Social media’s quality and harm lie on a spectrum, it’s not just black and white. Text discussion on a forum is way different from the average TikTok experience.

The “source” request is also annoying because it’s like, dude we’re just chatting here, no I’m not going to respond like this is some academic debate.

Road rage exists but I’ve never seen people intentionally ram each other on the streets (I did spend the first 12 years of adulthood doing the typical suburban/city commute by car)

I see people start fights on the subway maybe once or twice a year. Real terrible stuff. I think most of us can avoid it by having city smarts, but not everyone, and I still have to be scared by it.

It’s not the same. A subset of people are way worse when trapped in a room with other people. Remember that car driving also filters out a lot of the most distressed and mentally ill people, in an expensive city.

A lot of people have opinions on transit without using it a lot. Not saying that’s you but I find that the realities elude a lot of online discussers. Also probably way different in Europe and East Asia than the US sadly.

It’s not all bad. It’s actually really hopeful for the human spirit on 90% of rides. Like we’re all from all walks of life just sitting here minding our own business in a locked room.

reasonable

Did you want the genocide to end or not

I know people like this and it makes me roll my eyes for sure. But let’s not pretend that the subways/metros/whatever are fine. I contend with a lot of unpleasant stuff every day and I would say have to move cars a couple times a month because someone is scaring me or there’s an odor too offensive for real life.

This is a statistical fact that has basically no bearing on most individuals.

Risk of death in a motor vehicle crash is affected by a ton of factors, most of them within your control.

For example I live in a walkable city and I pay attention at crosswalks. When I drive, it’s mostly daytime highway driving in a well-maintained vehicle with the driver (me) not impaired. All this alone reduces my risk by orders of magnitude.

At the same time there are people who are out there drunk driving on 2-lane roads and highways every weekend.

Least sensible discussion I’ve been in in a while

We could do laps on this all day. In the end if a trans person says they’re trans and this is what it means to them, I’ll take them at their word.

Imagine confusing gender and sex in 2025

That’s true only if homeless people make zero noise, do not act or behave eccentrically, do not bother other customers, do not have offensive odors, immediately cede their seat to a customer who arrives, somehow don’t make through their presence prospective customers believe the shop is too crowded, etc. Do you think even actual customers who are not mentally disturbed or addicted can fulfill this bar you’ve set by saying “costs nothing”?

Warming is a canard, every street homeless person can get warm at a church or shelter. In NYC you can 311 a city department and they’ll go offer the person a ride to a shelter anywhere in the city in a van. Their average time is <1 hour. They can walk into any library in the city.

I encounter homeless every day and resent dumb online joke, these are individuals who have serious problems and, as stated, there is a reason even public services find it hard to serve these populations.

There’s also a reason neither you nor I regularly invite street homeless into our homes.

If you don’t like megacorp there are 1000 better ways you can argue it than saying “they should let homeless in to hang out”. Choosing the argument that you have chosen, just sounds ridiculous.

I know you’re just circlejerking here so discussion is probably pointless, but there are many ways to serve the community and providing a quiet, nicely ambient place (aspirational goals, only met sometimes in reality) to sit or work for a few hours, for the price of a $3 coffee is one. I live in New York and for just over the price of a subway ride I can get wifi, a desk to work, outlets and a decently comfortable chair, and a restroom, and I can hang out there a while.

Serving the homeless in public places is notoriously difficult to get right, as most state and local governments experience demonstrates. Why we’d expect a cafe company to do a good job as well as meet its other goals is confusing.

Read this many years ago and enjoyed. Great recommendation in the spirit of this thread (for anyone who has not read it)

Most people near a Starbucks are near a better coffee shop or cafe that’s independently owned.

Why would it possibly be on Starbucks to provide places for homeless people to hang out for hours. This should be a public function.

Like I said, takes that at least aren’t entirely predictable. If you’ve never been in such a discussion forum you should join one, it is refreshing.

Maybe if you are that poor don’t pilot your personal vehicle into the congested parts of Manhattan, where you pay for parking on top of the general costs of your car such as insurance and fuel.

Take the subway like me and a million others.

Remind me your grand plan to institute day fines again?

Unfortunately it is not just Telsa and Mercedes, I went out and surveyed this in a parking lot after an event a while back, while people were filtering out and getting in their cars to leave. It’s many makes, Toyota, Kia, Chevy, Dodge etc.

I call driving at night, participating in the mass blinding. It’s fucking terrible.

In a PURELY utilitarian sense would there be more overall harm by me driving around with my brights on to piss people off and therefore incrementally accelerate any solution here, or just drive with normal headlights? Serious question actually. Btw people don’t flash their brights any more - nobody can tell if you have them on or not, because half the cars on the road appear to have them on at all times.

I think it would behoove all of us to wait a month and see how things shake out. As it is there was snow last week and it was just coming off the holidays. Let patterns stabilize.