Rick Reuben wrote:SecondEdition wrote: This thread is about giving to panhandlers, Rick, and you are on the 27th page screeching everyone down to show that you, you, and only YOU are right.
Wrong. I am defending the philosophy of selective handouts to bums, against those who declare that anyone who does not give in every case is a heartless, greedy, sick fuck. Try reading the thread from the beginning. Take note of who attacked whom first. Those who demand that everyone give every time and never question the bum's story cast the first stones against those who advised selective handouts. All you have to do is read the thread in order to see this.
I'll help you out. Here are the insults cast by those who do not live in the real world. They came first. Read all of page 1. Nobody is insulting those who say 'give in every case'. Then turn to page two- Steve's first post to the thread:
steve wrote:I give money to bums at every opportunity. I used to think I wasn't doing them any favor if I did, and then I realized that whatever I gave the dude would be trivial to me, but might let him get through his miserable fucking day easier. Lately it's been five bucks.
His life easier>me having an extra couple bucks.
I'm starting to think less of my former not-giving-money-to-bums self, and everyone else who doesn't give money to bums.
Albini couldn't just say, "This is what works for me." He had to take a shot. And then the sycophants pour in.
Angus Jung the next to decide that he had the right to judge the charity of others':
Angus Jung wrote:steve wrote:I give money to bums at every opportunity. I used to think I wasn't doing them any favor if I did, and then I realized that whatever I gave the dude would be trivial to me, but might let him get through his miserable fucking day easier. Lately it's been five bucks.
His life easier>me having an extra couple bucks.
I'm starting to think less of my former not-giving-money-to-bums self, and everyone else who doesn't give money to bums.
Spot on.
I love the idea that standing outside all day every day asking people for a small amount of money is tantamout to running some kind of "scam."
Stand outside all day, just one whole day, and try to run this "scam" rather than living a Kevin Smith movie, and see how you like it.
Bad Comrade patiently tries to explain to Jung that everyone is not worthy, but the pious judgemental crowd did not want to hear about reality:
bad comrade wrote:Some of those people do "scam". Usually they're obvious... The "Excuse me sir, I don't know where I am, and my car ran out of gas just down the street, and I just need like $5 so I can get back on the road and try to find my way home...", the "hey man, I need $1 to get on the bus, I gotta get back home and I live all the way on the south side", etc. If you spend a lot of time in an area full of these people, you'll learn just how many of them are full of shit. The woman I spoke of who "stands outside every day" (actually she walks around) and apparently makes $50 or so a day could pay the rent for my apartment after 8 days of asking everyone she sees for a dollar.
What do you think she does with the other $1100 or so she makes the rest of the month? Is she just "scraping by" on that? I'm sure she's not sharing it with the homeless guy with no legs who sits outside the grocery store I used to shop at...
Jibbering trust-funded twerp Antero weighs in next with his 'me too, steve, me too!' response:
antero wrote:The day I can't spare a dude a dollar is the day my finances are so fucked that I'LL be asking for your change.
I don't care if they're "scamming" or whatever - seems to me that the various permutations of "unemployed and begging for money" don't actually change that much with a sob story. Crackhead? Fuckit, I'd rather he be asking for money than out attacking people. Whatever. I have, other people don't - why be a dick about it? Show some love, it comes back to you.
I don't know. Maybe I'd just like to live in a world where people didn't care about money, and if someone says, "Guys, help me out!" someone would stand up.
Yes, I think less of people who don't.
And then silver spoon Antero finished starting the argument with this reply on page 4:
Antero wrote:BadComrade wrote:Like I said, it comes down to this: I don't like people that beg for money when they don't deserve it. If you come at me with a "who are you to decide who is and who isn't deserving of money", I'll tell you that I am, because it's my fucking money that I worked for. There's a "tip jar" at the Mexican restaurant I go to when I'm at work. I pay for my food, they wrap it in foil and hand it to me. This is not deserving of a tip... this is something they're paid hourly for. If I was eating there, and the waitress was going out of her way to refill my drink, get me napkins, etc, then I'd give her 20-25% of whatever the bill was. Fuck people begging for money they don't deserve. I would never put a tip jar on the counter of the record store I work in, with my reasoning being that it's "hard work" to go grab the CDs that people want to buy from behind the counter.
My god, you make me sad. Are you truly that solipsistic? Do you actually look at yourself and think, yes, this in any way resembles what you consider a good person?
And jesus, there are thousands of you.
So you see, Second Edition, if you want to talk about 'who's the asshole?', you need to read the thread, in order, and not overlook the fact that Steve was the first to insult people who give selectively.