I’ve lived in the southeast, the Bay Area, and Europe. The Bay Area is my favorite, but every time I go back to visit I’m just astonished — is this what the residents really want (well, SF more specifically)? I can see people agreeing with the group-think in public to fit in, but in the private of the voting booths they still vote for representatives and policies they know are going to destroy the city? It’s mind-blowing to me. Are we so split on issues to the point where we can’t have clean, safe, healthy, well-educated cities anymore?

Things that seem paradoxical and totally inexplicable like the one you mentioned, do have good (but not necessarily intuitive) explanations, but it takes a while to wrap your head around it. Its not even particularly obscure, leftism has been treated philosophically since centuries, often with astonishing foresight (eg Burnham). Check out Twitter & Substack, start with Yarvin and people associated with that sphere, and you shall be enlightened.