I mean, cyberpunk (the genre and the game) is largely a comment on the dire consequences of capitalism and corporate greed, aka. our current shitty timeline. If you want to look in an even more horrifying mirror, go watch Mr Robot.
I think the real world term is homeless.
I mean the article calls them the “mobile homeless” because the only place the have left to live is their cars. What is that if not a nomad?
If you don’t have a home you are, by definition, homeless… A car is not a home, and living out of one should never be normalized.
True. But in America we absolutely have, to the point where Millennial adults end up buying RVs and campers to be able to live in their parent’s backyards with some modicum of privacy. Honestly I could see a bunch of these types of people pooling money together to buy campers, RVs, or even trucks with cargo containers converted into the kinds of facilities a society needs to function, camping where the work is and moving on when the work runs out. And it’s not even a new idea. Traveling shows and carnivals were a thing way back in the day, and for the religious, traveling preachers are still a thing.
Nah this ain’t cyberpunk style nomads. This is just homelessness because of how deeply rotten our society and nation is.
The issue I have with your reason against it being cyberpunk is that there’s nothing in cyberpunk to say that the fictional roaming nomads aren’t just mobile homeless, able to move to where the work is but never able to find enough work to settle someplace.
Cyberpunk is great for a fictional setting because it looks cool, has some slick character types, fun villains, and relatable heros… but cyberpunk is dirty, and a lot of society in these worlds have been left behind, exploited, and forgotten. I fear that some people view cyberpunk as a society to strive towards, rather than a thought experiment on what could go wrong as we shape our future.
Typical Capitalism, even monetizing homelessness.
The PD is a fucking rag.