I'd never use the phrase because of the WEF association being toxic, but yeah the entire opposition discourse to the term is... really special.

Most of the comments are just word salad:

The curse is all these people in senior administrative positions who think they can re-design the whole world and there will be no unintended consequences: everything will go like clockwork, and they will provide for everything anyone might need or reasonably want. In a world where so many (including most progressives) do not believe in God, they somehow believe that not only can they play at being God, they can do it better than the original. They have learned nothing from the collapse of Communism, the disastrous consequences of re-creating Ancient Rome or of a 1,000-year Empire. . . . This time, they assure us, they will do it "right." And there are many prepared to believe them. Why? And why now??

(ignores that automobiles have only been remotely viable as means of transit for less than 100 years, that previous administrators have re-designed the whole world around them and the unintended consequences have been tremendous)

Another one, from someone who could conceivably continue to live in the "sticks" so long as the cost of services to their property are sustainable or not dependent on public subsidies like trillion dollar bailouts every decade:

I didn't know there was a name for this "movement". Of course, I live in the sticks, so being able to see one's neighbor through a properly-mounted rifle scope often feels too close for comfort.

From someone whose potential countryside real estate's value possibly trends towards 0 as the public services like roads/sewer/water etc become increasingly poorly maintained and eventually discontinued as international competition and shrinking profits lead to smaller and smaller bailouts over time

The fact that ideas like "FMC" are getting traction is just another compelling reason for me to move to the countryside, away from the critical mass of altruistic, "progressive" do-gooders trying to save us from ourselves. Please stay in your cities, altruists!

Brain rot:

Paranoid? No. You're just aware and intelligent. As for cities, I commute sixty miles into Dallas five days a week for work, and each day I can't get back out of there fast enough. I retire in eight years (dumpster fire of the economy permitting), and after that, if I never again set foot in another city, it'll be one damn day too soon.

Someone who articulates the reason why WEF probably attached their name to this to tank it:

If the technocrats who run the world were serious about ending global warming, they would ban all private jets for NGO executives tomorrow.

So close and yet so far (emphasis mine, I guess people just do not understand that "everything is planned", just the quality of planning differs by time & place):

My husband and I lived in Paris about 50 years ago. We had young children. We walked almost everywhere or, if the distance was great enough, we took the Metro. Yes, Paris was full of cars, but it was and is also a very walkable city and has a fantastic public transportation system, although this may have deteriorated. And the city was full of neighborhoods; you could do your shopping and take your kids to school or to the park and go to church within a pretty small area. But you were not confined there. Why do we need to be forced to do what the "planners" want? Someone once said that all good Americans go to Paris when they die. I may want to rethink that.

Someone missing the fact that reduced options for addressing strife is a feature of subsidizing sprawl:

I work in Boston and can agree with most of what is said here. Many restaurants and stores have closed, South Station routinely blocks doors because homeless people are sleeping in front of them, and most days there are 20% as many people in the city as there used to be.

:matt-jokerfied: :

The idea of the FMC is perfectly fine and even appealing, provided that it develops organically and does not come with heavy handed restrictions on what one or may not do. However I think we can see that it’s just another front in the War against Cars.