politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
these out of control homeless encampments are a major and visible talking point that Republicans used to define democratic leadership. The policy of trying to avoid confrontation and hope something happens has marked some of the best cities in the world as no-go zones that are portrayed as Progressive and liberal leadership failures.
I understand why he’s chosen to do something.
You're falling for fascist propaganda. Notice, Newsom isn't actually doing anything to fix the problem. He's not providing these people housing at all. All he's doing is sending out law enforcement to endlessly harass the homeless. That's what his "doing something" actually is. He's sending the police to "deal with" the homeless.
You recognize there's a problem. But you can't identify a solution. A fascist strongman comes along and promises to "do something," 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 "doing something."
This won't actually house anyone. People don't 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. Newsom's actions are only exacerbating the homelessness crisis.
It's the poorest of the poor that will pay the price for Newsom's fascist propaganda campaign. But, at least you get to feel good knowing that he's "doing something." 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 can't 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. I'm not using fascism as a synonym for "bad" here. I'm pointing out that this kind of policy literally is the textbook definition of fascism.
This is fascism 101. Among Umberto Eco's 14 common features of fascism is the cult of action for action's sake.
Your response would make sense if I was complaining that the police disbanding camps simply wasn't going to enough good. But this action doesn't help anyone. It doesn't 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, you're sending a fair number of personal and ID documents to the landfill. Every time you clear a camp, you're making it that much harder for people to actually get back on their feet.
This isn't 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 Eco's points. From the linked list numbers:
(3) Cult of action for action's sake. It is purely performative. It will actually increase the number of unhoused people, as the more unstable someone's situation, the harder it is to return to housing. It's an objectively negative policy, but people support it because Newsom is "doing something." This meets Eco's 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. I'm not condemning camp sweeps because they fail to meet some ideological purity test. I'm condemning them because they're completely unproductive and are a textbook definition of fascist policy.
We know how to fix homelessness. It's not bulldozers; you fucking house them. Newsome has made some good strides in terms of encouraging more housing in California, but we'd be much closer to actually addressing homelessness if:
He hit the bullshit zoning laws that restrict housing in this state with as big of a hammer as he hits homeless people with, and
We stopped trickling money to the homeless via an infinitely recursing filter of non-profits and either directly administered the aid via the state government or just gave them the fucking money / housing. In LA, there's something like 10,000 non-profits focused on homelessness that have to coordinate with each other. That's some looney toons level shit right there, and it should be obvious to anyone that that would never work.
California's been trying to fix homelessness with cops and bulldozers for forty or fifty years, and especially the last twenty. How long do we have to keep "accidentally" killing people and setting taxpayer cash on fire before we acknowledge that it doesn't fucking work and never will? You cannot beat homeless people into being housed, though I can see why Gavin would think that this solution would appeal to potential Republican voters who will ultimately not vote for him anyway.