Living in Silicon Valley for eight years is what killed my faith in liberals. Seeing all these self-proclaimed "progressives" turn into selfish assholes whenever they're the ones who might be theoretically effected in some indirect way by a basic act of human decency made me realize that all the liberal values that CA's politicians preach about to the rest of the country really are just self-aggrandizement. It hasn't changed my own views about liberalism, but it has made me completely apathetic to all these stupid political power struggles.
(also see all the sanctuary cities that are complaining about how unfair it is that texas has started giving migrants free bus rides to their cities).
> Living in Silicon Valley for eight years is what killed my faith in liberals
So there are several issues here. We, as tech people, when scaled up to be a significant demographic are in totality a pretty boring lot. There are an awful lot of tech people who view their stock options as a (defining) personality trait.
As for the label "liberal", it's not one I prefer because it's so often misunderstood and misused. For example, most conservatives and "liberals" can all be described as liberals in some sense. Also, "liberals" often mean "neoliberals".
"Progressive" or "leftist" tends to be cleaner teminology (IME) but there are relatively few of these in the US. It's why I say PINO (Progressive in Name Only) when referring to Bay Area "progressives" because in reality they're largely just neoliberals with a trendy veneer of social progressiveness over neoliberal values.
You might find such people self-describe as "socially liberal, fiscally conservative". This is a contradiction in terms. The slavish devotion to markets by neoliberalism is incompatible with social issues because capitalism here is a tool for exploitation and oppression.
Case in point: the very NIMBYism we're talking about. A free market purist will typically argue the free market is deciding on home values and that's most efficient when there's really no such thing as a free market. Zoning laws determine what you can build on land, the minimum lot size, etc. It's how most of the US bans anything other than single-family homes.
So NIMBYism constrains supply and increases property prices. Great for existing landowners (to some degree). Not so great for everyone else. Most notably the homelessness crisis which is a direct result of housing unaffordability and crime being a natural consequence of poverty.
> also see all the sanctuary cities that are complaining about how unfair it is that texas
Certain states (cough Texas cough) very much are in the business of "solving" their homelessness issues by simply shipping their problems to blue states and letting them pay for it. That's not really solving anything.
(also see all the sanctuary cities that are complaining about how unfair it is that texas has started giving migrants free bus rides to their cities).