This extends in so many directions. I hear people speak this way about the homeless, the addicted, the laid-off, the sick. Cancer? Begin the list of things the

This extends in so many directions. I hear people speak this way about the homeless, the addicted, the laid-off, the sick. Cancer? Begin the list of things the person did, consumed, didn't do that could have caused it (no shortage of headlines to feed the lists). Homeless? Must have acted irresponsibly and made stupid choices. It's sort of hand in hand with the "It can't happen to me" mindset. I remember my wife telling me - during the George Floyd trial - one of her co-workers interrupted when someone referred to him as a man and said "He was a drug addict" like that should end the conversation, like that exempted him from being human, like some of her favorite celebrities weren't drug addicts. "To the dumb question 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: 'Why not?'" - Christopher Hitchens, from Mortality.