Today I’m introducing a groundbreaking bill - the National Strategy for Social Connection Act.

It creates a federal office to combat the growing epidemic of American loneliness, develops anti-loneliness strategies, and fosters best practices to promote social connection.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1681350024200962053

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    The problem in Portland is that we decriminalized most drugs, so now potential third spaces are over-run with homeless tents and drug use.

    From my house I have either a 1/4 mile uphill walk to a major busline, or a 3/4 mile downhill walk to one. Either way isn’t particularly safe, and the bus lines themselves aren’t particularly safe.

    https://www.koin.com/news/passenger-violence-increasing-at-trimet-during-severe-staffing-shortage/

    • TauZero@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Crazy idea: if drugs are decriminalized, what if we had two versions of public spaces: one that disallows use of drugs, and one where drugs were allowed and handed out for free? Like if you were a drug addict, would you really want to go to that boring “sober” library where you might get hassled when you could get unlimited drugs at the library across the street?

      • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Because people who are out of their minds on drugs typically aren’t aware of any sorts of public restrictions. That’s currently the problem in Portland:

        https://apnews.com/article/portland-ada-lawsuit-homeless-tents-sidewalks-aee2d079440d5f9427a18d9e4771d92a

        We can’t get them to comply with relatively basic requests like “don’t block sidewalks”. You honestly think they’ll stick to “keep your drugs in the beer garden”?

        • TauZero@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Drugs are fucking cheap if you control the means of production. For less than $10 a day you can keep homeless drug addicts off your buses, out of your train stations, out of your libraries and playgrounds and out of tent cities in middle of town, simply by luring them to a no-strings-attached watering hole out of your line of sight.

            • TauZero@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Cheaper than paying police and paying staff to clean up the buses and paying insurance and inconvenience for all the petty break-ins and smashed car windows.

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Right, first pick a crime that is disproportionately enforced towards one minority, then make them do forced unpaid labor as a condition of their sentences.

                  The extra steps don’t change what that sounds like.

                • TauZero@mander.xyz
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                  1 year ago

                  We can’t get them to comply with relatively basic requests like “don’t block sidewalks”, what makes you think you’d be able to force them to do useful work? Overseers with whips cost money, how do you expect to do it cheaply enough to turn a profit and pay off damages?

      • tallwookie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        if all drugs get decriminalized, society will fall apart even more rapidly than it is now. better to exile all of the addicts to somewhere no one wants to go (wyoming) and fence them in - then let them inject/inhale to their hearts content.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Concentration camps, huh? When this doesn’t solve the ills of society you claim it will, who’s next on the “then they came for” list?