Proton rebadges Lotus Europa

Seren Kuhanandan wrote:

Personally, if you make a product and don't put your own name on it, it doesn't say much to me about the product. But I suppose disco and I just have to be a jingoes-cum-racist to disagree with a man who left Ferrari when they started moving to where Lotus is heading. I wonder who I'm backing in that fight, FIAT or Proton. I half expect you to tell me I harbour desires to run all italians into the sea, like some secret Italian Job fetish. Leave your racism accusations in your bedroom, troll.

Oh Christ on a stick, why does it always have to be weak-minded gibberish like this? The words I used to describe the scorned carmakers were ‘determined’ and ‘emerging’, and I was trying to make sure this didn’t turn into some kind of racism issue, but some idiocy is impossible to allow for, really. So, here we go, for those who didn't notice: this isn't about racism. It’s about British car enthusiasts (and by this I mean people who are enthusiastic about British cars, not people wo are enthusiastic about cars and British... just thought I'd point that out, you never know when someone's going to cry racist) who are - understandably, to some degree - in a state of muddled dismay over the tattered condition of the British car industry, which has engendered years of knee-jerk scorn directed at upstart car companies that start off making laughable, copycat products, but develop a strong business plan, and eventually eclipse the British industry several times over. The fact that the bulk of these new car companies are based in Asia is simply a side-effect of global economic developments in the past two or three decades. Nowhere am I suggesting that Mr. Disco is a racist, and you really shouldn’t bring so grave an accusation to the table with such a gleeful touch, even if you do find it a convenient method of brushing aside people who disagree with you. For the record, I’d like to categorically state that there has been no racism on here, just misdirected ire, incoherent reasoning and cavalier accusations. For an example of these, look to the fact that nobody who wailed about this potential rebadging even made mention of the fact that the rebadging of Lotuses is nothing new. To me, it seems hard to deny that there really is a stigma here against Proton, although I don't think racism is behind it. Just misguidedness and lazy thought.