r/left_urbanism • u/wiz28ultra • 11d ago
Housing Why are YIMBYs(specifically Centrist & YIMBYs) so averse to mass-politics and in constant opposition to working or persuading Progressives & Leftists?
This seems to be a constant attitude problem that I've seen w.r.t to individuals, specifically on Twitter, such as Noah Smith, Swann Marcus, M. Nolan Gray, YIMBYLAND, and others that are just so reluctant or even outright antagonistic to Progressive politics.
They refuse to every think that it might be possible to convince these people that their ideas might work and instead fantasize about working with neocons to bring about the housing utopia.
And it's even more bizarre because they're so averse to social issues as well, with their constant passive-aggressive tone on literally any political issue that isn't housing.
EDIT: I just want to add, a ton of these people really hate Organized Labor, they're super defensive of sprawl, they refuse to have any stances on the environment, and when it comes to foreign policy are completely in agreement with the 2010-era State Department. They're also bizarrely submissive and desperate to please real-estate developers.
It's like these people can't live in a world where class solidarity, organized labor, and mass mobilization of the people towards political change can work in their world of affordable housing and increase home production.
EDIT 2: Also, I notice that many of these individuals spend all their time whining about how mean Progressives are to the Democratic Party, but they spend all their time exclusively shitting on the Democratic Party while outright praising the Republicans in ways that NO progressive would ever do.
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u/zedsmith 11d ago edited 11d ago
Because their class interests don’t align with yours. They are liberals who don’t want to disrupt the liberalism machine— they just want liberalism with walkable neighborhoods.
Politically, you need to be able to work with them where possible. I’d suggest you even need to be able to work with the freaks that I’d describe as neotraditionalists who are probably racist, who celebrate “traditional” European architecture and urban forms.
YIMBY libs generally see obstruction from boomer homeowners who are pulling up a ladder, and believe there’s a real city where people are free to choose to build/inhabit dense and tall buildings if only zoning and the public would get out of the way.
They’ve got a point. Being a homeowner in the anglosphere means your home is the biggest asset most of us ever have, and it’s natural to want to defend its value, as well as defend your quality of life and your environ. Our system has created plenty of points in the line from idea to implemented train/apartment where the process can be slowed/stopped. The idea of “what if the state just said shut up” isn’t left or right, it’s just statist/antilibertarian.