U.S. Supreme Court keeps ruling barring prosecution for sleeping in public

Re:U.S. Supreme Court keeps ruling barring prosecution for s... by javajosh on Monday December 16, 2019 @02:36PM (#21806311)

Cynicism like that makes me sad. Cynicism is one of those weird attitudes that totally justifies itself. It is the psychological interior of the "defect/defect" Nash equilibrium. It's saying "Oh yeah, all politicians are liars, all charity is a scam," which tends to produce a world where all politicians are liars, and all charities are scams. When an exception occurs, the cynic says, "Yeah, that honest politician is going to get eaten alive by the liars; those selfless charities are going to go bad someday, out competed by the transactional ones." And everyone who believes this makes it more likely that it is so.

But spirituality is quite real, and there are those who really believe in selfless giving without expectation of anything in return. Lots of people. They exist in the "cooperate/cooperate" equilibrium, and honestly, it's better there. It's not that you don't see the cheating, the greed, especially in the name of charity, its just that you're choosing to do something different, something that feels more wholesome. (I say this as someone who's served a bunch of meditation courses, and really enjoyed it.)

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Re:U.S. Supreme Court keeps ruling barring prosecution for s... by Someone1234 on Monday December 16, 2019 @03:19PM (#21806752)

You sidestepped actually addressing points made.

Why are religious organizations fighting public assistance programs? Why are their members arguing that a church should provide these same services instead? Your "criticise the crique" strategy isn't actually a retort, just an argument that religious affiliated organizations should be above criticism wholesale.

If religions want to stay out of politics, I'm all for leaving them be. But as it stands they're a major power broker, particularly at a local level, and therefore cannot be ignored (particularly when they're arguing for religious discrimination of public services).

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Re:U.S. Supreme Court keeps ruling barring prosecution for s... by javajosh on Monday December 16, 2019 @03:43PM (#21807010)

You said, "Getting transactional with charity is the whole point." I disagree. It's the point for some, but not all religious charities. It is wrong to paint all with the same brush. I won't comment on the Mormon relation to the state; I know only about their relationships with some individuals.

My other point was noting the cynicism behind your view, and why I think there are better options.

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