My dad had a brother. Ahti. He was a alcoholic. People did try to help him.
But here is the thing. If you were troubled. Would you move to your brothers
house?
I think he would love to have a place of his own though.
I imagine his family would ride him all day long. Try to moralize him into quitting his bad habits.
Have you been addicted?
I have been forced into taking pills for my epilepsy. I know if I would get the surgery and was healed. One of the hardest things would be for me to have to stop taking those pills.
I heard someone had a cancer and after the surgery that person said that it was harder to stop taking one of the pills that I take than the cancer itself.
My family has alcoholism. My uncle ahti did kill himself. Hung himself on a door knob. The desperation.. I know alcoholics.
The hell it is. It is hard to even admit you have a problem. My dad did quit at age 50. But only after it was beginning to cause all sorts of trouble.
Zod is a bit older. In a little bit tougher place in life. For him to quit there would have to be some light in the end of the tunnel. What is he looking for if he quit.
No doubt the alcoholism has damaged him.
I imagine on some level he is resigned to the fact that the alcoholism might kill him. Because the thought how hard to kick it.. Well.
Even at some fancy Betty Ford clinic, it would be hard as hell. As proven by the countless stars who go there and under the VERY BEST treatment. Still relapse. So who are we to morally tell him to "just quit". That is exactly what I meant when I said that in US there is this dogshit notion of "just overcoming your problems". It is not that easy.
You have to put yourself to the shoes of the person.
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiBut in US people believe in this dogshit notion of overcoming your problems. Mostly said by people who have overcome some minor problems and then make one massive mistake.
They think other people are just like them.
If you've read his posts, you'll see that there are literally hundreds of them telling us how he's enjoying his "well-earned retirement" by sitting in his tent, enjoying his view of the river, cooking some steak on his "campfire," and swilling his bottle of wine.
Because he does not want to open himself up to a bunch of guys and girls who would rip him apart given the chance.
You have to be blind to not see that it is not the way he says it is.
He may have his moments.
But his life is tough.
Trump is doing this all the time. He is saying counter things to piss off his liberal opposition. He is in the "very best, most beautiful, huugely great health" while barely able to lift up a glass.
Ask him why he is doing it.
He is doing the same thing, because deep down. He just hates left. I guess Zod on some level hates you guys for not being able to understand that of course he is suffering. Go live under a tarp for a week in July under hot sun of GA and tell me how it was.
Do you even have to be told that it would suck balls.
One of the things Americans are criticized for is that you do not speak plain.
There are all these mental games going on which muddle the reality.
The last part I will write to this in bold tells you the reason for the muddles communication from Zod.
Post by Michael PendragonHe finishes off each of these posts with a proclamation that "Life is good."
Post by AnttiI would have been dead in US.
People like Zod need benefits. Medical and state sponsored. As you guys ridicule him for serving 4 years in the navy. My question to you is. How many years did you guys serve? How many years did the draft dodging president serve.
Aah? There was a lot of comments about his "substance problem" which led to him quitting. . 4 years? Does that not count? I was in army here for 8 months and I can not imagine doing 4 years.
Post by Michael PendragonAnd you're mistaken about Stink. People like him readily take the benefits that enable them to sustain their chosen lifestyle (food stamps, free coffee and showers from the Safe House, etc.) while they turn down offers from family to take them in/help them combat their addictions.
My uncle worked to the end. His hands shook. He and my dad for some reason were not in the best of relations. Me and him got along great though.
Then one day he hung himself.
I imagine Zod is in a place that if he worked. He could not handle it.
My uncle tried to work to the end. I imagine he killed himself because he
did not understand he should not have worked anymore. Not being able to sleep
etc. He tried to work. Not a good combination.
Alcoholism does that to people, as probably does living under a tarp.
It is called total burn out. When you no longer can deal with stress.
I have it. . After 9 years of living with deadly disease that can kill me
at any time. I understand it. I can not handle any stress. I am cutting
myself off the society. I can not even handle people anymore.
I imagine Zod has the same disease. If people piss him off, critisize him. He probably walks off to his camp. He is probably rather in his camp than at a place where people who think they are morally superior to him bug him to quit alcohol without giving him any real other support.
He says it is great at the camp. Because yes, it probably is great compared to being in a place where people judge him and think they are superior to him all day long.
That is why the people who are down stick together. Because they are the only ones who can understand the position they are in. Meanwhile better off people drive by and show their middle finger. Whose children do things like kill homeless hobos in Florida. Why? Because the attitude their parents have is not lost. It is passed on to the next generation.
A little bit of socialism would be the answer. That you let the state pay a little bit more to support people like Zod. People who for some reason drifted to the camp. From where it clearly is nigh impossible to return to a apartment of your own.
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiZod is a human being. Not a butt of a joke. He is a human being deserving human treatment. Instead you snicker at him for living under a tarp.
If he wishes to be treated with respect, he needs to respect the wishes of others.
If you respect him. No doubt he will respect you back. But the reason why he is hogging this group is because he loves to be here. He feels he is among his spiritual kin. He clearly knows more about poetry than I do.
Poetry matters to him. He belongs in this group more than me.
If he had not taken to a substance abuse. If he had had parents who would have put him to college. I know in US military is often a way to get the hell out of humble beginnings. A lot of kids who end up in military would rather go to college but can not afford it. Zod might have been a person you all would like to hang with. But genes, shit life, opportunity have made him a pariah.
Post by Michael PendragonWhen Stink first began posting here, he was met with kindness and civility from all. Jim even sent him money (but let's not reopen that can of worms). He made himself unwelcome here by constantly bumping posts -- even numerous, polite requests that he cut down on his number of posts.
Is it so hard. To skip his posts? How much do you suffer for doing that? Is it worth wanting him to die? Why? Why this hatred?
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiWhy is he living under a tarp, instead of in a state sponsored house? Because it would cost you in taxes?
His brother (who, one presumes, is living in a house) has offered to take him in. He claims to hold a bus ticket to his brother's town in Florida, but *chooses* to remain in his tarp.
Because he probably does not get along with his brother. How hard it is to get that.
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiMeanwhile US debt is 26 trillion dollars.
Which is an argument against supporting freeloaders.
Post by AnttiMoney is printer brrrrr when the rich need it, when the poor are dying on the street. Fuggetabout it.
This isn't a question of rich vs poor, Antti.
Stink has chosen to live the way he does.
Lets say you had walked one day in New York. Your mind on some other things and had taken a step on to walk away. Only to notice that a car was speeding your way and you struck your head on the windshield of the car.
Lets say you woke up in a hospital. The year was a long long time ago and you were mentally and physically disabled.
Now. Lets say you were in a shit housing with rats and some guy who would like your benefits would double dog dare you to try some smack.
Lets say it was the suckiest day ever. Your mentally retarded girlfriend decided to ditch on you. Your mother or father died. Along with your dog. And you felt hell. And did it once.
Now lets say that you liked the poison. And then you began struggling with it.
Maybe quitting it. Maybe getting a little big better off physically. But you would find yourself hobbling in some homeless shelter with a addiction problem.
How would you like to be treated then? Sounds impossible? Did you know Corona can damage your brain. What if you were mentally impaired due to having had corona and began making choices that were not "smart".
Lets say you were hallucinating. I have heard corona can do that to you. Do you know how that feels? I do. I sometimes hear voices before seizure. See pictures suddenly appear out of nowhere as I am half a asleep.
Would you still be a human being. Would you still have worth?
I would say yes.
Would you?
Or would the quick judgment in your head be that he should shoot himself in that situation.
I know a lot of people in US do that. I probably would have done that if I had a gun.
Should all people who are down and out do that?
Post by Michael PendragonHe doesn't have to work. He can sit and watch the sunset on the Chattahoochee every evening and he can party around the "campfire" every night with Dirty Mike and Loretta singing and dancing for his entertainment.
I agree with you that the Government should provide shelter, food, medicine, clothing for those in trouble. I also believe that the Government should actively work to find them suitable jobs so that they can return to their former place in society.
The possible addiction and years of living on the camp have probably made him be a person who would not mix up too well with people who judge him.
That is the main problem. Oh and the burn out.
Some people have trouble working. For mental health reasons. I am one of them.
As I said, I would be dead in America.
I would be bankrupt in America. My last 11 day video eeg cost me 580 bucks here. It would have been around 3300 dollars a day in US. IE. I would have never had that. I would have not known that the weird feelings I get are infact seizures and not something else.
In America people like me do kill themselves because they do not feel that people want them to live.
They are ridiculed, not believed and people tell to just get to work. As if it fixed everything. You know in Nazi Germany they did have the "Arbeit Macht Frei" on the front of concentration camps. It is in fact that exact same attitude just taken a little bit further.
I do believe that it is sad that Fascism was not cracked down on in US after world war 2 as hard as it was cracked down on in Europe. Here we understand where it leads. In US. Not so much.
You have too much pride in your own infallibility and superiority. American exceptionalism you call it.
When often it is due to the very best of foreign labor brought there with the lure of lower taxes. At the same time you hate foreigners. It makes my head spin.
Elon Musk comes to mind. :D
Post by Michael PendragonBut the Government cannot forcefully take the mentally ill off of the streets, and force them to receive treatment. They should have the authority to do this, but the Liberal faction feels that it is a violation of human rights.
That was due to Reagan. Who threw mentally ill people out of mental hospitals.
Last I checked Reagan was a republican.
The liberals are a God send. I hope they take over US government. So you people will finally understand that Scandinavian style government is people for the people.
You do not have to lick the asses of rich people by giving them endless tax cuts to have a good society. You, as no other person in this group no doubt will ever be a millionaire. Meanwhile, here in the socialist Scandinavia, I once briefly was. Age 16. Because my dad worked his ass off.
Sure he went banktrupt. But you can become rich here too.
We are not communist. We just figured out something. We want the government to treat the weak, the way we would like the government to treat us if we were them.
Being sick. I am thankful to God I live here.
Post by Michael PendragonSo nut-jobs like Stink are permitted to live under tarps, and to subsist on free coffee and food stamps. And there is nothing we can do to remedy this without surrendering what has been mistakenly perceived to be one of our human rights.
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/06/12/wow-thats-fast-debt-out-the-wazoo/
Build a few less fighter planes. Maybe a couple less nukes. You can do it.
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiYou could easily afford a little bit more human treatment for people like Zod. Former vet who may have been discharged early. But hell. The man served 4 years and lives under a damn tarp.
And so I have. I was most cordial to Stink when he first arrived here. And I treated him politely for well over a year. As previously noted, any animosity toward Stink was brought on by his actions over time -- not due to any prejudices against the homeless or mentally ill.
Because he posts a lot on a usenet group. Come on.
Post by Michael PendragonPost by AnttiLack of equality is the reason why people protest in US. Zod is a living proof of that lack. His life matters too.
I disagree. Stink's life doesn't matter.
DING DING DING. WE HAVE A WINNER FOLKS!
God. Where do I begin. With the kids who went killing homeless people in Florida. With the people burning crosses. This is the cause folks.
America has a flaw in its foundation and it is this thing. It can easily be fixed. The fix would cease the riots, it would make America a better place.
Help the poor. Be a Christian society as you claim to be. Treat people better.
Then you no longer have to have a second thought about the poor. Because every one helps the poor in form of taxes. Instead of giving themselves the bullshit loop hole where you graciously give them five dollars at the crossroads where they are BEGGING for money.
Because it makes you feel good you gave 5 dollars as they squirm on the front of you and you can feel MORALLY SUPERIOR. Hashing out judgment like "they deserve to be begging money - they should be thankful for the 5 dollars I gave them from my OWN HARD EARNED MONEY".
The latter keeps the ones who work, callous.. You can send all the homeless people packing to homes. Built with money that comes from taxes. Their addictions treated with money that comes from taxes. Their children already having a step up.
You can give their children education without forcing them to military. For free. It is done here. You can do it too.
You can fix the flaw in your foundation. The answer does not have to be that Zod dies, or the black man dies in the hands of the police, who are patrolling the neighborhood like SS.
You can make the society A LITTLE BIT SOFTER. A LITTLE BIT KINDER. And you do not have to WISH DEATH for people who live around you. Like rats.
You do not have to build walls between the rich and the poor. You can make society such that they do not have to be separated by massive amount of police.
I am going to write this last bit in bold.
ZOD IS SAYING THINGS LIKE HE IS FINE BECAUSE THE SOCIETY HAS TAUGHT HIM HE CAN NOT COMPLAIN. IF HE DOES NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO HIM.
HE HAS LEARNED IT BY BEGGING ON THE STREET CORNER. TO GET MONEY FOR FOOD.
TO LIVE.
Post by Michael PendragonStink has chosen to drop out of society (while continuing to exploit it).
He has chosen not to matter.
Not only has he chosen not to matter, but he's chosen to make a nuisance of himself here.
He'll get no pity from me.
Of course he does not.
Why do I care about your attitude? Because west was built with US as the corner stone. If you go fascist, we may follow. And if the world gets bi polar with extreme attitudes. Then there will be war. And I would rather not see world war 3.
Softer attitudes might make the future brighter. Harder attitudes. Will make it a living hell.
Antti
Good morning, Antti... and well put, as usual...