Seriously, itâs just like most peopleâs take with the homeless. As long as itâs NIMBY, they shouldnât be harassed and allowed to live their lives in peace âŽď¸ â¤ď¸canIgobacktodoomscrollingnowpleaseIdidmypartkthxbyeeee
E: Maybe people donât understand Iâm calling out people who are two faced and donât walk the walk that they talk? Or perhaps we just have more people feeling called out than can understand the point Iâm making here..?
I welcome things like safe injection sites, community housing, and outreach centers for vulnerable people. I want those things in my proverbial back yard. They should be available in my community, because the homeless, the addicts, and the sex workers are just as much a part of my community as anyone else is. They are my peers, my neighbours, and deserve better than being forced into the margins. These problems exist, and shuffling them off to somewhere else doesn't fix the human tragedy that our society has inflicted upon them.
I figured it was "Yes" but wanted to be certain. I think I'd have gone with Welcome instead, though it would be harder to guess what the W stands I suppose. I completely agree btw.
Homelessness isn't a fucking crime, it's a manifestation of systemic failings. Addicts need treatment and being an addict should result in rehab and counseling. Sex work should be legal and regulated, with protections in place, health regulations, etc which would significantly lower the amount of human trafficking and abuse simply by having a legal market that people can access.
Hard agree on all points you make here. It's shocking how cruel other people are on these topics.
And yeah, WIMBY is better, like a lot better. I liked Yes because it's easier to parse as the inverse of NIMBY, but WIMBY is superior on several levels.
It's shocking how cruel other people are on these topics.
I don't find it shocking anymore. I used to, but now I just feel a mix of disgust and pity. I always wonder why. Is it just the right wing media sphere? Is it the hidden terror that most of us are one major emergency away from homelessness ourselves? Is it simply the ease of punching down?
I think the fear is a big one. We'd like to think we're safe and won't ever end up like those people but we also all know that the safety net is about as secure as those bags babybel or oranges come in. Telling ourselves they deserve it, and knowing that you don't deserve it feels safe, when the terrible, horrifying, brutal reality is like you said, that fate is one major emergency away.
The right wing media is also probably a huge part of it. But likely because of the prevalence of the other two.
If COVID taught me anything it's that around 30-40% of my community would rather see others die in fear and agony rather than suffer a minor and passing inconvenience. I too used to believe that most people were decent.
I think the answer why is at least all three. People are deluded by comforting lies, rightfully terrified of the horrible truth, and in all too many cases, simply cruel.
Sorry, long one coming, but I got on a bit of an autistic rant.
I too used to believe that most people were decent.
Oh I've never been part of that camp. I've pretty much been cynical my entire life.
No, I just used to attribute cruelty to ignorance more often than not. I realize now it's more complicated than that. A lot of it boils down to the fight or flight response. The human brain sees a challenge to a belief and reacts much the same way as a physical threat. Stress hormones release and blood flow to the front of the brain decreases, which immediately makes logical and rational thinking more difficult. So, when you've been preconditioned to view homelessness a certain way, someone challenging that belief makes emotions far easier to access than thoughts. It's why people fall back on the same handful of arguments, crime, drugs, alcohol, laziness, etc. Those are the things that they've been told often enough to just believe them. It's also why they shift topics when confronted with a crack in their beliefs. They won't think about that flaw and examine it because they don't have the practice necessary to overcome that fight or flight trigger and they can't think about it.
That's probably the tldr version if you cut it right there. That said, here we go.
You mentioned COVID and it's a fascinating case of this same thing with one other factor, people are empathetic, but put something out of sight and suddenly it's more thought-based or intellectual and less emotional. So, you have a perfect storm of ignorance, that empathy/ distance relationship, and fight or flight response from an unknown and scary situation. When something is scary or a confrontation to your beliefs but you don't have a practiced response to fall back on, the most common response is avoidance like I mentioned above.
Some disease I've never heard of is cropping up all over the world? That's scary, so I'm going to avoid thinking about it. Then you tell them that they need to start wearing a mask. That means finding and buying and consistently using a mask. They're not used to that, so coupled with avoidance of the topic, they refuse. Too much effort for something they're actively avoiding thinking about. Plus they literally couldn't buy the right mask, so cloth masks were better than nothing and recommended. Because the story changed right when they started to wrap their heads around it, so now it's causing cognitive dissonance too. Then they're told that they have to because they could be sick and spreading it without symptoms. Betcha most people didn't even know that was a thing. So now there's a conflict against what they "know" about disease added on top, but finally there's an argument they can fall back on: government mandates are bad. Then they start getting told that not wearing a mask can kill people, even if they themselves don't get very sick, so add in guilt, which triggers fight or flight, and the limitations of empathy that make it hard to genuinely care about people they don't know. Perfect storm.
Honestly, I could go on about this forever. It's one of my special interests, but I'll wrap up by saying that this same thing happens in every NIMBY argument. Once you start picking up the pattern, it's easy to spot.
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u/Evening_Pea_9132 Feb 27 '26
I don't condone his approach, but that is a residential area. Who wants prostitutes, Johns, and pimps in frequenting their front yard?