The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia is one of the most brutally obvious signs of America’s public health crisis. The so-called “open air drug market” in the middle of the country’s sixth most populous city is where hundreds of people use drugs, some of whom are unhoused, usually without being arrested by the police. It is a failure of our health care system, our cities, and our drug enforcement policies on public display.
For some, it’s also a content farm, where they turn other people’s misery into engagement and profit.
As I am writing this, 675 people are watching a YouTube livestream from a channel called USALIVESTREAM of a camera that is panning back and forth over the corner of Kensington Avenue and East Allegheny, where there’s a SEPTA train station that people congregate around. As is normal on YouTube, to the right of the video is a chat where viewers can talk to each other, and pay to post stickers and “super chats,” highlighted messages that cost as much as $500. The revenue generated from this chat is split between YouTube and the YouTube channel owner. YouTube and the channel owner also make money via pre-roll ads viewers have to watch before the video starts. It is a live version of a growing trend, mostly on YouTube and TikTok, where people make videos of people in distress, specifically in Kensington.
The dire situation at Kensington is such that the live feed is always capturing multiple people who are clearly in distress, slumped over while they’re standing, asleep in camping chairs, or using drugs. None appear to be aware they are being filmed and exploited as a form of entertainment.
read more: https://www.404media.co/youtube-is-monetizing-the-suffering-of-an-open-air-drug-market/
That’s the good part, though. Problematic drug use is a health problem and should be treated as such rather than a criminal and moral one.
And that’s not even mentioning what often happens when cops interact with members of any marginalized group…
I agree that the use of drugs should be decriminalized, but it should also come with other responsibilities. For example, a government organized intervention and mandatory rehabilitation. Depending on how much money the person has, they should be required to pay for it. Or they should be expected to pay it back over time.
We should have a welfare state. It should also come with responsibilities.
Do you want to do that with alcohol and tobacco too, or just the ones that the rich and powerful consider taboo?
One size fits all mandates are a recipe for disaster. Depending on the individual case, you end up either violating the patient’s right to bodily autonomy, refusing needed help because the mandate says it’s not time yet or both.
Better to leave the medical decisions to medical professionals. They’re much better at it than even the best politicians and/or parliamentarians.
Absolutely not. Means testing like that breeds resentment and often leads people between a rock and a hard place where they’re too wealthy to get it for free but not wealthy enough that they won’t have make sacrifices they might not think to be worth it.
Rich or poor, cost should never be a determining factor in whether or not to seek needed healthcare.
People have enough responsibilities already without the government making demands in order to give them healthcare that they need.
When someone needs help battling addiction, the caring thing isn’t to check whether they’ve worked hard enough to be allowed to work hard.
People forfeit bodily autonomy when they prove that they can’t take care of themselves. At that point they must be placed into conservatorship of someone who can make decisions for them.
No. Absolutely not.
Terminal cancer patients can’t take care of themselves either, do you want to take their rights away too?
What about people with disabilities that require constant care, should they become “wards of the state” with fewer rights than children again like in the bad old days?
Even if someone is a ward of the state, they still have rights and must be treated humanely.
Not according to the regressive dogma YOU’RE spewing 🤦
You can’t be treated humanely without rights.
Progressives who don’t believe in God support murdering disabled people through programs like MAID, which is just rehash of Action T4.
Disabled people with families who take care of them don’t need government assistance. Unfortunately there are some people who need the government to take care of them.
I should also point out that if someone relies on their family for care, they only have the rights that their family allows them.
Yeah, those of us who want humanity to progress rather than stagnate or even regress. So awful of us 🙄
Leave your imaginary sky daddy out of it.
Nah, that kind of thing is done by regressive monsters who are religious, superstitious or both. Like the nazis you’re referring to. They were religious, superstitious and not the least bit progressive. They were fascists.
What fucking century do you live in where you think amateurs are better at dealing with disabilities than medical professionals??
Yeah, literally everyone, in matters great and small. That’s what government is there for. To help and support all of the people who need it.
Ah, the century would be the 1700s if not earlier. That’s not how the law works, fundie.
Fuck off with your libel.
How is MAID any different from Action T4?
Who cares? MAID is irrelevant. You can care for disabled people without denying them the free exercise of their rights. You have to to care for them properly.
You said I support murdering people. Fuck you.
“Prove” according to who? You? What if I think you’ve forfeited the right to bodily autonomy?
Means testing doesn’t work.