https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/1168841580209430528
I don’t understand how the existence of some kids/hippies/whatever begging for money while traveling is news to anyone (is it just that someone came up with a term for it?). And whether you hate them or not is whatever, but calling the police on them is the fucking worst. One person begs another for money and another person agrees to give it. Criminalizing that is disgusting. It’s heinous. It’s totalitarian.
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The city of Orlando arrests people for feeding the homeless in public spaces and it has a progressive Dem mayor.
But yeah this guy thinks he’s Andy In Go and fake beggars are antifa
Kids who have plenty of money begging from Koreans who probably have less money than them is gross. It’s about the ugliest Ugly American thing I can imagine. Read the whole article.
Western backpackers very often tend to a) do nothing party and rage, b) ignore the actual local people, c) learn nothing about the culture or history of the places they go, d) completely ignore any local standards of modesty in their attire or what constitutes decent behavior.
Obviously not all backpackers. But a significant chunk of them are generally terrible. They just hop from one party hostel to the next. I’d bet any amount of money these kids are sitting around all day begging for money so they can rage all night.
I’m not saying call the cops on them. But I completely understand the author’s disgust. And yes I hated the vapid party circuit even when I was their age. So this isn’t a grumpy old man thing.
I read the whole article. You don’t like them, fine. I passionately despise the author.
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Ugly Americans aren’t just tourists with fanny packs yelling at waiters. Backpackers can be just as bad if not worse.
There’s a town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala - San Marcos - completely overrun with half-naked hippies. But it’s also a Mayan village. I can’t even imagine what the extremely modest local Mayans think of these people. Why do you need to go to Guatemala to be a hippy when you can do that anywhere? There isn’t one thing about local culture or lifestyle that they incorporate into their lives. It’s just another cheap stop on the hippy circuit.
I’m on team Both Sides here, understand Microbet’s point that this woman insisting that police force, and violence/threat of violence, being used for a relatively minor infraction is gross and that view certainly is in line with Microbet’s philosophical bent that has a lot of merit.
The woman shaming them online and in person is definitely called for though. But she doesn’t find the results of doing that satisfying so she resorts to thuggish measures. Bad!
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Whether they are ugly or not is not the point. The point is whether or not they are criminals. It’s whether or not people think they have the right to force them not to do it.
Fine. The author is an asshole. But so are the begpackers.
The cops really wasn’t the takeaway for me as obviously the Korean police don’t care anyway.
The author is a fascist.
Yes clearly the entire takeaway should be about the author. There is absolutely nothing else worthy of discussion.
Pretty much. The author’s attitude is about a billion times bigger problem in the world than hippies begging for money.
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Ended up going to an awesome bbq place, Buxton Hall BBQ. Got two entrees that were both rated as best in NC by some publication that sounded legit, the whole hog pulled pork platter and a fried chicken sandwich. The chicken sandwich was the best I’ve ever had. It came covered in pickles, Smokey pimento cheese and a slice of cheddar (for good measure). The bar tender was super cool and told me about a pop-up charity music performance being put on by the lead singer from Band of horses, so I snagged some tickets for that. He was performing at this cool, older music venue called The Grey Eagle. Was awesome all around. I forgot I have some friends in the area, one of which works for New Belgium. They were out of town, but now I have an excuse to go back.
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Should there be vagrancy laws? In general I think so, but I agree that the point of those laws shouldn’t be to criminalize being homeless. The analogy should be decriminalizing drugs while still making them illegal and mandating treatment. If you want to solve drugs you don’t just throw drug addicts in jail, but maybe you don’t make it legal either. Legally compelling treatment seems like a good approach. And similarly if you want to solve homelessness then you don’t throw homeless people in jail, but it seems like society saying, hey guys you can’t do that, here’s somewhere to live and some programs to get you on your feet. Just like letting folks use drugs as much as they want and making it totally legal doesn’t solve the drug problem, letting folks be homeless doesn’t solve the homeless problem.
I mean yeah they’re assholes but are they worse than the guys milling around interstate offramps with Marlboros hanging from their lips carrying signs indicating hunger? I’m not enough of a sucker to ever give these people money but on some level I do appreciate their honesty. Buyer beware etc
What a difference 100 miles makes. If Dorian was just that much farther west, I would be in a dramatically different situation right now. I feel for the Bahamas.
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Slightly separate issue if you are legitimately trying to help mentally ill people who refuse help, but no, there absolutely should not be vagrancy laws.
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I assume vagrancy laws do not cover this
https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1168732651148066821?s=21
Well in the past vagrancy laws were basically just “fuck these garbage people, we’ll make them illegal. Fixed the glich imo, problem will just sort itself out”. So sure that’s not great. Drug laws have similar effects and ugly societal goals.
So there’s two problems – people are down on their luck and don’t have a job or a home and people generally don’t want homeless folks camping in their city parks. I think both are legitimate problems, and there’s a solution to both: give homeless folks a place to live and something to do. If someone is vagrant, you can say well you can’t stay here in the park, you can enroll in our homeless program, and with that comes work, drug/alcohol addiction treatment, somewhere to live, etc, or you can hit the bricks and leave. But you can’t live in the park. That’s a humane way to deal with both problems.
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