If we believe that every life has inherent value,
if we support suicide prevention or overdose education or public health services of any kind,

the logical conclusion of that belief is that the point of society is for everyone to contribute what they can, so that everyone has what they need.

Second hot take is that
a) a significant portion of mental illnesses are a direct result of childhood trauma, and
b) those which aren't are made debilitating by the fact that people aren't receiving adequate support;
both of these are also, definitionally, societal failures.

My hot take here is that every suicide and overdose is a societal failure--or in the case of capitalist regimes, an inevitable result of an inherently violent and exploitative system, one which also leverages social murder as yet another threat against and burden on the spirit of the exploited.

I'm sure there are a million more reasons, all of them valid. The long and short of it here is that the majority of shelters in the US are not *viable* options for many chronically homeless people-- otherwise they would be accessing those services already.

- they don't want to be in a crowded, dorm-style space

- the shelter is lacking in transitional services/case management

- shelter amenities/services aren't enough to make it worth loss of autonomy

- they don't want their name/info to be entered into county homelessness services database

- they can't cold-turkey off alcohol/drugs and there are no detox services

- they are trying to stay sober and can't be around people they used to use with

- shelter has outbreaks of scabies/bedbugs/illness etc

- don't want to be held to restrictive rules by disrespectful/untrained staff
(cont'd)

- they don't wish to be separated from their partner/kids/pets/family

- they couldn't consolidate everything they own to two bags

- shelter doesn't allow cars/offer parking

- shelter curfew conflicts with work hours

- abuser is at shelter/being at shelter may lead to abuser finding them
(cont'd)

balancing the maximum possible exploitation we can get from you as a user with your tolerance threshold for leaving the app in frustration is tricky 🤷

"One morning, the weight of the genocidal war and displacement gets hold of me, and I get angry at everything and everyone around me. With the unraveling of the rage that has been pent up inside me for far too long, I stop recognizing myself."

Read: arablit.org/2024/11/21/6...