LogFAQs > #956633809

Reigning_King posted...

For one there is no way to verify the account as described and even if it was completely true it is merely anecdotal and not at all the norm.

You demanded people meet standards you don't hold yourself to... and of course the moment someone meets your standards, this is your best counter?

The account is true, and it's not self-congratulatory in the slightest; my parents offered that shelter to those people, not me. Homelessness is far less common in the place I currently live, and the place I work at has guest rooms that people can use in case of emergencies, so on the occasion that someone does need temporary housing, they are usually given shelter there (it's much nicer than staying at my current residence anyway, lol).

My point in telling that story was not to brag, but to illustrate that nothing negative came about sheltering those people. You just assume that homeless people are somehow inherently dangerous or expensive to shelter, that it's a massive imposition to help keep a person off the streets, but that's just one more way that people demonize the homeless in order to justify inaction; it's not true.

If you want more details, I can elaborate. I admit my memory of my years living there is a bit hazy; I experienced some trauma as a child (not relevant to the topic at hand) and deliberately avoided thinking about those years for a long time. With the exception of the girl mentioned earlier, most of the underage people who stayed with us were either from our town or the town about 30 minutes away. My older sisters were highly social and I think they were the ones who made it clear to them that they could come to us if they needed to. Those towns still have a lot of problems... by all accounts, it's worse than ever over there. A real shame.

a denial of common sense and reality by doing things like implying it isn't the norm to be selfish or that something like homelessness can just be solved the same way one would a math problem.

A denial of common sense and reality, how exactly? It seems to me like turning a blind eye to people in need out of selfishness is more a denial of reality than anything you're suggesting.

No, it isn't the norm to be selfish. Humans are by their very nature social animals that, with few exceptions, have emotions, expressions, and behaviors that facilitate empathy and mutual aid. You just claim that that it is the norm to be selfish in order to justify your own selfishness; now THAT is the logic of a child, one who was apparently taught to reject their social nature. Ironic that you get it all so backwards.

Offering people shelter is not naive or childish... it isn't even selfless; there is mutual benefit to it, as I indicated. There are pragmatic and logical reasons to want to prevent people from ending up on the streets, both on a personal level and on one as a member of a society.

You don't get to piss and moan about the existence of homeless people, then fail to do anything to reduce homelessness, and then scoff at people who are willing to do what you aren't just because it hurts your ego. Either choose to be a better person, or at the very least have the decency to stay out of the way of people who are actually willing to do the work to make the world a better place. No serious person peddles Atlas Shrugged nonsense in the 21st century; her poorly thought-out tripe was outdated before it was even put to paper.

I wouldn't be surprised if that poster was a wannabe communist for similar ideological reasons, a chaser of pipe dreams that is to say.

I think it says a lot about you that you think that low-effort charity+advocacy for fixing systemic problems = communist pipe dreamer. If homelessness is a problem that cannot be fixed, then why is it that there are countries that have, for all intents and purposes, eliminated homelessness? You make some pretty strong statements about the nature of humanity, the world, etc... but honestly, just a few google searches will show people that you're full of it.

Homelessness is something that can be all but eliminated; we know this because places have actually done it. Society only stands to gain by doing so, and only stands to lose by not doing so; putting aside all ethical concerns, we waste time, money, and effort shitting all over these people (cops will often destroy or steal their property, for example; it's a monumental waste) when we could instead prevent their falling of the grid to begin with and keep them contributing to society. There is no reason to oppose replicating efforts made in other nations to eliminate homelessness here... well, not unless you're in the housing industry, I suppose.

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Hi