Is Berkeley Gaslighting Us About Nuclear Bombs?

I remember the first time I noticed the “Nuclear Free Zone” signs suspended directly above the Berkeley City Limits markers as you enter town, and I remember finding them peculiar and kind of unnecessary. There are no nuclear bombs or nuclear power plants anywhere near the City of Berkeley, so why would Berkeley pick such a weird hill to die on? Other than fleeting confusion, I never spent much time analyzing the significance of such a pointless sign, but then I saw the Oppenheimer movie, and while the movie was aggressively average, it did provide me the insight I needed to view the signs in their much needed context. 

UC Berkeley was pivotal in the development of Nuclear Weapons. Of course they were. Where else would you find a self-proclaimed leftist who would then create the greatest man made direct threat to life on earth at the behest of a country that uses all of its influence to further capitalism? 

“Nuclear Free Zone” sign photo. Source: berkeley.edu

It really doesn’t get any more Bay Area than that. 

If you really think about it, Berkeley’s “Nuclear Free Zone” signs are the spiritual predecessor to all of the “In this house we believe” yard signs that would appear in front of the homes owned by people whose ancestors participated in the things that hurt the people they love in their house…while also opposing the construction of housing for the people they love in their house to have a house of their own. 

You can’t make this shit up. 

But hey, I get it: affordable housing – similar to nuclear bombs, could really change the character of a neighborhood.

While I don’t expect Berkeley or the Bay Area to go back in time and retroactively solve the inherent problems associated with nuclear deterrence, I would like for the region to stop loudly patting themself on the back for problems it was instrumental in creating. 

One of my main critiques of the Bay Area is that if everyone is such a good person and everyone (including people with money) care so much, why is the region being strangled by levels of inequality on par with India? Our rhetoric is completely divorced from our reality. 

It needs to change. 

The collective gaslighting needs to end, and cities with influence need to understand that not all money is good money. San Francisco is currently finding itself at an interesting crossroad. While traditional tech has gone remote, Artificial Intelligence has found a home in San Francisco. And just like the atom bomb, the brightest minds in the world are flooding into the Bay Area to improve and strengthen A.I. I don’t hate artificial intelligence. The science fiction nerd in me actually thinks it’s really fucking cool, but with great power comes great responsibility, and despite all the bullshit and surface level lip service that passes as activism and advocacy, our track record fucking sucks. 

Something needs to be done that will safeguard people’s livelihoods while also implementing and expanding upon exciting new technology. The last thing I want to see posted over the San Francisco city limits sign is another sign that reads “No Robots allowed” years after the city did everything it could to facilitate technology that is an existential threat. 

You know how to stop apologizing for the past? Being good in the present so you don’t have to virtue signal in the future. 

Just a thought…

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