Comment on How to move a sofa
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 week agoShow me one part of humanity’s development that did not involve social connection. You, as a human being are part of an unbroken chain of social connections spanning back so far that there isn’t even a word for how many generations it is.
Are you suggesting that makes it okay to forget about outsiders? Because if that’s what you believe, then I challenge you to explain what makes xenophobia wrong without contradicting that sentiment that you’re relying on so heavily.
You’re saying I’m focusing too much on the minutiae, but you’re the one that keeps bringing up minutiae of examples and anecdotes as if that changes anything. Ray Charles was a blind Black man, but he was also a successful musician. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would use that to argue that blind black men shouldn’t require additional assistance and accomodations that most don’t.
You know neurodivergent people with this-or-that talent? That’s great for them. BUT NOT EVERYBODY HAS THAT. And you can list as many examples as you want about such-and-such thing a person can do to help out in exchange for someone else’s help, but the more examples you list, the more you marginalize people who either can’t do those things, or can’t find someone who’s willing to help them out in the way that they need in exchange for one of those things that they happen to also be able to do.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 6 days ago
Why would your first assumption be that I’m excluding everybody that doesn’t fit into the niche?
For clarity, if you want me to pass your purity test by telling you that Xenophobia makes about as much sense as stapling your genitals to a 2x4 and swinging said 2x4 at a hornet’s nest, since we’re ALL GOD DAMN HUMAN BEINGS THAT DESERVE RESPECT AND HELP WHEN NEEDED EVEN IF THEY ARE SHITTY.
Who’s arguing that? We’re talking about sharing what abilities we do have for the greater good, in this one tiny example posted- where one person has a truck, another has a need for a truck. They, as human beings, understand that helping people feels good, so they help each other in exchange for a ‘peppercorn’ payment of either a shared drink/a pizza/the acknowledgment of being the one that provides help the next time. (Based on the last line about the guys with the truck noticing he was strong for his size, they knew he was capable and wouldn’t have asked something of him beyond his ability, because that’s rude.)
So you’re assuming that I’m saying people that can’t pay through any means don’t deserve help? You REALLY think that about a stranger you know nothing about.
Have you heard of the concept of goodwill? Of helping someone out for the entirely selfish reason of ‘helping people feels good and it makes me feel good’?
Do you know that there are volunteers currently digging people (people that couldn’t ever repay them, some of whom are children, many of whom will become disabled as a result.) out of the rubble that was once their home at great personal risk from either falling debris or from further attacks that led to the homes being destroyed?
But please tell me how the examples that I’m providing are exclusive and how they’re not non-exhaustive examples of ways that human beings help one another.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 days ago
Wow, crystal clear logic you’ve got there. You struggle to even formulate a basic argument and yet you have the gall to accuse me of purity testing?
If you don’t see how xenophobia connects to the exclusion of outsiders in smalltown, usa, then it’s honestly hopeless to try explaining to you.
I’m not assuming that about you. I’m telling you that this kind of thing happens. And you continue to act like it doesn’t by pretending it’s so audacious of me to point it out.
That’s not AT ALL what I’m saying, and you’re twisting my words around on their head so hard that I almost think it has to be disingenuous.
Literally my whole point is that those people DO deserve help, but that in this system where people depend on the goodwill of others, some people will be excluded because in many cases people’s goodwill is either lacking, incomplete, or exclusionary.
The examples you list have no bearing on it because I’m NOT SAYING that nobody has goodwill or does things for altruistic reasons. What I’m saying is that relying on that alone as a society to get everyone the help that they need IS NOT ENOUGH, because too many people LACK THAT GOODWILL.
If you think those rescue efforts have nearly as much support and funding as they need, then you must not have ever been involved in anything of the kind, because almost always they have to do more with less. They could certainly always use more volunteers, more donations, but as I stated before THIS ALONE WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH, because GOODWILL IS NOT AS COMMON AS YOU PRESUME.
All of those efforts would be much better served by state-sponsored IGOs and NGOs that can do high-level coordination and collect and distribute the vast resources needed to bring these rescue efforts and reconstruction projects to completion. And instead of relying SOLELY on volunteers and hoping enough people care enough to make those sacrifices, instead there should be government-sponsored workforces whose entire jobs, training, and expertise revolves around providing the necessary labor. Because even though volunteering is great, it’s simply NOT ENOUGH.
How much clearer can I make that for you?