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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   32638 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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This week we had a homeless woman fully evacuate her bowels in front of a kids museum, with families and children about. She is apparently known in that area for being aggressive and walking around with no pants. I briefly saw crap like this (haha but not really) when briefly visiting San Francisco, and it's the kind of thing you expect will stay only over there even though you know full well there's nothing stopping it from popping up in your own backyard. I thought I was being trolled when I heard.

The local subreddit has decided this is an issue with lack of public restrooms, and I feel the Hitler rising in me.

We are from the same place, I saw that on the local reddit as well. Glad my kid is old enough that we don't go there on a regular basis anymore, but I just cannot fathom how the entire community losing something of value for the sake of letting crazy druggies roam around being a problem is just accepted. "Whelp, nothing to be done about it other than just accept things suck now." But there are quite a few things that can be done about it, and it makes me feel like I am taking crazy pills to see people insist otherwise.

What should one do about it? I can vote for the most anti-crime candidate in every election (which I do), but they lose every time. If I live in a place like Seattle where 70% of the people are completely unwilling to address these problems, then I am effectively helpless.

From the perspective of my own personal safety, directly confronting a mentally ill person or criminal could result in personal injury or criminal charges against me.

Now, I am willing to risk some amount of personal safety for the purpose of making society better. But not when a majority of that society would actively view me as a villain for doing it.

Unless one is able to coordinate with other like minded people, there really is little to be done about crime and decay. I'll pick up litter on the streets and clean up graffiti but that's just a bandaid.

If you have money, you could use a good chunk of it (on the order of tithes) to support political candidates (or oppose bad candidates) who see things your way (or not) . That's more effective, especially at the most local levels, than voting alone.

I think honestly the ideal solution would be to make those making those kinds of decisions have to live in the neighborhood so they have to actually literally worry about the crime problem themselves. Having the local mayor robbed on the streets would probably do more to get crime addressed than a million anti-crime votes. Alas, as was pointed out in the top post almost all the city leaders have long since fled the city to gated communities and likely live in mansions with gates at the end of their driveway and full security systems.

If I live in a place like Seattle where 70% of the people are completely unwilling to address these problems, then I am effectively helpless.

Suck it up, move out, become a criminal yourself, become a revolutionary. Those are the basic choices.

I'm choosing to suck it up because I'm rich and can afford to. The long term plan is to move out and join a more robust community. This might be a pipe dream.

I'll continue to vote for change and to try to convince sympathetic people to do the same. But I am just a man and not a hero.

Or organize a voting/activist campaign of some sort.

No, that's exactly what demonstrably can't work. Those are the weapons of the other side.

What should one do about it? I can vote for the most anti-crime candidate in every election (which I do), but they lose every time. If I live in a place like Seattle where 70% of the people are completely unwilling to address these problems, then I am effectively helpless.

move to less insane area?

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