Are You Breeding Fascism?

I know that a lot of you do not follow me on social media, which means you probably still have more than a little of your sanity left. I shared this article (if you are getting blocked from reading it, insert the URL into the engine on this site) from The Nation, "America’s Suburbs Are Breeding Grounds for Fascism," and the comments under it flowed. This article may be the most insane attempt at "anchoring" I’ve read in a while.

I would love for each of you to read it, but here are a few highlights:

The suburbs were invented as a reactionary tool against the women’s liberation and civil rights movements.

If you want to know why the suburbs were created, Tim Kelly went over this on episode 808 of my podcast. The author— a they/them—is in the ballpark when it comes to the civil rights movements, but as per usual, it’s not that simple.

The author continues:

The suburbs would keep white women at home and white men at work to afford that home. These were the explicit goals of the designers: "No man who owns his house and lot can be a Communist," said the creator of Levittown, the model suburb. "He has too much to do."

The author seems to be concerned with people being prevented from becoming communists. I wonder why. Its last paragraph reveals its sympathies:

The anti-trans panic at the center of the Target controversy says something dark about American politics, but it says something even darker about the American landscape, about the places and ways we choose to live. Without a massive reorganization of American life away from privatization, car-centrism, and hyper-individualism, it’s likely the suburban ideology will remain popular and even grow.

I believe its use of the phrase "away from privatization, car-centrism, and hyper-individualism" reveals why it’s so worried about growing fascism. The author, P.E. Moskowitz, an open trans person, foresees a future where you own nothing, are confined to residing in one set area, and are only allowed to embrace their religion of "Progress." Any thinking outside of that paradigm will be strictly prohibited.

Please read the article as bizarre and "out-there" as you think it may be. Less than ten years ago, the thought that a flag celebrating LGBTQ+*&%^&() would be flying at the White House, where the American one usually does, would have been unthinkable.