Iffy take: The "march for billionaires" was, contrary to consensus, a major triumph. A handful of nobodies with incoherent far-right politics produced a major media spectacle smack dab in San Francisco. Another win for fascist creep in California, facilitated by corporate media
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@ophiocephalic I'm boosting for the discourse, but I don't think I agree with you:
Imo, it very effectively spread the word that a proposal to tax billionaires exists; most people who learn this information will want to support the proposal. In contrast, billionaires and their defenders already knew and didn't need the awareness campaign.
I also don't think any fascist/far-right character the march might've had came across in the media coverage. "Don't tax the rich" is standard centrism.
@scott
Thanks for the critique. Counterpoint: I did observe elaboration of these people's outlook in the media coverage, and it wasn't centrism. But beyond that, it can be argued that at this point, even "support for billionaires" is on its face a fascist doctrine
@ophiocephalic Is Mayor Lurie fascist then for opposing the billionaire tax?
It is true that the political outlook of many billionaires is now openly fascist, but centrists' failure to process and respond appropriately to that reality — while terrible — is not itself fascism, and to call it such risks watering down the F word into meaninglessness.
@scott
But again, the people who showed up for that demo weren't centrist. Among the viewpoints expressed: Anti-immigrant, ultracapitalist, "lesswrong" rationalist, christofascist:
> “People are just jealous that they are poorer and weaker and uglier,” she said. “We are beautiful. We’re smart. We’re strong… We are supporting the billionaires, here.”
https://missionlocal.org/2026/02/sf-march-for-billionaires-bust/
@ophiocephalic I was responding here to “even ‘support for billionaires’ is on its face a fascist doctrine.”
@scott
So far, the number of "marches for billionaires" not populated by fascists remains at zero. But to answer your previous question, I actually do think that, in facilitating informal control of this city's governance to big tech billionaires who believe in shit like network states and the AI singularity, Lurie is in fact enabling fascism. He himself is not goosestepping around and quoting Hitler, but he and politicians like him are part of the problem
What can be observed in the "march for billionaires" is the reproduction of a cycle that, repeated ad infinitum, has done much to get us to here:
- Fascist mimicry - the parodic perversion of leftist strategy
- Media compliance - the press shows up and performatively sneers at the "pathetic" turnout. But they're the real puppets, because they were again goaded into platforming fascism and turning it into a national story
- Social media reception - Progressive/rational people laugh at the clowns. Absolutely no one should be laughing at this point. Aided by the repetition of this kind of cycle, those clowns have, superficially speaking, won everything
@lins_c
As above. The fact it was so small is what makes it a win. It was a national news story. How many tv cameras would show up for a "march for the unhoused" of that size?
@lins_c
Thanks for the comment, here's what I mean by this. No billionaires were behind it, but obscure fascists were. It expands the perceptual footprint of "San Francisco fascism" in a once-radical city. This is how how the new fascism spreads, through the media vector. They don't need to make sense or convince anyone. The point is that we all paid attention