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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34408 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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to the great benefit of the city's working poor

But if the city's working poor would benefit the most from this, why aren't they agitating for it? One would expect to see community groups spring up to deal with the issue, much like they did for the last 100 years of American history, but now there's nothing. Heck, I'd even expect it in the ballot box and candidates.

Now, I'm very willing to accept that the reason they aren't is propaganda and sabotage- and indeed, the entire reason why "muh oppression" continues is because it works- but I'm starting to suspect that even urban poor Americans are rich enough that their sense of apathy can take over (they're certainly much better off than any poor person anywhere else in terms of standard of living, and even some of the lower to middle class in other countries) and that the US crossed that point a generation ago.

So long as the poor don't feel themselves under threat and can afford the luxury belief of bike cucking accepting the occasional theft and confusing it for charity, I think it also releases citizens from the standard form of charitable obligations: the toleration of the underclass' behaviors is itself viewed as the charity.

The only place that really breaks this rule are West-aligned East Asian nations- but then again, they still have wireheaders all the same, and that's what hikikomori-dom is fundamentally caused by.

But if the city's working poor would benefit the most from this, why aren't they agitating for it?

Cognitive dissonance. But probably not in the way you are thinking.

My in-laws have a violently mentally ill son. They are upper middle class PMC types. Their experiences with him have warped their entire world view. They view everything through the lens of "protecting" their son, as opposed to protecting people from him. The world, and themselves, are better off every time he finally does something that lands him in jail. But they despair every time that happens. Because I guess that's just what family does to you.

The working poor often have far more familial proximity to deranged violent criminals. If this impact them anything like it impacts my in-laws, when these tough on crime measures get proposed, they don't react with joy or relief that they no longer have to worry about being stabbed taking the subway to work. They react with terror and fear that their violent, deranged cousins, siblings, uncles or fathers are going to get locked up.

They want the deranged violent people that terrify them locked up. Just not any that are related to them, because they love them.

From my limited experience, it's that when it gets to the point of being violent, etc. that the working poor do want their violent relatives taken into care, be that hospital wards or even jail, but they can't get it done until it's too late (e.g. the person has committed some crime bad enough to be locked away). There is the natural tendency towards "my family and I love them" but they do tend to be more realistic about how things can go bad, because they have to live beside the consequences of the violent, criminal, and mentally ill:

As part of the mitigation by defence, the teenager’s grandmother read out a letter to the court, which she said she had written to give a glimpse into the child he was.

“I am not a mother who sees no wrong in a child. I never had anything to do with crime and I don’t condone criminal behaviour,” she said.

She said her grandson used to be sports mad, excelling at hurling and boxing. She said he changed when his birth mother introduced herself to him in the street and when she did not get what she wanted from him, his mother said she would harm herself. The witness said that her grandson never returned to boxing or GAA after that and began to get into trouble at school.

“His new friends were all involved in stealing bikes and using the money to buy drugs. I got many agencies involved but nothing worked. He would be awake at night crying and made three suicide attempts,” she said.

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