Skip Navigation
61 comments
  • It's amazing that a man who does enough ket to bring down a racehorse even dares to use the phrase "drug addict" as an insult.

  • Alright I'll bite, even if Hairplug Himmler is right (and let's be perfectly clear, he's not).

    Why wouldn't we as Americans want to help our fellow citizens overcome drug use, treat mental illness, and help rehabilitation efforts on their behalf?

    ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE "VIOLENT" and "on the street". Wouldn't we want to help them get off the streets?

    Wouldn't that make us safer, happier, healthier, and dare I say... Great Again? Wouldn't that protect citizens and police officers alike at a lower cost than incarceration? (Spoiler alert it would, but there's no private for profit companies offering this service).

    Wouldn't these people become tax payers? Employees contributing to society? Become future homebuyers and start a family?

    These empathy lacking neo-fascist clowns can't stop punching down to those less fortunate (while claiming the lords name in vain) and I can't wait for the day we get the opportunity to match their empathy as they head to prison (preferably one in El Salvador).

    • Why wouldn’t we as Americans want to help our fellow citizens overcome drug use, treat mental illness, and help rehabilitation efforts on their behalf?

      It's kind of a two-part question, that.

      1. Do we want to spend the money to get fellow citizens off drugs and treat their mental illnesses?

      That's a pretty easy question if you have a soul: Yes.

      1. If those fellow citizens refuse any and all help because they have a fundamental mistrust of the system. What do we do?

      That's the more difficult question. Forcing them to get treatment breaches their human rights and only stokes further mistrust in the system. Leaving them just leaves them open to exploitation and doesn't make their lives better.

      Homes are easy, it's all the support that comes with it that's difficult, especially if the person you're trying to help either refuses to engage or actively fights you every step of the way.

      • Absolutely, and thank you for your reply. Learning and expansion of ideas and thoughts only comes from good conversation and discourse. That's what makes this such a complex and difficult issue.

        There is an inevitability of homelessness in a country is unavoidable, yes. Just like the inevitable need for criminal justice programs to detain, deter, and rehabilitate those who break the law.

        No argument from me on the facts, there WILL be homelessness and crime in any society. (This is for my sunshine and rainbows friend up top also).

        So let's figure out how much that SHOULD be:

        https://www.greaterchange.co.uk/post/which-country-handles-homelessness-the-best

        Finland currently has a homelessness rate of .06% (2023) of their population. So let's say that's the baseline when you give people a fair shot, benefits, and treat them with care, and the remaining of those people that won't take help when offered.

        The United States has a rate THREE times that at .19% homelessness. Despite having a GDP output, 83 times as large as the US.

        Since I went to public school, percentages make me woozy so let's put it in whole numbers.

        636,500 fellow citizens are homeless in the US (.19%).

        If we adopted Finland's (already proved 35+ year plan) we could get that down to 201,000 over time. Heck if it takes 35 years as well, at least we're helping them.

        That's 435,500 fellow citizens (Or a city the size of Cincinnati) that are sleeping on the street tonight, so that ONE MAN Elon Musk can pay less taxes.

        Fellow Americans, until we vote these billionaires out of office and tax them (oh I don't know, at least as much as you and I pay) we are either ignoring the issue or complicit and I for one don't want to be either.

        TL;DR: This is just one example why we should lift up those below us, and not be pessimistic about our fellow man.

        Most of our homeless want a fair shot, mental health counseling, and rehabilitation.

        We need to advocate for them and help them just like if we were reading this sleeping on the street.

    • Wouldn't these people become tax payers? Employees contributing to society? Become future homebuyers and start a family?

      The very smallest of small percent of them would. Most drug addicts never make it out of poverty because they've done something to also give them a criminal record and typically can't hold down a job.

      • You're almost there, and I sincerely value your input. Let's go on this journey together...

        What if we treated them like human beings in need of care and rehabilitation instead of criminals who can't "hold down a job"?

        Why do they not make it out of poverty?

        Is it because they can't afford to? Why is that?

        Is it because they can't afford to make ends meet on a minimum wage job? Can't find affordable housing? Can't pay for child care, counseling, health care, or rehab?

        What if we helped them get rid of their addiction and didn't jail them for it?

        If we're going to write off an entire vulnerable demographic of society, we as the functional members have an obligation to ensure that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are available to all. Not just those who can afford it.

        Many other first world countries do this successfully already, the problem with our country comes down to the money being made keeping these people locked up and incarcerated.

        Look up Norway, Finland, Sweden and their response to crime and rehabilitation. It works, if you focus on helping people instead of helping profits.

        Imagine a world where those in need got the billions of dollars in tax payer subsidies that Elon Musk gets?

      • Dude. What are you doing this for? No shit it's not a check this box and all problems are solved situation. IF ITS NOT PERFECT, NO ONE CAN DO ANYTHING.

        One step at a time, and the first step is to have a little fucking empathy.

  • 'but if they aren't hungry and homeless where will their motivation to become professionals and have children come from?' they are actually this fucking stupid.

  • I have noticed a trend of people who think working with the homeless is gonna look like a hallmark card and are shocked and appalled when they get called slurs by a homeless diabetic amputee. Its easy for them to come to the conclusion that these people are homeless because they're assholes. They're right in the sense that most of the more pleasant people never really wind up completely homeless, they can usually find a couch to crash on and a friend's shower to use until they find a new or better job.

    But it's also this cycle where having your head shoved back under repeatedly eventually makes you unpleasant so yeah eventually once you start factoring all that trauma you do wind up with somebody who's paranoid, possibly even psychotic related to drug use (tf else are they gonna do with their time? It's not like they're gonna join a pickleball league, and nobody is gonna hire somebody who never showers or has clean clothes, and you need a shitton of calories going into your body to work labor and you can't work labor at all if being unable to afford your metformin got your legs amputated).

    So I meet people who volunteer or even come to do paid work in human services and they're like wow I'm helping these people and they cuss me out and yell racial and gendered slurs at me when we're out of turkey sandwiches and I'm just like first of all, learn to appreciate ✨️The Art of The Roast✨️; half the shit these people say is a) true and b) funny asF. And second of all, I know damn well nobody told you to come work in this field for high pay and low stress so we can tell people all we want that we deserve more pay and more staffing and more resources but we all know that ain't coming any time soon so until then if your plan is to sit around complaining then do us all a favor and just leave because you're stressing the rest of us out and we have work to do.

61 comments