Is the US a dystopia?

It would warm the cockles of my heart to see state & local governments get aggressive on this crisis to the point of using eminent domain as a big hammer to force REITs and other corporate landlords to understand that cooperation and 'penciling out' a smaller profit is a better option than coerced divestment with the loss of ownership and all future profits.

I didn't say I expected it, only that it would be heartwarming. ;-)

California had a very reasonable ballot measure last year to extend rent control to almost all rental housing (buildings with less than 4 units, buildings constructed after 1995) … and it didn’t pass … because of the real estate lobby basically lol

I didn't say I expected it, only that it would be heartwarming. ;-)

"Some “investment property” is actually vacant"

eh, I mean yes, but the vacancy rate is in American cities is small, typically low single figures %. it's 3.2% in NYC so the average unit is vacant for one month every 3 years. it's literally what you would expect to allow units to be turned over between tenants (repairs, find new tenants, etc.). outside a couple of places (e.g. SF) it can't get much lower.

long term willful vacancy of units that would have willing tenants blights individual high end apartment buildings in commercial neighborhoods, and it's a huge problem for commercial buildings themselves, but does not occur on scale that has any impact on the housing crisis. it's an easy thing for local politicians to make noise about because "vacancy taxes" are easy wins that allow them to claim they are "tackling the housing crisis" without doing things that might actually work but are unpopular with reliable voters. the fact that everyone supports vacancy taxes is a clue that the phenomenon they seek to stop is already very rare.

one might think of the simple solution of local governments using funds for homeless services to rent these vacant units for homeless people and then they would have housing … but no

i hate CA local government more than most but in their defense ... you know why this doesn't happen, right?

The oversight issue is tricky… do local governments pay staff to scour Air BnB, Vrbo, etc and then match that data to their databases of buildings and units and then send threatening letters to owners?

yes? airbnb was effectively banned in NYC 15 months ago. the number of listings has dropped from 25,000 to 2,000 (most of which are permitted rather than in violation of the law). local governments do tons of things that cost more and are harder to do than regulate short term rentals. it if you think it will make a difference to rents, you can make it happen. (it won't help rents, but there are other reasons to ban it.)

Brandon Sutton is pretty good at breaking down a lot of recent American developments and which bits of the reactionaries are fighting with the others and why

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7LmOR7PWc

utopia is just around the corner...

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472031225_1326988342032418_4104726699847201130_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=tr4vxfY6LZMQ7kNvgEUjLBc&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=A9vGMtRBTY0AWLjvDBQuE9V&oh=00_AYB2GDXdY4Z30QWwe_-ODYM6rxSZcJf0kKCJZNN66dJoog&oe=677CE4D1

my kid took the best 2025 Amerika photo. props to Cyrus.

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472478048_10162763034747137_719260018055399549_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=WJ9ORuA1BZMQ7kNvgFM6K9h&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=ANH1fCSRR0op-lzY9rpDYoo&oh=00_AYAoAvKQOhW1nHpPGtY8E1-3Phypfl5Z0acIN9GA0DNdLg&oe=677CCFC4

https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/01/in-2025-san-diego-cant-look-away-from-the-screaming/

https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/01/in-2025-san-diego-cant-look-away-from-the-screaming/

― sleeve

portland's the same way

i see men around me screaming (always white men)

i tried screaming myself, for a while

lost a lot of friends that way

a lot of my energy these days goes into finding ways to not scream while still, like

talking to other people

finding healthy ways to talk to other people

i feel like most people don't know what's happening and maybe like

can't cognitively accept it even if they do know

a lot of us do know, and what the hell can we do about it?

they don't tell men this, but a lot of women know that if you get attacked, you don't yell "rape", you yell "fire"

because if you yell "rape" nobody does anything

my kid took the best 2025 Amerika photo. props to Cyrus.

great photo, it belongs in the "Is the US a utopia?" thread obv

was gonna say, I like gravy

For You: If you like gravy then you might like...

shit that looks like an onion article but isn't

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/pacific-palisades-fire-altadena-santa-monica-los-angeles-donald-trump-elon-musk-misinformation-disinformation-lies-conspiracy-theories/

this is more about how things are going to be from now on than it is about the LA wildfires, so I figured this was a better place for this link.

The end wokeness account are praying.

Holy crap. One of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. Pray.

pic.twitter.com/EpJm5InANa

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 8, 2025

to be fair that's better than the usual reactionary response of "this is God's punishment for gay people existing"

is the terrifying thing that someone is standing in his house filming while wildfires are inches away from it?

Honestly, the footage will end up getting bought by some producer and used in something… this is going to be like 9/11 where film/tv will become “dated” by depicting structures that are now destroyed.

Why are those people still in the house???!

Probably got sold on some kind of natural heat spa.

that dog needs better owners

yeah my wife was watching this yesterday...is there any word what happened to these people? because that does not seem good

they probably got out bc dudes who look like that always get out

https://www.404media.co/were-fine-los-angeles-wildfires/

We got in the car. We started driving. I watched a driverless Waymo navigate streets in which the traffic lights were out because the power was out. My fiancé took two work meetings on the road, tethered to her phone, our dog sitting on her lap. We stopped at a fast food drive through.

Hot new wellness trans: fire baths

Trend !!!!

the dystopian part of that might be the fiance taking two work meetings on her phone while escaping.

also being engaged to a guy who worked for Vice.

https://dnyuz.com/2025/01/09/the-army-of-god-comes-out-of-the-shadows/

not necessarily limited to the US but a crypto 'prediction market' where people gamble on the extent of wildfires is pretty dystopic!

https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-acres-will-palisades-fire-burn-by-friday?tid=1736377893344

SOMEONE WORKING FOR THE CITY REACHED OUT TO OUR MUTUAL AID FOR MASKS I AM SCREAMING

— hard boiled megg (@badgalmeggy) January 9, 2025

I quit that platform so I can't read the comments but I love a mutual aid + local government partnership! Get it girl. That's power. When they know you can steward resources and connect with people better than they can, you can use that. Mwah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B19qb1Az94

Yeah every few Tiktok videos right now are someone sharing information about the Resnicks in some way! TT does so much work for people with these highly specific bodies of knowledge, allowing them to get their message out, and obv no one knows what the algos are doing on there but I've never been shown the breadth of content and people on any other platform. Not even close. There's been a steep increase in ads and shopping shit that you can scroll right past but is low-key annoying, but even with that change, the access to people and information is invaluable.

I quit that platform so I can't read the comments but I love a mutual aid + local government partnership! Get it girl. That's power. When they know you can steward resources and connect with people better than they can, you can use that. Mwah

on any other platform. Not even close

the www?

Youtube, Fb, IG, Twitter

> Why are those people still in the house???!

i wanna caption it THIS IS FINE

Sorry, sic, were you meaning to point out that the information that content creators bring to Tiktok could also be found online generally? Do you...have you used TT before? It's vastly different than looking things up when you already know that the thing exists and what search terms to use. The "for you" algorithm brings you stuff you would never think of or know about otherwise.

Not gonna happen but it'd be amazing if china managed to cause a proletariat revolution in America just by juicing the TikTok algorithm to build class solidarity.

it'd be amazing

otm

Not gonna happen

otm

China wants Americans buying stuff not having revolutions

the idea that any social media will do anything to harm the ruling classes is laughable.

I quit that platform so I can't read the comments but I love a mutual aid + local government partnership! Get it girl. That's power. When they know you can steward resources and connect with people better than they can, you can use that. Mwah

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Friday, 10 January 2025 bookmarkflaglink

As things fall apart like this people will do what they can with what they have. So yes its good to see.

Headline in São Paulo this weekend : "The USA now has 135% more homeless people than Brazil" pic.twitter.com/s7esUwPkM9

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) January 13, 2025

…

the idea that any social media will do anything to harm the ruling classes is laughable.

but broadsheets and cartoons and such were printed and published either by those sympathetic with the cause or by workers acting in a clandestine fashion. using a multibillion dollar social media platform with a board and staff that want to keep the gravy train going means that such companies first interest is in suppressing dissent against the current order of things. even if that means giving lip service to idea of freedom of speech etc, any attempts will be funneled toward monetization and pacification.

Yeah, social media in its early years showed significant capacity for grassroots organizing. Twitter in particular was crucial in uprisings in Iran and during the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall St. And yet somehow 15-ish years later, that capacity has eroded considerably as algorithms have prioritized revenue generation and those platforms' billionaire owners have reached an ideologically pro-authoritarian consensus.

Vincent Bevins’ latest book kind if gets into this a little, how social media has made dissent recuperable by the ruling classes.

Vincent Bevins’ latest book kind if gets into this a little, how social media has made dissent recuperable by the ruling classes.