@Jaybefaunt
TRIGGER WARNING: We have people self immolating because of genocides happening and because people are losing housing. This nation is going down and it’s the greed of the capitalists that’s the cause.
I’m basically in that elderly gentleman’s shoes as far as housing goes. I’m sorry to his family and to him for being pushed into this situation.
@weareronin47
Elderly man self-immolates while being evicted.
Housing is a human right.
Direct link to video: https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1775547959775502338/pu/vid/avc1/640x360/8Bhf9UQdY6pfh4gx.mp4
Source: https://twitter.com/Jaybefaunt/status/1775639781868720573
surely the housing crisis is unrelated to mental health
What percentage of Americans burn themselves to death because of housing insecurity? The problems can cross paths at some point, but be two different problems.
Spoken like someone that has never felt the desperation and complete hopelessness that comes with housing insecurity. It’s probably one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt and knowing there is nothing you can do about it makes it even worse. I’ve seen way worse things than self immolation because of getting evicted.
The thing with getting evicted is that if you don’t have any other options it could potentially ruin your entire life. I live paycheck to paycheck these days and if I lost my job it would create a domino effect that will completely undermine everything in my life. You could lose everything you own, lose your job, lose access to food, and even lose your own life because of it. Shelter is the first thing people prioritize when lost in the wilderness for a reason. Because without it you are basically fucked.
Now, I’m not saying this is a reasonable response to getting evicted. But at the same time, in that moment when you know you are about to potentially lose everything in your entire life, people get desperate.
Untrue. But I did have resources I was able to leverage, unlike many others. And I was fortunate not to have any underlying mental health issues at the time that could have been exacerbated by the situation.
You ever stop to wonder if lack of such resources is what leads to said “mental health issues,” which are really the logical consequence of deprivation?
Yes! Exactly. There need to be more resources. And this lack of accessibility is it’s own problem. Accessibility may have made the difference, where these two people didn’t take the actions they did in response to the situations they were in.
Lumping it all into the housing crisis is a disservice. These are separate problems, that crossed paths, but that need separate sets of solutions.
yeah wouldn’t want to try and help these people with housing on the off chance it helps with their mental health, probably way more effective to just point out to them that their problems are entirely their own and they most likely would have harmed themselves anyway. good talk
I didn’t say that-- you’re saying that.
What I’m saying is that in addition to the housing crisis, you have a mental health crisis, and it’s irresponsible to ignore or conflate the two.
It’s wild how desperate y’all are to gloss over how much deeper these situations go, because it gets in the way of a headline.
okay sorry. what do you suggest for helping with the mental health crisis then?
A good start is being able to talk about it and have dialogue, without getting defensive. Stigmatization is alive and well, and it’s one reason why people don’t seek resources and help.
So in your opinion, material conditions (such as housing and healthcare) aren’t the cause of the mental health crisis? People just need to talk about it more and it will all go away?
You read “a good start” and translated it to “the whole solution”?
To me, the start of a solution must lead to the solution.
I don’t see how conversations on individual people’s mental health leads to changes in material conditions. To me that reads as “more people need to individually seek or be encouraged to seek therapy” than addressing the material conditions.
I get what you’re (poorly) trying to say, but in the context of this thread - an old man lighting himself on fire during the eviction - we can safely assume his mental state is being largely influenced by the eviction.
It’s pretty ridiculous to assert that self immolation is exclusively a mental health situation that is entirely insulated from the outside world, as though mental health and a person’s environment are mutually exclusive and have absolutely 0 affect on each other.
It’s a very convenient way of reducing problems to an individual level to completely avoid the root causes.
Maybe you are just trying to be some data purist who believes self immolation can only be done by someone in a mental health crisis - and mental health crises are exclusively internal and cannot be tied to external circumstances??
For future reference, lighting yourself on fire while actively protesting war, or actively being evicted probably has more to do with the realities of war and housing crises, and less to do with forgetting breathing exercises and lacking cognitive behaviour therapy strategies.
Someone doesn’t just suddenly light themselves on fire because of either of these catalysts, without having any underlying mental health struggles that went untreated or simply were brought to a head. Feel free to break that down and correlate that any way you want to the state of the world, their environment, etc, if out of avoidance or because it’s easier and more satisfying to say, “this one thing had this outcome!”
An event can force a mental health crisis. You’re wrong if you believe otherwise.
You’re trying to say “everyone who lights themselves on fire is having a mental health crisis” - this is true.
You’re also saying “if a common event like eviction results in self immolation it’s entirely the fault of mental health crisis and not eviction, because not everyone evicted self immolates” - this is false.
You’re intentionally reversing cause and effect, when it’s obviously wrong.
It’s a weird thing - you getting your rocks off acting willfully ignorant and belligerent over some arbitrary belief that events can’t be responsible for a mental health crises if the reaction isn’t typical.
Why do you insist it is so important that everyone you interact with in this thread believes only mental health crisis can carry the blame?
Why is it not possible for someone who is being evicted to light themselves on fire because they are being evicted?
What makes this exclusively a mental health issue, and not a housing crisis issue?
Which would be more effective at stopping self immolations during eviction - affordable housing preventing eviction but no mental health support? Or mental health support prior to eviction, but the individual will still be homeless?
Which outcome is better? If the old man didn’t self immolate, but instead became homeless? Or if the old man was never worried about losing shelter because they would never lose shelter?