Yeah this feels deeply classist and anti-solidarity. “My channel isnt for the poor and never has been”. Pretty shit message when you consider the things he is advocating for will uplift the poor and working class higher then anyone else. “We should have affordable public transportation options” but also “not in your city you filthy poor, it’s to late for you. Sorry bucko.”
Harsh to tell people to give up on America when the people most affected by poor urban planning can’t afford to move. Things aren’t getting better here any time soon though. Or any time late…
it’ll be fixed after decolonization
idealism
I can only really speak from a Canadian perspective and I think it’s important to focus on your local area. I’ve seen in my city and all of the other major cities (I’ve been luck enough to travel to here) that along with urbanism, a heavier emphasis on public transit and active transportation, is present.
While I can only speak to the large cities, a lot of the smaller towns I’ve been to are still somewhat closely knit. It’s the suburbs that are weird and hostile to the above ideas. Not that it’s all that surprising given the predominant political views of there but that’s a long topic that others have made YouTube videos about.
To bring it back around, similar to what some other comrades have said in this thread, local/municipal politics is where you’re most likely to get some change done.
NJB has an interesting view and I can see where he’s coming from as his story and mine aren’t too dissimilar (except the city that I moved to is till within Canada). I don’t agree on the nihilism that he exhibits around Canadian cities as my takeaway is he is still living within fixed boundaries of a political mindset. It’s important to realize that many urban residents support making their city more people oriented but just haven’t had the push to become more politically engaged.
For anyone interested in Canadian urbanism/active transportation/public transit, I can recommend a few channels:
They also have videos about cities outside of Canada but are nonetheless Canadian creators so they have a bit more of a focus on their home cities.
I don’t know who this is, but I’m always very wary of influencers who tell you to give up on doing social change because it has never been done (exactly like that) before. Specially if they’re from Western Europe. Sure, acknowledge you don’t have hope for a place, though be more honest and say that you just don’t know how things can get better. But absolutely pay no heed to somebody speaking from a place of privilege that your worse situation is unfixable and you should “just move” (which for most Yankees means moving on to the afterlife because it’s what they can afford).
