On May 12, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, demanded that cities throughout the state adopt anti-camping ordinances that would effectively ban public homelessness by requiring unhoused individuals to relocate every 72 hours.
While presented as a humanitarian effort to reduce homelessness, the new policy victimizes Californiaās growing unhoused populationāapproximately 187,000 peopleāby tying funding in Proposition 1 to local laws banning sleeping or camping on public land.
In his announcement, Newsom pushed local governments to adopt the draconian ordinances āwithout delay.ā
Youāre falling for fascist propaganda. Notice, Newsom isnāt actually doing anything to fix the problem. Heās not providing these people housing at all. All heās doing is sending out law enforcement to endlessly harass the homeless. Thatās what his ādoing somethingā actually is. Heās sending the police to ādeal withā the homeless.
You recognize thereās a problem. But you canāt identify a solution. A fascist strongman comes along and promises to ādo something,ā without any real plans or promises, just the vague cult of action for the sake of action. Newsom tortures some poor people, and you walk away feeling good, believing that at last someone is ādoing something.ā
This wonāt actually house anyone. People donāt disappear simply because you kicked them out of their camping spot. All you really do every time you disburse the homeless is make it that much harder for them to escape homelessness at all. Every time a camp is torn down, people lose invaluable possessions, resources, and documents that are really their only hope of ever pulling themselves out of homelessness. Newsomās actions are only exacerbating the homelessness crisis.
Itās the poorest of the poor that will pay the price for Newsomās fascist propaganda campaign. But, at least you get to feel good knowing that heās ādoing something.ā You must be a big fan of the TSA.
this kind of talk, and focus on unachievable ideologically pure outcomes, is why the undeniably most-facist party is in total control right now, you dope.
Progress has always been an unachieveable ideologically pure outcome for both Democrats and Republicans
Not eating that propaganda that we canāt do better and demand better from our leaders
Do you know what fascism is? I am not saying that Newsom is exhibiting fascist behavior as some cheap and quick pejorative. Iām not using fascism as a synonym for ābadā here. Iām pointing out that this kind of policy literally is the textbook definition of fascism.
This is fascism 101. Among Umberto Ecoās 14 common features of fascism is the cult of action for actionās sake.
Your response would make sense if I was complaining that the police disbanding camps simply wasnāt going to enough good. But this action doesnāt help anyone. It doesnāt reduce homelessness at all. In fact, it actually makes homelessness worse. Every time camps are torn down, people lose possessions and documents they need to escape homelessness. If you bulldoze a homeless camp, youāre sending a fair number of personal and ID documents to the landfill. Every time you clear a camp, youāre making it that much harder for people to actually get back on their feet.
This isnāt the perfect being the enemy of the good. This is simply an unambiguously harmful policy that does no good at all for the community.
Why is this action fascist? It meets several of Ecoās points. From the linked list numbers:
(3) Cult of action for actionās sake. It is purely performative. It will actually increase the number of unhoused people, as the more unstable someoneās situation, the harder it is to return to housing. Itās an objectively negative policy, but people support it because Newsom is ādoing something.ā This meets Ecoās point 3, the cult of action.
(6) Appeal to social frustration. People are tired of seeing the homeless and being reminded of their own precarious state. Better sweep them out of view.
(10) Contempt for the weak. Pretty obvious. These people have simply been priced out of the housing market. But Newsom vilifies these people and treats them like animals.
(12) Machismo and weaponry. Better send in the SWAT team to tear down some tents.
This is quite literally textbook fascism. Iām not condemning camp sweeps because they fail to meet some ideological purity test. Iām condemning them because theyāre completely unproductive and are a textbook definition of fascist policy.