I’ve occasionally been told something to the effect of, “I agree with urbanists, but I don’t trust them.” I usually hear this from conservatives—people who like what they’re hearing, but are skeptical, or suspicious that there’s some much broader “leftist” agenda behind the seemingly commonsense talking points. I get it, and it’s one reason I like Strong Towns so much (because it’s very nonpartisan and uses unusual, insightful arguments and framings) and it’s a reason I try to come at arguments for urbanism/housing/transit from a different direction than people are used to hearing.

But this post isn’t about urbanism (hey, not all of them are.) Rather, it’s about my own “agree but don’t trust” moment. A couple of weeks ago, a Colorado environmentalist named Wynn Bruce set himself on fire in Washington, D.C., apparently to protest global warming...