this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
107 points (100.0% liked)

chat

8446 readers
223 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I can't find a link for it but I remember an article where they got a dishevelled, homeless looking man to go into restaurants and ask for leftover food. He was rudely turned away every time. Then they got a man dressed in a smart, expensive business suit to go into the same restaurants and ask for free food (saying he'd lost his job/forgotten his credit card or whatever). He was treated politely and given free food every time.

The link above is to a youtube video, in which an able bodied woman asks for help zipping up her dress and people help her. But when a disabled woman asks for help doing up her buttons, people refuse.

You see the same thing with millionaire celebrities being given free things while poor people are refused the basics of life.

Why is human society like this?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Edamamebean@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago

There's definitely a lot of classism and discrimination against homeless people at work in situations like this, but yeah, it's hard to deny that this isn't a factor as well. In the restaurant situation for example, it's easy to see how the owners would think that giving free food to a visibly homeless person would lead to them coming back repeatedly asking for more food, while giving free food to a person in a suit might lead to them coming back as a paying customer. It's an unfortunate situation, and evidence I think of why charity can't be the solution to such things. Only systemic change can.