I'm gonna mute this one

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Who is Merriam-Webster? Some woke billionaire?

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No, shelters are.

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So hostile architecture is unnecessary.

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It's a political problem. Houseless people are there because there's no political willpower to create systematic change to support them. So you're absolutely right when you say:

we must either come up with new resources or reevaluate our investments in the resources we currently employ.

The only problem is the answer to this question is more often on the side of the investment not being worth it, so the problem is left unaddressed.

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I feel you, my point is that the time for fighting for a better democrat candidate is during the primaries (or now)

And yet even (now) when leftists state even the mildest of criticisms against liberals, we get accused of not being able to differentiate between liberals and fascists. "Both Sides The Same"- right?

And plenty of people do try to get better candidates elected during the primaries. You know who makes that damn near impossible? The fucking DNC. They are the ones who decides who gets the nomination, not the people. In 2016 we finally had proof of that when they colluded with the Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders, and if you think that was anything new or has changed in any way- you aren't paying as close of attention as you imagine you are. In the ensuing lawsuit the DNC successfully argued in court that the DNC is "well within their rights to select their own candidate". This is despite the fact that their own charter promises ‘impartiality and even handedness’. They argued that was a mere "political promise" (aka an outright lie) and that it was "political rhetoric" that is not enforceable in federal courts.

So I'll ask you, if it's the DNC who decides who the nomination goes to and not the people, does that sound 'Democratic' to you? To me that sounds exactly like the Oligarchs are already in control and have been for a long time. How else are we supposed to fight for a better candidate other than try to educate others?

The vast majority of voters aren't even aware that even went down, because 'surprised Pikachu face' it was barely covered in the 'mainstream media'. The ONLY hope we have is waking people up to the realities of the situation, and liberals constantly blaming leftists for their failings isn't helping that cause at all.

Plenty of “leftists” online actively shit talked Harris weeks before the election.

Ok? Let's say for the sake of argument that all these people you claim to have seen with tons of support here and on reddit were actually leftists. Do you think they were doing that in order to get Trump elected? 'Weeks before the election' pretty much everyone had already made their mind up who they were voting for. The so-called 'moderates' who voted for Trump were not swayed by them.

The sad truth is that the U.S. elections are a clown show and it's more of a popularity contest than about policy. Most Republicans have no idea what Trumps plan/platform actually is other than "get rid of as many brown people as we can", and not an insignificant amount of Democratic supporters liked Harris simply for being a woman of color with a D next to her name. And that is exactly why Harris was less popular than Trump to these supposed 'moderates', because she was a woman and a person of color. I don't know if you have noticed or not, but we kind of have a huge problem with racism and misogyny in the U.S. The few supposed leftists you saw online 'shit talking' her couldn't make her an old white man, no matter how much they sucked on her asshole.

At any rate as I have already pointed out, it's highly likely that Harris did win, but Elon helped his 'good buddy' Trump rig the elections- so it likely wouldn't have mattered if every single non MAGAt in the country voted for the pro-slavery cop anyway.

because they fucking can’t, the are in the minority fucking everywhere.

It's true that they are in the minority, it's not true that they are powerless to do anything about it. There are plenty of things they could do to make life Hell for the Trump administration, but many of them are rolling over like good little puppets. Could it be because the D's and the R's are both basically on the same side and only exist to give us the illusion of choice? Nah, couldn't be that.

The plurality of American voters (almost a majority) are morons with the memory of a goldfish

You'll get almost no argument from me here except for the fact that it's not because they are morons, it's because they are ignorant by design. I would (not) like to see the effect 100 years of anti-left propaganda, "red scares", sabotaging education, crony capitalism, 'corporate personhood', rigged elections, corrupt politicians, media being 100% controlled by billionaires, and foreign interference coupled with an archaic voting system would do to your country but if you think your people would make better decisions in such a scenario- we will have to agree to disagree on that.

Both the DNC and the GOP intentionally keep us at each other throats so that we are so busy fighting each other that we wont notice that the real enemy is them and the billionaires they serve, and they have the not-so insignificant power of the largest propaganda machine in the entire world helping them with that project. Yes, one side is "better", but only just enough better to get around 50% of the vote each election. So weird that works out that way- right?

and now they are looking to shift the blame for what they themselves have caused.

And you are on here helping them to do just that. Do you imagine it's a coincidence that the Liberals are working overtime to blame Leftists for the mess they helped cause? Leftists are the reason that Trump won- right? Leftists are too stupid to tell the difference between the two parties- right? It has nothing at all to do with their candidate being a literal trash human being- right?

why isn’t the question: “why are the Republicans doing it?” in the first place…

That's a fair question, but one with a much simpler answer. If you were a Billionaire/ Group of Billionaires who made their fortune by exploiting people and you had the ability to literally buy the Government in order to insure that will never change- you would be a fool not to. Their job was made easy by having only two political parties to buy. They then set about turning half the country against the other half- again to distract from what they are doing. Then along comes a wild card in the form of Trump. A megalomaniac who used the racism and hatred of "Liberal" ideals and worship of the ruling class that the Republicans had carefully fostered to win massive support among the racist and hateful half of the country. Remember that the establishment Republicans did not want anything to do with Trump when he first started in politics, so much so that the only person he could get to be his VP this time around was formerly a 'never Trumper' (you know he hates that). Once the Republicans saw there was no stopping the hate train, they had little choice but to hop aboard or be crushed by it. et voilà! Fascism comes to "The Land of the Free".

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Except don't make "compromises" like the DNC where they abandon their base to chase after conservative voters that will never, ever, ever vote for them.

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Perhaps you should read your own comments with that in mind.

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[...] now is a result of 50+ years of people who find the idea of your republic distasteful [...]

You're absolutely right, although the cycle goes back a lot further than 50 years. The two parties are playing good cop / bad cop against the middle, directed by their donors with the concerns of the people driving only the nature of the lies they tell. The right wing implements authority the left placates the masses with flaccid opposition. Don't let your left parties slip to the "middle", it's just another word for right.

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Did an American just question my logic? You guys are kinda deranged and politically toxic

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Can I just say I used to live in a country with shanty towns and it sucks, it’s a shit show. Why would anyone want that? Slapping tiny homes on city parks isn’t a solution it’s just stupid

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I was referring to like, parks, and town squares. Town squares are pretty rare in the US

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Or gentrified or whatever!

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When I was homeless all the shelters were full, and housing was a year plus wait for anything. I often slept in a concrete tube under a bridge. Then the government came in, removed the tubes, and puts spikes all over the concrete under the bridge. Yes I felt it was an attack. I was forced to move further out from where I could attain help, and do something to sustain myself, only making it harder for me to exist. Dealing with the government to maintain my place of residence, and medical treatment, is a part time job, where I spend, literally, 4-6 hours on hold with places like Jobs and Family Services, and the local housing authority. I can absolutely understand how easy it would be for me to stay homeless if I were say, schizophrenic. Luckily I am not, and I can maintain things like schedules, keep dozens of appointments per month, etc.

This is one of the worst possible ways to encourage people to seek help. it shows a deep lack of understanding what day-to-day life is for the homeless, especially ones who are very mentally ill.

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U.s is weird in that you can go from state to state and it feels like completely different countries, some are gorgeous and well kept and others are straight up third world

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Who exactly are you going to form groups with? I am a bit lost on where you would even get started on something like that. Most groups I have seen advertised or have any success are extremists I wouldn't want to be a part of. I don't want to go back to being a Trotskyist just to have any meaningful impact. You berate neurodivergent and queer people specifically as not getting off their ass, yet those are the kinds of people in the ranks of these organisations. It's not like your average person is going to go and join the Labour party either.

Not all situations are like America. Here in the UK the backsliding is happening with the traditionally left leaning party who got in power using after massive fuck ups by the conservatives. So the right wing lost hard, but the other party have moved towards them. So you can't even say it's an issue with the alt-right like America. Instead it's actually an issue with the left wing party and left wing moderates. Voting for and allying with them has enabled this behavior. It has enabled them to go after transgender people specifically. Ironically the conservatives might have actually done better in this case, as they haven't expressed issues with queer people in recent times to my knowledge.

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That's actually not how a political ideology works! Do you believe that socialism is about exterminating your political enemies because nearly every socialist country in history did so? Or is it more likely that the people who label themselves with a political identity often fail to live up to their own ideals? Or that they never believed in those ideals in the first place and used it as a convenient tribe to gain power? Because liberalism has no opinion on the shape of park benches, that's just stupid

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Sounds like the area you were in didn’t have adequate homeless shelters. Where I live, you could always have gone there. The cops wouldn’t necessarily have taken you there, but you could certainly have gotten there in your own.

I will admit that “anti-homeless” bench features don’t make much sense unless you have places and resources for homeless people to fall back on. But if there are said resources, I see the utility of these features to disincentivize homeless people from using public benches as a substitute for getting professional help.

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Not where I live. There are plenty of options for the homeless in my city, but we still have problems with homeless people taking up public space because they would rather be left alone and not address their problems.

Do you think I’m lying? Can you not empathize with this problem? Do you really think all homeless people flock to the resources available to them? None of them resort to vagrancy at all? Do you think the inventors of these bench features had steepled fingers and were like, “Let’s fuck these homeless MFers even harder!”?

Providing resources only goes so far. As a therapist, I can easily tell you that merely making help available does not guarantee the needy will come get help. Sometimes, you have to make it impossible for people to escape the consequences of their actions before they’ll do the work necessary to get better.

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As I said to another commenter, “anti-homeless” measures like these make zero sense if there aren’t resources for the homeless available. I’m sorry, it doesn’t sound like resources were available to you, and that truly sucks. Your state should do better.

However, in places where resources are available, homeless people still sometimes refuse to utilize them, and then measures like this become valid and utilitarian.

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I’ll spell it out for you so you can join in on enjoying why your comment was particularly hilarious. You created the very narrow spectrum this post was made to ridicule: from far right (“conservative”) to right wing (“liberal”). You never even considered that it is only right wing to refuse to provide housing for people!

agnos.is Forums

I'm gonna mute this one