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The thrust of your argument seems to be "lots of homeless people don't belong here, and if we figure out who belongs here and who doesn't, and help them accordi
by benatkin 8y ago
The thrust of your argument seems to be "lots of homeless people don't belong here, and if we figure out who belongs here and who doesn't, and help them accordingly, we can improve the situation dramatically". Not a great opinion to have if you want to work with homeless people. They aren't bad people, and they aren't stupid people either, and will see the condescension from a mile away. So even if your solutions are pragmatic, I don't see how a city government could implement them without a backlash that would make their efforts ineffective.
- Fellshard 8y agoI think you're demonizing, just like GP observed people are doing. It is unwise to assume that 'homeless people' are a single group that have identical traits. There are many subcategories, each with its own causing problems, attitudes, and required solution if they are to escape homelessness. Lumping them all into one category of 'not bad, not stupid, avoiding condescension' is itself condescending and reductive. If we're to make any headway addressing the real human cost incurred by this problem, we have to have some nuance in identifying these subcategories and the individual people who occupy them.
- benatkin 8y agoI didn't say that they have identical traits. I just wanted to take GGP's post Not all homeless people are 'bad' one step further, and I don't think it's inaccurate to say that homeless people aren't bad people. BTW GGP put bad in quotes and that makes sense (though an editor would probably strike the quotes). I think calling someone bad is reductive, as you say. As far as demonizing, the only thing in this article's discussion I'd demonize is KOMO's video, which I concur with Real Change [1] is a hit piece. I don't know enough about any commenter to judge them like that, nor do I think it's my place. So if it came off this way to GGP (I don't think I did), mea culpa. 1: https://www.realchangenews.org/2019/03/20/komo-asserts-seattle-dying-misery-porn https://www.realchangenews.org/2019/03/20/komo-asserts-seatt...