Author Topic: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?  (Read 2446 times)

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Offline chyros

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Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 01:43:35 »
Happened upon this mini-documentary:


Apparently it's just footage of random people on the streets of Philadelphia's third-worst neighbourhood. I couldn't believe what a mess I saw, and how many empty, destitute people, it's horrifying. I've been to every continent except Australia and Antarctica and this looks like a bad neighbourhood in Africa, or South-East Asia, in some ways even worse. Is this really what Philadelphia is like? Or at least, bad neighbourhoods of it? Oo Are there other places in the US where it's this bad? When we were doing a road trip on the West coast most places (apart from one really crappy backwater town, I forgot the name) looked nothing like this.
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Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 02:17:10 »
It's like a free use zone where cops won't interfere unless it is a violent crime to keep all the junkies concentrated in one area and out of residential areas. It's become like an open air drug den basically, the city's plan kinda backfired on them.

Offline jamster

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 02:48:17 »
Looks totally unsurprising to me. The US is a land of extremes- it represents the very best, and the very worst of every aspect of Western society.

The only thing that did surprise me was how densely packed those streets were, I would have expected more spacing between people just hanging out on the streets.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 06:03:47 »
This is end stage hedonic Capitalism.

And before anyone remarks, But I dun'do heroin/ fentanyl/ meth,  It's not about what you're on, it's about the Propensity.

People use the term addiction positively all the time to refer to any of their vices and hobbies.  They're able to do this because capitalist markets only cater to 1 central demand, varieties of hedonism.

Drugs, is but 1 variety.

The other forms are just as destructive to the land (animal agriculture, deforestation ), the human body (pizza, heart disease, cancer), the ocean (drag net fishing)

Heart disease is the # 1 cause of death, then there's cancer #2,  Drugs are bad sure, but the REAL killer-King clearly sells death far more broadly in the form of cholesterol.   The death statistic is narrowly JUST the human harm.   EATING animals also causes the most damage to the environment and THE ANIMALS. Not just the ones we farm, but those lost due to our Intentional Habitat destruction.   

Even if a person cares nothing for animals, we share the ecosystem, where animals perform critical environmental roles.  From all the fish stirring the ocean currents, to bees pollinating.


The video is a reflection of the core tenets of hedonic society playing out to its natural conclusion.


Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 07:24:49 »

The US is a land of extremes- it represents the very best, and the very worst of every aspect of Western society.


Our nation began, in earnest,  a slow death from within when the ultra-wealthy purchased the Republican Party in the late-1970s and installed Reagan as president.

Our founding principle, stated thus:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

was subsumed into the fundamentally anti-social move toward a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 07:37:19 »
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

was subsumed into the fundamentally anti-social move toward a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.


The biggest LIE, perpetrated by Regulator Capture is that there was ever at ANY point where government was free, and NOT deeply tied to the whims of the oligarchs.

Maybe some founding-fathers believed some of the stuff they wrote, but Equal republic has always been in name only, The Pyramid system never changed.

The whimsical middle-class like fohat, tp4, gekhrs LOVES these ideas,  and THEY'RE GOOD IDEAS, but they're not real, and were never real.

We've never lived in a democracy, Nor will we ever before AI-Overlord takes over.

Offline chyros

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 09:18:33 »
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

was subsumed into the fundamentally anti-social move toward a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.


The biggest LIE, perpetrated by Regulator Capture is that there was ever at ANY point where government was free, and NOT deeply tied to the whims of the oligarchs.

Maybe some founding-fathers believed some of the stuff they wrote, but Equal republic has always been in name only, The Pyramid system never changed.

The whimsical middle-class like fohat, tp4, gekhrs LOVES these ideas,  and THEY'RE GOOD IDEAS, but they're not real, and were never real.

We've never lived in a democracy, Nor will we ever before AI-Overlord takes over.

I'm not an expert by any means, but from what I read and heard of the founding fathers, that's not completely true. They genuinely did seem to have the best of the people at heart, and acted accordingly. Not much is left of their original points (to the point where they'd be unrecognisable from today's perspective) but it didn't seem to me like they acted from an oligarchical objective.
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #7 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 09:56:31 »
I'm not an expert by any means, but from what I read and heard of the founding fathers, that's not completely true. They genuinely did seem to have the best of the people at heart, and acted accordingly. Not much is left of their original points (to the point where they'd be unrecognisable from today's perspective) but it didn't seem to me like they acted from an oligarchical objective.


I agree SOME of them held SOME of those beliefs.  The vast majority were just land owners on the winning side of the revolution.

They are not so different than the imperialist england they defeated.  Many of them were still slave owners, opium farmers, tobacco farmers, rapists, wife beaters.   That is our history.

Going back to Christopher Columbus, he wrote with glee about exploitation/ trafficking of children.  People in power were quite often terrible people.   But they got to rewrite/ coverup most of their wrong doings/ exploitations which got them to where they were. 

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #8 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 10:58:16 »

They genuinely did seem to have the best of the people at heart, and acted accordingly.

it didn't seem to me like they acted from an oligarchical objective.


They didn't say "a perfect Union" they said "a more perfect Union" and the authors of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Jefferson and Madison, were among the most torn by the contradictions between their aspritations and the reality that they inhabited.

It must suck to be TP4.
State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #9 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 11:04:03 »

hey said "a more perfect Union"


A more perfect union for WHOM ?

The Slaves sure didn't get a slice.

The Native Indians didn't get any land back.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #10 on: Mon, 06 September 2021, 11:34:42 »
https://nccs.net/blogs/our-ageless-constitution/will-the-great-american-experiment-succeed

TL;DR  “Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence.

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people .... " - John Adams


It must suck to be TP4
« Last Edit: Mon, 06 September 2021, 13:32:54 by fohat.digs »
State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline Kavik

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 28 September 2021, 14:08:54 »
I haven't been to Philadelphia, but this doesn't look far off from some areas in the few "big" cities I've been to. In Seattle and Chicago, it was impossible to walk anywhere without being harassed for money by bums (the term "Skid Row" originates from Seattle in fact); although, I don't remember nearly that much trash on the ground in either of those places.
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Offline Extra-Cwispy

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 28 September 2021, 15:20:20 »
Philadelphian here.

Kensington Ave is pretty much always like this from what I understand, and is the worst concentrated area of Philly for drug use and homelessness. There are definitely other areas of Philly that have some homeless, near city hall, Reading market and whatnot. I work/live near city hall and you can definitely tell when they are high as a kite. Even some of the parks have the occasional drug users wondering around.

They generally aren't violent or anything, and will usually just keep to themselves unless they are asking for change. The loud ones will yell at people, but are all bark no bite from what I've experienced.


Offline Shapey Fiend

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 30 September 2021, 16:26:39 »
I saw a documentary about this once that was really interesting. Gotta google find the name of it..

Oh yeah. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.


Offline chyros

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 01 October 2021, 07:36:07 »
Philadelphian here.

Kensington Ave is pretty much always like this from what I understand, and is the worst concentrated area of Philly for drug use and homelessness. There are definitely other areas of Philly that have some homeless, near city hall, Reading market and whatnot. I work/live near city hall and you can definitely tell when they are high as a kite. Even some of the parks have the occasional drug users wondering around.

They generally aren't violent or anything, and will usually just keep to themselves unless they are asking for change. The loud ones will yell at people, but are all bark no bite from what I've experienced.
I just find it really bizarre that there can be so much drug abuse anywhere. Even in Amsterdam, which is famous for drugs (and it's a tourist ****fhole to boot, which doesn't help) things don't get even remotely as much out of hand.
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Streets of Philadelphia - is this real?
« Reply #15 on: Fri, 01 October 2021, 08:10:40 »
I just find it really bizarre that there can be so much drug abuse anywhere. Even in Amsterdam, which is famous for drugs (and it's a tourist ****fhole to boot, which doesn't help) things don't get even remotely as much out of hand.

Tourism dollars compel the Aesthetic upkeep.  The (Problem) is exactly as bad.

The Drug problem IS THERE, it's everywhere,  right beneath the surface.  You can be ANYWHERE in the world, and easily have heroin (fentanyl) delivered to your door.

The delivery is so wide, it even goes places where Pizza does not.