this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
553 points (97.8% liked)

Not The Onion

16023 readers
1302 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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"?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days 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?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days 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."

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago

Trump can't even speak English.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 204 points 3 days ago (3 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 3 days ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 days 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.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago

Good thing we won't need so many of those when supply chains dry up from tariffs!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

As always another trump "policy" that'll backfire spectacularly

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Probably won't matter much. No ships means nothing to haul

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Breitbart News reported that

"News"

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Who the fuck is supposed to drive the trucks then? I live in (upstate) New York and it seems like even up there a significant population of Mexican truck drivers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Here, if they don't speak English, they are almost all Eastern European or Indian. Lots of Russian, Belarusian, Chechen, etc

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (15 children)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 112 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Won't this disqualify half his illiterate base

[–] ininewcrow 46 points 3 days ago (11 children)
load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (4 children)

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?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 91 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is just an excuse for ICE to pull people over. And since they're a part of the executive branch, they care less about due process and laws.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 75 points 3 days ago (7 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago

Can't pull someone for "driving while brown", but you can pull someone over for "driving while not speaking English, which I just concluded from you being brown"

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 days ago (3 children)

That'll surely fix our surplus of truck drivers! /s

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Which will be ignored like the rest of his Executive Orders that don't actually have anything to do with the Executive.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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??

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

Oh definitely not - he has been attacking the Clean Air act.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (6 children)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Executive orders are not laws. He can direct how the law in enforced, but he can't just unilaterally define new laws

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

*sniff sniff*

Smells like your food is about to cost even more.

[–] Mongostein 21 points 3 days ago

That’ll help the shortage of drivers for sure 🙄

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 days ago (11 children)

So the party of small government is going to administer english tests to truck drivers? maybe create some kind of language registry with proficiency levels? sounds kinda woke

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›