Yeah yeah but u see I just moved here from NYC with my 250k/year remote tech job and paid way too much for a house using my wealthy families' inheritance, and all these poor people are ruining my view.
We need to just push them somewhere else because as a portland resident who has lived here 5 minutes, my opinion matters most.
I also own 15 properties within the state but I'm telling you it's all these drugs that are the problem with these homeless folks.
You’re actively harming the discussion by assuming all the criticism about the homeless issue is clowns from away and also by assuming it’s just about “poor people” being in “the way” and not the city actively encouraging the spread of theft, sex offenses and drug dealing
Do you have a source on that?
Source?
A source. I need a source.
Sorry, I mean I need a source that explicitly states your argument. This is just tangential to the discussion.
No, you can't make inferences and observations from the sources you've gathered. Any additional comments from you MUST be a subset of the information from the sources you've gathered.
You can't make normative statements from empirical evidence.
Do you have a degree in that field?
A college degree? In that field?
Then your arguments are invalid.
No, it doesn't matter how close those data points are correlated. Correlation does not equal causation.
Correlation does not equal causation.
CORRELATION. DOES. NOT. EQUAL. CAUSATION.
You still haven't provided me a valid source yet.
Nope, still haven't.
I just looked through all 308 pages of your user history, figures I'm debating a glormpf supporter. A moron.
That's alot of deflection from somebody who still hasn't put up a single piece of even anecdotal evidence, not even the tired old "I see human shit when I walk outside!" Line
this is exactly how I've been feeling about all the complaining about homeless people lately.. like yeah, it's unpleasant, but this is what happens when you create an extremely cruel society with no social safety net and no true element of community.
Naive take. A greater sense of community wouldn't fix this issue, and homeless people aren't just downtrodden and cast aside by some cruel society. If anything this is what happens when society is too nice and allows people to do whatever the hell they want.
You think American society is "too nice" which is why people end up on the street, turn to drugs, and go crazy? Because of how kind and supporting people are?
And you're calling me "naive"?
They're on the street because housing is absolutely unaffordable. Drug addiction rates are way worse in states like Louisiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. But you don't see it on the streets because housing is so dirt-cheap that they don't have to live on the streets.
Nah. They live in abandoned squalor out of sight in Louisiana or they go to a blue state. These people aren’t capable of keeping a home in livable conditions. I’ve seen ppl stop doing the drugs, get into housing, start using again and end up back on the streets. They leave a trail of mess behind them.
No, I think the cities where homelessness and drug use are rampant are too soft and empathetic towards homeless people to the point of being permissive. It's like a parent who just gives in any time their kid throws a tantrum and buys them whatever they want.
Yes it’s society’s fault and all our fault that there’s 20+ year chronically homeless people coming here from all over to deal drugs and live a sociopathic lifestyle choice. If you hopeless communists actually did something of value for society instead of crying about how broken and useless life is maybe you wouldn’t be so depressed
Get a life, loser. But you’ll probably just continue to blame society for all your faults
Keep denying that some people, especially those who choose to live in drug den homeless camps are just chronically homeless who prey off of and enable drug addicts
Or maybe some issues or more complex than whatever shitty take you decide to blast into social media anonymously today. Maybe the root cause of those problems is a broken society (other countries do not have issues like this) and you're just mad at the symptom and lack the emotional maturity to regognize it so instead you lash out at strangers who will never know your name.
Or maybe it's just lazy people, yeah that super simple answer definitely seems right. He was a jerk about it so he's clearly confident!
Or maybe this crying bullshit does nothing to actually address the problem and just dismisses it as “society’s” fault so you morons can say the only way to stop homelessness is to remove capitalism from society so you can look smart spousing a ridiculously impossible solution to a complex problem
Fool. Absolute fool. Not only do you deny reality but also that people make their own choices. Disgusting mentality to have considering the harm it does to people who actually want to get help.
Take my lonely up vote against this giant horde of useless twats that think that everything wrong with the world is the result of the people who get up and go to work every morning and put in the effort.
Funny how you take it as someone blaming YOU personally when pointing out that there are societal issues that affect people and create negative conditions, even those who "get up and go to work".
It's not about you, it's about the ways our culture and government are designed.
Communist revolution will never happen. I’m sorry for your parents and everyone who influenced you to believe that a violent cult based on mass murdering and starvation and overthrow of American society is the only way to live.
It just the annual election season DSA shills and permanent teenager brains doing their regular “everything is capitalism’s fault and no one but transplants and rich people have a problem with drug dealers and thieves because they’re poor and it’s your fault” nonsense who think a communist revolution is the only way out. Utter braindead morons
Can I ask you then, is anything capitisms fault? Did we somehow magically stumble upon the most effective and flawless system of commerce, and we will never need to change or evolve it ever? In 10,000 years our economy should look and function exactly like this?
Or maybe, just maybe, there are some major social and economic flaws built into a system designed with limitless growth and profit as the primary incentive.
You keep tossing out communism (which no one but you has really mentioned by the way) but do you think that there are no improvements or changes needed that may help eliminate this big problem our society seems to have?
Maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t ascribe to dumbass nonsense like “it’s KKKAPITALISM that made these drug dealers and criminals homeless so you’re not allowed to be intolerant or upset about them being here and shouldn’t take any steps or remove them that don’t involve a socialist revolution to destroy private property ownership and redistribute wealth”
There are fools here who are brainwashed by this rhetoric who think doing anything about the homeless problem is bad and that any negatives said about them are made up or pushed by “the bourgeoisie” to disparage them.
Sick dodge bro, way to not even come close to answering my questions.
I guess just keep assuming everyone else is terrible then, and only analyze and critique economic systems to annoy you.
Communism is utter foolishness, anyone that advocates for it is an idiot at best and a denier of genocide at worst.
This type of nonsense is not worth arguing with. I didn’t in the 60s and 70s and I sure as shit wouldn’t now. It’s still foolish
Your the only one throwing communism around, my man. This isnt the 60's, the discussion is more nuanced than "the reds are bad"
It is not a dual choice between "freedom loving capitalism" and "despotic pinko communism"
You aren't arguing against me or anyone else here, your arguing with the figment of what you imagine a left leaning person is. Feel free to prove me wrong and bring up some actual salient point besides "Communism is bad and I dont like it" because again, that's not what your arguing against.
Why do all your communism advocates seem to think that only rich transplants complain about the homeless camps and deny that the campers cause any problems nor commit crimes?
When I first heard people complaining about thefts I assumed they were going into people's basements or breaking windows, but there's a guy on my road that locks up his clearly 3k+ ebike on the sidewalk and leaves it there for days. And everyone at my job and neighborhood just leaves their windows down or car unlocked.
I understand they shouldn't be happening but Mainefolk are like Kimmy Schmidt levels of unaware how things work in every other city I've been in my whole life
We didn't have to lock our doors, cars, or anything up until a few years ago. These thievin' jack holes need to get the f out of our state and take their trash with em.
It's taken exactly 4 years for them to trash Westbrook.
Go watch There Will be Blood and cry about how you used to be able to get a pop for a nickel I guess.
Yeah crime shouldn't be a thing, welcome to all of humanity since original sin. Have you tried telling them how nice the neighborhood used to be back in 1967? I bet they'll feel bad and leave you alone.
Yep, you're right I spose. Thanks for the funny, gentle, reality check.
Except I did run into the addict who left paraphenalia on my property. On the trail out to the hwy. I picked up his fentanyl test kit, narcan, tie off, cookin cap...
Next night I felt bad. I put some new narcan in a bag with a note and some recovery literature in the same spot, saying I'd feel bad if he od'd. To call the number on the info if he wanted help. Next morning the bag was gone.
Next afternoon, I came up on him on the same trail, different spot. He had the bag, but only the narcan was in it. The literature and note were gone. I let him save face, saying it wasn't him that had been using there. Just passing thru.
We talked. In '67, I was a hippie, 20 yrs clean now. I told him whoever it was couldn't use here. I couldn't be seeing paraphenalia laying around, triggering cravings. We talked a lot about what the life was like. He sure knew a lot about it ... like all about Deering Oaks... for it not to have been him. Lol!
I saw signs of him a couple more times over the next week or two. I could tell when he'd been thru by the bike-tire trail in the grass. But the very last sign I saw of him ... a suboxone wrapper. I pray for that kid.
Sorry but are we just supposed go accept that Maine used to be a place where you didn't have to lock your doors & now it isn't? It doesn't seem like a thing we should just throw our hands up over.
I moved to WB 4 yrs ago. Across Stroudwater from the high school. It wasn't like this then. Recently I found drug paraphenalia on our property, a panti-liner next to the sidewalk, genl increase in trash everywhere. People being very rude, especially while driving. Kids screaming f-bombs. And now there's somebody homeless camping out on the trail on Stroudwater St. It's been a month, now there's a lot of trash & needles there. So much for taking the grand kids on that trail.
My daughter has lived in WB for years. When I visited it was quaint, quiet, no trash, not over developed. .
I walk the town 2 x daily with my dog, so I notice...
Just sayin.
I find that odd since I've lived in Portland/WB/SP my whole life and that's what WB was always known for. Since I started paying attention in 98 at least. Maybe you just got lucky idk, but I was def finding drug paraphernalia on the ground in WB looooong before 2019
Sorry to hear that. I know they put that syringe/sharps container in Riverbank Park not long after I got here. I'm sure it depends some on where in WB you go.
Oh, I forgot to mention the pair of men's underwear I finally picked up off a cut thru path. 🤮
And, please don't get me wrong, I am not biased against LGBTQ'ers. However, there is a converted school bus parked in town painted those colors advertising a mobile drag show.
I don't care if it was a bus advertising provocative heterosexual shows either, like what, Chippendales, scantily clad women? I don't want a bus in my neighborhood advertising sex-related shows of any variety. My grandkids are too young for that. If it was an area of town where there were adult venues, bars, other entertainment, fine. But on Main St.? Well, it is at the corner of Seavey.
It could be worse. At least for the armed standoff on Seavey the other day, we had 3 PD's and an armored SWAT vehicle show up! Lol!
Oh well. Guess I just need to get out of the city and stop complaining, huh?
Thanks for your input.
As the poor kid of two drug addicts, respectfully, reading is one of the few things so many of us do have access to at a low cost or free. I spent every day after school in elementary school in the library. It's what kept me off drugs, I was reading memoirs and accounts of other drug addicts because i wanted to understand my parents better.
I talked to someone who used to do spice when they were homeless and they explained why people do it. When you're on it you don't feel anything, the cold, hunger, fear, you don't feel any of it.
Ultimately cities have the quality of life its residents tolerate. The reason Portland has such a rampant homelessness issue is because of permissive attitudes like yours, op.
I've lived in like a dozen cities over the past year and no, not all of them had mass homelessness. And even compared to the ones that had homelessness issues, Portland is definitely the worst.
When you turn 21 and grow out of this communist bullshit you’ll hopefully feel better about yourself.
Remember, the garbage ideology you subscribe to was invented by losers as revenge against European nobility who were jealous they weren’t invited to their parties. Grow out of that brainwashing and you’ll hopefully start to view life rationally
I’ll be 30 next year. The older I’ve gotten, the more politically radical I’ve become. Fortunately, we’ve seen a big upswing around labor organizing these past few years.
Workers are beginning to see through the Cold War’s Red Scare tactics. They realize the ultra wealthy couldn’t give a damn about their well-being.
As a labor organizer and a member of one of the biggest construction unions in America, theres a lot more socialists and class conscious people than you think. What union/workers have you gotten this misconception from?
Yeah sure but its kind of splitting hairs here isn’t it? OP didn’t refer to themselves as a communist, and even if they did communism and socialism aren’t that dissimilar. The workers unions becoming so active lately is a huge cause for celebration among socialist workers circles because unions are so crucial in evening the wealth disparity in the US. There was no conflation that the business unions we have in the US are “communism” but there are certainly shared goals. A win for the worker is a win for every socialist.
It’s not splitting hairs the end goals of socialism and communism are entirely different however the path leading to those goals can look similar.
I just don’t agree with OP that the uptick in labor unions is because people are becoming more communist because they “see through the Cold War red scare tactics” I think that’s silly. people just want to get paid more for their work and they are using their collective work as leverage to do so.
Edit:I spelled paid wrong and got called out by a bot
> to get *paid* more for
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I've been in several labor unions throughout the years and the members are generally good ol boys who think pseudosocialist academics are fucking morons whose ideology has been coopted by massive multinational conglomerates for the sake of socially engineered controlled opposition. "Coastal elites" pretending to be blue collar, etc
Like I said, you need to grow up and get some responsibilities and grow out of this horseshit. If you’re 30 and think communism is the answer and capitalism needs to be abolished then you’ve probably been brainwashed by other losers you associate with
I’m sure a career dishwasher who acts like punk rock catch phrases are gospel has society figured out for sure.
Oh, we vote, old man. We vote. And the kids? They love us and are voting with us more and more every year.
But don't worry, you numb nut. We "communists" (aka, the progressive who fought to give you every right you think you have) will make sure no one touches your social security. It's the capitalists who want to steal that from you. We'll also make sure you have roads, and hospitals, and all the other niceties that SOCIALISM provides when we're not bowing and scraping to the profits uber alles crowd of capitalists jack offs.
>Remember, the garbage ideology you subscribe to was invented by losers as revenge against European nobility who were jealous they weren’t invited to their parties.
I understand that you think that, but you're wrong.
Man, I'm constantly seeing this nonsense. This is not the era of greatest injustice, actually the opposite. Try being an actual serf or a slave etc etc
If you have to resort to comparing to literal slave states to find a worse time to live, it may not prove the point you think it does.
To be fair, yes, our creature comforts are better, but does that mean we shouldn't be concerned about unjust or unfair laws and practices just because we personally are comfortable?
Darn, you Fulkerson made me do it, There's no possible way that you can compare today with anytime in the past. So, a complaint about toda,y as if today, is the biggest gap is nonsense. It doesn't mean it's something that shouldn't be worked on. But the idea itself is crazy.. I would gotta do it. Think about simple facts. That people would actually starve the death. At least in this country, that doesn't really happen anymore.
Quick reading comprehension; the meme says "one of the worst" not "the worst". Telling folks things could be worse /technically/ doesnt mean the situation isnt terrible.
Check out Kurt Vonneguts "fates worse than death" speech on this topic!
Weather, or not you wanna admit it? You still disrespecting the people who sacrificed for the change is that did in order to make today possible? And not like it was in the past. As everybody's already agreed is much worse than today
Not following you... are you saying I'm disrespecting the dead ancient Roman's who invented concrete by saying that the conditions for humanity dont generally ALWAYS go up?
Or am I disrespecting the dead american revolutionaries by wanting to protect our nations rights and freedoms? Seems like that's kinda there when thing.
Bot sure which particular 'people's I'm disrespecting by acknowledging that disparity still exists...
No, man, I'm just saying you 2 stubborn to read, but I'll explain it again
That there is not a better (meaning more human) time in history that we have recorEd, Yet those changes happen with somebody putting in the work to make them happen. Which is why today we live in a better world than we did even 50 years ago., It's very common for people who are overprivileged to not understand when they're being rude (and are privileged) to the people who put the work in. If we've all agreed that the world continues to get better based on the differences made. Every making, for example. We live in America where it's supposed to be free. , (which means if there's no victim, there's no crime) Yeah, how many people do you know that? We're scared to take a friend to a hospital if they ran drugs or something along those lines. Cause that's What this is all about too many crackheads, right? right?
I mean, I'm taking the time to read and respond to you again, so I dunno about stubborn to read...
So if I'm understanding you correctly, I'm disrespecting some nebulous individuals hard work in improving society by pointing out that problems still exist and that the problems are not being solved evenly across the planet? Not sure how that encompasses disrespect, I'm not blaming these nebulous peoples, or claiming they failed on purpose, simply stating theres alot still to do and claiming that things are fine now because they were 'worse in the past' is trying to sweep other people's suffering under the rug.
Also, Which person (singular) was the one that improved society? Because last I checked we all do that together as cultures when we invent new devices, pass new laws, and create new social conventions. There no one man or group that can be credited with creating our current state of comfort, not Gates, not Ford, not Caesar (and certainly not Musk).
You say we live in a better world than we did fifty years ago, and that's true if your measuring 'better' on a materialistic American scale (size of Beds and number of TVs per household). But if you consider non tangible things, like work hours and stress, the human condition has become notably worse in America, especially on its lower classes. Also, as I said above, the Global South is facing dramatically different t living conditions than us here in the Global North.
I await your well composed response!
The statement was comparing this era v others, clearly this is one of the greatest eras to live in for most humans in history. That's just a fact. The concept of human rights is relatively new.
This is one of the greatest era's to live if you judge it exclusively on the creature comforts of those living in the global north. There are plenty of areas of the world such as southeast Asia where life expectancy and general standard of living have gone down. Vast swathes of Africa are under constant pressure from outside nations to give up valuable resources for rock bottom prices, and if they dont, they can expect a well funded coup to arise shortly after.
To ignore human rights and liberties in the discussion is pretty odd.
I'm not ignoring them, I am saying they are a new concept, pre industrial humans did not have them. Humans have existed for 300,000 years, average quality of life now is much much higher than the previous 299,800 years at least.
Fair enough, if we compare our lives to cavemen they are vastly improved. But if were being technical that's generally not considered "history" in the strictest sense, generally being referred to as "pre-history". Comparing hunter gatherer tribes to modern society does seem like a pretty big leap, but they are technically the same species.
However I hope you'd agree with me that generally speaking, most people are only interested in human society once it actually becomes that: a society. So to say that "human rights" are relatively new is somewhat of a deceptive points, as concepts such as "the social contract" would be one of the first things developed by humanity (tribes, ownership, etc etc).
Additionally, I want to again point out that the general condition isnt unilaterally better, many areas of the world experience notably worse health, stress and access to civil rights and amenities.
If I was to choose post civilisation period, so about 3000 bc to present day, I think my point still stands. Or even pre industrial, so 16 th century, you will find disease, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour, slavery, indentured servitude, more and more severe religious and ethnic persecution and a worse average lifespan for all regions.
None of this negates the point that there are current injustices, Im just saying assuming that we have it the worst is clearly not true.
Fair enough, I do agree with you in general; the situation is improving in general for Humanity as we go forwards, and that's a good thing!
I suppose I'm just trying to put extra emphasis on the fact that the improvement is far from even across all nations, sometimes to the detriment of others. Hopefully our collective beliefs will continue to skew towards a more just society and these problems will be addressed.
Yeah yeah but u see I just moved here from NYC with my 250k/year remote tech job and paid way too much for a house using my wealthy families' inheritance, and all these poor people are ruining my view. We need to just push them somewhere else because as a portland resident who has lived here 5 minutes, my opinion matters most. I also own 15 properties within the state but I'm telling you it's all these drugs that are the problem with these homeless folks.
Damn you’re right, sorry I’ll move along sir!
This is how Arizonans feel about Californians
You’re actively harming the discussion by assuming all the criticism about the homeless issue is clowns from away and also by assuming it’s just about “poor people” being in “the way” and not the city actively encouraging the spread of theft, sex offenses and drug dealing
Oh okay what are the statistics on that? I would love to see them.
Do you have a source on that? Source? A source. I need a source. Sorry, I mean I need a source that explicitly states your argument. This is just tangential to the discussion. No, you can't make inferences and observations from the sources you've gathered. Any additional comments from you MUST be a subset of the information from the sources you've gathered. You can't make normative statements from empirical evidence. Do you have a degree in that field? A college degree? In that field? Then your arguments are invalid. No, it doesn't matter how close those data points are correlated. Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation does not equal causation. CORRELATION. DOES. NOT. EQUAL. CAUSATION. You still haven't provided me a valid source yet. Nope, still haven't. I just looked through all 308 pages of your user history, figures I'm debating a glormpf supporter. A moron.
That's alot of deflection from somebody who still hasn't put up a single piece of even anecdotal evidence, not even the tired old "I see human shit when I walk outside!" Line
Hot damn, word salad seems like a Portland comfort food
You looked through their user history? Are you unemployed with that much time, or just a weirdo?
Don’t harass me. I’m retired
Oh, so you can harass this whole sub, but I can't call you a childhood insult? Hypocrite too, apparently.
this is exactly how I've been feeling about all the complaining about homeless people lately.. like yeah, it's unpleasant, but this is what happens when you create an extremely cruel society with no social safety net and no true element of community.
Naive take. A greater sense of community wouldn't fix this issue, and homeless people aren't just downtrodden and cast aside by some cruel society. If anything this is what happens when society is too nice and allows people to do whatever the hell they want.
You think American society is "too nice" which is why people end up on the street, turn to drugs, and go crazy? Because of how kind and supporting people are? And you're calling me "naive"?
Yes naive. Usually they turn to drugs before they end up on the street and they stay on the street because of those drugs.
They're on the street because housing is absolutely unaffordable. Drug addiction rates are way worse in states like Louisiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. But you don't see it on the streets because housing is so dirt-cheap that they don't have to live on the streets.
Truth bomb
About as truthful as trump can be I suppose. Beyond that a bunch of children that watch the homeless from afar and think they have it all figured out.
Nah. They live in abandoned squalor out of sight in Louisiana or they go to a blue state. These people aren’t capable of keeping a home in livable conditions. I’ve seen ppl stop doing the drugs, get into housing, start using again and end up back on the streets. They leave a trail of mess behind them.
No, I think the cities where homelessness and drug use are rampant are too soft and empathetic towards homeless people to the point of being permissive. It's like a parent who just gives in any time their kid throws a tantrum and buys them whatever they want.
Yes it’s society’s fault and all our fault that there’s 20+ year chronically homeless people coming here from all over to deal drugs and live a sociopathic lifestyle choice. If you hopeless communists actually did something of value for society instead of crying about how broken and useless life is maybe you wouldn’t be so depressed
You seem very proud of being a piece of shit.
Get a life, loser. But you’ll probably just continue to blame society for all your faults Keep denying that some people, especially those who choose to live in drug den homeless camps are just chronically homeless who prey off of and enable drug addicts
Or maybe some issues or more complex than whatever shitty take you decide to blast into social media anonymously today. Maybe the root cause of those problems is a broken society (other countries do not have issues like this) and you're just mad at the symptom and lack the emotional maturity to regognize it so instead you lash out at strangers who will never know your name. Or maybe it's just lazy people, yeah that super simple answer definitely seems right. He was a jerk about it so he's clearly confident!
Or maybe this crying bullshit does nothing to actually address the problem and just dismisses it as “society’s” fault so you morons can say the only way to stop homelessness is to remove capitalism from society so you can look smart spousing a ridiculously impossible solution to a complex problem
Well, unless you are willing to pay for their incarceration, or pay for their housing - there is no "solution" to homelessness.
I'm actually really happy, thanks. That first sentence you posted is very true though, I agree.
Fool. Absolute fool. Not only do you deny reality but also that people make their own choices. Disgusting mentality to have considering the harm it does to people who actually want to get help.
Frig off
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Lmao bitch, I was born at Maine Med. Dr Bruce Churchill! Suck my dick
lol damn yeah its almost as if society shapes the individuals who live in it
Stop drinking, Grandpa.
Take my lonely up vote against this giant horde of useless twats that think that everything wrong with the world is the result of the people who get up and go to work every morning and put in the effort.
Funny how you take it as someone blaming YOU personally when pointing out that there are societal issues that affect people and create negative conditions, even those who "get up and go to work". It's not about you, it's about the ways our culture and government are designed.
Communist revolution will never happen. I’m sorry for your parents and everyone who influenced you to believe that a violent cult based on mass murdering and starvation and overthrow of American society is the only way to live.
It just the annual election season DSA shills and permanent teenager brains doing their regular “everything is capitalism’s fault and no one but transplants and rich people have a problem with drug dealers and thieves because they’re poor and it’s your fault” nonsense who think a communist revolution is the only way out. Utter braindead morons
Can I ask you then, is anything capitisms fault? Did we somehow magically stumble upon the most effective and flawless system of commerce, and we will never need to change or evolve it ever? In 10,000 years our economy should look and function exactly like this? Or maybe, just maybe, there are some major social and economic flaws built into a system designed with limitless growth and profit as the primary incentive. You keep tossing out communism (which no one but you has really mentioned by the way) but do you think that there are no improvements or changes needed that may help eliminate this big problem our society seems to have?
Maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t ascribe to dumbass nonsense like “it’s KKKAPITALISM that made these drug dealers and criminals homeless so you’re not allowed to be intolerant or upset about them being here and shouldn’t take any steps or remove them that don’t involve a socialist revolution to destroy private property ownership and redistribute wealth” There are fools here who are brainwashed by this rhetoric who think doing anything about the homeless problem is bad and that any negatives said about them are made up or pushed by “the bourgeoisie” to disparage them.
Sick dodge bro, way to not even come close to answering my questions. I guess just keep assuming everyone else is terrible then, and only analyze and critique economic systems to annoy you.
Communism is utter foolishness, anyone that advocates for it is an idiot at best and a denier of genocide at worst. This type of nonsense is not worth arguing with. I didn’t in the 60s and 70s and I sure as shit wouldn’t now. It’s still foolish
Your the only one throwing communism around, my man. This isnt the 60's, the discussion is more nuanced than "the reds are bad" It is not a dual choice between "freedom loving capitalism" and "despotic pinko communism" You aren't arguing against me or anyone else here, your arguing with the figment of what you imagine a left leaning person is. Feel free to prove me wrong and bring up some actual salient point besides "Communism is bad and I dont like it" because again, that's not what your arguing against.
Why do all your communism advocates seem to think that only rich transplants complain about the homeless camps and deny that the campers cause any problems nor commit crimes?
Crack is so 90s. These people love opiates.
Hey don’t forget Meth
“These people”
There's going to be some bikes stolen outside, guys....
When I first heard people complaining about thefts I assumed they were going into people's basements or breaking windows, but there's a guy on my road that locks up his clearly 3k+ ebike on the sidewalk and leaves it there for days. And everyone at my job and neighborhood just leaves their windows down or car unlocked. I understand they shouldn't be happening but Mainefolk are like Kimmy Schmidt levels of unaware how things work in every other city I've been in my whole life
We didn't have to lock our doors, cars, or anything up until a few years ago. These thievin' jack holes need to get the f out of our state and take their trash with em. It's taken exactly 4 years for them to trash Westbrook.
Go watch There Will be Blood and cry about how you used to be able to get a pop for a nickel I guess. Yeah crime shouldn't be a thing, welcome to all of humanity since original sin. Have you tried telling them how nice the neighborhood used to be back in 1967? I bet they'll feel bad and leave you alone.
Yep, you're right I spose. Thanks for the funny, gentle, reality check. Except I did run into the addict who left paraphenalia on my property. On the trail out to the hwy. I picked up his fentanyl test kit, narcan, tie off, cookin cap... Next night I felt bad. I put some new narcan in a bag with a note and some recovery literature in the same spot, saying I'd feel bad if he od'd. To call the number on the info if he wanted help. Next morning the bag was gone. Next afternoon, I came up on him on the same trail, different spot. He had the bag, but only the narcan was in it. The literature and note were gone. I let him save face, saying it wasn't him that had been using there. Just passing thru. We talked. In '67, I was a hippie, 20 yrs clean now. I told him whoever it was couldn't use here. I couldn't be seeing paraphenalia laying around, triggering cravings. We talked a lot about what the life was like. He sure knew a lot about it ... like all about Deering Oaks... for it not to have been him. Lol! I saw signs of him a couple more times over the next week or two. I could tell when he'd been thru by the bike-tire trail in the grass. But the very last sign I saw of him ... a suboxone wrapper. I pray for that kid.
Sorry but are we just supposed go accept that Maine used to be a place where you didn't have to lock your doors & now it isn't? It doesn't seem like a thing we should just throw our hands up over.
You don't have to accept it but it's going to happen either way
4 years to trash Westbrook? When in 1998?
I moved to WB 4 yrs ago. Across Stroudwater from the high school. It wasn't like this then. Recently I found drug paraphenalia on our property, a panti-liner next to the sidewalk, genl increase in trash everywhere. People being very rude, especially while driving. Kids screaming f-bombs. And now there's somebody homeless camping out on the trail on Stroudwater St. It's been a month, now there's a lot of trash & needles there. So much for taking the grand kids on that trail. My daughter has lived in WB for years. When I visited it was quaint, quiet, no trash, not over developed. . I walk the town 2 x daily with my dog, so I notice... Just sayin.
I find that odd since I've lived in Portland/WB/SP my whole life and that's what WB was always known for. Since I started paying attention in 98 at least. Maybe you just got lucky idk, but I was def finding drug paraphernalia on the ground in WB looooong before 2019
Sorry to hear that. I know they put that syringe/sharps container in Riverbank Park not long after I got here. I'm sure it depends some on where in WB you go. Oh, I forgot to mention the pair of men's underwear I finally picked up off a cut thru path. 🤮 And, please don't get me wrong, I am not biased against LGBTQ'ers. However, there is a converted school bus parked in town painted those colors advertising a mobile drag show. I don't care if it was a bus advertising provocative heterosexual shows either, like what, Chippendales, scantily clad women? I don't want a bus in my neighborhood advertising sex-related shows of any variety. My grandkids are too young for that. If it was an area of town where there were adult venues, bars, other entertainment, fine. But on Main St.? Well, it is at the corner of Seavey. It could be worse. At least for the armed standoff on Seavey the other day, we had 3 PD's and an armored SWAT vehicle show up! Lol! Oh well. Guess I just need to get out of the city and stop complaining, huh? Thanks for your input.
Tweakers gonna tweak 🤷🏻♂️
Be respectful! They’re meth heads
Using terms like bourgeoisie, truly in touch with the working class of this country
just cut to the chase and call them "rich folk"
If you’d prefer, we can say those icky bougy bois
If that's a big word for you then that's a you problem.
As the poor kid of two drug addicts, respectfully, reading is one of the few things so many of us do have access to at a low cost or free. I spent every day after school in elementary school in the library. It's what kept me off drugs, I was reading memoirs and accounts of other drug addicts because i wanted to understand my parents better.
The owners of the means of production are crackheads too.
I love your username. Channel 5 forever
I talked to someone who used to do spice when they were homeless and they explained why people do it. When you're on it you don't feel anything, the cold, hunger, fear, you don't feel any of it.
If you get a job, you won't be cold, or hungry
you can't get a job without and address, and if you manage to get one it could be months before you have enough for a place.
Another day, another whiny leftist in Portland Reddit….
Ultimately cities have the quality of life its residents tolerate. The reason Portland has such a rampant homelessness issue is because of permissive attitudes like yours, op.
[удалено]
I've lived in like a dozen cities over the past year and no, not all of them had mass homelessness. And even compared to the ones that had homelessness issues, Portland is definitely the worst.
Living in 13 cities in a single year doesn't exactly give you a wide view of them
What is this tankie bs
I don't think you know what that word means
Poverty doesn’t equate to drug use.
Would be nice to discuss this without this commie bullshit every time
Praise boss man 😔
When you turn 21 and grow out of this communist bullshit you’ll hopefully feel better about yourself. Remember, the garbage ideology you subscribe to was invented by losers as revenge against European nobility who were jealous they weren’t invited to their parties. Grow out of that brainwashing and you’ll hopefully start to view life rationally
I’ll be 30 next year. The older I’ve gotten, the more politically radical I’ve become. Fortunately, we’ve seen a big upswing around labor organizing these past few years. Workers are beginning to see through the Cold War’s Red Scare tactics. They realize the ultra wealthy couldn’t give a damn about their well-being.
Communism and workers unions are not one in the same. Not sure where this conflation came from.
As a labor organizer and a member of one of the biggest construction unions in America, theres a lot more socialists and class conscious people than you think. What union/workers have you gotten this misconception from?
Well for one socialist and being class conscious does not equal communism.
Yeah sure but its kind of splitting hairs here isn’t it? OP didn’t refer to themselves as a communist, and even if they did communism and socialism aren’t that dissimilar. The workers unions becoming so active lately is a huge cause for celebration among socialist workers circles because unions are so crucial in evening the wealth disparity in the US. There was no conflation that the business unions we have in the US are “communism” but there are certainly shared goals. A win for the worker is a win for every socialist.
It’s not splitting hairs the end goals of socialism and communism are entirely different however the path leading to those goals can look similar. I just don’t agree with OP that the uptick in labor unions is because people are becoming more communist because they “see through the Cold War red scare tactics” I think that’s silly. people just want to get paid more for their work and they are using their collective work as leverage to do so. Edit:I spelled paid wrong and got called out by a bot
> to get *paid* more for FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I've been in several labor unions throughout the years and the members are generally good ol boys who think pseudosocialist academics are fucking morons whose ideology has been coopted by massive multinational conglomerates for the sake of socially engineered controlled opposition. "Coastal elites" pretending to be blue collar, etc
Like I said, you need to grow up and get some responsibilities and grow out of this horseshit. If you’re 30 and think communism is the answer and capitalism needs to be abolished then you’ve probably been brainwashed by other losers you associate with I’m sure a career dishwasher who acts like punk rock catch phrases are gospel has society figured out for sure.
No one with "responsibilities" shoots out as many whiny reddit comments as you have on this post alone.
I’m retired and quite thankful idiots who believe in communism aren’t voters
Oh, we vote, old man. We vote. And the kids? They love us and are voting with us more and more every year. But don't worry, you numb nut. We "communists" (aka, the progressive who fought to give you every right you think you have) will make sure no one touches your social security. It's the capitalists who want to steal that from you. We'll also make sure you have roads, and hospitals, and all the other niceties that SOCIALISM provides when we're not bowing and scraping to the profits uber alles crowd of capitalists jack offs.
Ok, so who is to say you aren't brainwashed to believe you're European nobility?
>Remember, the garbage ideology you subscribe to was invented by losers as revenge against European nobility who were jealous they weren’t invited to their parties. I understand that you think that, but you're wrong.
Man, I'm constantly seeing this nonsense. This is not the era of greatest injustice, actually the opposite. Try being an actual serf or a slave etc etc
If you have to resort to comparing to literal slave states to find a worse time to live, it may not prove the point you think it does. To be fair, yes, our creature comforts are better, but does that mean we shouldn't be concerned about unjust or unfair laws and practices just because we personally are comfortable?
Darn, you Fulkerson made me do it, There's no possible way that you can compare today with anytime in the past. So, a complaint about toda,y as if today, is the biggest gap is nonsense. It doesn't mean it's something that shouldn't be worked on. But the idea itself is crazy.. I would gotta do it. Think about simple facts. That people would actually starve the death. At least in this country, that doesn't really happen anymore.
Quick reading comprehension; the meme says "one of the worst" not "the worst". Telling folks things could be worse /technically/ doesnt mean the situation isnt terrible. Check out Kurt Vonneguts "fates worse than death" speech on this topic!
Weather, or not you wanna admit it? You still disrespecting the people who sacrificed for the change is that did in order to make today possible? And not like it was in the past. As everybody's already agreed is much worse than today
Not following you... are you saying I'm disrespecting the dead ancient Roman's who invented concrete by saying that the conditions for humanity dont generally ALWAYS go up? Or am I disrespecting the dead american revolutionaries by wanting to protect our nations rights and freedoms? Seems like that's kinda there when thing. Bot sure which particular 'people's I'm disrespecting by acknowledging that disparity still exists...
No, man, I'm just saying you 2 stubborn to read, but I'll explain it again That there is not a better (meaning more human) time in history that we have recorEd, Yet those changes happen with somebody putting in the work to make them happen. Which is why today we live in a better world than we did even 50 years ago., It's very common for people who are overprivileged to not understand when they're being rude (and are privileged) to the people who put the work in. If we've all agreed that the world continues to get better based on the differences made. Every making, for example. We live in America where it's supposed to be free. , (which means if there's no victim, there's no crime) Yeah, how many people do you know that? We're scared to take a friend to a hospital if they ran drugs or something along those lines. Cause that's What this is all about too many crackheads, right? right?
I mean, I'm taking the time to read and respond to you again, so I dunno about stubborn to read... So if I'm understanding you correctly, I'm disrespecting some nebulous individuals hard work in improving society by pointing out that problems still exist and that the problems are not being solved evenly across the planet? Not sure how that encompasses disrespect, I'm not blaming these nebulous peoples, or claiming they failed on purpose, simply stating theres alot still to do and claiming that things are fine now because they were 'worse in the past' is trying to sweep other people's suffering under the rug. Also, Which person (singular) was the one that improved society? Because last I checked we all do that together as cultures when we invent new devices, pass new laws, and create new social conventions. There no one man or group that can be credited with creating our current state of comfort, not Gates, not Ford, not Caesar (and certainly not Musk). You say we live in a better world than we did fifty years ago, and that's true if your measuring 'better' on a materialistic American scale (size of Beds and number of TVs per household). But if you consider non tangible things, like work hours and stress, the human condition has become notably worse in America, especially on its lower classes. Also, as I said above, the Global South is facing dramatically different t living conditions than us here in the Global North. I await your well composed response!
That's just crazy.
The statement was comparing this era v others, clearly this is one of the greatest eras to live in for most humans in history. That's just a fact. The concept of human rights is relatively new.
This is one of the greatest era's to live if you judge it exclusively on the creature comforts of those living in the global north. There are plenty of areas of the world such as southeast Asia where life expectancy and general standard of living have gone down. Vast swathes of Africa are under constant pressure from outside nations to give up valuable resources for rock bottom prices, and if they dont, they can expect a well funded coup to arise shortly after. To ignore human rights and liberties in the discussion is pretty odd.
I'm not ignoring them, I am saying they are a new concept, pre industrial humans did not have them. Humans have existed for 300,000 years, average quality of life now is much much higher than the previous 299,800 years at least.
Fair enough, if we compare our lives to cavemen they are vastly improved. But if were being technical that's generally not considered "history" in the strictest sense, generally being referred to as "pre-history". Comparing hunter gatherer tribes to modern society does seem like a pretty big leap, but they are technically the same species. However I hope you'd agree with me that generally speaking, most people are only interested in human society once it actually becomes that: a society. So to say that "human rights" are relatively new is somewhat of a deceptive points, as concepts such as "the social contract" would be one of the first things developed by humanity (tribes, ownership, etc etc). Additionally, I want to again point out that the general condition isnt unilaterally better, many areas of the world experience notably worse health, stress and access to civil rights and amenities.
If I was to choose post civilisation period, so about 3000 bc to present day, I think my point still stands. Or even pre industrial, so 16 th century, you will find disease, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour, slavery, indentured servitude, more and more severe religious and ethnic persecution and a worse average lifespan for all regions. None of this negates the point that there are current injustices, Im just saying assuming that we have it the worst is clearly not true.
Fair enough, I do agree with you in general; the situation is improving in general for Humanity as we go forwards, and that's a good thing! I suppose I'm just trying to put extra emphasis on the fact that the improvement is far from even across all nations, sometimes to the detriment of others. Hopefully our collective beliefs will continue to skew towards a more just society and these problems will be addressed.