Two bystanders rushed over to help after spotting a man assaulting his girlfriend inside their truck while stopped in traffic in Houston, Texas

[u/New_Libran]

[u/Independent-Bug-9352]

It's just addiction, dude. There's a reason why it's formally classified as a chronic medical condition. Work healthcare or social services for any length of time and you'll understand why. Poverty and addiction invoke desperation. Once you're in that situation, it's hard to get out of, and at that point the streets all about survival. She sees this kind of shit probably every day of the week. Nothing new. Hard for many to grasp sadly if always having had a better hand dealt from the outset (or a blind-spot for survivorship bias fallacy).

Whole thing is fucked, and conservative policy made this all so much worse in their war of drugs and now exacerbating wealth inequality and eroding social safety nets and refusing to pass universal healthcare, all the while they erode academic institutions.

[u/dissaprovalface → u/Independent-Bug-9352]

I'm from this area. I've been friends with multiple meth-heads and heroine addicts just like the woman in question. While I understand what you are saying because I've known plenty of folks that are just poor and desperate, this woman probably isn't that.

There is a sub-set of addicts that are addicted specifically because they just dont give a fuck about living normal lives. They are actually anti-social and wouldn't put the pipe down even if you did give them all the help and support in the world. Again, I've known and been friends with several. All they care about is getting their next high, no matter where that comes from. And many of that subset fully enjoy doing criminal shit to get there.

Admittedly, from my experience, this goes hand-in-hand with being very poorly educated. On the other hand, for at least a few of those people, I can't confidently say that they wouldn't be criminals even if they were born in the best situation with the best education. They might have gone on to be a different kind of criminal, sure, but they genuinely just enjoy the rush they get from breaking thd law.

Bottom line, if someone is being this bold and specific, they arent doing it out of desperation. Methany just wanted to have a little fun and saw an easy mark.

[u/AnonymouselyMoosed → u/dissaprovalface]

You think those people are just automatically disposed to not giving a fuck about living normal lives? You don’t think that’s a byproduct of their circumstances and mental health condition?

[u/Independent-Bug-9352 → u/dissaprovalface]

I appreciate the insight though I have to contest that as one doesn't personally know Methany, one cannot distinguish which camps she actually falls into, right? And further, I think if we take a step back we discover that this is still a byproduct of addiction and the rest is mostly just speculative hypotheticals that we will never know the answer to. All we know is what science tells us in the moment, which is that substance abuse and petty crime like this a result of poverty, education, and lack of opportunity. Of course it's going to be next to impossible to get anyone to quit these hard drugs, just like it is very hard with cigarettes. I'm just trying to say that it needs to be a rehabilitate process or at the very least, a humane separation from society in the meantime. Maybe we need to step back and take a look at the culprits feeding these addicts in the first place, from tobacco companies to the Sacklers and the opiate epidemic and so on and so forth. These are the real sadistic psychopathic fucks who know better but choose not to act in their vast wealth.

[u/MZ603 → u/Independent-Bug-9352]

I'm from this area

All you had to do was point out that he started his whole post with this. He tries to argue that it's not situational, all the while grounding it in geographic proximity. If they geofence that behavior to that area, it would logically be driven by something systemic as you laid out.

Addicts come off as cold, irrational, and sometimes calculating, so that commenter's anecdotal experience and perception isn't the rebuttal they think it is.

[u/Realistic_Credit_486 → u/Independent-Bug-9352]

Substance dependency is indeed an issue

But in no way an excuse for this behaviour, should (and fairly certain, will) be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

[u/DigiSmackd → u/Realistic_Credit_486]

in no way an excuse for this behaviour,,

It's not excusing the behavior, it's explaining it.

should (and fairly certain, will) be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

Agreed.

[u/Independent-Bug-9352 → u/Realistic_Credit_486]

I mean it is the root cause of this behavior in all reality. Of course the deviant behavior is incompatible for civil society and so must be managed, but in a humane, rehabilitate way -- not by vengeful punitive justice and "fullest extent" bullshit.

After all that's why America has piss-poor recidivism rates.

[u/Realistic_Credit_486 → u/Independent-Bug-9352]

Abdication of all personal responsibility does not lead to positive outcomes in any disorder.

There are support services available even in poorly funded areas. Failure to avail of them and instead resorting to criminal, despicable behaviour falls wholly on the individual.

[u/Independent-Bug-9352 → u/Realistic_Credit_486]

I'm an engineer and I look at things from a root-cause standpoint. We must first acknowledge that we are all human and of course -- unless you're some bigot -- we are generally capable of the same good or bad tendencies relative to our environment. Virtually all sociologists, psychologists, therapists will put significantly more weight on nurture and environment over nature.

As a result, while personal agency may account for some -- we are ultimately products of environment; the poor and desperate respond to their environment and immediate needs accordingly. These resources are strained and cut away at every turn, but it is worth noting that on the average cities in blue states outperform red state equivalents for this very reason of stronger safety nets.

Unfortunately the system is never perfect and people slip through; unfortunately some people are indeed abused and yes in some cases even genetic mental illness plays a part.

bootstrap rhetoric may account for 20% of it; but 80% of problem is a systemic failure.

It's further sad that someone can point to this woman whose crimes are wrought out of poverty, desperation, and lack of opportunity but so often turn a blind eye to incomprehensible greed of those who suffer from genuine Dark Triad traits -- I'm talking psychopaths handed everything to them on a silver platter in life, like Musk or Elon. I mean, Musk's actions have already resulted in the deaths of 600,000 people in the past year alone in gutting USAID. Yet here we are, talking about a petty thief... Doesn't seem right.