You all do realize that suburbs existed before the invention of the car right? American infrastructure is bad but it’s not irredeemable, the assumption that we can’t provide public transportation to these places because of a lack of resources is malthusian. And sure some places like the American Southwest and Florida are legitimately over human population carrying capacity due to climate change but in general the earth as a whole isn’t, and cities like Amsterdam are just as unsustainable as Miami since even though has one of those le epic reddit notjustbikes cityskylines approved infrastructure, both are below the sea level.

I think in general our message should be abolish the need to own the automobile, any measures meant to limit car use should target the rich before the poor. And that trains are good, and that a high speed train across the United States would be a rather popular project in the eyes of even the chuds. And by god stop calling for the suburbs to be razed, stop trying to be zoomer Robert Moses.

    • happybirthdaygonzolo [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Mao was right for sending the dumb fucking city kids into the countryside. If you don’t spend enough time in nature you end up like that guy on Reddit who cries every time they leave an urban area.

      • JamesConeZone [they/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        You can spend time in nature in cities. That's the point of giant parks, nature reserves, public gardens, and the like along with cooling off the city itself and other benefits

        • bidenicecream
          ·
          1 year ago

          That's the point of giant parks, nature reserves, public gardens, and the like along with cooling off the city itself and other benefits

          It's not the same though.

            • pumpchilienthusiast [comrade/them, any]
              ·
              1 year ago

              presumably they believe that we are separate from rather than a part of nature and that america pre-1492 was an untrammeled primordial wilderness rather than a stewarded and cultivated land.

            • Nagarjuna [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Let's put it this way: the parks in Portland are nice, but they will never compare to the nature immediately outside of Bellingham. Like, a bike polo court and some trees is nice, but when I lived in a place where I could drive to the north cascades it was just better. There's something about immersion in nature that is life changing.

              • JamesConeZone [they/them]
                ·
                1 year ago

                i understand to some extent (i live in a mountain range for that reason), but I'm trying to understand the original point of the OP. Mao's campaign as far as I understand it was to educate urban kids on the labour of the countryside to lessen urban/rural divide where industry and consumption happens in urban places and raw resource harvesting of materials in rural places. but that's entirely different then heading into a mountain range to disconnect from modern society

        • saintClass [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          This is so true. I live in a place with horrendous urban sprawl but its like 15 minutes away from the mountains, I would have gone insane without that access to nature.