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 California’s growing unhoused population—approximately 187,000 people—by 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 “without delay.”
Except that’s not what WoodScientist said. He didn’t say that wanting to end dangerous homeless encampments is fascist. He said that doing something just for the sake of doing something without careful thought is a key aspect of fascist thinking. “Act first and fuck the thinking” is how Fascists work, attacking rationality and denying thought in order to suppress their followers ability to see through the lies Fascism clinks to. Fascist thinking doesn’t mean you’re a fascist, though. It just means that you’re prone to accept Fascism if you continue to think like a fascist, and at a minimum, you’re going to make a bad decision.
Again. I don’t disagree with the notion of “no, we’re not going to let you live on the streets and harass your neighbours.” I do think that it should be paired with things like expanding housing in all forms and making it easier for people to get on their feet, however. And I don’t think a strong-arm tactic of denying the funding for those positive things to compel communities to adopt your hard ball tactics is something I want to see somebody on my side doing. Those are Trump tactics. Leave them to Trump.