I always thought the idea of San Francisco as a dystopian nightmare was some kind of bit. An exaggeration made meme, something people said with a wink to signal their politics more than their understanding of reality. I didn’t realize just how many Americans actually believe it so deeply that they could travel across the country, step off a plane and walk through one of the most visually stunning cities on the continent — only to be shocked that they were lied to.
Super Bowl visitors who discovered the truth over the weekend got a glimpse behind the curtain of right-wing media manipulation. While the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots was played about 40 miles south of San Francisco, much of the NFL’s activities and media opportunities were staged in the city that’s served as conservative media’s favorite punching bag for decades. What right-wing media does exceptionally well is curate reality by looping the same context-free footage. With former Speaker of the House — and San Francisco resident — Nancy Pelosi serving as a convenient caricature of liberal elites, Fox News, MAGA talk radio and right-wing social media influencers have relentlessly portrayed the city as a dystopian hellscape of human feces, discarded needles, rampant crime and zombie-like drug addicts stumbling through streets abandoned by anyone with sense or resources.
