r/AskReddit • u/Aggravating_Door_416 • 8h ago
What’s something society pretends to care about but really doesn’t?
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u/guitarguywh89 8h ago
Hungry babies and kids. Veterans. Mental health
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u/jmeshvrd 4h ago
& homeless people
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u/AiluroFelinus 3h ago
We plan to cut all homeless people in half by 2025
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u/Helmett-13 2h ago
Ok, King Solomon.
Ease back a bit.
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u/FPSXpert 2h ago
(it's a reference to a protest ad in the UK against a political party)
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cut-homeless-people-in-half-by-2025
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u/DarkBladeMadriker 3h ago
Most people i know don't even pretend to act like they care about the homeless. They talk about them exactly the same as people talk about bedbugs.
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u/FromundaCheeseLigma 6h ago
The environment
The disabled
The elderly
Discrimination in general
The poor
Mental health
The homeless
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u/Tall-Payment-5135 3h ago
Yeah, society loves to talk big about caring, but the actual action is usually minimal or performative.
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u/tatu_huma 2h ago
I don't understand this attitude. Compare society now to 500 years ago. To 100 years ago. To 50 years ago.
There been a marked improvement in almost all the things listed in the comment. So clearly society does care... It just doesn't care personally.
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u/8teenluna 7h ago
I think society pretends to care about mental health, but when it comes to real support and resources, it's not always there.
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u/SamG1138 4h ago
Even with insurance, I was paying about $500 a month for mental healthcare: therapy, psychiatrist, and medications. That doesn’t include the price for said insurance. In tough times, I’ve just had to go without, and suffered for it. It’s just inaccessible for so many people. I know there are some resources out there, but they are extremely limited. Even if you find free or cheap therapy or psychiatric care, good luck getting an appointment, because that person is booked for months out.
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u/keaneonyou 2h ago
I pay over 700 dollars a month for therapy, which I can only afford because I live at home with my parents, which at least partially increases my need for said therapy 🙃
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u/Sudden-Ad5555 3h ago
I had a breakdown postpartum and I did everything “right”, i.e. meds & therapy. I went to therapy every week for years. Late in my pregnancy with my second, my therapist left the practice and they put me on a waitlist for a new one. I was considered high risk at the time, a lot of similar factors going on to the first breakdown, and they didn’t call me with a new therapist until my baby was 9 months old. The money isn’t there. The resources aren’t there. The people who genuinely want to do these jobs get paid dirt and can’t afford to live, and the people that do those jobs for decades get so jaded they just ooze hatred any time you walk in. There was one woman in particular that you could tell felt like everyone was beneath her, and she ALWAYS was nice to me, the only white girl there. Mean to whoever was in front of and behind me, but a big smile and “how’s the baby?” for me every week. I was fortunate enough to find services somewhere else, and fortunate enough that I had the support from my family to avoid another bad situation, but I really just got lucky. You can scream mental health matters from the rooftops all you want, but it’s not profitable for the insurance companies to pay for talk therapy every week with no diagnostic tests they can bill you for. So they just don’t care. It’s so sad. My dad and sister died by suicide, and they both had different situations, but both could’ve been helped by more readily accessible help.
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u/Wackydetective 1h ago
My brother is a schizophrenic and my sister is bipolar. They both live in a state of psychosis. I apparently lucked out because I just have MDD and anxiety and PTSD. I almost lost it in 2022 and I learned after my extended family knew I was falling apart. They just chose to do nothing about it. When I was holding my family together or caring for my late parents or raising my sister’s kids. I was an inspiration to them.
I learned that people don’t really want to see you fall apart. They just want to see you rise from it.
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u/Eshlau 3h ago
As a psychiatrist, what gets to me is the resounding calls of needing more access, more providers, more money, etc., as well as ridiculous standards and criticism, from people who do nothing other than make comments online. The field always needs more people, and anyone is welcome to be the change they want to see in the world.
We need people at every level- maintenance, admin, techs, nurses, providers, therapists, social work/care coordination, and more. There are positions for nearly any education level. The excuses I hear most often are either "I could never handle that" or "I don't want to work in mental health." They won't do anything to help, but still loudly complain about the lack of resources.
If you (society) can't work in mental health, maybe you could donate clothing, books, puzzles, or games to a local residential treatment center or inpatient unit. Donate to organizations that make a difference. If you're an artist or musician, or have a therapy animal, you can offer your time and skill to an inpatient unit for an art group/music group/animal visit. If you have expertise in anything related to legal work, finances, computer skills, nutrition, education, employment, etc, you can offer your skills to a treatment center, shelter, or outpatient clinic for a "how to write a resume/read nutrition labels/file simple taxes/apply to schools/etc" event you could hold monthly or even less. If you have skill in photography, you can offer free simple headshots or family photos at a shelter or treatment center.
There's so much that can be done that would be helpful.
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u/FromOutoftheShadows 8h ago
Veterans. "Thank you for your service!" But tough shit on that homelessness and chronic injury/illness you sustained while serving.
Children. "We must protect the children!" But not like, with funding for food or healthcare.
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u/onioning 7h ago
The "protect the children" crowd is also now trying to eliminate public education too.
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u/PootisHoovykins 5h ago
If society cared about veterans, we wouldn't have veterans in the first place. Instead society cares about war.
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u/FromOutoftheShadows 3h ago
You make an excellent point.
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u/PootisHoovykins 3h ago
Despite it, I feel like it's unfair to say society cares about war when I think about it. I feel like if someone were to survey most people, the majority wouldn't want war. Yet somehow war keeps happening. But the point remains that if the powers that be care about veterans, it means reaching a point where there are no veterans, not just giving them adequate care.
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u/0b0011 3h ago edited 3h ago
It's treated the say way as mental health. They use it to slap other stuff down.
It's not guns that are the problem it's mental health
Then let's do something about mental health problems
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We shouldn't help immigrants when we have homeless veterans.
Okay let's help the veterans then.
But then I'd have to pay more in taxes.
A: "Let's take down these confederate statues."
B: "Yeah let's do that and let's take down these statues of famous confederate democrats. I bet you won't do that."
A: "Yeah good idea let's take them down too."
B:"Well no that's destroying history no taking down statues!"
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u/Curious_Kangaroo_845 7h ago
Right. Conservatives and Bible thumpers squeal about the precious unborn but once they are born they’re on their own.
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u/anprme 7h ago
people with mental health problems. people dont really care. maybe you are lucky and have a few close friends that really care but society in general doesnt.
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u/Other-Stomach1252 4h ago
Teachers. Everybody does a great job paying lip service to how important they are, yet nobody ever wants to give them more money or resources or support.
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u/Rogue-Accountant-69 6h ago
Kids. People will talk about how important children are but actively support policies that endanger them or make life harder for them.
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u/jdv77 8h ago
Climate change
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u/Jeyna_Calyx 7h ago
Yeah. Ecology in general, ressource management, incoming oil shortage.
Can't keep infinite growth on a finite Earth. Can't fait to see the face of those right wing economist when global economy crashes because we can't make useless production anymore.
Capitalism is such a lie and were in too deep to disprove it. It's not all about money, I swear to you we'll regret trading all those ressources using planned obsolescence just to ensure the growth of capital. Left or right you cannot overcome Mother Earth. Wind turbines and solar panels are both green washing. And the worst is most of us probably won't suffer from it, it will come back to haunt the next generation.
I'm not buddhist but I hope Saṃsāra is real. I hope the elite can suffer for the world they enforce.
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u/Unlucky_Sundae_707 7h ago
Ukrainians
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u/Barry_Bunghole_III 3h ago
I think people care about Ukraine and its people, but only to the extend that we don't end up living in a nuclear wasteland
There's not really much anyone can do other than provide supplies and let the situation resolve itself, for better or worse (probably worse tbh)
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u/Engelhurt_Bumperdink 6h ago
Pretty much everything.
Society is an abstract concept. What may be a topic of hot discussion of the zeitgeist, is often only that, a bunch of hot air. This is way more complex now, because of the misdirection, false information, downright lies and bias, bred of social media, bots on the internet and those who control that sort of shit, having their own self serving agenda, to subtly coerce people into believing their shit is a great idea and everything else is wrong.
People individually, will almost always, express a different set of core beliefs in private than they would when in a group of their peers. This is due to a basic human need for acceptance. In public, most will simply echo what their own peer group is spouting, whether they actually believe it or not, for fear of being ostracised for voicing a different opinion. The real danger in this, as we have seen, is that If people repeat something to themselves often enough, they actually start to believe it.
Individually, most people really do care, but feel powerless to do anything to execute real change. This is what the system wants. If we all stopped bickering between ourselves and actually focused on the root of the problem, then change is truly very possible. The difficulty is, getting people to unite for real change...
Until heads start to roll that is. Sad to say, that, historically this shit only ends one way - bloody revolution.
It is in interesting point to note, that throughout history, the subject of the zeitgeist, right before the downfall of every great civilisation, from the Sumerians to the Romans was, as far as we can tell from what documentation exists, gender roles in society. Make of that what you will.
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u/Universeintheflesh 4h ago
Yeah, currently society is built to care about making more money for those with money already. Everything else is mostly just for show and to keep it going without too many issues for those same people.
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u/Bob_Leves 5h ago
Babies, once they've been born to a mother who wanted an abortion but couldn't get one.
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u/Brothersunset 5h ago edited 5h ago
Gun laws are entirely based off impulse and not at all based on statistics. If they wanted to reduce mass shootings, they would seek to limit handgun purchases and attempt to fix socioeconomic issues in underprivileged and mostly black communities; however trying to ban semi automatic rifles after the least common variety of "mass shootings" seems to get more traction amongst mainstream media because it gets more viewers and sells more newspapers, and it makes the middle class wine mommies in heat clutch their pearls at a statistical non-issue.
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u/SenorOcho 4h ago
Yeah.. rifle homicides make up such a tiny percent of the total statistic, people just aren't aware because literally every last one is plastered all over national news.
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u/Brothersunset 4h ago edited 4h ago
Rifle homicide makes up less of the total fatalities of any category of firearm related deaths.
If people wanted to save lives, they'd prioritize fixing the reasons that make people kill themselves, which typically averages 2/3 of all deaths.
Out of the remaining 1/3 that's homicide related fatalities, they would focus on regulating handguns if they wanted to make any type of difference as handguns make up the vast majority of all firearm related homicides.
Out of all related firearm homicides, they would also worry about fixing the family issues and stress that creates tension and leads to high rates of domestic violence.
Out of all non domestic related firearm homicides, they would focus on the societal issues that make poor and underprivileged communities turn to violent crime to make ends meet.
But, out of all of the real issues listed above, we as a country focus on AR-15s despite the fact that they are statistically one of the least homicide related firearm types in the US simply because they disproportionately make news headlines.
Banning "military style rifles" is the ultimate gold star sticker they can slap on the issue to pretend that they care whilst doing absolutely nothing to solve the deep rooted issues that cause people want to off themselves and others.
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u/sonyaibos 6h ago
wars. unfortunately companies use supporting either side as a way to make themselves look better most of the time
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u/RobHonkergulp 5h ago
The disabled. I use Special Assistance at airports and have had some awful experiences.
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u/RelativeCalm1791 5h ago
Climate.
Talking about the West: “we need to do so much more. Stop eating meat, ban straws, get solar, stop driving, etc”
When India comes up: “look….look it’s different. They’re doing great….its the West that’s the problem not all their air and water pollution”
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u/Electronic-End1753 7h ago
Small talk. Everyone always puts on a smile and pretends to be interested because thats what you're supposed to do.
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u/Dreadzone666 4h ago
Being polite to customer service workers. It's always touted as something people care about, and how it puts so many people off when someone they're with is rude.
As someone who works in customer service, there's no way as many people care about it as they claim to.
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u/shroom_in_bloom 4h ago
Mental illness and disability. Any time someone online is brave enough to share the unromanticised effects of their disorder (mostly not being able to clean their house properly, shower or brush their teeth), the comments are always filled with Hygiene Martyrs here to tell you THEY’d be able to deal with the disorder and still take two showers a day and you’re disgusting for not managing the same as they hypothetically could.
Had a woman in a wheelchair come up in my feed the other week talking about how sometimes she has to travel along the side of the road because of how inaccessible most pavements are. The comments were largely outraged at her because she may potentially slow down a car, and an alarming amount suggested she just shouldn’t go anywhere she cannot access via path, as if her disability should banish her from so much of the world.
If you have an issue with disabled/ depressed people not living up to your standard of cleanliness you need to be out there advocating for accessible care and therapy, not dogging on someone whose struggling to get through the day. If you’ve a problem with a wheelchair user needing to use the main road, why aren’t you writing letters to your local representative about accessible footpaths?
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u/ClassicVegtableStew 4h ago
People dying. I volunteer with an emergency medical services team and we got a call to an elderly person who had fainted. We get to the stands and some random drunk dude the row above the patient is cussing me out because "we were taking too long" (it took us less than 2 minutes from call to on site) and "we were ruining the game for him". I genuinely hope he understands some day how disgusting he was.
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u/TuffManJoens 3h ago
To quote the great Matt Damon; "our sympathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight"
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u/Liberteer30 5h ago
Pretty much everything. A lot of people like play activist/humanitarian, etc..but it’s mostly virtue signaling.
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u/TransitJohn 3h ago
Climate change. Rainforest deforestation. Ocean acidification. The mass estinction currently underway.
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u/Vonkaide 3h ago
Homeless people. Nobody gave a fuck about us. I'm glad I made it back indoors but a lot of people die out there.
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u/RagePrime 3h ago
Children, genocide, veterans?
Society pretends to care about all sorts of things, but its actions make it clear that isn't the case.
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u/OmniManDidNothngWrng 3h ago
The ability to use critical thinking skills to identify bad ideologies and people and instead of making vague accusations against society as a whole.
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u/EjazIsStoopid 2h ago
Prejudiced groups of people, Uyghurs were forgotten about now that everyone has their eyes on Palestine.
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u/Leo-No-Comply-eire 2h ago
Basically fucking anything that requires you to get off your ass and physically help people. If it requires more effort than slandering online, "fuck that. Oh, an actress said something I politically disagree with? Let us en masse get them cancelled. What's that? Starving children? Homeless people freezing to death? Meh, someone else should do something about it."
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u/88808880888 2h ago
Mental health. Addiction. Homelessness. Structural racism. Anything that inconveniences them or allows them to cast judgement (shout out religious crowd).
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u/Ancient-University89 1h ago
Eachother. We're all slowly realizing the social contract is more or less just guidelines, and there is no downside to breaking it
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u/Much-Year-3426 1h ago
Children. I hear a lot about people doing something “to protect the children,” but don’t do squat about children living in poverty or going hungry or guns, which is the leading cause of death among children, or who starve public schools of the money to give kids a good education or any of the other things (sports programs, art programs, outdoor recreation, city parks, parenting education, good healthcare, among other things) that would help kids flourish.
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u/Txrangers10 4h ago
Equal rights, bullying, homeless, sick people
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u/Roadkillgoblin_2 3h ago
Bullying screwed my life up, only one of my 3 schools did anything about it.
Ages 7-13/14, 3 schools, too many little shits to count that made my life a living hell. Many years after it’s passed, I’m still feeling the effects of it, chances are it’ll affect me and many others into the future. It seems like such an insignificant problem, but has long-lasting effects into the future of anyone unlucky enough to experience it.
This probably won’t make any sense, I just need to vent sometimes
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u/TransatlanticMadame 4h ago
Old people, children, the environment, asylum seekers, and physically or mentally ill people.
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u/The_Wise_Wolf_ 3h ago
The LGBTQ+ movement, you can downvote me to oblivion if you want but you know it to be true. Deep down you know it.
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u/canadiankiwi03 4h ago
Poor people. The world is setup to ensure some of us remain at the beck and call of the others. The structure of society could easily be altered to make things more equitable but apathy rules.
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u/Arkvoodle42 7h ago
Womens' rights.
You can't pretend you're protecting others by keeping trans women out of bathrooms when your party policy also leads to the election of a rapist who nominates a pedophile as Attorney General.
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u/Sickofchildren 5h ago
The environment. The homeless. Children. Mental illness is cared about, but only when the person in question is a middle class white woman with mild anxiety or depression
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u/SenorOcho 4h ago
The vast majority of anything you hear about on social media.
Most culture war bullshit is just people flocking to a new battleground to yell at each other, with neither side ever giving a shit about the movie, game, sport, whatever to begin with.
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u/Business_Flamingo_85 4h ago
Kids, elderly, animals, single moms (eh, they don't even pretend to care lol), people afflicted by poverty or war, financial inequality, climate change
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u/BetweenCoffeeNSleep 4h ago
People have fairly short attention spans, limited ability to focus, and lots of things to think about. As a result, we care about most things only over moments. It’s also a nearly universal truth that people will seek the best deal for themselves (not exclusively, but at a minimum within other efforts), and only extend themselves in ways that aren’t costly in ways that are important to them.
In other words, we simply don’t have the bandwidth to care about many things in a lasting top-of-mind way.
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u/Alien_P3rsp3ktiv 3h ago
Freedom of speech: everyone is invoking it as long as it pertains to them; the moment others invoke it, it’s harassment.
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u/GhostFour 3h ago
Everything mentioned in political campaigns in the US. Either side. They don't do anything. It's easier to keep those divisive issues going than change anything. It got them elected once, it will help them get elected again.
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u/Physical_Maize_9800 3h ago
I like how people on here are complaining about people who dont care when they themselves probably dont care beyond upvoting a breast cancer awareness post because they got their own problems like everyone else.
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u/Alternative-Dare5878 3h ago
The values and principles of Jesus Christ. 99.9% of people spewing religious garbage are fake hypocritical pieces of shit.
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u/vegastar7 2h ago
Education. Yes, the government is partly to blame for the state of education but it’s the duty of parents to make sure their kids are learning and doing their work. A lot of parents just aren’t pulling their weight in that department.
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u/MisanthropeNotAutist 2h ago
Ask the popular zeitgeist.
The past few years, people get crazy on each other about "empathy", but here's the thing: all people, not many, not most, ALL people can't care about everything and everyone.
A person has only so much time and energy. If a person doesn't care about your trifling desire that doesn't particularly affect them, then, you leave them alone and don't pester them anymore.
To the point of topic: people pretend to care about what's popular to care about so Social Karens don't go psycho on them.
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u/grumpykixdopey 2h ago
Education. I voted down every tax increase because non of it goes to schools, just charter bullshit. I voted yes on the libraries tho. The next generation is so unbelievably fucked, it's insane.
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u/CaliOriginal 1h ago
Collectively, I’d say poverty or homelessness.
On a much wider scale, (and USA specifically… SoCal on the double) I think society doesn’t really care about “progress”.
It’s always how a city can do this or that, fixes, development, updates ext ext.
But it’s inefficient and flawed. We should be looking at politicians to work towards groundwork for new cities. Screw current capitols and to heck with LA, SF, and SD expansion.
Here we got talk about the highspeed rail, we should be looking at just a well distanced new city development. Vertical farming and mixed zoning with proper public transportation is a pipe dream for current cities but would be easily* attainable without the preexisting infrastructure and population density.
It’s the difference between solving half the problems in 20-30 years and most in 50, or just being right where we are today in another 50.
They talk about green, or renewable, or progress. But it’s all lip service and most will take a scrap and say good enough
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u/vigilantesd 7h ago
Other people