Are we shaming them? I'm just acknowledging they can't even conceive of an alternate future, which I think what "car-brained" is getting at.

But it's a bit like the copper tops in the Matrix--they'll always potentially be your enemy, through no fault of their own. For instance, these car brained people you are so eager to have sympathy for will show up in droves to complain about anything that would even theoretically lengthen their car commute by even a microsecond.