Newsletter: “Freedom,” “Control,” and the Rhetorical Battle For Safer Cities
Freedom and control. These two buzzwords have a lot of sway in the American imagination. Freedom might be the most powerful single word in America. We’ve built an entire national identity around it.
These terms have enter the rhetorical fight for creating safer streets, cleaner air, more affordable housing, and more green space in our cities.
When I hear vague words, I often pause and reflect.
Years ago I wrote about how George Orwell dissects propaganda, we can disarm talking points by calling them out and examining them closely.
The first step begins by agreeing on reality.
Framing The Problem: Cars in Cities Are Bad
I have written about this so much so I’ll keep it short.
- They pollute city air. In poor neighborhoods with highways like the South Bronx, 1 in 4 kids has asthma.
- They make cities dangerous and unpleasant. We all agree walking on our streets would be better without their honks, polluting tailpipes, and danger to pedestrians and cyclists.
- They are subsidized in just about every way. Car drivers often think they subsidize transit, but it’s the other way around.
- They’re not healthy or pleasant for drivers. Sitting in traffic slowly kills you. No surprise there.
- Geometrically, they make no sense for cities, for which the entire point is to live close to lots of stuff. Cars move very few people in a lot of space. Cars in cities spread everything and everyone out, which requires more cars. It’s a vicious cycle.
We can make our cities calmer and cleaner with more green space, housing, outdoor dining, and more. But we have to prioritize these uses over cars.
I have lots of good-faith discussions about the real challenges in making this happen on TikTok. Millions of working-class city-dwellers rely on a car. We face real challenges when discussing improving other options without punishing those who have no choice right now.
However, I also spend a lot of my time on TikTok having bad-faith discussions driven by the buzzwords “freedom,” and “control.” Until we move past conversations like this, we can’t get to real solutions.
“Freedom”
“They want to take away your freedom to get to work.”
I’ve gotten several versions of this comment. First, does replacing a car lane with a bus lane give people more or less freedom?
The problem with the word freedom, like so many propaganda terms, is it’s vague.
To some, it means driving when they want, where they want, without paying for the costs it imposes on others (like pollution.)
To others, it means getting to work, ideally with less traffic.
To somebody without a car, improved bus service or a safer bike lane provides more freedom. It means they can shorten their commute or expand where they look for jobs.
The use of the term “freedom” imposes a very specific definition. The first one.
When it comes to building better cities, it’s a worthless term.
There’s an irony to its use too: better transit is good for drivers. A driver sees a bus-only or bike lane as taking away from them. However, improved transit means fewer people will drive, which alleviates traffic.
“Control”
In the past few years, the idea of the “15-minute city” (the ability to meet your basic needs in walking distance) hit the mainstream.
It got picked as a conspiracy theory that liberal city elites want to shove everyone into tiny apartments in city centers so they could, “control” us.
As with “freedom,” there is a great irony to this.
Most Americans do not have the choice to meet basic needs without buying the products of the automobile, fossil fuel, and car insurance industries.
They may not, “control” us, but they give us little choice but to buy their products.
These ironies remind me of a therapy concept called negative projections, where people attribute their negative emotions to others. (Which you can read more about in this article: When Politicians Tell on Themselves: Negative Projection as Propaganda).
We Fight Back with Real Stories
I love the George Orwell quote, “Probably we could do with a little less talk of ‘capitalism’ and ‘proletarian’ and a little more about the robbers and the robbed.”
We must use clear language and tell real stories.
A new bus route means a single mother can get to a job she couldn’t before.
Reducing the lanes on a city highway means less coughing and asthma attacks for those in its path.
A protected bike lane means someone too scared to bike before, now gets more exercise and sunshine.
We could do with a little less talk of ‘freedom’ and ‘control’ and a little more about how clean air, less traffic, and the ability to go for a pleasant walk outside your home is good for everyone.
Abrazos,
~David
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