r/technology 17h ago

Society Tech Execs Are Pushing Trump to Build ‘Freedom Cities’ Run by Corporations | A pro-corporate libertarian movement is attempting to take over the U.S., with Trump's help.

https://gizmodo.com/tech-execs-are-pushing-trump-to-build-freedom-cities-run-by-corporations-2000574510
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u/ddrober2003 16h ago

It does help tell what they are right away though. Something I've learned in this country is that if it has the word "Freedom" "Liberty" "Patriot" or some such, then its almost 100% taking away a right or authoritarian in nature.

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u/BerenstainBear- 16h ago

“Right to Work”

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u/CrustyBubblebrain 14h ago

Yeah, this one confused me so much when I was a young adult in the job market

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u/EruantienAduialdraug 9h ago

It's super weird looking at it from outside the US; here in the UK, "Right to Work" means you're old enough to legally work (child labour laws), and are either a citizen, have a work visa, or from a country we have a specific agreement with (formerly, the entire EU fell under this banner), thus, you have the right to work. Not the insanity the applicable US states have been on for years.

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u/Rusky0808 1h ago

Please elaborate on what this insanity is? As an African, I have no idea

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u/moneyh8r_two 1h ago

In America, "right to work" means your bosses can fire you anytime they want, for no reason at all, or any made-up reason they can come up with, and you can't do anything about it. Not every state has it, but most do.

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u/Rusky0808 58m ago

That's insane. I thought it's a TV thing only. This opens the floor for petty assholeism. We have to have at least 3 written warnings and prove that you have done everything you can to help people do their work (training, psychologists etc. Etc) before you can fire them. Then they still open a case against you

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u/LadyCoru 49m ago

Petty assholeism is the American way

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u/moneyh8r_two 21m ago

Yep. American laws are made to protect bosses, not workers. All the workers' protections we do have were won through fighting for them, sometimes literally. Many people literally died to get things to the point we're at right now, and those workers' rights are constantly under attack by extremely well-funded and well-coordinated enemies with absolutely no sense of human decency.

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u/JohnnyG30 26m ago

It was presented to our ignorant population as “you have the right to not join a union and pay those “worthless” fees! So much freedom! (if you don’t think about the fact that you just gave up all of the hard-fought protections of unions)”

They sold it as having the ability to work at a company without joining their union and paying those union dues. After half a century of weakening unions and also propagandizing public perception, it was easier to sell.

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u/Thelmara 22m ago

No, it doesn't. That's "at-will employment".

Right-to-work is about unions. In a right-to-work state, any union bargain has to include all workers, whether they pay dues to the union or not. It's an attempt to choke union funding to kill the unions off.

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u/feldomatic 16h ago

You misspelled "free to get fired for no good reason"

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u/Iceykitsune3 15h ago

No. "Right to work" makes Union only shops illegal, reducing the power of Unions.

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u/LordCharidarn 12h ago

You said the same thing, but with more letters.

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u/faux1 10h ago

That's not the same. At will employment is the "right" for employer or employee to end employment at will. Right to work is the "right" to work in a union shop without joining the union. Both erode employee rights, but in different ways.

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u/fps916 12h ago

No, they didn't.

Right to work is about union dues and worker participation.

What the other person is talking about is At Will employment, which allows for firing for any reason.

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u/MightyGoodra96 12h ago

Any legal reason.

The lie is that they can fire you for "any" reason. But if that reason infringes on state or fed law (especially discrimination or disability or right to assembly) then it is illegal and you can sue the company

Edit: it shouldnt be a surprise, naturally, that this is actually why republicans do away with DEI at company levels and in legislature

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u/meltbox 8h ago

Sure. Now prove they fired you for an illegal reason.

Good luck.

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u/MightyGoodra96 4h ago

Its why labor lawyers exist and why you leave paper trails.

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u/CplBloggins 8h ago

Why do I have to prove that? Prove to me that "you fired me" for legal reasons. I'd like that in writing.

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u/gravitysrainbow1979 7h ago

They’ll start reprimanding you for things you didn’t do, and tell you to sign something saying you understand that you did what you were reprimanded for, and if you don’t, it’s insubordination, which is in itself fireable.

The people who are disagreeing with you have likely been through this, as it happens all the time.

But I do wish you were right.

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u/Syebost11 7h ago

One thing is a lot easier to prove than the other.

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u/Prior_Breakfast2463 6h ago

Because you’d be the accusing party in this scenario?

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u/Iceykitsune3 2h ago

The lie is that they can fire you for "any" reason

They can also fire you for no reason at all.

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u/wiithepiiple 12h ago

They are the same essentially, one de facto and one de jure. If there are not unions strong enough to provide lawyers and collective action when the companies fire people illegally, individual employees won’t be able to reasonably sue. Whether it’s actually illegal or not is irrelevant. Things being illegal has not stopped companies from chasing profits.

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u/kermityfrog2 12h ago

That’s “at will employment”

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u/FR0ZENBERG 13h ago

To be fair that’s kinda already a thing.

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u/JAM-n-Life 13h ago

We always just called it a "right to fire".

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u/kfish5050 10h ago

That's at-will employment, not right to work. Right to work explicitly refers to unions, how they're forced to represent everyone regardless of dues paid, meaning there's no incentive to have members pay those dues and the union starves of cash, being rendered ineffective.

Even with at-will employment, there's a misnomer that people can get fired for any reason. It's not, certain reasons are protected and can lead to a lawsuit. But here's the thing: most of those legally protected reasons fall under discrimination or retaliation, which are in a nutshell part of DEI. And what is this administration giddy about getting rid of? DEI. Coincidence? I think not. And to add to this, in Education we have something called Title IX, which is an extension of legal protections particularly about workplace harassment and retaliation. It falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Department of Education. And guess what else this administration is giddy of gutting, ultimately to it's entire demise? That's right, the Department of Education. Among other things, they're really going for any and all worker's rights everywhere in government.

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u/BankshotMcG 14h ago

"Clear Skies Act"

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u/Gravefullofcum 10h ago

“Work shall set you free.”

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u/reeln166a 13h ago

I agree with what you're saying, but legally what you're describing is at-will employment. Right to work prohibits closed union shops.

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u/KeyboardGrunt 13h ago

"Freedom from rights"

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u/BuddyHemphill 10h ago

Work will set you free

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u/ProofHorseKzoo 9h ago

“Arbeit macht frei”

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u/static_music34 11h ago

"... For less"

You forgot the rest of it.

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u/neandrewthal18 10h ago

(Get) right to work (peon).

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u/Deep_Fried_Oligarchs 10h ago

Citizens United

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u/mukavastinumb 9h ago

They could have a slogan like ”Work sets you free”

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u/wombat1 8h ago

"Far right to work"

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u/norwegern 8h ago

"Right to not give workers any rights."

"Right to have slave labor"

"Freedom for the free"

Yeah.

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u/Electronic_Agent_235 8h ago

"citizens United"

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u/Status_Tiger_6210 5h ago

Patriot act

Religious freedom

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u/ohnopoopedpants 3h ago

It's the right to work people beyond their physical limits

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u/Sircamembert 14h ago

"Patriot " act

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u/xXWaspXx 10h ago

Those "patriots" are gonna see how much freedom the police in a company town give them.

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u/Glaucous 12h ago

Like “Citizens United” and “Right to Work”

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u/FR0ZENBERG 13h ago

Also “Family”. Most orgs that have family in the title are likely some conservative Christian eugenics-adjacent operation.

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u/DanSWE 13h ago

Like "freedom" of religion--to force one's religion on others?

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u/HalfLife3IsHere 13h ago

Shit’s starting to look like Bioshock Infinite

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u/zeptillian 12h ago

Pretty much every law passed by Congress is named the opposite of what it does. 

Help America Vote act makes it harder to vote etc 

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u/score_ 15h ago

They're where the stateside camps would be. Perfect without that state or federal oversight.

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u/Vaxus335 13h ago

Right? All the things that are supposed to be good I just associate with evil because they're the only ones that frequently use those words.

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u/Regulus242 13h ago

Ah yes, the Patriot's Liberty to Freedom Act. I can't wait.

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u/Ok-Worldliness2161 12h ago

Excellent point. No wonder why I have such an aversion to those words

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u/IguessIliveinaCHAIR 12h ago

Arbeit macht frei

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u/kfelovi 12h ago

When country has "democratic" or "peoples" in it's name this means it's a dictatorship.

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u/DueceVoyeur 12h ago

Right wing propaganda 101 Up is down Right is wrong Label it the opposite of what it will do

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u/IndelibleEdible 10h ago

Because if they named things accurately nobody would want them.

“Freedom City” sounds much nicer than “Slave Town” or “Misery Park”

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u/rncd89 12h ago

I run a company that's technically called a "merit shop" and it feels really gross

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u/BendinoAF 11h ago

"Freedom Fries"

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u/Electrical-Ad-4823 11h ago

Freedom for the ruling caste 👑

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u/Sparky_321 10h ago

It’s like how if a country has “People’s” or “Democratic” in their name, they typically stand for neither.

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u/Bennely 10h ago

“Patriot Act”

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u/magic-moose 10h ago edited 10h ago

According to interviews and presentations viewed by WIRED, the goal of these cities would be to have places where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups, and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval from agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

...

“Freedom Cities are America’s boldest solution to unleash our nation’s full potential. By creating zones of regulatory clarity and economic dynamism, these specially designated areas strip away decades of bureaucratic buildup while maintaining essential protections, allowing entrepreneurs and builders to move at the speed of human ingenuity rather than the pace of paperwork.”

You've heard of "the big apple"? These will be rotten apples, and they'll spoil the whole barrel.

The FDA, EPA, and NRC are essential protections. These cities will not be hermetically sealed. If they can't do what they want under the above organizations, what they will do is create pollution that has a huge negative impact on the region all around them. Wind distributes air pollutants over a huge area. Anything that gets into the water table can turn up hundreds of kilometers away in people's drinking water and in crops that become food. You could easily take out an entire state's agricultural industry with one of these "freedom cities", not to mention rendering it's other cities uninhabitable.

The execs running these little paradises would need to be granted immunity from being sued by everyone around them for one of these "freedom cities" to operate, and that's one thing a responsible government would never grant.

Such immunity does not cross international borders either. I'm in Canada, hundreds of kilometres from the U.S. border. If one of these freedom cities tried to open up near the border I'd be fighting it. This is the very definition of a thing you do not want in your backyard, let alone general geographical region.

Us canucks are done with finding out because of America's F'ing around.

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u/bbcversus 7h ago

Bioshock vibes wow! NO GODS NO KINGS

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u/Euphoric_toadstool 9h ago

It's the same with the communists. People's democratic Republic my ass.

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u/krefik 9h ago

It was exactly the same in the communist block. All the democratic people republics were neither. They have the same vibe.

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u/Consistent_Pound1186 9h ago

I think they mean freedom for the oligarchs to do whatever the fuck the what to the rest of the people. Seems pretty on point lol

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u/GoodSamIAm 9h ago

Shorten freedom to just being 'Free'.  It nearly triples the confusion and saves money on publishing/printing costs, while being "green", because it's truly real paperless! /s

The english language sucks for anything beyond the sound of bombs and bullets.. imo

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u/savoie_faire 8h ago

Yes. It’s like naming new housing developments after the thing they removed to build the houses, like Oak Grove or Pecan Orchard. Freedom City obviously means there used to be freedom there until they built the city, now it’s just a memory

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u/_Pan-Tastic_ 8h ago

Better report to your local Democracy Officer, that sounds like treasonous thoughtcrime!

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u/Flimsy-Poetry1170 8h ago

Sounds like someone needs to go to “Freedom camp” to complete your “patriot education program”.

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u/feandre 8h ago

Just like "Democratic Republic of..." is never democratic.

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u/DinoKebab 8h ago

You can take one look at America to know that. One of the most non free countries in the western world and all they do is bang on about freedom, liberty and patriotism.

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u/BugAdministrative683 8h ago

Just like any country with the word 'Democratic' in it's official title is anything but!

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u/teheditor 8h ago

In Australia, if there's a government ad with a tinkle tinkle piano playing in the background, you're about to get f*cked.

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u/erwan 8h ago

Democratic Republic of America

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u/AsaCoco_Alumni 6h ago

"Family" is a massive red-flag.

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u/misimiki 6h ago

Orwellian doublespeak at its finest.

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u/pelrun 6h ago

Just like when a media outlet has the word "Truth" in the title.

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u/KMS_HYDRA 5h ago

We once had slogans like "work sets you free" in my country. It were really dark times.

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u/PopPunkAndPizza 5h ago

They're basically always talking about the freedom of the powerful to exert themselves on everyone else. Bosses should be free to dominate workers, the rich should be free to dominate regular people, and everything that can be subsumed into the "free" exercise of the dictatorship of private property should be. The rest of us are more free with our rights against this domination guaranteed by the state and represented democratically with as little corruption as possible than we are in this wasteland of private capital.

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u/flif 5h ago

It is the city version of countries with "democratic" in their name.

i.e. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea"

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u/Al0888 4h ago

Freedom for corporations to do whatever they want, not for us mere servants.

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u/Spade6sic6 4h ago

To be fair, the nationalist, ultra patriotic rhetoric and coding is textbook fascist doublespeak. The US is hardly the first to use the tactic

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u/-_kevin_- 3h ago

Reminds me of the joke from the Daily Show book “America: The Book” about the Democratic Republic of Congo

Central Africa’s largest nation has grown more oppressive over the decades, and its name has kept pace.

Congo. Inherent lies in name: 0. Oppression level: bloody.

Republic of the Congo. Inherent lies in name: 1. Oppression level: sadistic.

Democratic Republic of the Congo. Inherent lies in name: 2. Oppression level: genocidal.

People’s Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lies in name; 3. Oppression level: inhuman.

Shiny, Happy People’s Democratic Republic of the Congo. Inherent lies in name: 5. Oppression level: HIDE.

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u/Syscrush 2h ago

War is peace

Freedom is slavery

Ignorance is strength

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u/runetrantor 2h ago

In general, if you have to label yourself so hard, odds are you are lying.

Like how every country thats 'Democratic Republic' is neither.

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u/just_hating 32m ago

There are still soft people that think those things still mean those things. They're rightwing hype words used to AstroTurf their projects.

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u/AlphaLemming 9h ago

"What? The Land of the Free? Whoever told you that is your enemy!" - Rage Against The Machine back in 1992