5 ms·

I think you’re wrong. An asshole who cares at least has a moral compass, and knows the direction it should point. They lack motivation though to go above and be

I think you’re wrong. An asshole who cares at least has a moral compass, and knows the direction it should point. They lack motivation though to go above and beyond their own selfishness to do more than the bare minimum, but there is still hope that one day they will. An asshole who doesn’t care at all has no hope. They truly don’t give a shit, and will only pretend to care as long as it benefits them. These are the worst. If a homeless person is dying in the street, you really think it’s better for an asshole to just step over them and continue on without a second thought, rather than say calling 911 and then continuing with their day, just because you feel their level of care is too low?

tree_of_item 8y ago
I just want to say I'm really shocked that you would continue to argue with this person, who obviously has dramatically more experience with this particular topic than you do. What exactly are you trying to do, prove them wrong? You also put up a really simple strawman with "homeless person dying on the street". That's a really contrived scenario and not what actually happens, as the person you're replying to has already explained.
pjc50 8y ago
There are plenty of jurisdictions where calling 911 on a homeless person will make their situation worse - resulting in their property being confiscated and/or destroyed, for example.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  The one time someone called an ambulance on me, I had lain down in the grass in a public park next to the sidewalk. I was walking somewhere and I have respiratory problems. I was having respiratory distress of a sort that doesn't resolve with sitting, but resolves handily if I just lay down for like ten minutes. The only evidence that that there was a problem was that I was homeless and laying down. I had no collapsed. I was not thrashing about. There was no blood or foaming at the mouth or whatever. Most likely, the reason they called an ambulance was pure prejudice and fear of approaching me to say "Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?" If I had not been homeless, they probably wouldn't have called an ambulance at all. They probably would have spoken to me to find out if I was in real distress or merely choosing to catch my breath. An ambulance was also called once when my son laid down on the side of the road to rest while walking cross country. Locals saw strangers in their neighborhood and freaked out and called an ambulance. In neither scenario was there any evidence of real distress beyond, well, we were obviously poor. The thing they had in common was we were poor and people were afraid to approach us because, obviously, homeless people are all junkies and crazies and will do something violent if you speak to them, I guess. I spent most of my life middle class. I lived without a car for a number of years before being homeless. When I laid down in the grass to catch my breath while middle class, someone asked me "Are you okay?" rather than dialing 911 to sick the authorities on me. I told them I was fine and waved them on. The irony: I was much, much sicker that day, having thrown up for 45 minutes in a public bathroom before continuing on my walk. But I was pursuing alternative remedies for my condition and walking was a big part of that and I wanted to be left the hell alone by the medical establishment has informed bluntly that people like me don't get well. So, no, I didn't want to talk a doctor about things that day. I wanted to be left the hell alone to pursue remedies that were working, remedies I was afraid the authorities would interfere with if I had to explain myself to them. I also threw up in the bushes one day while homeless. An asshole yelled at me out their car window as they passed "Drink too much!" I don't drink. I do have a serious medical condition and sometimes my lunch doesn't stay down long because of it. No, most people don't give a flying fuck about homeless individuals and their welfare. In most cases, they are just prejudiced assholes looking to fuck with the homeless. That's it.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
We aren't actually talking about someone literally stepping over a body on the street. We are talking about Facebook deciding to fuck with people by calling the cops on them. But let's go with your theory. I was homeless for several years. I also struggle with being suicidal due to my intractable personal problems that were the root cause of my homelessness. While homeless, I spent time successfully developing an online income. It was an uphill battle because of the shitty way I was treated by people online who do know how to make money on the internet. Such people, no, were absolutely not willing to give me useful constructive feedback to help me develop my projects. Some of them only ever spoke to me to be openly contemptuous while pretending that speaking to me at all was their good deed of the day because they are that monstrously classist. If someone is homeless and dying on the street, a helluva lot has already gone wrong and the lack of positive, constructive social connections combined with a preponderance of negative social connections will be a large part of the problem there. When I was homeless, people sometimes felt compelled to try to say they didn't want me to die when I was feeling suicidal while they were incapable of not shitting all over me. I didn't need some asshole trying to use me as their imagined good deed of the day. My experience of such moments was that I was being held hostage and compelled to continue to suffer by people who were going to continue to treat me abusively and not do fuck all to help me, or even fuck all to try to figure out how to shit on me less.

tree_of_item 8y ago

I just want to say I'm really shocked that you would continue to argue with this person, who obviously has dramatically more experience with this particular topic than you do. What exactly are you trying to do, prove them wrong? You also put up a really simple strawman with "homeless person dying on the street". That's a really contrived scenario and not what actually happens, as the person you're replying to has already explained.

pjc50 8y ago

There are plenty of jurisdictions where calling 911 on a homeless person will make their situation worse - resulting in their property being confiscated and/or destroyed, for example.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
The one time someone called an ambulance on me, I had lain down in the grass in a public park next to the sidewalk. I was walking somewhere and I have respiratory problems. I was having respiratory distress of a sort that doesn't resolve with sitting, but resolves handily if I just lay down for like ten minutes. The only evidence that that there was a problem was that I was homeless and laying down. I had no collapsed. I was not thrashing about. There was no blood or foaming at the mouth or whatever. Most likely, the reason they called an ambulance was pure prejudice and fear of approaching me to say "Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?" If I had not been homeless, they probably wouldn't have called an ambulance at all. They probably would have spoken to me to find out if I was in real distress or merely choosing to catch my breath. An ambulance was also called once when my son laid down on the side of the road to rest while walking cross country. Locals saw strangers in their neighborhood and freaked out and called an ambulance. In neither scenario was there any evidence of real distress beyond, well, we were obviously poor. The thing they had in common was we were poor and people were afraid to approach us because, obviously, homeless people are all junkies and crazies and will do something violent if you speak to them, I guess. I spent most of my life middle class. I lived without a car for a number of years before being homeless. When I laid down in the grass to catch my breath while middle class, someone asked me "Are you okay?" rather than dialing 911 to sick the authorities on me. I told them I was fine and waved them on. The irony: I was much, much sicker that day, having thrown up for 45 minutes in a public bathroom before continuing on my walk. But I was pursuing alternative remedies for my condition and walking was a big part of that and I wanted to be left the hell alone by the medical establishment has informed bluntly that people like me don't get well. So, no, I didn't want to talk a doctor about things that day. I wanted to be left the hell alone to pursue remedies that were working, remedies I was afraid the authorities would interfere with if I had to explain myself to them. I also threw up in the bushes one day while homeless. An asshole yelled at me out their car window as they passed "Drink too much!" I don't drink. I do have a serious medical condition and sometimes my lunch doesn't stay down long because of it. No, most people don't give a flying fuck about homeless individuals and their welfare. In most cases, they are just prejudiced assholes looking to fuck with the homeless. That's it.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

We aren't actually talking about someone literally stepping over a body on the street. We are talking about Facebook deciding to fuck with people by calling the cops on them. But let's go with your theory. I was homeless for several years. I also struggle with being suicidal due to my intractable personal problems that were the root cause of my homelessness. While homeless, I spent time successfully developing an online income. It was an uphill battle because of the shitty way I was treated by people online who do know how to make money on the internet. Such people, no, were absolutely not willing to give me useful constructive feedback to help me develop my projects. Some of them only ever spoke to me to be openly contemptuous while pretending that speaking to me at all was their good deed of the day because they are that monstrously classist. If someone is homeless and dying on the street, a helluva lot has already gone wrong and the lack of positive, constructive social connections combined with a preponderance of negative social connections will be a large part of the problem there. When I was homeless, people sometimes felt compelled to try to say they didn't want me to die when I was feeling suicidal while they were incapable of not shitting all over me. I didn't need some asshole trying to use me as their imagined good deed of the day. My experience of such moments was that I was being held hostage and compelled to continue to suffer by people who were going to continue to treat me abusively and not do fuck all to help me, or even fuck all to try to figure out how to shit on me less.