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People still use rape but there's a thing there around understanding exactly what that might mean. I've been "sexually assaulted" but not raped, legally, becaus

by IanCal 2y ago

People still use rape but there's a thing there around understanding exactly what that might mean. I've been "sexually assaulted" but not raped, legally, because of UK laws. Unhoused may be because homeless covers people living in homes. But I'm not arguing this case because I don't trust that's a real issue you're raising given the others. > Interpol argues that the term 'pig butchering' dehumanizes and shames victims of such frauds, deterring people from coming forward to seek help and provide information to the authorities." There you go. You're arguing this like this is instead of, rather than alongside, targeting criminals. How victims feel and how likely they are to report issues is important. If you called fraud "scammed an idiot" would you get as many people reporting? Pig butchering is a shockingly dehumanising term.

vasco 2y ago
> Unhoused may be because homeless covers people living in homes. My understanding of the word homeless depends on the fact that someone has no home. Can you expand on what you mean? adjective plural noun: the homeless; adjective: homeless (of a person) without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets.
- tharkun__ 2y ago
  A lot of homeless people actually don't have a home. They do not live on the streets. They live on couches at friends houses, typically for short-ish periods of time. They don't have something you'd actually call a home. They just have short term living arrangements such that they're not actually on the streets. So those would actually describe different things. Not everyone uses them consistently either tho to make things more confusing ;)
  - vasco 2y ago
    But then would you call yourself homeless if you had friends that let you sleep at their place? That feels disingenuous, there must be a better term for that. Like imagine that situation, if someone would ask you "are you homeless", and you have a place to sleep and say yes, isn't that strange? Perhaps I need to update my definition of common usage of the term but it seemed strange to me to use homeless for someone in, admittedly not the best situation, but with somewhere to sleep outside of a homeless shelter. Thanks for explaining.
    - IanCal 2y ago
      That is the use of the term technically in the UK yes. You don't have a home. You're staying somewhere or sleeping somewhere but you don't have a home. If you're sleeping in a homeless shelter, isn't that a place you have to sleep? Are you now not homeless? "Rough sleeper" is the term for sleeping on the streets. That helps a key distinction between people who don't have a place they can rely on and people sleeping under bridges. Both are bad outcomes but require different handling. It's tricky, but it is important to have terms that we can use for lots of technical things.
    - anotherhue 2y ago
      Think about it terms of how precarious their sleeping arrangement is. Own your place? You're golden. Rent officially? Probably have good tenant protection laws. Anything else is subject to circumstances which might change with short notice. If you're crashing on a friends' couch you're one disagreement or girlfriend away from being kicked out.
    - frank_nitti 2y ago
      It depends on the situation; I would absolutely consider someone homeless if they don’t know where they are going to sleep tonight, or three days from now, etc and does not have a safety net. A friend lets you crash on the couch a few days then back to sleeping in your car as your only option aside from sleeping in the streets - that’s homeless for sure in my book. I would not consider someone homeless who chooses to couch surf around friends’ pads for a while as they figure out something permanent, but has options and means, certainly not homeless
      - tharkun__ 2y ago
        Agreed. That's why my emphasis on the word home. You can have shelter, i.e. a roof over your head but you don't have what you'd call a home but you want a home. Shelter is also a loaded word, i.e. what about the "homeless" person that has a tent and is camping out in a rail yard somewhere? Is that enough "shelter" to count? A "digital nomad" that crashes on a different friend's couch, possibly in different countries even every month by choice is not really homeless. Someone that can't afford / find a place other than a friend's couch or their car is homeless. Even if he's not completely shelterless. Same with a homeless person sleeping in a homeless shelter. They have shelter. But no home. This one gets more complicated in terms of the wording because some of these homeless people have been doing it for so long that they actually seem to prefer to be home and shelterless in some cases. Sometimes they don't really prefer sleeping in a church entrance during sub-zero (C) but they prefer it over the rules or company in the homeless shelter (e.g. alcohol / pet related). These are many of the "living in the streets" people my parent commenter thought were the only ones that count as homeless I suppose.

by IanCal 2y ago

vasco 2y ago

> Unhoused may be because homeless covers people living in homes. My understanding of the word homeless depends on the fact that someone has no home. Can you expand on what you mean? adjective plural noun: the homeless; adjective: homeless (of a person) without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets.

tharkun__ 2y ago
A lot of homeless people actually don't have a home. They do not live on the streets. They live on couches at friends houses, typically for short-ish periods of time. They don't have something you'd actually call a home. They just have short term living arrangements such that they're not actually on the streets. So those would actually describe different things. Not everyone uses them consistently either tho to make things more confusing ;)
- vasco 2y ago
  But then would you call yourself homeless if you had friends that let you sleep at their place? That feels disingenuous, there must be a better term for that. Like imagine that situation, if someone would ask you "are you homeless", and you have a place to sleep and say yes, isn't that strange? Perhaps I need to update my definition of common usage of the term but it seemed strange to me to use homeless for someone in, admittedly not the best situation, but with somewhere to sleep outside of a homeless shelter. Thanks for explaining.
  - IanCal 2y ago
    That is the use of the term technically in the UK yes. You don't have a home. You're staying somewhere or sleeping somewhere but you don't have a home. If you're sleeping in a homeless shelter, isn't that a place you have to sleep? Are you now not homeless? "Rough sleeper" is the term for sleeping on the streets. That helps a key distinction between people who don't have a place they can rely on and people sleeping under bridges. Both are bad outcomes but require different handling. It's tricky, but it is important to have terms that we can use for lots of technical things.
  - anotherhue 2y ago
    Think about it terms of how precarious their sleeping arrangement is. Own your place? You're golden. Rent officially? Probably have good tenant protection laws. Anything else is subject to circumstances which might change with short notice. If you're crashing on a friends' couch you're one disagreement or girlfriend away from being kicked out.
  - frank_nitti 2y ago
    It depends on the situation; I would absolutely consider someone homeless if they don’t know where they are going to sleep tonight, or three days from now, etc and does not have a safety net. A friend lets you crash on the couch a few days then back to sleeping in your car as your only option aside from sleeping in the streets - that’s homeless for sure in my book. I would not consider someone homeless who chooses to couch surf around friends’ pads for a while as they figure out something permanent, but has options and means, certainly not homeless
    - tharkun__ 2y ago
      Agreed. That's why my emphasis on the word home. You can have shelter, i.e. a roof over your head but you don't have what you'd call a home but you want a home. Shelter is also a loaded word, i.e. what about the "homeless" person that has a tent and is camping out in a rail yard somewhere? Is that enough "shelter" to count? A "digital nomad" that crashes on a different friend's couch, possibly in different countries even every month by choice is not really homeless. Someone that can't afford / find a place other than a friend's couch or their car is homeless. Even if he's not completely shelterless. Same with a homeless person sleeping in a homeless shelter. They have shelter. But no home. This one gets more complicated in terms of the wording because some of these homeless people have been doing it for so long that they actually seem to prefer to be home and shelterless in some cases. Sometimes they don't really prefer sleeping in a church entrance during sub-zero (C) but they prefer it over the rules or company in the homeless shelter (e.g. alcohol / pet related). These are many of the "living in the streets" people my parent commenter thought were the only ones that count as homeless I suppose.