this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 135 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Making it illegal to feed the poor, just how Jesus would want. Sadistic law

[–] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

We are a a profoundly antisocial society.

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[–] Peruvian_Skies@kbin.social 62 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Someone please explain to me how giving food to another person is illegal. This is by far the most dystopian thing I've ever read, fiction included.

[–] trias10@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Am not defending this law at all, but the thinking behind it is twofold:

  1. you might be handing out tainted or expired food
  2. the bigger issue: you are creating a "nuisance" on the property where you're doing it, as large groups of homeless people gather there. Some would say it's a safety concern, for example handing out free food at the corner of a primary school.

Again, I'm not agreeing with either point, but these are arguments I have heard from people who back such laws.

To the second point though, I've seen it firsthand. Salt Lake City tried to do a good thing by making the public library a homeless-friendly zone by handing out free food and allowing access to WiFi. This caused a large amount of homeless to hang out there all the time, and some of them would harass and attack non-homeless patrons of the library to the point that pretty much all of them stopped coming to the library entirely, and the area became a no-go zone.

The real issue is that a large amount of homeless people have severe mental illnesses (since public sanitariums all closed in the 70s). So where there are big congregations of homeless, there will inevitably be harassment and possible violence. Cities don't want people feeding the homeless at any old public building to avoid these situations, hence the laws, which allow you to do it only at certain places the city allows.

[–] Peruvian_Skies@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To the first point, handing out tainted or expired food should be illegal, not any kind of food. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[–] Beliriel@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Poisoned or tainted food" is just a sensationalist term for "not FDA approved" or "not handled by a certified food professional". It's kinda over the top in this regard but remember when people put borax in their milk to make it taste better or lime and plaster into bread to stretch the flour? It was unregulated food. Just like you can't open an unregistered and unlicensed restaurant without certfied cooks, you can't just hand out foods without someone knowing (i.e. licensed) how the food is supposed to be handled.

[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

certified cooks

I've got some news for you...

[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@trias10 @Peruvian_Skies

The real issue is that too many Americans have bought into the bootstrap theory and couldn't give a shit about their neighbours who don't have a place to live or food to eat.

Take care of those 2 things first and there won't be an issue of people hanging out where it's warm/cool and food is being supplied.

[–] tdgoodman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A solution requires more than just providing food and shelter. We have a class of people who are marginally mentally ill or barely literate. They do not function well enough to hold down a job or fill out a welfare form, but they function too well to require that they be locked up. These people need a semi-monitored place with enough oversight to keep them safe. The street can't do that, but they have no other place to go.

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[–] trias10@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not just an America problem. Have you been to Paris lately and seen the homelessness situation there, especially on the Metro?

Or in Oslo, where homeless Roma people attack people in broad daylight at Nationalteatret station and steal their luggage?

It's a big problem everywhere, and attitudes like the type you describe aren't relegated solely to Americans.

[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@trias10

That's fair. So let's fix it worldwide then, starting with North America.

[–] trias10@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'd love to mate, but I honestly don't know how. One thing I have to come to realise is that simply throwing money at the problem doesn't work. Norway, London, NYC, and California both spends billions each year on homelessness and the problem is only getting worse every year in all those places.

Maybe a good place to start would be opening up free sanitariums again where homeless people with mental issues could be housed, as sadly the streets have become the new dumping ground for people with severe mental illness.

Beyond that, am not sure, besides a total dismantling of capitalism.

[–] schroedingershat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The answer is trivial.

Stop spending billions on a "war on drugs" and make sure people have houses and healthcare (including mental health) unconditionally with no ridiculous hoops or welfare traps 10 years before they become a street junkie.

Just because some places misused a bunch of money doing very stupid things with it doesn't validate ignoring the solution.

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[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Beyond that, am not sure, besides a total dismantling of capitalism.

You say that like it's not the actual solution.

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[–] bluGill@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The sanitoriums were closed for good reason. Bad as homelessness is, it is better than the abuse of sanitoriums.

Not a sanitorium, but i know someone who was in an orphanage, they beat kids with a metal chimney brush if they put their head on the pillow when they slept. This earned them lots of awards for how nice all the kids beds were. Sanitoriums were reportable just as bad, but I don't have such close accounts.

[–] girlfreddy@mastodon.social 5 points 1 year ago

@bluGill @TheTango @Peruvian_Skies @trias10

The sanatoriums were horrendous and closed by both Canadian and American gov'ts in the late 60's - early 70's for good reason. The problem was the gov'ts didn't put programs in place to help those people live outside the walls ... essentially the same thing they do with prisoners now.

Guaranteed incomes, stable housing and support networks would clear up many of the "issues", but too many whine about their tax dollars being spent on people in need.

[–] ElleChaise@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

total dismantling of capitalism.

... Go on.

[–] Adeptfuckup@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I witnessed a security guard taking a loaf of bread from a homeless kid all the while preaching the word of Christ. Christians are nothing like their Christ.

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Absolutely terrible

[–] crazyminner@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Christ is nothing like Christ. Christ likely never existed and is a myth.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Historians generally agree that Jesus existed. But regardless, the Christ of Christianity exists as an ideal they're supposed to follow. They do not.

[–] crazyminner@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What historians are you talking to?

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_for_the_historical_existence_of_Jesus_Christ#Non-Biblical_evidence

Outside the bible there is very little or no evidence for the existence of a Jesus.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

And what's more is the very closest written account we have shows problems. Paul never mentions the tomb and thinks Jesus was buried in the ground. Besides for the Eucharist he doesn't seem to know much of anything about the ministry. Which is really freaken odd because by his own admission he was hunting and interrogating Christians before his conversion.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that a historical human Jesus existed. Historian Michael Grant asserts that if conventional standards of historical textual criticism are applied to the New Testament, "we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned."

Virtually all scholars of antiquity dismiss theories of Jesus's non-existence or regard them as refuted. In modern scholarship, the Christ myth theory is a fringe theory and finds virtually no support from scholars.

[–] BakedGoods@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some dude who started a personality cult around himself that grew out of control once he died. Like the warlord paedophile Muhammed after him.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm sure there was no shortage of "sons of god", but for some reason, this guy's claim stuck.

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[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Michael Grant doesn't know that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Saying that we know that there was some king in a certain place and time isn't a big claim. Most places had kings. Saying that if even a quarter of the claims of the Gospels were true is a massive claim. Also whataboutism is kinda boring. I really don't feel giving "historians" slack because they cut themselves slack.

In modern scholarship, the Christ myth theory is a fringe theory and finds virtually no support from scholars

Not going to have a job selling book and teaching the story of some old con. You sell books by advancing dozens of different contradictory models of the events all of them equally impossible to test.

[–] blomkalsgratin@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Claiming that Jesus of Nazareth existed is not extraordinary at all though. It's hardly far-fetched to claim that he was real. Claiming that he was the son of God and could perform miracles however, is - as someone else pointed out.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Right so you are trying to make the claim so small it can be snuck in. Theists try this trick with God all the time.

Does making a claim small make it true or is that a rhetorical device to try to manipulate the argument? If I told you I was Obama and you called me out on it so I said well really I did met him once in a bar when he was in Congress, would my altered claim become true by virtue of being ordinary?

Do you have evidence he existed yes or no?

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It doesn't really matter if a "historical human Jesus existed" because the Jesus that Christians worship, the Jesus of the Bible, is a fiction.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Absolutely, but that's not the claim I was refuting.

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[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What's this country coming to when you can feed the disadvantaged without consequences anymore?

Oh, and fuck every cop who issued a citation for feeding desperate people, and fuck anyone who voted for this sadistic barbarity.

[–] atyaz@reddthat.com 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] MostlyBirds@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

No, cops don't deserve to fuck.

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[–] Adeptfuckup@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Cops protect the rich. The rich are only rich because they’re psychopaths. Our economic system rewards psychopathy and punishes empathy. Eat. The. Rich

[–] ClarkFlankblast@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago

Also Texas. Tony Hinchcliffe told a story about getting kicked out of a Whataburger for being gay. His friend got arrested and held but not charged. This was 10 years ago, not 50. Texas sucks.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Finally some good news. What a disgusting ordinance.

This makes me want to become homeless now.

/s

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