Yeah, people generally choose to understand that babies can't help themselves and also choose to believe that the unhoused (literally the group with the least agency in our society) have the agency to help themselves.

EDIT: To be clear. I realize shit is gross. It's the most toxic thing a human regularly encounters.

But the implication of the grossness of shit being a 'bright red line' for lost empathy is that no reasonable human would EVER deal with someone else's shit, when that is demonstrably untrue.

We choose to empathize with babies and not homeless people. That's fine, I guess, but feels sort of gross on the cosmic scale.