Edit

I kinda made this post out of spite for the fact the most previous post in this community, whose title I quoted/copied, was getting so many downvotes… At the time I posted this, the previous post had about a 30% downvote rate, and it really, really made me mad.

I am relieved tho to see people in the comments here who have real, actual empathy for their fellow humans. Thank you for contributing here.

It blows my mind how normalized it is to hate on those who are struggling. Especially in 20fucking23 when so many of us now are on the verge of it ourselves. Let’s be better, everyone - to everyone. I beg you.

  • adderaline@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    i mean, you have to know that isn’t true, right? people call the cops on homeless people for just existing all the time.

    i get so baffled every time people talk about needles, fires, shit, and garbage around tent cities. why do you think unhoused people would set fires? because they get cold just like you. why do you think there’s shit there? because they shit just like you. why do you think they’re garbage there? because they make trash just like you. the only difference between people and unhoused people is that there isn’t any infrastructure in place to give these people shelter, keep them warm, dispose of their trash, flush their toilets. why is there violence? because these people are living in abject poverty, in close proximity, and with very little privacy. why are there weapons? because they live in public. of course, your perception of these things is warped, a lot of times large camps will try to organize places to dispose of their waste, try to keep things tidy, and are relatively safe, but that isn’t easy, and you only think it is because you have the invisible infrastructure of a modern nation holding up your standard of living.

    all the things society would “have a fit” over are things that you yourself can only keep under control with vast quantities of modern infrastructure. you have pipes to take your shit away from you, cans to put your garbage in that get picked up on a regular schedule, a power grid and gas pipes to heat your home when it gets cold, a home with locking doors, doctors offices with sharps container for shots, and on and on and on. the cleanliness and safety of where you live is almost never about how much you care. its about how much you have, and passing judgement on people for having less than you is wrong.

    • bookmeat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Tldr; lived next to a tent city with exactly these problems. Stop excusing it.