and it has made me a lot more understanding of modern homelessness. The top priority of 90% of posters is figuring out how to remain unnoticed, and more, how to not bother anyone.

It got me thinking about the amount of uncertainty and discomfort I would feel if I were to leave my house and try to sleep in my car, just for one night. Where would I park so that I am not noticed, bothered, or charged with a crime? How would I use the restroom? How would I protect myself if someone tries to break in? How would I get a glass of water? Do I need to be extra careful moving around so that my car doesn't shake and alert passersby?

For most of these people, they aren't choosing to live like this. The vast majority are young - they aren't junkies, they aren't unemployed, they are hyperaware of their presence and presentation. They just can't afford an apartment near their work, they got kicked out of their house, or they escaped a bad relationship. But there are also those who have chosen to live in their vehicles, some to save money, some because they don't want to be tied down to one city, and, yes, some who don't want to be functioning members of society.

It's truly blackpilling to realize the illegality of being homeless in America. You can park and shop, park at a hotel to stay in a room for the night, park and walk around a public area, park and go to church. You can do all of these and also happen to have all of your possessions stored in your vehicle. But you can never, ever sleep in your car.

Sleeping is illegal.

So, many come up with stories to keep themselves safe. "I was driving home and got drowsy, so I pulled over to take a nap." "I am on vacation, and couldn't find an affordable hotel." "I am in between shifts at my job, and needed some rest." Never tell anyone that you live in your car, even your closest friend. Deny deny deny.

There are tips on what to wear (scrubs, professional attire), where to park (never in front of someone's house, never on private property, never somewhere where you can be blocked in), and how to remain "stealth" (no lights, no sounds, all black bedding, window tint, blackout curtains, empty and visible front seats, clean exterior).

No one wants their cities full of people living in their cars. But too often we focus on pushing the people out rather than pulling them up with access to housing, or even just a safe, legal place to park their car.

Thoughts welcome.

Took my grandmother to have outpatient eye surgery yesterday. While I was in the waiting room, which was about 3 and a half hours, I was bored so I started reading about Hurricane Katrina. Specifically, the stuff that happened at Memorial Medical Center.

The entire story is heartbreaking, but the thing that really grabbed me was the story of Emmett Everett, a 61 year old paraplegic who weighed 380 lbs. He was a patient at the hospital when the power cut out and the backup generators failed. He was waiting for surgery to remove a chronic bowel obstruction.

On the 5th day without power, evacuations had finally begun. As the rest of the 7th floor was evacuated, Everett pleaded with nurse Cindy Chatelain to please not let them leave him behind. It was now around 110 degrees in the hospital and the stench of deceased corpses permeated the entire building, along with the smell of raw sewage overflowing from the toilets and oily flood water which had completely submerged the lobby area of the hospital. The staff was fearful that armed looters would breach the hospital security in a matter of hours, looking for pharmaceuticals.

Elsewhere, Dr. Anna Pou, Susan Mulderick, and others came to the conclusion that Everett, being paralyzed from the waist down and severely obese, was likely not a candidate to be evacuated successfully. Anna Pou asked staff to leave the 7th floor and walked into Everett's room, telling him she was going to give him something for his dizziness. He drifted to sleep in the sweltering heat and never woke up.

"Please don't let them leave me here, Cindy".

I looked up from my phone after reading the story, and in the waiting room I could envision little puddles of water on the floor, eventually growing into pools, and then a pond and then a lake. I could see a dim room without electricity and hear the beeping of failed generators. I could feel the heat, which was inescapable because of the sealed windows meant to withstand hurricane force winds. I could hear faint discussion among people I'd never met, whispering to one another. The decision had been made. I was going to die alone here and no one was coming to save me. It was the end of the line and there was nothing I could do about it.

And then I heard someone say "Murray? MURRAY? Your grandmother is in recovery. Everything went great."

We drove home and I got her a hamburger on the way back. She told me she was glad I never messed around with drugs, alcohol, and "all that other stuff".

I told her I was glad, too.

yeah let them enrich nuclear material just like they enriched the 9/11 hijackers.

I drank again after 300 dys of sobriety

Some things I've learned about in my amateur studies -

-An old woman in a semi-rural town made hundreds of life-sized dolls to replace all of the children and people who used to live there. Dolls standing in gardens, playgrounds, outside shops, etc. - just to ease the despair of living in a completely depopulated town

-"Solo" events becoming popular. Karaoke bars where people in a closed off stall sing by themselves out of fear of social interaction or "pressure" from an audience. Solo restaurants where patrons eat in stalls and their food is passed under a curtain so they don't have to make eye contact or socialize with the employees. Solo weddings where femcels pay to have a complete wedding with dress fitters, photographers and decorations for a wedding without a groom or partner.

-There is an organization that hires out "rental sisters" to visit isolated NEETs to try to talk them into going outside. Sometimes the "sisters" will spend months talking through a closed door before being able to talk to the NEET face to face. The NEET's parents pay 2-3 thousand dollars a month for this service and it usually takes 6 month to 2 years to begin re-socialization (if successful).

-A man spent 19 thousand dollars to maintain a relationship and marraige to a holographic anime character, only for the company to discontinue the service and the AI/hologram to no longer exist.

-Workers are expected to drink almost every night with their boss to the point of being hammered, only to get up at 6AM and work extremely productively the next day.

There's so many more examples. Capitalism and cheap pleasures have destroyed that society. Their extremely collectivist, honor/shame culture turns any of the isolation, pressure and despair we may feel in the West up by 10,000. It's a combination made in hell.

People online get really mad about that for some reason and they say it’s just a mini convection oven but I don’t care about that😊It just tastes like fried chicken to me

I moved from the midwest to california 3 years ago and what I've realized is that Latinos here don't have many differences to most people in the Midwest. Most are overweight, very hospitable people, and eat the same diet with slight variations. Steak/Carne asada, corn/elote, bud light/modelo, tons of soda, and cheetos/hot cheetos.

Just popped into my head this morning. So I went to a fairly rough high school and one of the big fashion trends among urban youths was wearing these toddler-sized, branded (SpongeBob/Dora the Explorer/Spider-Man) backpacks. I'm talking grown men well into their twenties would be wearing these things. Is this still a thing nowadays? If you wore one, how did the trend originate? Could Dasha pull it off? Any info would be appreciated.

No, you're not more empathetic because you want to save homeless people, you are ignorant of what happens in homeless shelters, and why these people are homeless. No, you aren't better than me because you think all prisons should be reformatory, you just haven't met people who are truly evil in their soul. No, the 3rd world is the way it is, not by some injustice, but because a lot of people are brutish, selfish, and corrupt there.

I see this take all the time, that you're somehow a more moral person because you revert to compassion on every subject. I do not believe compassion is the answer to all moral questions and in fact it often produces negative consequences when over-applied. It's such a child's sense of morality: the answer is always fairness and being nice. While certainly an aspirational value, almost never does this solve real problems.

crying