destroying what little public transit there was

Hey now, let's not stray into historical revisionism. Make no mistake: there was a lot of public transit back in the early 20th century. For example, here's Atlanta's streetcar map from exactly 100 years ago:

That's not just a fuck-ton more streetcar (or subway/other rail) routes than Atlanta has now; that was legitimately good coverage of most of the city!

Edit: Oh yeah, and that applies to intercity rail too, by the way:

Never forget the full breadth and scope of what was stolen from us.

You need a car to get to work. How are you supposed to not buy oil? The point is the fossil fuel industry gave us no real alternative, you don't have to eat at a restaurant to survive but you need a job to.

If the restaurant is the only source of food around, what do you do then? Not eat?

It transpose into the fact that North American societies made car centric cities with poor public transit where many place that aren't a city, you need a car to literally do everything.

And even cities cut budgets for public transit.

A simple example from a friend of mine. He makes an effort to go to work by public transit instead of taking his car.

If he takes his car, it's a 10 minutes ride. If he takes public transit, it takes him an hour to get to work. I wouldn't blame him for taking his car to get to work.