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Post by Shenguin on Dec 6, 2017 16:19:35 GMT
It's still a conversation about whether the poor / homeless / addicts / mentally ill are basically to blame for their own poverty or not. It's the wrong conversation to be having, and regardless of where one is on the sympathy spectrum, it's still a conversation topic set by the right wing.
I don't really care if a relatively small number of poor people cheat the system; the damage that does is a drop in the ocean compared to the damage done by the rich in cementing their profits and bolstering the structural inequalities in society that lead to so much hardship and social exclusion.
Melvazord, sorry for soiling the soapbox further. You can have it back now.
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Post by GetOver on Dec 6, 2017 16:20:31 GMT
Recovering from cancer boasting.
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Post by Shenguin on Dec 6, 2017 16:23:30 GMT
Recovering from cancer boasting. It's the 2nd worst type of boasting. Can't even really take the piss without looking like a div. Still, that's never stopped me before. Edit: is it ok to press the like button on the cancer post? I mean, I wouldn't want it to look as if I liked the fact that he had cancer, but I did like the story. Melvazord, is it ok to press the like button on the cancer post? I mean, I wouldn't want it to look as if I liked the fact that you had cancer, but I did like the story. |
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Post by etimmeh on Dec 6, 2017 16:24:37 GMT
I liked going round Edinburgh during the festival. A lad busking with bagpipes? Yes, please!
Terrible. Really awful. Wonderful tourist trap nonsense.
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Post by dakylosaurus419 on Dec 6, 2017 16:26:51 GMT
The monster hunter beta starts at 5pm the day before I have to go away for a week. This is possibly he worst thing to ever happen in recent history.
How do you even get it? Is it downloadable yet?
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Post by sandybahookie on Dec 6, 2017 16:27:05 GMT
I think there is definetly such a thing as empathy fatigue, Ive walked the same route to work for 20 years and never ever have there been so many people asking me for money, firstly theres the homeless, all of whom speak no English and are clearly all together as if you walk that route mid day you often see them having a picnic in the park, they definetly look rough and I imagine they are being extorted by someone, but they dont even ask nicely. the loudest most persistent guy just says Moneeee Moneee moneee! over and over again. Then there are the charity botherers constantly standing in your way trying and get their guilt trip chat underway, again they use the same tactic as the beggars and saturate the entire area so you have to get past 4 of them in a row. Add in the festival flyerers in August and my walk to work has become a relentless guantlet of people trying to get my money. It wears you down and now Im just totally switched off on what should be a lovely walk to work every day. Poor Sandy I hear you cry sarcastically, but whats the alternative? I give money to good causes already. Merry Christmas!  You should move to a better neighbourhood. I already live in an amazing neigbourhood, its not where I live its the route into town from where I live, loads of people live all around a big park and get funnelled into one path towards town. Thats where they wait. If I worked in a shitty part of town I'd get less of it probably. |
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Post by RollingEscargot on Dec 6, 2017 16:27:37 GMT
Those poor people. Melvazord is a monster.
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Post by GetOver on Dec 6, 2017 16:27:47 GMT
Mel
I feel bad. I obviously didn't mean it, but it needs saying. I am glad you are in rude health.
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Post by Melvazord on Dec 6, 2017 16:28:28 GMT
Recovering from cancer boasting. I had the fastest recovery on record for a non-related bone marrow transplant. Take THAT Roy Castle (RIP in peace). |
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Post by Conchord on Dec 6, 2017 16:29:29 GMT
It's still a conversation about whether the poor / homeless / addicts / mentally ill are basically to blame for their own poverty or not. It's the wrong conversation to be having, and regardless of where one is on the sympathy spectrum, it's still a conversation topic set by the right wing. I don't really care if a relatively small number of poor people cheat the system; the damage that does is a drop in the ocean compared to the damage done by the rich in cementing their profits and bolstering the structural inequalities in society that lead to so much hardship and social exclusion. I couldn't agree with you more. The point I was making earlier, for Middlesbrough, is that 95% of the homeless have been offered help and have turned it down. Doesn't stop me sympathising with them, as they are clearly in a horrible grip of addiction, but it does stop me handing them cash, as I automatically think that it is just going in to the pockets of some scum bag dealer. |
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Post by sandybahookie on Dec 6, 2017 16:31:41 GMT
Congratulations on serving the charity botherers some well deserved shame Melvazord, and the surviving cancer bit.
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Post by Melvazord on Dec 6, 2017 16:31:47 GMT
Mel I feel bad. I obviously didn't mean it, but it needs saying. I am glad you are in rude health. Thanks, but you shouldn't. Some of the worst people I've ever met were on the cancer wards. Real twats who would tell a 16 year old who has just been diagnosed with cancer all the terrible shit they've been through and how they're now on palliative care because its terminal. Thats an actual example. I was raging. I asked a nurse to somehow get the woman away from the kid ASAP. Way to give them hope FFS.  |
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Post by Melvazord on Dec 6, 2017 16:33:09 GMT
Those poor people. Melvazord is a monster. Well we all knew that. Its why I have that Government mandated face covering. A hessian sack that has "Warning: Monster" printed on it. |
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Post by sockpuppetpseudonym on Dec 6, 2017 16:34:39 GMT
Melvazord's so badass cancer is in remission from him.
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Post by lonewolf on Dec 6, 2017 16:36:03 GMT
Those people who ask "have you had an accident in the last x years"
Pointed at the pram "about nine months ago".
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Post by lonewolf on Dec 6, 2017 16:37:51 GMT
Also isnt cancer research a scam?
The research finds a cure but the cure is made by a drugs company who then charge silly amounts for it citing how much it costs to research a drug.
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Post by Melvazord on Dec 6, 2017 16:38:42 GMT
Please, I'm just a man, I'm not a hero. The real heroes are people who have fought cancer and won. Oh... I guess I am a hero. Carry on.
Seriously though, the good ship NHS and all who sail in her are the real heroes*. Fuck anyone that tries to end the NHS, fuck them hard.
* Except the nurse who once tripped over the drip attached to my central line, she was bitch.
"Oh did that hurt?"
Did that hurt? Did you yanking on the tube stitched into my body hurt? Did you pulling at the surgically implanted tube in my chest hurt?
Yes it did. Now fuckity bye.
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Post by sockpuppetpseudonym on Dec 6, 2017 16:42:14 GMT
Seriously though, the good ship NHS and all who sail in her are the real heroes*. Fuck anyone that tries to end the NHS, fuck them hard. Richard Branson wants you (and everyone else, he's not vindictive) to die of the cancer. |
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Post by Pyjakson on Dec 6, 2017 16:43:41 GMT
Seriously though, the good ship NHS and all who sail in her are the real heroes*. Fuck anyone that tries to end the NHS, fuck them hard. Richard Branson wants you (and everyone else, he's not vindictive) to die of the cancer. But slowly. There's more profit in it that way. |
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Post by Shenguin on Dec 6, 2017 16:43:44 GMT
I couldn't agree with you more. The point I was making earlier, for Middlesbrough, is that 95% of the homeless have been offered help and have turned it down. Doesn't stop me sympathising with them, as they are clearly in a horrible grip of addiction, but it does stop me handing them cash, as I automatically think that it is just going in to the pockets of some scum bag dealer. Intellectually, when I think about it, I don't really know whether it's a good idea to give money to beggars or not. But my gut feeling is that a fair proportion of people making a case that we shouldn't give money to desperate people living on the street are actually making excuses for their own meanness and miserable lack of empathy (no offence; this genuinely isn't directed at you Conchord). I don't want to fund drug dealers, but if I give money to someone then it's up to them what they spend it on. If they choose drugs or booze, then that's their choice. I know I spend a fair bit of money on booze, and I'd definitely want to be able to get off my face if I lived on the streets (or otherwise in a position where I had to beg). I don't see beggars very often, but whenever I go into the sort of shit holes you lot evidently live in, I try to make sure I've got a collection of pound coins in my back pocket to hand out. It's good for my ego, and hopefully pisses off the Daily Mail. The way to make drugs safer for users and to keep the money away from criminals is, of course, to legalise. No brainer. I loathe the way the right wing don't just lack empathy, they try to destroy it in others by scapegoating, by telling lies about scamming, and by blaming the poor. Edit: TL;DR: I give money to beggars because I'm nice. |
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Post by RollingEscargot on Dec 6, 2017 16:59:39 GMT
If it hadn't been for Tubular Bells, Branson would never have been anyone. So it's basically all Mike fucking Oldfield's fault.
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Post by sockpuppetpseudonym on Dec 6, 2017 17:00:13 GMT
Keeping pound coins in your back pocket seems like it would be very uncomfortable when seated.
Unless you have a big fat bum?
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Post by GetOver on Dec 6, 2017 17:01:10 GMT
If you are worried that these awful people will spend money on drugs you can take them to the shop and buy them food, or just take them food.
I hate myself for typing this but you lot are making me do it. Can we all just stop now?
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Post by Shenguin on Dec 6, 2017 17:04:10 GMT
So long as they're sort of spread out a bit in a jeans pocket, it's not that uncomfortable. I think I only have a mediumly fat bum.
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Post by tenthenemy on Dec 6, 2017 17:43:59 GMT
Last week when it was really fricking cold outside someone rang our doorbell around 8 o'clock in the evening. When I answered the door, wondering who the hell it could be at that time of the day I found that it was a boy, about 9 years old, well dressed, with a bicycle that he'd left on the pavement outside our house. He gave me a sheet of paper, asking "Will you sponsor me for cancer research?".
The piece of paper had columns in which a number of people had scribbled their names (some also their address), the date and the amount of money they'd given - most of them only a pound or two, but the one at the top as much as a fiver. At the top it just said in handwriting "cancer research".
The whole thing was obviously a scam, but I would have thought that someone instructed the lad to go from door to door rather than him coming up with the idea himself. And of course it worked; I sheepishly got my purse and gave him a quid, adding my name to the others. (Mr Enemy's comment was that at least he might not throw a rock through the window.) Was the money going to fuel someone's addiction? A likely scenario, but I really haven't got a clue what the story behind this could be.
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