CNN host Fareed Zakaria aired an astonishing rant this past weekend arguing that major US cities are filthy and dangerous because of “democracy,” and that makes them more “vibrant.”
Zakaria was attempting to provide a counter argument to Tucker Carlson’s recent report that Russia’s subways are nicer than America’s.
Modernity.news reports: “American cities are expressions of democracy,” Zakaria asserted, claiming they are “places where people have to negotiate differences and find ways to live together, that makes them messier and dirtier and sometimes chaotic.”
He then argued “perhaps that is what has made these cities so vibrant and innovative, and why they have been at the forefront in making America the country that leads the world in economics, technology, culture and power.”
Is rampant crime, homelessness, and drug use part of said vibrancy?
Fact check. American cities were not shit holes when the country emerged as the envy of the world.
Zakaria continued, “Carlson speaks enviously of cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and they are indeed wonderful in their own distinctive ways. But what’s striking about all of them is that they are somewhat tame and subdued. The product of authoritarian governments or conformist culture, or both. American cities are different.”
He appears to be seriously claiming that you cannot have a clean and safe city without some kind of evil dictatorship overseeing it.
Zakaria continued “Carlson put forward a bizarre hodgepodge of assertions he thought the architecture, food and service in Moscow was better than in any American city. Really? Moscow?”
“Outside of a small historic center, it is filled with drab Soviet era concrete buildings. And while the food in Moscow can be quite good…Better than New York or San Francisco? You need to get out more” Zakaria concluded.
Has he been to San Francisco lately?