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I understand not wanting homeless people close to you - they are dirty, smelly, prone to drugs and crime (which is why they must be helped and housed). But wanting to harm them remotely - wtf
People don't come to the decision, "I don't want homeless people near me," for those rational (at least, rational for the sake of discussion) reasons. Rather they use those things as rationalizations for their feelings of disgust, fear of impurity, and insecurity about their own potential poverty.
I believe it's a thought process along the following: "I hate seeing homeless people living on the streets in my neighborhood. They are smelly and cause crime and take our taxes while doing nothing or causing harm. I worked hard to save a lot of money to own a house in this neighborhood and they are ruining it while living here for free. If I help them, they'll continue to stay in this area. I don't want to make them feel welcome in my neighborhood at all so I will not donate my blankets to them."
We have a high homeless population in my city and homeowners here all have that mindset, even though we are a very liberal city.
I mean have you never seen a reddit thread where everyone jerks each other off about not giving homeless people money so as to not encourage more homeless people to ask for money? I assume it's a similar mentality.
Yes, I understood your point of view, and I disagree. It is not a "rational" chain of thought like that. It begins with the emotion. The emotion is not a reaction to the chain of thought, the chain of thought is a rationalization for the emotion.
I didn't respond to you so not sure why you are acting like I did. For the sake of discussion though, both can be true. It may start as disgust and then they can form a logical rationale for why this disgust is warranted in their opinion.
Not sure what your actual argument is though. Are you saying that their disgust/discomfort with homeless people in their neighborhoods should be dismissed because it doesn't start off as logical?