Montana Candidate Proposes 'Homeless Island' Tourism—Just Don't Call It a Concentration Camp
Montana's Pete Anderson pitches a 'homeless island' to house the unhoused, funded by tourism, without 'government borrowing.' This isn't innovation; it's a rebranding of historical atrocities. From Australia's penal colonies to apartheid-era 'Bantustans' and their modern derivatives, the forced relocation and segregation of 'undesirables' isn't new. The media frames this as an outlandish local
story, ignoring how routinely governments worldwide (including our own with Indigenous populations and migrant detention) have 'solved' social problems by making them disappear—often out of sight, out of mind, and occasionally, into profitable 'attractions.' Critics might point out the ethical implications of turning human beings into exhibits, but Anderson's plan neatly sidesteps such moral
quandaries by suggesting it would provide 'shelters.' How many 'solutions' to poverty involve isolating the poor rather than addressing systemic issues like stagnant wages, affordable housing crises, or lack of healthcare? Perhaps next, we'll turn our crumbling infrastructure into an 'impoverished theme park' complete with photogenic potholes. Truly, the free market has a solution for everything,
especially if that solution generates a 'return on investment' from gawkers.