down voted by others. Mostly cause what you said is stupid

            • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              And yet I know more than you and am correct. Maybe because you are just guessing and don’t have actual first hand knowledge.

              It is quite common to have CDL drivers that only speak Spanish whether or not they’re supposed to be able to speak English.

              • uselessRN@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                They still understood enough English to pass the test in the first place. I’m assuming with your first hand knowledge you knew that. Or are you just guessing there’s a lot of Spanish speaking people that got interpreters? This is about there already being a rule to speak English to get your license. It’s not about what language they primarily speak. This is just political theater to make magats happy. You’re just stuck on this “I have to be right or my online persona will be ruined”. Chill man. You don’t even sound smart online

    • 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~!@

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Is there any such requirement for ships in international waters?

    English seems a bit too narrow, but I could see one of maybe 10 languages being a requirement (English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese, etc)

    Or perhaps, like the UN requires, at least three on this list.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Not sure about ocean shipping, but English is the standard language for Air Traffic Control. Specifically, Aviation English, but that came about through a specific need. The dangers of an air traffic accident are much higher, the training requirements for an air traffic controller or pilot already more involved then a truck driver, and English being the most spoken language in the word, when you include second and third languages, made English being the standard the most logical. I don’t know Aviation English, but I would assume it strips out any regional slag or local idioms.

      Truck drivers don’t need a common language because traffic signage is designed to be readable without knowing being fluent in the language. If you can read the numbers and memorize what the sign shapes mean, you’re fine. If something goes wrong, you can pull off to the side. Something you can’t just do in an airplane.

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Like many, I have seen many accidents or near accidents from unqualified drivers

    Can anyone explain how knowing English would reduce traffic accidents? Is it because of detour signs?

    • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      In the US, traffic signs with crucial information are often written in only English text, no symbols, pictograms or anything else that could make it possible to guess what the sign is saying without being able to read English.

      • Qwaffle_waffle@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Can you please elaborate with some examples if possible? I’m trying to picture this from highways and roadways here in Florida, but I am struggling to get your gist. I will look again on the way home tonight. However I am not a trucker or cdl so I might be oblivious to some.