The break did not last.
In the boxing match between Elon Musk and San Francisco, the breaks between rounds are short. Barely, a round has just ended, when the bell for the next round is already sounding.
For those who have forgotten, this fight is about the future values which must prevail and govern our society in the coming years. For the billionaire entrepreneur, San Francisco represents everything that has pushed our civilization today to an ideological breaking point.
His target is progressive values, such as gender equality, diversity, anti-racist and anti-Semitic fights, the climate crisis, etc. and their corollaries which, according to him and the conservatives, are intolerance, laxity and the refusal of order. He brings all this together under the expression the "woke mind virus." Conservatives call it "woke."
Reality And Perception
The consequences of wokeism are social division, the dictatorship of thought, censorship and the rise of insecurity, according to the billionaire. For Musk, San Francisco is the symbol of all that is wrong with progressivism. He and his tech bros were therefore quick to make the liberal city the storyline on the reality and the perception of crime that currently runs through most major U.S. cities.
By attacking San Francisco, which he has been hitting for several months, Musk hopes to win the new culture war. He has detected the weak point of the tech mecca and is determined to strike until perception becomes reality.
The current perception is that San Francisco has become a lawless city. This narrative is fueled by the rise in property crimes — broken car windshields, forced car doors, theft, burglary — and the visible large numbers of homeless people on the streets as well as the proliferation of drugs like fentanyl.
All this creates frustration among the population. Last November, voters in the majority-Asian American Sunset District chose a moderate white male supervisor to replace the incumbent, progressive Chinese American.
"I think San Franciscans are still very much concerned about public safety and we still have a long way to go to make San Francisco as safe as it needs to be," District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in April. "And so, this isn't always necessarily about data. It's about the way that our residents and business owners and even visitors feel. And so that is what drives me every day, is to make sure that they aren't just safer in reality. They're also safer in the way that they feel when they step outside of their doors every day."
As for violent crimes, San Francisco has one of the lowest rates of the major U.S. cities. Recent crime data from the San Francisco Police Department show that homicides are up 5% from Jan. 1 to June 4, while robberies are up by 16.1%. Motor-vehicle thefts have increased by about 6% and arson is up by 5%
Assaults are down by 1.5% and burglaries are down by about 11%. Based on the numbers, crime is overall down by 6.9% year-on-year.
'Don't Forget to Fight Crime Too'
Musk is playing on the blurred line between crime and the perception of crime. In the new round of his fight with the city that is home to the headquarters of his Twitter company, he calls local authorities to establish order against crime, in the same way that they show their support for the LGBTQ+ community in this month of Pride.
"San Francisco Sheriff, Police, and Fire Departments salute the progress pride flag while dressed in uniform,” a Twitter user posted on Jun. 8, an apparent criticism of authorities whom the user appears to blame for succumbing to the woke diktat .
Musk joined the commentary and asked with irony local law enforcement to remember their primary role: security.
"Don’t forget to fight crime too!” The billionaire said.
The same day, he supported the unflattering portrayal of San Francisco, drawn up by a Twitter user with whom he exchanges regularly. It is the portrayal of an apocalyptic and ghostly city that Musk himself has already used in the past.
"The outskirts of San Francisco and waterfront areas are nice,” the user said. "Downtown SF is a filthy, dystopian nightmare full of human misery and drug abuse. It feels 3rd world and reeks of urine, faces & unwashed bodies. The ludicrous number of rainbow & trans flags can't hide the despair."
Musk agreed.
"Unfortunately, that is an accurate assessment.”
The anti-woke rhetoric is to attribute the desertion of the centers of big cities to crime. They sometimes forget that the biggest factor is remote work, because, since the pandemic, very few employees agreed to return to the office, causing many companies to terminate their leases. Property owners also found themselves with loans whose monthly payments increased and could not afford to lower rents. Downtown San Francisco was not spared from this reality.
Traditionally, the downtown areas of big cities are mostly occupied by offices.
Last month, Nordstrom announced that it was closing two of its stores in downtown San Francisco, a decision attributed to the drop in traffic and not to crime.
"Decisions like this are never easy, and this one has been especially difficult,” wrote at the time Jamie Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s chief stores officer, in a memo. "But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”
