more lib and progressive

The people with money, and a lot of people there have money, are the kind of people who will, with a straight face, praise themselves for "radical self reliance" as they do drugs in the desert in their camp that costs thousands and thousands if not vastly more than that. When they leave they'll congratulate themselves for leaving the "playa" spotlessly clean, crowing about their environmental stewardship, then offload tons and tons and tons of trash, much of it purchased to be used one time at BM and never again, at every small town on the road back to San Diego. The really rich people will have lackeys cart in all their shit, do all the set up, then sit outside to make sure the poors don't come in to their private party. When they're done drinking and doing drugs they'll get in a private plane at the private airstrip and fly away, leaving their lackeys to clean up after them.

I know a bunch of moderately poor hippies who go every year or two. Some of them are doing well enough that they can afford the cost of tickets and transport and two weeks of vacation. Others are so poor that they've got nothing but time, and they bum their way out there or get brought along as entertainment by wealthier people or do dangerous, unpaid labor building the site in the desert for a week in exchange for the privilege of pitching a tent on the surface of hell for nine days.

If you're familiar with the whales dolphins minnows thing in gaming;

• A lot of burners are minnows. They're artists, performers, beautiful people, small time drug dealers, hippies. You've got to let them in because they're what makes the event interesting.

• You've got the dolphins. This is a big chunk of the population. They've got a enough money to afford to take time off, they can afford RVs and generators and portable air conditioners and shit, they can afford to bring bikes they know they're going to leave behind. They don't really know how to do anything cool, but they can afford to buy some rave costumes on E-bay and they take the right drugs and spend enough time in the gym that they look good in the pictures. They go and mingle with the poor hippies and have a great time pretending they're cool and cultured and part of the arts scene for a week, then they go back to their cubes or wfh or whatever

• Then there's the whales, literally guys like Thiel and Zucc, who send a whole caravan in ahead of themselves to prepare a little temporary palace in the desert where they can party and feel cool and independent or some shit for a little while.

They've got to keep letting the minnows in, because the minnows are the only interesting people in the whole scam. So they've got to keep costs somewhat sane, because technically the minnows aren't working for BM, they're technically burners or members or whatever bullshit they tell themselves. But really, they're the circus, they're the band, they're the gogo dancers, they're the entertainment. They're allowed in to make sure the dolphins and whales have a good time and keep coming back. But aside from that it might as well be a carnival cruise where you have to bring all your own shit. Actual, literal bourgeois decadence masquerading as a free spirited demonstration of art and creativity and independence. They might as well be cosplaying peasants out back of Versaille. It's "Let them eat Cake: the Summer Camp".

Thinking that what's essentially a very pretentious private club for Silicon Valley freaks to pretend to have human experiences was going to be receptive to a climate protest was naive and foolish, but their heart was in the right place. They just should have smuggled in ARs and stormed one of the tech billionaire's compounds on day five.

There's also the eugenics aspect - Everyone in burning man photos looks sexy and beautiful because burning man is held in one of the most inhospitable deserts on earth, and you more or less need to be fit and able bodied to survive there. "radical self reliance" means no one gives a shit about accessibility. And you can guess what the racial demographics are.

From the BM website;

So you’re coming to Burning Man and you’re in a chair. It is critical that you read the Survival Guide, and take its advice seriously. If you are an experienced camper or adventurer, it should give you enough information to know what you will be facing at Burning Man and what you need to do to prepare for multiple days in the desert. If you haven’t spent much time camping or roughing it, here are a few more tips that will help make your experience at Burning Man more trouble-free.

It is important that you understand that Burning Man is not for the faint-hearted or beginning camper. It is based on personal preparedness and participation. Before you can participate, you must make sure that you have taken care of your own needs and are truly prepared for the desert environment. Being prepared will not only allow you to participate but will also allow others to participate because they won’t need to be worried about you.

Burning Man is a community and embraces everyone. There will be a limited number of wheelchair accessible porta-potties. These are clearly indicated on the map distributed as you enter the event. These are the only special accommodations that you should expect.

Lol

Burning Man is a community and embraces everyone.

Followed immediately by

These are the only special accommodations that you should expect.

later

You should plan to come completely self-sufficient.

Not young, fit, ripped, and beautiful? Get fucked.

It's basically a libertarian's idea of heaven, which isn't meaningfully different from hell.