4 ms·
This is just more NIMBYism. Front yard signs that everyone is welcome but then flip out when immigrants arrive. People proclaiming they care for the poor, the h
by Overtonwindow 3y ago
This is just more NIMBYism. Front yard signs that everyone is welcome but then flip out when immigrants arrive. People proclaiming they care for the poor, the homeless, yet become enraged if you dare to put a shelter within half a mile of their property. It's the same disingenuousness that American politics is rife with.
Americans seem very enthusiastic about telling everyone else what they should do about an issue, but as soon as it effects them in any way, it becomes Not In My Backyard or just "not my problem."
- notacoward 3y agoThe article does touch on this. It's a more general issue of which NIMBY is only a part. In most usage, NIMBY is about building a tangible thing in a particular place. What the author is talking about applies even when there's no tangible thing and no particular place - e.g. taxes or regulations that affect what we do or how we do them. I think of it as people saying they want some change X while precluding all ways of doing X. Consider the example of helping the poor. NIMBY: ...but I don't want to see or interact with them. Almost NIMBY: ...but not by providing them with housing or transportation other things that cost money. Not NIMBY (but still awful): ...but not by dealing with payday lenders and bank fees and punitive policing. Do you want to use "NIMBY" as convenient shorthand for all of these? That's fine with me, and consistent with your name here, but it is a shift from how the term is currently used. The difference is worth thinking about, instead of "just"-ing it away.
- readthenotes1 3y agoCouldn't all those people with signs welcoming illegal immigrants house them on a couch or spare bedroom or a tent in their back yard? This is not even more literally NIMBY than most (which are "not in my neighborhood or I usually spend my time")