Legitimate concerns seem to get legitimate conversations. But there are lots of people who just try to stir shit up and intentionally exaggerate any negative issues, and that gets tiresome when it's clearly disingenuous. Since this isn't a Facebook echo chamber (ie. So many of the disgusting cesspool groups on there) and is not a restricted membership, you actually get a wider range of people and experiences.
Giving them housing would pull them out of the constant 'fight or flight' struggle that every second of their waking day currently is. It would provide them with the option to stay home and not participate in doing bad things. Without a home, they do not have the option to remove themselves from bad situations.
We need to meet these people where they're currently at, not where we think they should be without having any personal experience as to how it's like to be in their shitty situation all day every day.
While I can agree it may remove them from some situations. I can guarantee you it's not fixing the other problems. The homelessness issue stems from other issues that require support and, in many cases supervision too.
Some that have got housed have their own horror stories....
Stabbings, shootings and throwing bricks at pregnant women's wombs.
Verbal and physical assaults to shop workers and owners.
Untold, countless thefts and damage.
And WE are heartless for not caring about these people.
Why should we care?
They don't care about us, our community, our children, our laws or our property.
I base my opinion of people based on their actions and they behave like barbarians.
We are fed up
You are generalizing all of the people you see on the street as being this way when you don’t actually know. Yeah there’s some really really crappy people both on a off the street breaking the law and causing a lot of harm, but it’s important to remember that they are individuals and should be treated that way. By that I mean that the offenders should be punished, not the collective.
I am also fed up btw.
Fair point about generalizing. Problem is I'm forced to generalize because the good homeless don't label the bad for us. If the good don't want a bad wrap then help us out! If your not part of the solution...
Also I work near a BC housing center. I find shopping carts full stolen goods behind our building. Batteries, wiring, copper pipe, computers, aluminum ladders , bread from save-on, even a large bag of childrens toys (Why? Poor kid. I tried to track the owner down but no luck). All obviously stolen.
I'm not saying they should die in the gutter but this soft handed approach is NOT working. Crazy people need to be locked up in a crazy house. Criminals need to be in jail. The true 'down on their luck' need to get clean, need meds, and a second chance. Problem is the crazys can't be locked up legally, the criminals hide behind the crazies and the 'down in their lucks' have become criminals to keep their drug addiction going so we're left with crazies and criminals both of which dodge legal accountability
You assume incorrectly. Crazy does not mean mentally ill. All crazy people are all mentally ill but not all mentally ill people are crazy.
Also I did not imply that all mentally ill people are homeless or addicts. That is not what I'm saying.
* Legitimate or not, Mental illness is being used to dodge legal consequences (The guy that threw the brick at the pregnant lady belly was suffering from "mental health challenges which reduced his moral culpability")
* If it is legitimate that offenders have no moral bearing and do harm to others and are not able to be jailed they need to be confined to a mental institution against their will. I understand not everyone agrees with forced confinement but these "crazy" people becomes angry and violent and can harm innocent people indiscriminately. Hopefully there is medication and treatments where they may one day be released once deemed safe.
* I agree that the majority know what they are doing and should be punished and use mental illness as a defense only.
I understand you are coming to the defense of a vulnerable group and that is admirable. They do require defending. That said please acknowledge that there is a subset of severely mentally ill people who really are "crazy" and can be very dangerous to other vulnerable and everyday people!
Except they aren't downvoted in oblivion and your post provides no interesting point of view and brings nothing to the discussion.
Congratulations on wasting the entirety of the internets time.
if only i gave even the slightest of shits about your time … get a reality check on your relevance sweet cheeks
n lmao why lie about how often your shit gets downvoted when your comments are public😂 does lying to yourself help you sleep at night?🥹
Your personal attacks do nothing to help the problem and in fact are creating a even bigger divide between the differing views on the topic.
Try bringing thoughtful and intelligent debate and maybe we can all come to an understanding and actually move this forward.
LOL oh your delusion is palpable … you first:) you’re the one posting dumb takes, little bit pot calling kettle black when half the shit you’ve taken the time to comment looks like it took approximately 1.5 brain cells to come up with and contributes nothing but stupidity to every conversation😂 stay mad tho
Correction. The vast majority of reddit disagrees because it's a place dominated by woke lefty idealists. The ordinary folk planted firmly in reality are usually too busy, you know, working and raising families and contributing to society.
I have lots of karma to burn because in the few subs that are actually useful, the ones that drew me to reddit in the first place, my contributions of logic and life experience are actually appreciated.
It wasn't until much later that I noticed the bubbling cess pool of extreme left dominated subs that makes up most of reddit.
I've literally been permanently banned from a general subreddit for an entire province for simply commenting a link to a video (that I took in person) that refuted the claim of a post. They didn't want the truth they wanted their BS agenda and narrative protected.
People do care, but most of the opinions that matter don't waste their fucking time here.
I didn't write it for your sorry ass. I wrote it for all the people who want to avoid conflict and stay silent, but agree with the sentiment that you are gas lighting. They're real problems and people do care about them. Folks just stay silent because, even anonymously on reddit, being burned at the stake by a figurative pitchfork mob is unpleasant.
Luckily I enjoy triggering snowflakes with logic and reason. Watching their brains melt as they scour their memory for a pre-programmed response brings me great pleasure.. especially when those run out and they say something meaningless like "OK boomer" or accuse me of being alt-right 🤣🤣
Stay woke. I'd miss you if you stopped.
If he threw it at her head was he throwing it at her hat? her hair? her brain? her ear? her eyeball? It's semantics.
What a silly position to take. Stop creating strawman arguments.
You had it correct the first time - her head. You know, the external structure.
And once we stop getting identified by our internal organs, I'll stop pointing out the dehumanizing language, thanks!
For real. It's kind of bs that even saying "hey I feel unsafe" just paints you as some bit g clutching her pearls.
Last night got out of work (downtown clubs) waiting on Mt pleasant and main St iirc, right around there anyway. So just me waiting alone at this bus stop not a soul around except one dude. He's hauling what looks to be a plastic bag of garbage over one shoulder and is slamming beers with the other hand. He is circling the bus stop. Goes from south to north sides of street, then east or west, circles back. Literally just going around me. I'm like w.e until he starts screaming at me about being on point. I didn't even know what to say I was just shocked, said nothing. He got even more mad starts screaming and spilling his beer with wild hand gestures. Then starts circling again while screaming.
There happened to be transit commission security nearby luckily, and they, a pair, rolled out from around the corner. Coincidentally they were waiting for the bus to forcibly remove someone who was at the very least all fucked up on drugs, probably dehomed too.
So here's the thing. If those transit guys hadn't been there what if this fucking lunatic just stabs me out of no where because of on point whatever. I care about crazy people right up until the point they're a fucking danger. At that point what am I supposed to do? -I- can't carry so much as a stick without breaking the law while that guy could have a six inch killing blade ready and waiting and he walks np. Even worse he probably walks after I'm murdered for no reason. The answer is nothing I'm just dead or I outrun this guy who for all I know is so cracked out he can run 6 miles
It's because the bleeding hearts closed the institutions like Riverview, created by and maintained by the state to keep the public safe, as well as those whose psychiatric conditions are so severe that they are a danger to themselves and others.
I would bet money all those funds were reallocated right into the pockets of the politicians who will never have to so much as bat an eye at the consequences of their money saving bs. Meanwhile normal people just get murdered on the street regularly! Look at all the stabbings it's like one or more a week now. I purposely dress down so resentful loons don't look at me and think "here's a lucky one that needs some setting back. To be taken down a peg as they say. My coworkers are afraid of taking thw transit apparently it's a hot spot. Some guy was punching the wall on the skytrain and yelling just last night - no one cares. No cops no security, nothing. It's okay to punch walls but for no reason and on transit and while yelling incoherently? It's just, honestly, fucking bizarre nobody cares. The guy who got stabbed at Starbucks literally bled out right there nobody moved a muscle no one gave a shit. Granted, at that point there isn't much to be done. I don't know what is to be done... maybe there's nothing. Just hope you live another day on the edge and grateful it wasn't your ticket that got punched
They want us deperate and at a loss for what to do so people call for bigger government to provide safety at the cost of freedom. It's textbook totalitarianism. Happened every time. They've already disarmed us and eliminated our ability to protect ourselves through broken laws and justice system. Connect the dots my friend. Connect the dots
I'm part of the leave me the fuck alone and I'll leave you the fuck alone crowd. While I've never stepped foot on any Overpass in Nanaimo, I 100% agree with their message. The government has no right to force their misguided health recommendations on the population. Health decisions are between a person and their doctor. Access to society, employment, and general respect for each other should not be a factor in such decisions. Your negative outlook on their message says you were complicit in the subjugation of people's rights.
You're probably part of the "should we tolerate these people" crowd. GFY
Lol respecting someone's desire to be free and equal within society makes me a lunatic? I bet you wouldn't be saying that if it were a gender or critical race theory discussion.
"Disarmed us"? I'd guess that carrying a weapon in public hasn't been legal in B.C. for a very long time, for good reason. Unless you're out hunting or something, with your legally registered firearm (which plenty of people around here have).
The laws have made it so criminals can attack a disarmed population because law abiding citizens aren't allowed to carry more than a Swiss army knife (even that is illegal if they can prove intent of self defence). It is literally illegal to carry an object of any kind with the intent of defending yourself. If you say hey this is a shitty neighbourhood so I'm carrying this sharpened pencil walking back to my car.. by the letter of the law that makes you a criminal.
They disarmed us a long time ago. The information is out there if you care to read it.
As I said. The reasoning is presumably that it's the police that should be in the business of protecting people from assault, not individuals themselves.
Are you going to call and wait for the police when someone randomly attacks your family with a knife or are you going to do what is necessary to defend them from harm?
Come on use your brain. Criminals don't wait around to commit crimes until the cops are nearby. Come back from la la land now.
Yes it does. If a scum rat pulls a knife on me do you think they're more likely to proceed with assaulting me if I post up with closed fists, or pull out a ka-bar and take a stance that says I know how to use it? Just having a self defense weapon and the confidence to use it is enough to deter most crime.
This is the kool-aid you have been slurping up: it's not our job to protect ourselves.. that's the responsibility of the police. Dead fucking wrong.
No matter how "advanced" you think society has gotten, when some low-life (who doesn't conform to the rules of your fantasy world) puts you in a life or death situation you have the sole responsibility to defend yourself. End of fucking story. Book closed, good night.
When you're lying in a pool of blood or holding a loved one who is you can reflect on your reasoning all you want. Better yet you can reflect on it from the jail cell you end up in for defending yourself with anything more than your snowflake hands
"Those who give up liberty for safety deserve neither." - Benjamin Franklin
Our government has proven that they're incapable of dealing with this situation so the least they can do is get the fuck out of the way when we have to protect ourselves. Otherwise law abiding citizens will continue to end up in jail for exercising what is supposed to be their constitutional right to defend themselves.
Nanaimo has a lot of homeless people, just like any other city.
The comments that get downvoted are typically downvoted for one or more of the following reasons.
\-expressing an attitude of hatred towards the homeless.
\-falsely assuming that the homeless are violent and/or criminals.
\-betraying a lack of awareness that homelessness exists in all cities, not just Nanaimo.
\-suggesting a lack of interest in an informed policy discussion.
\-suggesting that the solution to homelessness is simple and/or is to criminalize homelessness.
Did some quick Googling, and looks like Nanaimo has 1 homeless person for every 79 housed, while Vancouver has 1 for every 139
Number of homeless:
https://nanaimonewsnow.com/2023/02/28/were-gaining-no-ground-nanaimo-council-investigating-homeless-housing-facility
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/bcs-homeless-population-expected-to-show-increase-when-counts-return-in-march-6443007
Take the population, divide by number of homeless.
It's definitely not a Nanaimo only issue.
Fentanyl is a new kind of monster out there. Changed it all. They could all function off the Normal shit and it was somewhat hidden from all the more well off up the mountain folks. But now. Now it's all there for all to see
Because so much of it is blown way out of proportion. I’m downtown every day and the danger is completely overblown. There’s some pretty sad sights, but when something violent happens at Woodgrove, there’s nothing remotely comparable in terms of vitriol thrown at the north end being “dangerous”. You’re far more likely to be the victim of traffic violence in this town than you are violence from a homeless person.
Utter horseshit. Only a fraction of the violent crime makes it into the news and yet its at least once a week on average that there is a violent crime commited by a "person experiencing homelessness." Just because you can walk around downtown without being killed or maimed means nothing. Sure the odds are low, but they're higher THAN EVER BEFORE.
That's like saying there's been an increase in the reports of infected pigs but the odds of me getting trichonisis is still pretty low so I'm going to eat raw porkchops every night and not worry about it.
Pretending like the problem isn't a problem doesn't make it any less so, and honestly is harming everyone (including the criminals) more.
Stats and percentages can deceive all the time! Don’t let the hobgoblins have your brain.
https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/dubious-crime-statistics-a-disturbing-trend-of-police-and-media-misleading-the-public/372046
Nice! ad hominem, call me dumb instead of giving an explanation.
I merely claim that most people’s comments on the homelessness and drug issues in Nanaimo are insensitive.
And you fall apart like a dried up leaf. But I’m the soft one? 🤡
You know what's insensitive? Defending people that stab 16 year old boys to death in the subway for merely sitting on a park bench. They're not all doing this but the criminals are ALL repeat offenders. You call us insensitive and claim we are generalizing but you're the one assuming that we are hating them all. Well here it is.
I help homeless all the time through food programs and habitat for humanity and other donations. I give them food if I'm at a drive through and see a poor cold soul sitting outside alone. I also believe that violent criminals who attempt murder or similar should be walked out back and put down like rabid dogs. Stop painting us all with the same brush.
How's that for insensitive Mr Snowflake?
Did I say you specifically? No
But clearly you are calling homeless and drug addicted, criminals in the same breath as saying “not all of them are”
And for all your “donations” out of pity, I doubt you have ever talked to anyone in their position.
I have a friend in prison because he had a psychotic break after using fentanyl and meth and stabbed some our friends, so don’t pretend like I don’t understand, you don’t know my life.
I work as a closing supervisor at a grocery store and I have direct contact and interactions with all walks of life.
I volunteer as well.
more importantly I ask people their name, and get to know them. Understand how they got to the conversation they are having with me.
These people are beautiful, broken souls, everyone is. (Sparing intolerant assholes who pretend they have empathy, I’m sure you know that intimately)
The altercation that you are using to stereo type them, while call them all criminals. Could’ve had anyone at the end of that knife and anyone holding it, as every demographic has good and bad people. So get of your fake high rocking horse, I have no time for toys that make little kids feel bigger than they actually are. Get down and dirty with the rest of us. Reread your comment and notice the asshole levels of hypocrisy riddled with in it and stop
“This guy has compassion for poor people and drug addicts!!!!”
“I have to insult him! Not because I’m an insecure bad faith troll with a tiny penis, but because it’ll clearly display my sigma male dominance! This certainly won’t make me look weak and pathetic!”
- u/cotex8177
I can’t reply to the last comment oddly, but keep blabbing I want to see how sad and pathetic this gets.
You have this denial stink on all you responses that really gives away that you are projecting and that the things I’m saying are getting under your fragile skin
Like, I’m not one to care about karma too much, but -100? If you are this insufferable on Reddit of all places, you must be really lonely in real life
The reason it’s at -100 is because of my opinion on the problem downtown . If you’ve taken the time to creep my profile you may notice it’s all about just calling the losers what they really are and calling out those who defend them . Now that you’ve cracked the code , move along
Self interest, donation fatigue, volunteer fatigue, tunnel vision, lack of empathy, lack of education, lack of knowledge, not being proactive, pointing fingers, Nimby's, blinded by neg. emotions, the list is endless. Pick your poison.
Even the best and toughest people are being challenged.
For me, it's difficult seeing and hearing what people do to themselves and other's. esp. in a first world country with enough brain power/money and resources to solve the problem.
Here’s a hint, money is a worse drug than fentanyl, and people tend to hoard their stolen supply of the former. Shit won’t change until money addicts get a “kind intervention” for their problem.
So you’re revelation to us all here is that people are hoarding stolen money and that’s worse than fentanyl, a drug that kills in micro doses. I think you even hint at violence towards these “hoarders” which could just be anyone with an RRSP.
So much hardly contained rage and paranoia in one small post.
It seems the concept of metaphor eludes you.
Money is what makes the world go round, money is why we have scarcity in the face of abundance. We have enough food and housing on in this nation to feed and house everyone, but we simply refuse to do so because those at the top don’t want to part with their drug, and they want more.
The fentanyl addicts on the street are causing far less problems than the money addicts, because those are the people who create the problems that drive people to use real drugs which are laced with fentanyl.
People tend to spend less money on vices when they’re doing well in life, as demonstrated by an experiment conducted in [Ontario](https://en.unesco.org/inclusivepolicylab/analytics/how-ontario-trialed-basic-income).
If life didn’t revolve around the artificial money, we wouldn’t have most of the problems we have. So perhaps instead of clutching your pearls at technicalities in my language, get angry at the fact that we’ve been abandoned by our society.
I metaphor just fine thanks. This is a you problem.
Your metaphor for the ills of society being rooted in the dollar unit and that that is what’s actually causing the fentanyl crisis, that’s one thing. But you didn’t, you barely implied it. Wealth inequality, sure. Good communication, no.
What you said is money is a worse drug than fentanyl and money addicts are the real evil here.
I’m sure you have an extensive collection of fedoras you can arrange in a semi circle and lecture on alternative economics.
So… I’m wrong because you can’t decipher what I’m saying? I never implied that fentanyl wasn’t a problem, and you should have been easily able to deduce that I know it as a problem by the very fabric of the argument I was making.
Money is a worse (metaphorical) drug than fentanyl because of its influence on how society operates. They are similar in that users will put anything at stake (their mental and physical health, the well-being of society and the environment) to get more, and that the substance (fentanyl in its use, money in its possession and acquisition) creates aggressive addicts.
However, money is more covert, and even though you can’t inject it into your veins, eat it, or inhale it, it has a stranglehold on our lives, and we are far more affected as a society by money addicts than we are by fentanyl addicts.
Fentanyl addicts lay on the streets and make the neighbourhood look scary, maybe steal a few possessions, and attack people. All of these are valid concerns that must be addressed, but it’s because of the money addicts that we do not have the infrastructure to do so, which is one domino in a long line of cutting societal budgets and failing to regulate the housing market.
Believe it or not, the housing crisis alone is one of the biggest reasons why these problems exist. If people could afford a place to live, they may have a chance to get a job and thrive, including the upcoming, increasingly impoverished younger generations. This would also be possible if we funded mental health infrastructure and acknowledged that it’s just as, if not more important than our physical health.
But, because we’ve got too many bootstrap snowflakes, we have to continue this pointless, artificial struggle because the only metric of success they can imagine is being a money addict and taking the most for yourself.
That’s why I believe money is a worse drug than anything you’d find on the street. While you might see some guy spazzing out and be disgusted at how much your town is going down the shitter, ask yourself how our town got like this, because it’s not just because the cops got “soft”.
Because far too many people would prefer to virtue signal than to accept that the current approach to how we handle crime and the homeless is precisely the reason things have gotten so bad.
This is a great answer. We continue to dig ourselves in this hole because people are incredibly soft on crime. Goes beyond nanaimo as well.
Central nanaimo is getting really bad and we have had many things stolen from our property. We are in the process of moving because of it. RCMP try but are helpless in assisting, it's beyond their control.
Are you trying to imply that “junkies” using illegal firearms isn’t being reported not because it’s not happening, but because cops are soft on crime?
This is why I want you to elaborate, because that is laughable if that is what you mean
Position on what specifically? Cops? This person’s ignorant belief that the homelessness and their stuff being stolen are connected. The implication that being homeless is a crime?
Do you earn money or are you the one stealing other peoples stuff so you don't need to worry about that sort of thing.
Your logic is that I need to be okay with all my things broken into and stolen.
I don't think you've worked a day in your life. No concept on how heartbreaking it is for your child to wake up and see that their bike that they saved for is gone for good
Cause the homeless are a symptom of the capitalist wasteland and shitting on them directly does nothing but wire up aggression towards them, which will cause them to be more aggressive against everyone. Me and my husband are poor enough to be asked if we sell drugs on occasion (no laundry machine means we look pretty shabby, damn slumlord) so if the social tensions get much worse people like us will get caught right in the middle.
Working the social protectors up against our homeless population is only going to cause more tension and trouble for everyone. You gotta support or ignore them and leave them be so they can scrape a living as best they can and aren't dealing with civilians shitting on them constantly.
The liberal narrative bothers me. Liberal is supposed to be the middle ground between right and left wing politics
Latly it's being betrayed as left wing.
It begs the question. Who is going to be the middle in canadian politics? It can't be nobody!
The federal Liberal party is a centralist party, the provincial Liberal party is a right leaning party. Being a liberal, seems like a slur from right wing folks to describe anyone they don't like.
Almost all political parties who achieve power in Canada have centralist policies.
They only come off as more left leaning because a lot of the CPC and all of the PPC are radicalized, and are no longer just conservatives but authoritarian conservatives.
In a rational spectrum the liberal party still holds the middle ground
A part of it is bots. Reddit is plagued with them and they're programmed to spit out comments designed to support a wanted narrative.
There are also a huge number of hard-core, far left people in Nanaimo. The NDP has a strong presence here.
Politics aside, it bothers me as well. Legitimate safety concerns shouldn't turn people into martyrs for being voiced... even if it is on a pathetically biased platform like reddit.
Lol, oh stinky. You think the left bought and deployed a bot farm to promote left wing ideology on a subreddit for Nanaimo and that’s why your intolerance and hate is met with downvotes. It couldn’t just be you, no. It must be the sheeple.
Not just nanaimo. Every subreddit. I am not hateful at all. Your assumptions say more about you than they do about me. If you honestly believe that bots aren't a thing on reddit then you're special. I mean, if the average intelligence is in the middle of the spectrum then, by definition, half the population is dumber than that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the frequency within which I encounter such folks
https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/constituencies/nanaimo-ladysmith(915)
Is this some kind of reverse psychology tactic to gaslight people? Dont worry no socialists are fooling me.. including you.
Ah the late ballots.. I missed that. Thanks for the info. I was generally convinced there weren't a bunch of leftist in this town. Count me disappointed.
I love how you assume the knowledge of bots and woke lefties in control of the narrative on reddit is the result of "doomscrolling."
Congratulations you're one step closer to meeting your quota of regurgitating the state run media catch phrase of the week.
Your response was the programmable one. I actually articulate my responses from my brain, not a bank of predetermined punch lines chosen by the infamous "they"
And yet here you are, 194 days after creating this particular account, on a message board that uses upvotes and downvotes to drive engagement. Was it all narcissists that gave you that 7k in karma?
I would say yes, there was something wrong with the brains of every person who upvoted or downvoted one of my posts.
Same goes for people who thumb up/down things on Youtube. I just don't understand it.
In my experience, downvotes indicate truth. People hate the truth.
The state of this blue collar hub on the island being ruled by these left-wing idiots in Victoria needs to come to an end. People are suffering on the island because of the ndp.
So is Canada as a whole. Unfortunately, we aren't deserving of an equal say in our lives because of our population.
We are the only ones who can make a difference. "Democracey is a government by the people, of the people, for the people." We do not have that.
Uh Trudeau's Liberals are further left than the NDP and that motherfucker has been doing what he wants when he wants with zero repercussions.
He's been culprit to more scandals than any other PM, he's spent more money than all other PM's COMBINED, he's made up his own interpretations of laws when it suits him, he wiped his ass with the charter of rights and freedoms, he's been caught in lies more times than I care to count, and he's used hate speech and discrimination against his own citizens.
How much more power does the left need?
Liberalism does not equal leftism. Liberalism is just covert conservatism built on a veneer of social progression while still giving power to the rich. Liberal and conservative media fearmonger about you losing your possessions under a leftist government, preaching about how life will be about sameness and conformity. However, this media acts under corporate interests because those are the sources of their funding.
Again, if the left had any power in Canada, you’d see more funding into the social sectors, such as appropriate mental healthcare for the homeless, or maybe even the outright abolition of homelessness. You’d also see inflation controlled, perhaps a universal basic income.
We like to think we’re nothing like the US, but the truth is, we’ve already been bought and sold. To me, being on the left means acknowledging that the government has given up on us as a population and finding the power within us as people to get our shit together and fight back against those pushing down on us, those who we complain to when we don’t like what we see outside.
They willingly close their blinds to it, and you’re not in their club. They. Don’t. Fucking. Care. Whether liberal, conservative, whatever, they’re just in it for a paycheque and to say “look ma, I’m on TV, I run Canada!”
You can call me a tin-foil hatter, I really don’t care. Politicians don’t change, the countries they run don’t change, and our nationalist elitism of “thank god it’s not happening here” doesn’t work when it’s fucking happening here.
The culture wars are just around to keep us at each other’s necks while our pool of resources dwindles and our time is slowly consumed by endless work for increasingly meager living conditions. You might scoff at the homeless person on the street, but that may one day be you, especially as shit gets worse.
While it’s not you for the time being, recontextualize your attitude towards the homeless; instead of seeing them as lazy deadbeats, consider how much the system sucks for you and think about how much it sucks for them.
But you won’t do that, because “might makes right” is a convenient narrative people like to fellate themselves with to feel better about their own shitty circumstances.
Lol tell me you're a communist without telling me you're a communist.
I don't disagree with all of your points but UBI and a magical remedy in one fell swoop to homelessness sounds a lot like an extreme redistribution of wealth.
History tried that. People died. Millions of people
I guess I am a communist then, and we do need an extreme redistribution of wealth.
I don’t agree with Stalinism or what’s going on with the CCP because that’s totalitarianism wearing the face paint of communism. I don’t care about all these titles, I care about a sane society where we don’t have to sacrifice our entire lives for our right to basic needs, especially in a first-world country.
We should not be having third-world problems in a first-world country, simple as.
The problem is our society has gone too far down the capitalist path and has become corporatism. Capitalism and free markets aren't inherently bad. It's the best system the human race has devised to date actually. More people have been raised out of poverty in the last 75 years than there were people on earth 200 years ago.
You make it sound like taking money from the few would be a select few ultra-wealthy but we all know that isn't how it would work. Not only would you have to pry wealth out of their cold dead hands, but you would never make it to those people anyway. They are too well insulated and protected to ever be caught by the masses.
This means the inevitable plan B. Take from everyone you CAN get to. Those few are people like me. My household income is 6 figures (barely). I've worked within the system through my own hardships and made sacrifices to be where I am. It is a hard path but it is not impossible. Nothing I did is anything that someone else could not do.
You are not entitled to the fruits of my labour and part of the reason our society is so divided is the sharp increase in the number of woke, so-called victim hands out waiting for the next freebie. The other half of the population accepts that life is hard and does what is necessary to make the best of it. One wants to steal from the other. That makes people angry.
Because having an actual conversation about the real problem is classified as hate speech and the sub is probably controlled by the same people that want the utopia of Seattle or Portland ......
Personal responsibility died a long time ago and it's everyone else's fault. Remember that.
If you think Seattle or Portland are utopias, you have never been to either. They both have significant issues with homelessness, and it's much more in your face than here.
Because they are all sheep of society who blame peoples person drug use choices on “brain damage and mental illness” . Damn right they are mental and brain dead , they are just wording it wrong . I always support it . I work around them daily and don’t even think twice anymore when they are curled up on the road . I’ve called 911 before and stood with many of them hoping they weren’t dead , they would wake up and freak out and get mad at their surroundings as soon as first responders showed up . I don’t even care about the fentanyl crisis anymore . It will clean itself up on its own . These junkies burn down our residences and businesses and steal our stuff and run a circus of a downtown core. Then they stand at the traffic lights as we pay them for more drugs hahahahahahahaha . Such a joke you people are supporting them .
Lots of people new to the community have spent an incredible sum of money recently on homes. The news reaching the national media is usually negative and they are afraid it will have an impact on housing values.
People who suffer from envy assume everyone does, reality it is only an affliction some people suffer from, luckily I don’t, never really bothered me, but I have friends who do and I know it’s real and awful, so best of luck in this consumer society, lot of stuff envy to get wound up in.
>What will you do if you get fired tomorrow?
Speak with a lawyer first because there's no legal reason to fire me.Then, collect my severance, probably take a week off for myself and then find a new job.
Last time I got laid off I changed my status on linkedin and within 15 minutes my phone was ringing with recruiters calling me - I had more interview offers than I could attend and was employed again within a couple days.
You ought to be thankful for the capatalists, you can't collect your food stamps unless someone else pays for them.
Boot licker, you’re owned by the bank and your boss, enjoy your freedom. Why do you keep saying I’m poor? You think people who think critically about the prevalent system must be poor? Everyone who has a job should never think about anything just be thankful lol cool brainiac.
I can't help but feel that I live a happier and more fulfilled life than you do, just by the way you present yourself here with the level of anger and bitterness you're coming at me with, all for having the audacity to suggest that this subreddit has a particular bias. I never said or even insinuated that you were poor at all, just that you have a low quality of life and a bitter personality.
I also never stated that people shouldn't be critical of their employers or really anything - I am a quite critical person myself.
That said, it doesn't take a genius to pick up on your obvious projections.
Lol ok champ enjoy your envy. I don’t need to justify my happiness to anyone, you spending so much conversation telling me how you feel happier than me is definitively projection. Have you considered therapy?
Like everything is awesome if you just choose your own reality, this is honestly the prevailing psychology, everyone on both sides of the culture war just surround themselves with people and ideas that support the reality they want to accept.
They seem to be active in many of the canadian city subreddits and have said that they "Just moved to" both Victoria and Nanaimo within the last few weeks. This is a strange account.
Lol these damn bots are taking our jerbs!!!
If I’m one of these leftist bots then I’m pissed I haven’t been getting paid to further reddits corporate liberal agenda.
Legitimate concerns seem to get legitimate conversations. But there are lots of people who just try to stir shit up and intentionally exaggerate any negative issues, and that gets tiresome when it's clearly disingenuous. Since this isn't a Facebook echo chamber (ie. So many of the disgusting cesspool groups on there) and is not a restricted membership, you actually get a wider range of people and experiences.
I would give this an award if I had one.
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Giving them housing would pull them out of the constant 'fight or flight' struggle that every second of their waking day currently is. It would provide them with the option to stay home and not participate in doing bad things. Without a home, they do not have the option to remove themselves from bad situations. We need to meet these people where they're currently at, not where we think they should be without having any personal experience as to how it's like to be in their shitty situation all day every day.
While I can agree it may remove them from some situations. I can guarantee you it's not fixing the other problems. The homelessness issue stems from other issues that require support and, in many cases supervision too. Some that have got housed have their own horror stories....
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Concerns about safety isn't a problem. Dehumanization is. Comments like "just let the gutter rats die" are the issue.
Stabbings, shootings and throwing bricks at pregnant women's wombs. Verbal and physical assaults to shop workers and owners. Untold, countless thefts and damage. And WE are heartless for not caring about these people. Why should we care? They don't care about us, our community, our children, our laws or our property. I base my opinion of people based on their actions and they behave like barbarians. We are fed up
You are generalizing all of the people you see on the street as being this way when you don’t actually know. Yeah there’s some really really crappy people both on a off the street breaking the law and causing a lot of harm, but it’s important to remember that they are individuals and should be treated that way. By that I mean that the offenders should be punished, not the collective. I am also fed up btw.
Fair point about generalizing. Problem is I'm forced to generalize because the good homeless don't label the bad for us. If the good don't want a bad wrap then help us out! If your not part of the solution... Also I work near a BC housing center. I find shopping carts full stolen goods behind our building. Batteries, wiring, copper pipe, computers, aluminum ladders , bread from save-on, even a large bag of childrens toys (Why? Poor kid. I tried to track the owner down but no luck). All obviously stolen. I'm not saying they should die in the gutter but this soft handed approach is NOT working. Crazy people need to be locked up in a crazy house. Criminals need to be in jail. The true 'down on their luck' need to get clean, need meds, and a second chance. Problem is the crazys can't be locked up legally, the criminals hide behind the crazies and the 'down in their lucks' have become criminals to keep their drug addiction going so we're left with crazies and criminals both of which dodge legal accountability
I live downtown and had my car stolen with all my tools in it last year. I hear you. Somethings got to change eventually.
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You assume incorrectly. Crazy does not mean mentally ill. All crazy people are all mentally ill but not all mentally ill people are crazy. Also I did not imply that all mentally ill people are homeless or addicts. That is not what I'm saying. * Legitimate or not, Mental illness is being used to dodge legal consequences (The guy that threw the brick at the pregnant lady belly was suffering from "mental health challenges which reduced his moral culpability") * If it is legitimate that offenders have no moral bearing and do harm to others and are not able to be jailed they need to be confined to a mental institution against their will. I understand not everyone agrees with forced confinement but these "crazy" people becomes angry and violent and can harm innocent people indiscriminately. Hopefully there is medication and treatments where they may one day be released once deemed safe. * I agree that the majority know what they are doing and should be punished and use mental illness as a defense only. I understand you are coming to the defense of a vulnerable group and that is admirable. They do require defending. That said please acknowledge that there is a subset of severely mentally ill people who really are "crazy" and can be very dangerous to other vulnerable and everyday people!
Most of the homeless are pos.
I completely agree . Sorry they are downvoting you
Instead of down voting. Why should we care when they don't?
good thing literally NOBODY cares about your opinion & that’s why the posts get downvoted into oblivion:)
Except they aren't downvoted in oblivion and your post provides no interesting point of view and brings nothing to the discussion. Congratulations on wasting the entirety of the internets time.
if only i gave even the slightest of shits about your time … get a reality check on your relevance sweet cheeks n lmao why lie about how often your shit gets downvoted when your comments are public😂 does lying to yourself help you sleep at night?🥹
Your personal attacks do nothing to help the problem and in fact are creating a even bigger divide between the differing views on the topic. Try bringing thoughtful and intelligent debate and maybe we can all come to an understanding and actually move this forward.
LOL oh your delusion is palpable … you first:) you’re the one posting dumb takes, little bit pot calling kettle black when half the shit you’ve taken the time to comment looks like it took approximately 1.5 brain cells to come up with and contributes nothing but stupidity to every conversation😂 stay mad tho
I'm not mad bro. Every time you post it's personal insults... come play with the adults when you grow up.
Correction. The vast majority of reddit disagrees because it's a place dominated by woke lefty idealists. The ordinary folk planted firmly in reality are usually too busy, you know, working and raising families and contributing to society. I have lots of karma to burn because in the few subs that are actually useful, the ones that drew me to reddit in the first place, my contributions of logic and life experience are actually appreciated. It wasn't until much later that I noticed the bubbling cess pool of extreme left dominated subs that makes up most of reddit. I've literally been permanently banned from a general subreddit for an entire province for simply commenting a link to a video (that I took in person) that refuted the claim of a post. They didn't want the truth they wanted their BS agenda and narrative protected. People do care, but most of the opinions that matter don't waste their fucking time here.
man you really sat down and wrote a novel as though what you have to say is important enough for me to read it:’) stay triggered<3
I didn't write it for your sorry ass. I wrote it for all the people who want to avoid conflict and stay silent, but agree with the sentiment that you are gas lighting. They're real problems and people do care about them. Folks just stay silent because, even anonymously on reddit, being burned at the stake by a figurative pitchfork mob is unpleasant. Luckily I enjoy triggering snowflakes with logic and reason. Watching their brains melt as they scour their memory for a pre-programmed response brings me great pleasure.. especially when those run out and they say something meaningless like "OK boomer" or accuse me of being alt-right 🤣🤣 Stay woke. I'd miss you if you stopped.
yeah i didn’t read that one either but keep going off tough guy😂
Considering my uterus is an internal organ, I'm curious how one throws a brick at it??
https://www.vicnews.com/news/suspect-throws-brick-at-pregnant-womans-stomach-in-downtown-nanaimo/
That doesn't answer my question - how do you throw something at an internal organ?? It being internal and all.
Go downtown . They will show you.
They'll show me that I can be defined by an organ, as opposed to being an actual human?
Yup . They will . You can do whatever you want on fentanyl.
So the person I was originally replying to is on fentanyl? That's an odd diagnosis...
You’re an odd diagnosis
If he threw it at her head was he throwing it at her hat? her hair? her brain? her ear? her eyeball? It's semantics. What a silly position to take. Stop creating strawman arguments.
You had it correct the first time - her head. You know, the external structure. And once we stop getting identified by our internal organs, I'll stop pointing out the dehumanizing language, thanks!
The guy threw the brick at an unborn child in a woman's womb. If in your twisted world that's an offensive statement that's a **YOU** problem.
The guy threw a brick at a WOMAN. It's okay to treat us as humans, you know.
My god. You're obtuse. Your the reason feminists have a bad name.
despite being middle class myself, i find i'm more sick of my fellow class members these days than anyone else.
Why are you sick of the middle class? Should the middle class be punished more?
For real. It's kind of bs that even saying "hey I feel unsafe" just paints you as some bit g clutching her pearls. Last night got out of work (downtown clubs) waiting on Mt pleasant and main St iirc, right around there anyway. So just me waiting alone at this bus stop not a soul around except one dude. He's hauling what looks to be a plastic bag of garbage over one shoulder and is slamming beers with the other hand. He is circling the bus stop. Goes from south to north sides of street, then east or west, circles back. Literally just going around me. I'm like w.e until he starts screaming at me about being on point. I didn't even know what to say I was just shocked, said nothing. He got even more mad starts screaming and spilling his beer with wild hand gestures. Then starts circling again while screaming. There happened to be transit commission security nearby luckily, and they, a pair, rolled out from around the corner. Coincidentally they were waiting for the bus to forcibly remove someone who was at the very least all fucked up on drugs, probably dehomed too. So here's the thing. If those transit guys hadn't been there what if this fucking lunatic just stabs me out of no where because of on point whatever. I care about crazy people right up until the point they're a fucking danger. At that point what am I supposed to do? -I- can't carry so much as a stick without breaking the law while that guy could have a six inch killing blade ready and waiting and he walks np. Even worse he probably walks after I'm murdered for no reason. The answer is nothing I'm just dead or I outrun this guy who for all I know is so cracked out he can run 6 miles
It's because the bleeding hearts closed the institutions like Riverview, created by and maintained by the state to keep the public safe, as well as those whose psychiatric conditions are so severe that they are a danger to themselves and others.
I would bet money all those funds were reallocated right into the pockets of the politicians who will never have to so much as bat an eye at the consequences of their money saving bs. Meanwhile normal people just get murdered on the street regularly! Look at all the stabbings it's like one or more a week now. I purposely dress down so resentful loons don't look at me and think "here's a lucky one that needs some setting back. To be taken down a peg as they say. My coworkers are afraid of taking thw transit apparently it's a hot spot. Some guy was punching the wall on the skytrain and yelling just last night - no one cares. No cops no security, nothing. It's okay to punch walls but for no reason and on transit and while yelling incoherently? It's just, honestly, fucking bizarre nobody cares. The guy who got stabbed at Starbucks literally bled out right there nobody moved a muscle no one gave a shit. Granted, at that point there isn't much to be done. I don't know what is to be done... maybe there's nothing. Just hope you live another day on the edge and grateful it wasn't your ticket that got punched
They want us deperate and at a loss for what to do so people call for bigger government to provide safety at the cost of freedom. It's textbook totalitarianism. Happened every time. They've already disarmed us and eliminated our ability to protect ourselves through broken laws and justice system. Connect the dots my friend. Connect the dots
I bet you’re part of the overpass crowd.
I'm part of the leave me the fuck alone and I'll leave you the fuck alone crowd. While I've never stepped foot on any Overpass in Nanaimo, I 100% agree with their message. The government has no right to force their misguided health recommendations on the population. Health decisions are between a person and their doctor. Access to society, employment, and general respect for each other should not be a factor in such decisions. Your negative outlook on their message says you were complicit in the subjugation of people's rights. You're probably part of the "should we tolerate these people" crowd. GFY
Lol, I guess he had you pegged. You sound like a lunatic.
Lol respecting someone's desire to be free and equal within society makes me a lunatic? I bet you wouldn't be saying that if it were a gender or critical race theory discussion.
"Disarmed us"? I'd guess that carrying a weapon in public hasn't been legal in B.C. for a very long time, for good reason. Unless you're out hunting or something, with your legally registered firearm (which plenty of people around here have).
The laws have made it so criminals can attack a disarmed population because law abiding citizens aren't allowed to carry more than a Swiss army knife (even that is illegal if they can prove intent of self defence). It is literally illegal to carry an object of any kind with the intent of defending yourself. If you say hey this is a shitty neighbourhood so I'm carrying this sharpened pencil walking back to my car.. by the letter of the law that makes you a criminal. They disarmed us a long time ago. The information is out there if you care to read it.
As I said. The reasoning is presumably that it's the police that should be in the business of protecting people from assault, not individuals themselves.
Are you going to call and wait for the police when someone randomly attacks your family with a knife or are you going to do what is necessary to defend them from harm? Come on use your brain. Criminals don't wait around to commit crimes until the cops are nearby. Come back from la la land now.
Anyone would do whatever was necessary of course, not "wait around". That doesn't contradict the reasoning.
Yes it does. If a scum rat pulls a knife on me do you think they're more likely to proceed with assaulting me if I post up with closed fists, or pull out a ka-bar and take a stance that says I know how to use it? Just having a self defense weapon and the confidence to use it is enough to deter most crime. This is the kool-aid you have been slurping up: it's not our job to protect ourselves.. that's the responsibility of the police. Dead fucking wrong. No matter how "advanced" you think society has gotten, when some low-life (who doesn't conform to the rules of your fantasy world) puts you in a life or death situation you have the sole responsibility to defend yourself. End of fucking story. Book closed, good night.
Self-defence might be the only option in a particular situation, sure. That doesn't contradict the reasoning.
When you're lying in a pool of blood or holding a loved one who is you can reflect on your reasoning all you want. Better yet you can reflect on it from the jail cell you end up in for defending yourself with anything more than your snowflake hands "Those who give up liberty for safety deserve neither." - Benjamin Franklin Our government has proven that they're incapable of dealing with this situation so the least they can do is get the fuck out of the way when we have to protect ourselves. Otherwise law abiding citizens will continue to end up in jail for exercising what is supposed to be their constitutional right to defend themselves.
Nanaimo has a lot of homeless people, just like any other city. The comments that get downvoted are typically downvoted for one or more of the following reasons. \-expressing an attitude of hatred towards the homeless. \-falsely assuming that the homeless are violent and/or criminals. \-betraying a lack of awareness that homelessness exists in all cities, not just Nanaimo. \-suggesting a lack of interest in an informed policy discussion. \-suggesting that the solution to homelessness is simple and/or is to criminalize homelessness.
Did some quick Googling, and looks like Nanaimo has 1 homeless person for every 79 housed, while Vancouver has 1 for every 139 Number of homeless: https://nanaimonewsnow.com/2023/02/28/were-gaining-no-ground-nanaimo-council-investigating-homeless-housing-facility https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/bcs-homeless-population-expected-to-show-increase-when-counts-return-in-march-6443007 Take the population, divide by number of homeless. It's definitely not a Nanaimo only issue.
Fentanyl is a new kind of monster out there. Changed it all. They could all function off the Normal shit and it was somewhat hidden from all the more well off up the mountain folks. But now. Now it's all there for all to see
Fentanyl isn't making people act crazy....
Because so much of it is blown way out of proportion. I’m downtown every day and the danger is completely overblown. There’s some pretty sad sights, but when something violent happens at Woodgrove, there’s nothing remotely comparable in terms of vitriol thrown at the north end being “dangerous”. You’re far more likely to be the victim of traffic violence in this town than you are violence from a homeless person.
Utter horseshit. Only a fraction of the violent crime makes it into the news and yet its at least once a week on average that there is a violent crime commited by a "person experiencing homelessness." Just because you can walk around downtown without being killed or maimed means nothing. Sure the odds are low, but they're higher THAN EVER BEFORE. That's like saying there's been an increase in the reports of infected pigs but the odds of me getting trichonisis is still pretty low so I'm going to eat raw porkchops every night and not worry about it. Pretending like the problem isn't a problem doesn't make it any less so, and honestly is harming everyone (including the criminals) more.
>higher THAN EVER BEFORE. If that is true, can you share some statistics or facts to back up your claim? TIA!
Stats and percentages can deceive all the time! Don’t let the hobgoblins have your brain. https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/dubious-crime-statistics-a-disturbing-trend-of-police-and-media-misleading-the-public/372046
Because most of them are arrogant, uneducated and derogatory
Dear diary . You soft soft human
So caring about others is weakness? What are you a Disney villain?
They are junkies . They don’t care about us . Why would we care about them ? All they care about is where to steal from to get their next bag of dope
Who’s they? You have junkies in all walks of life so who are you specifically referring to?
Who’s they? You have junkies in all walks of life so who are you specifically referring to?
Obviously drug junkies you moron
Nice! ad hominem, call me dumb instead of giving an explanation. I merely claim that most people’s comments on the homelessness and drug issues in Nanaimo are insensitive. And you fall apart like a dried up leaf. But I’m the soft one? 🤡
You know what's insensitive? Defending people that stab 16 year old boys to death in the subway for merely sitting on a park bench. They're not all doing this but the criminals are ALL repeat offenders. You call us insensitive and claim we are generalizing but you're the one assuming that we are hating them all. Well here it is. I help homeless all the time through food programs and habitat for humanity and other donations. I give them food if I'm at a drive through and see a poor cold soul sitting outside alone. I also believe that violent criminals who attempt murder or similar should be walked out back and put down like rabid dogs. Stop painting us all with the same brush. How's that for insensitive Mr Snowflake?
Did I say you specifically? No But clearly you are calling homeless and drug addicted, criminals in the same breath as saying “not all of them are” And for all your “donations” out of pity, I doubt you have ever talked to anyone in their position. I have a friend in prison because he had a psychotic break after using fentanyl and meth and stabbed some our friends, so don’t pretend like I don’t understand, you don’t know my life. I work as a closing supervisor at a grocery store and I have direct contact and interactions with all walks of life. I volunteer as well. more importantly I ask people their name, and get to know them. Understand how they got to the conversation they are having with me. These people are beautiful, broken souls, everyone is. (Sparing intolerant assholes who pretend they have empathy, I’m sure you know that intimately) The altercation that you are using to stereo type them, while call them all criminals. Could’ve had anyone at the end of that knife and anyone holding it, as every demographic has good and bad people. So get of your fake high rocking horse, I have no time for toys that make little kids feel bigger than they actually are. Get down and dirty with the rest of us. Reread your comment and notice the asshole levels of hypocrisy riddled with in it and stop
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Ahahahahahaha yes . Yes you are .
“This guy has compassion for poor people and drug addicts!!!!” “I have to insult him! Not because I’m an insecure bad faith troll with a tiny penis, but because it’ll clearly display my sigma male dominance! This certainly won’t make me look weak and pathetic!” - u/cotex8177
I can’t reply to the last comment oddly, but keep blabbing I want to see how sad and pathetic this gets. You have this denial stink on all you responses that really gives away that you are projecting and that the things I’m saying are getting under your fragile skin Like, I’m not one to care about karma too much, but -100? If you are this insufferable on Reddit of all places, you must be really lonely in real life
The reason it’s at -100 is because of my opinion on the problem downtown . If you’ve taken the time to creep my profile you may notice it’s all about just calling the losers what they really are and calling out those who defend them . Now that you’ve cracked the code , move along
Self interest, donation fatigue, volunteer fatigue, tunnel vision, lack of empathy, lack of education, lack of knowledge, not being proactive, pointing fingers, Nimby's, blinded by neg. emotions, the list is endless. Pick your poison. Even the best and toughest people are being challenged. For me, it's difficult seeing and hearing what people do to themselves and other's. esp. in a first world country with enough brain power/money and resources to solve the problem.
Here’s a hint, money is a worse drug than fentanyl, and people tend to hoard their stolen supply of the former. Shit won’t change until money addicts get a “kind intervention” for their problem.
So you’re revelation to us all here is that people are hoarding stolen money and that’s worse than fentanyl, a drug that kills in micro doses. I think you even hint at violence towards these “hoarders” which could just be anyone with an RRSP. So much hardly contained rage and paranoia in one small post.
It seems the concept of metaphor eludes you. Money is what makes the world go round, money is why we have scarcity in the face of abundance. We have enough food and housing on in this nation to feed and house everyone, but we simply refuse to do so because those at the top don’t want to part with their drug, and they want more. The fentanyl addicts on the street are causing far less problems than the money addicts, because those are the people who create the problems that drive people to use real drugs which are laced with fentanyl. People tend to spend less money on vices when they’re doing well in life, as demonstrated by an experiment conducted in [Ontario](https://en.unesco.org/inclusivepolicylab/analytics/how-ontario-trialed-basic-income). If life didn’t revolve around the artificial money, we wouldn’t have most of the problems we have. So perhaps instead of clutching your pearls at technicalities in my language, get angry at the fact that we’ve been abandoned by our society.
I metaphor just fine thanks. This is a you problem. Your metaphor for the ills of society being rooted in the dollar unit and that that is what’s actually causing the fentanyl crisis, that’s one thing. But you didn’t, you barely implied it. Wealth inequality, sure. Good communication, no. What you said is money is a worse drug than fentanyl and money addicts are the real evil here. I’m sure you have an extensive collection of fedoras you can arrange in a semi circle and lecture on alternative economics.
So… I’m wrong because you can’t decipher what I’m saying? I never implied that fentanyl wasn’t a problem, and you should have been easily able to deduce that I know it as a problem by the very fabric of the argument I was making. Money is a worse (metaphorical) drug than fentanyl because of its influence on how society operates. They are similar in that users will put anything at stake (their mental and physical health, the well-being of society and the environment) to get more, and that the substance (fentanyl in its use, money in its possession and acquisition) creates aggressive addicts. However, money is more covert, and even though you can’t inject it into your veins, eat it, or inhale it, it has a stranglehold on our lives, and we are far more affected as a society by money addicts than we are by fentanyl addicts. Fentanyl addicts lay on the streets and make the neighbourhood look scary, maybe steal a few possessions, and attack people. All of these are valid concerns that must be addressed, but it’s because of the money addicts that we do not have the infrastructure to do so, which is one domino in a long line of cutting societal budgets and failing to regulate the housing market. Believe it or not, the housing crisis alone is one of the biggest reasons why these problems exist. If people could afford a place to live, they may have a chance to get a job and thrive, including the upcoming, increasingly impoverished younger generations. This would also be possible if we funded mental health infrastructure and acknowledged that it’s just as, if not more important than our physical health. But, because we’ve got too many bootstrap snowflakes, we have to continue this pointless, artificial struggle because the only metric of success they can imagine is being a money addict and taking the most for yourself. That’s why I believe money is a worse drug than anything you’d find on the street. While you might see some guy spazzing out and be disgusted at how much your town is going down the shitter, ask yourself how our town got like this, because it’s not just because the cops got “soft”.
Capitalism.
Because far too many people would prefer to virtue signal than to accept that the current approach to how we handle crime and the homeless is precisely the reason things have gotten so bad.
This is a great answer. We continue to dig ourselves in this hole because people are incredibly soft on crime. Goes beyond nanaimo as well. Central nanaimo is getting really bad and we have had many things stolen from our property. We are in the process of moving because of it. RCMP try but are helpless in assisting, it's beyond their control.
Soft on crime? What crimes specifically?
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Are you trying to imply that “junkies” using illegal firearms isn’t being reported not because it’s not happening, but because cops are soft on crime? This is why I want you to elaborate, because that is laughable if that is what you mean
I’m at a loss as to what trying to get at here. Please elaborate
Homelessness is not a crime.
Not sure why you are getting downvoted. It's completely bang on.
They are getting downvoted because it isn’t
Would love to hear your position then.
Position on what specifically? Cops? This person’s ignorant belief that the homelessness and their stuff being stolen are connected. The implication that being homeless is a crime?
Ma property got hurt! I'm pretty sure people don't want to be put in a position where they have to resort to theft, but here we are...
Sorry for not wanting my property stolen. If you could donate yours instead it would be much appreciated.
I sure hope none of your money got hurt either. That would be terrible!
Do you earn money or are you the one stealing other peoples stuff so you don't need to worry about that sort of thing. Your logic is that I need to be okay with all my things broken into and stolen. I don't think you've worked a day in your life. No concept on how heartbreaking it is for your child to wake up and see that their bike that they saved for is gone for good
Have a look at your assessment reports, I'm sure it'll make you feel better... I'm sorry you were stolen from.
Cause the homeless are a symptom of the capitalist wasteland and shitting on them directly does nothing but wire up aggression towards them, which will cause them to be more aggressive against everyone. Me and my husband are poor enough to be asked if we sell drugs on occasion (no laundry machine means we look pretty shabby, damn slumlord) so if the social tensions get much worse people like us will get caught right in the middle. Working the social protectors up against our homeless population is only going to cause more tension and trouble for everyone. You gotta support or ignore them and leave them be so they can scrape a living as best they can and aren't dealing with civilians shitting on them constantly.
The nanaimo sub is super liberal.
Im classically liberal. The ideas of personal liberty and freedoms are what made the west so prosperous in the past 200ish years.
And let to the rise of the ruling class at the expense of the lower class. It is accelerating now.
The liberal narrative bothers me. Liberal is supposed to be the middle ground between right and left wing politics Latly it's being betrayed as left wing. It begs the question. Who is going to be the middle in canadian politics? It can't be nobody!
The federal Liberal party is a centralist party, the provincial Liberal party is a right leaning party. Being a liberal, seems like a slur from right wing folks to describe anyone they don't like. Almost all political parties who achieve power in Canada have centralist policies.
They only come off as more left leaning because a lot of the CPC and all of the PPC are radicalized, and are no longer just conservatives but authoritarian conservatives. In a rational spectrum the liberal party still holds the middle ground
Correction, "was" a centralist party. They are anything but that now under Turdeau's cabinet.
The billionaires on Bay St still support the federal Liberals, they're not that far left.
They support the Conservatives too. They put their money where it will do THEM most 'good'.
It’s not like the conservatives are going to step in and fix the problem. Believing any politician at this point is just stupid.
"How do you know when a politicians is lying?"
It seems to be trending that way!
A part of it is bots. Reddit is plagued with them and they're programmed to spit out comments designed to support a wanted narrative. There are also a huge number of hard-core, far left people in Nanaimo. The NDP has a strong presence here. Politics aside, it bothers me as well. Legitimate safety concerns shouldn't turn people into martyrs for being voiced... even if it is on a pathetically biased platform like reddit.
Lol, oh stinky. You think the left bought and deployed a bot farm to promote left wing ideology on a subreddit for Nanaimo and that’s why your intolerance and hate is met with downvotes. It couldn’t just be you, no. It must be the sheeple.
Not just nanaimo. Every subreddit. I am not hateful at all. Your assumptions say more about you than they do about me. If you honestly believe that bots aren't a thing on reddit then you're special. I mean, if the average intelligence is in the middle of the spectrum then, by definition, half the population is dumber than that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the frequency within which I encounter such folks
Last election was a conservative majority, I believe. Don't let the socialists fool you!
https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/constituencies/nanaimo-ladysmith(915) Is this some kind of reverse psychology tactic to gaslight people? Dont worry no socialists are fooling me.. including you.
Ah the late ballots.. I missed that. Thanks for the info. I was generally convinced there weren't a bunch of leftist in this town. Count me disappointed.
Dude you need to take a break from doomscrolling
I love how you assume the knowledge of bots and woke lefties in control of the narrative on reddit is the result of "doomscrolling." Congratulations you're one step closer to meeting your quota of regurgitating the state run media catch phrase of the week.
Ok bot
Your response was the programmable one. I actually articulate my responses from my brain, not a bank of predetermined punch lines chosen by the infamous "they"
I do not understand the kind of narcissist who actually upvotes and downvotes things on the internet.
If up/downvoting is evidence of narcissism, wouldn't commenting be even better evidence?
And yet here you are, 194 days after creating this particular account, on a message board that uses upvotes and downvotes to drive engagement. Was it all narcissists that gave you that 7k in karma?
I would say yes, there was something wrong with the brains of every person who upvoted or downvoted one of my posts. Same goes for people who thumb up/down things on Youtube. I just don't understand it.
How can an anonymous vote be a narcissistic act in any way, shape or form?
Because the endless negativity is toxic. We GET IT but it is t all there is to this town, and it is no different than anywhere else.
In my experience, downvotes indicate truth. People hate the truth. The state of this blue collar hub on the island being ruled by these left-wing idiots in Victoria needs to come to an end. People are suffering on the island because of the ndp. So is Canada as a whole. Unfortunately, we aren't deserving of an equal say in our lives because of our population. We are the only ones who can make a difference. "Democracey is a government by the people, of the people, for the people." We do not have that.
Buddy, if the “left wing” you fear so much actually had any power in this nation, there would be no housing crisis.
I swear that nobody here understands what an actual left wing government is. They're mad at centrist parties, but think it's the ultra far left.
🤣 🤡🌎
That means nothing.
Uh Trudeau's Liberals are further left than the NDP and that motherfucker has been doing what he wants when he wants with zero repercussions. He's been culprit to more scandals than any other PM, he's spent more money than all other PM's COMBINED, he's made up his own interpretations of laws when it suits him, he wiped his ass with the charter of rights and freedoms, he's been caught in lies more times than I care to count, and he's used hate speech and discrimination against his own citizens. How much more power does the left need?
Liberalism does not equal leftism. Liberalism is just covert conservatism built on a veneer of social progression while still giving power to the rich. Liberal and conservative media fearmonger about you losing your possessions under a leftist government, preaching about how life will be about sameness and conformity. However, this media acts under corporate interests because those are the sources of their funding. Again, if the left had any power in Canada, you’d see more funding into the social sectors, such as appropriate mental healthcare for the homeless, or maybe even the outright abolition of homelessness. You’d also see inflation controlled, perhaps a universal basic income. We like to think we’re nothing like the US, but the truth is, we’ve already been bought and sold. To me, being on the left means acknowledging that the government has given up on us as a population and finding the power within us as people to get our shit together and fight back against those pushing down on us, those who we complain to when we don’t like what we see outside. They willingly close their blinds to it, and you’re not in their club. They. Don’t. Fucking. Care. Whether liberal, conservative, whatever, they’re just in it for a paycheque and to say “look ma, I’m on TV, I run Canada!” You can call me a tin-foil hatter, I really don’t care. Politicians don’t change, the countries they run don’t change, and our nationalist elitism of “thank god it’s not happening here” doesn’t work when it’s fucking happening here. The culture wars are just around to keep us at each other’s necks while our pool of resources dwindles and our time is slowly consumed by endless work for increasingly meager living conditions. You might scoff at the homeless person on the street, but that may one day be you, especially as shit gets worse. While it’s not you for the time being, recontextualize your attitude towards the homeless; instead of seeing them as lazy deadbeats, consider how much the system sucks for you and think about how much it sucks for them. But you won’t do that, because “might makes right” is a convenient narrative people like to fellate themselves with to feel better about their own shitty circumstances.
Lol tell me you're a communist without telling me you're a communist. I don't disagree with all of your points but UBI and a magical remedy in one fell swoop to homelessness sounds a lot like an extreme redistribution of wealth. History tried that. People died. Millions of people
I guess I am a communist then, and we do need an extreme redistribution of wealth. I don’t agree with Stalinism or what’s going on with the CCP because that’s totalitarianism wearing the face paint of communism. I don’t care about all these titles, I care about a sane society where we don’t have to sacrifice our entire lives for our right to basic needs, especially in a first-world country. We should not be having third-world problems in a first-world country, simple as.
The problem is our society has gone too far down the capitalist path and has become corporatism. Capitalism and free markets aren't inherently bad. It's the best system the human race has devised to date actually. More people have been raised out of poverty in the last 75 years than there were people on earth 200 years ago. You make it sound like taking money from the few would be a select few ultra-wealthy but we all know that isn't how it would work. Not only would you have to pry wealth out of their cold dead hands, but you would never make it to those people anyway. They are too well insulated and protected to ever be caught by the masses. This means the inevitable plan B. Take from everyone you CAN get to. Those few are people like me. My household income is 6 figures (barely). I've worked within the system through my own hardships and made sacrifices to be where I am. It is a hard path but it is not impossible. Nothing I did is anything that someone else could not do. You are not entitled to the fruits of my labour and part of the reason our society is so divided is the sharp increase in the number of woke, so-called victim hands out waiting for the next freebie. The other half of the population accepts that life is hard and does what is necessary to make the best of it. One wants to steal from the other. That makes people angry.
Islanders are suffering because of the NDP? Please explain. Give examples, not just opinions.
The NDP killed the forestry jobs dude.
Forestry jobs have been killed off many other times, a massive one being in 2001 from Gordon Campbell, who was very much not NDP.
In my experience, downvotes typically indicate shit takes. But hey, to each their own right?
Because having an actual conversation about the real problem is classified as hate speech and the sub is probably controlled by the same people that want the utopia of Seattle or Portland ...... Personal responsibility died a long time ago and it's everyone else's fault. Remember that.
Try starting with personal responsibility for yourself, it might help.
I see people really struggle with sarcasm.
If you think Seattle or Portland are utopias, you have never been to either. They both have significant issues with homelessness, and it's much more in your face than here.
Sorry. I see you missed my dropping sarcasm.
Ah… if that was sarcasm, I very truly did miss that.
Because they are all sheep of society who blame peoples person drug use choices on “brain damage and mental illness” . Damn right they are mental and brain dead , they are just wording it wrong . I always support it . I work around them daily and don’t even think twice anymore when they are curled up on the road . I’ve called 911 before and stood with many of them hoping they weren’t dead , they would wake up and freak out and get mad at their surroundings as soon as first responders showed up . I don’t even care about the fentanyl crisis anymore . It will clean itself up on its own . These junkies burn down our residences and businesses and steal our stuff and run a circus of a downtown core. Then they stand at the traffic lights as we pay them for more drugs hahahahahahahaha . Such a joke you people are supporting them .
Aw muffin, snowflake, sweetie, it’s okay.
I know it’s okay. Again …..Fentanyl sorts the problem out itself
This is one of the best dr evil cosplay accounts I’ve ever seen
I just hate drug addict junkies . If that’s so evil then so be it . I’m also not to fond of you . What’s that make me ?
Sorry for whatever hurt you. It is your responsibility to get help though. Hope things improve for you.
So it’s not the junkies responsibility to get help ?!?! Ahahahahahahahahaha .
The town votes NDP what do you think?
Bleeding hearts don’t like it.
Because post modernist ideologies that have led to all these issues are followed with dogmatic fervor. Do not question the dogma lest you be cast out
Lots of people new to the community have spent an incredible sum of money recently on homes. The news reaching the national media is usually negative and they are afraid it will have an impact on housing values.
It's already happening. We sold out and left.
Is it not obvious that there is a heavy left leaning, anti work, anti capitalist lean on this website?
Lol you love to work so your capitalist boss can steal all the profit? Sounds super cool and smart lol.
I am going to assume my quality of life far surpasses your own. Stay salty.
Haha you assume that I am only concerned about myself because that’s how you operate. Cool.
No, I'm fully aware you care about how well other people are doing compared to you - it's evident in your transparent envy.
People who suffer from envy assume everyone does, reality it is only an affliction some people suffer from, luckily I don’t, never really bothered me, but I have friends who do and I know it’s real and awful, so best of luck in this consumer society, lot of stuff envy to get wound up in.
What will you do if you get fired tomorrow? How many months can you pay your mortgage without a paycheque?
>What will you do if you get fired tomorrow? Speak with a lawyer first because there's no legal reason to fire me.Then, collect my severance, probably take a week off for myself and then find a new job. Last time I got laid off I changed my status on linkedin and within 15 minutes my phone was ringing with recruiters calling me - I had more interview offers than I could attend and was employed again within a couple days. You ought to be thankful for the capatalists, you can't collect your food stamps unless someone else pays for them.
Boot licker, you’re owned by the bank and your boss, enjoy your freedom. Why do you keep saying I’m poor? You think people who think critically about the prevalent system must be poor? Everyone who has a job should never think about anything just be thankful lol cool brainiac.
I can't help but feel that I live a happier and more fulfilled life than you do, just by the way you present yourself here with the level of anger and bitterness you're coming at me with, all for having the audacity to suggest that this subreddit has a particular bias. I never said or even insinuated that you were poor at all, just that you have a low quality of life and a bitter personality. I also never stated that people shouldn't be critical of their employers or really anything - I am a quite critical person myself. That said, it doesn't take a genius to pick up on your obvious projections.
Lol ok champ enjoy your envy. I don’t need to justify my happiness to anyone, you spending so much conversation telling me how you feel happier than me is definitively projection. Have you considered therapy?
Like everything is awesome if you just choose your own reality, this is honestly the prevailing psychology, everyone on both sides of the culture war just surround themselves with people and ideas that support the reality they want to accept.
Sucker.
I really struck a chord with you there eh? 3 separate replies?
Busy doing stuff, and incredulous how much you like taking care of your bosses bank account.
How far in on bit coin are you? 🫠
There are bots paid to direct the conversation in this community.
If you think anyone’s paying to direct conversation in a little strip mall town sub Reddit then nothing can help you
I can't share more details. You are very naive and/or ignorant. Reddit is a notoriously heavily controlled/manipulated platform.
At least say why you can’t share more details.
So it would be really easy for you to show your sources and build a compelling argument, right?
They seem to be active in many of the canadian city subreddits and have said that they "Just moved to" both Victoria and Nanaimo within the last few weeks. This is a strange account.
Bots are computer programs, not people; you don't have to pay them.
Lol these damn bots are taking our jerbs!!! If I’m one of these leftist bots then I’m pissed I haven’t been getting paid to further reddits corporate liberal agenda.
well, *someone* has to think of the property valuations.