3 ms·

It is lefties to far lefties trying to reframe things to trick people into thinking if you give these people a house all their glaring other problems, like drug

It is lefties to far lefties trying to reframe things to trick people into thinking if you give these people a house all their glaring other problems, like drug abuse, will magically disappear. It oversimplifies the problem, but is probably true for a very small percentage of homeless. The deceit is that that same small minority of homeless that this will actually work for would be helped far more by removing policies that are keeping housing prices artificially high, like the excessively restrictive zoning and long permitting processes and that would benefit everyone else except for the entrenched nimbys who pushed that crap in the first place to accumulate unjust gains for themselves.

recursive 4y ago
Lefties may well do this, but this is kind of a nonsensical argument. The alleged oversimplification was already present with "homeless". How does "houseless" imply any simpler solution? Give 'em a home, give 'em a house. Both sound equally reductive to me.
- snapplebobapple 4y ago
  This is the smart guy logic argument when politics is not governed by logic, it is governed by emotion and therefore marketing. Homeless does not oversimplify the problem in the same way that houseless does because homeless has all the negative connotations of people's experience with homeless associated it with it. The negative connotations of the actions of the homeless people the listener has come in contact with are brought up by that term so a listener with any experience will realize giving a homeless person a house will solve almost no problems and cost a huge amount of money. Whereas houseless is a new term with little to no baggage so it's easier to sell people obviously stupid ideas by changing the terms whenever the new term captures all the connotations of the old term. It's the euphemism treadmill abused for marketing rather than being used to describe the process of transferring meaning to overcome this kind of thing.

recursive 4y ago

Lefties may well do this, but this is kind of a nonsensical argument. The alleged oversimplification was already present with "homeless". How does "houseless" imply any simpler solution? Give 'em a home, give 'em a house. Both sound equally reductive to me.

snapplebobapple 4y ago
This is the smart guy logic argument when politics is not governed by logic, it is governed by emotion and therefore marketing. Homeless does not oversimplify the problem in the same way that houseless does because homeless has all the negative connotations of people's experience with homeless associated it with it. The negative connotations of the actions of the homeless people the listener has come in contact with are brought up by that term so a listener with any experience will realize giving a homeless person a house will solve almost no problems and cost a huge amount of money. Whereas houseless is a new term with little to no baggage so it's easier to sell people obviously stupid ideas by changing the terms whenever the new term captures all the connotations of the old term. It's the euphemism treadmill abused for marketing rather than being used to describe the process of transferring meaning to overcome this kind of thing.