There's also a strong Leftist community in the Bay Area, arguably much stronger than the rest of the country. This shouldn't be forgotten. You're way more likely to meet a Communist at a bar in SF than most parts of this country.
I went to Berkeley in the 80s. I’ve been back and it’s no where near as counter culture. It’s often the difference between hippie and hipster.
The reality is that if you live your convictions, it starts to become impossible to afford to live in the Bay Area, much like it becomes more and more impossible to remain honest and keep winning elections to higher and higher office. Such people either sell out or move out.
At the same time, the Bay Area's concentration of tech labor has fostered a new left-leaning political force, one that is still in the process of decoupling from the bosses and party politics and realizing a unique voice.
I do think that things are different now, and there's very substantial generation gap in the political scene that has made it hard to create movement, but the threads that connect the old to the new are there and are rapidly getting stronger as tech has gotten more consolidated under a few roofs.
I’m glad that more people are getting a bit more woke, but sadly humanity has the bad habit of sleeping through the screeches of the smoke alarm, waking up only after the house is burning.
The people in the penthouse can go a long time before the fire ever reaches them; and they’ll probably get airlifted out anyway.
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I went to Berkeley in the 80s. I’ve been back and it’s no where near as counter culture. It’s often the difference between hippie and hipster.
The reality is that if you live your convictions, it starts to become impossible to afford to live in the Bay Area, much like it becomes more and more impossible to remain honest and keep winning elections to higher and higher office. Such people either sell out or move out.
At the same time, the Bay Area's concentration of tech labor has fostered a new left-leaning political force, one that is still in the process of decoupling from the bosses and party politics and realizing a unique voice.
I do think that things are different now, and there's very substantial generation gap in the political scene that has made it hard to create movement, but the threads that connect the old to the new are there and are rapidly getting stronger as tech has gotten more consolidated under a few roofs.
I’m glad that more people are getting a bit more woke, but sadly humanity has the bad habit of sleeping through the screeches of the smoke alarm, waking up only after the house is burning.
The people in the penthouse can go a long time before the fire ever reaches them; and they’ll probably get airlifted out anyway.