“why didn’t we have all these homeless in 1960 or 1970? What changed in society so that we are compelled to tolerate homeless encampments set up wherever these vagrants decide to pitch a tent?”
The ACLU sued the State of California back when Reagan was Governor. Courts found that institutionalizing mentally ill people against their will somehow violated their civil right to be insane.
So nearly every State mental institution in the country was closed and the patients were “freed” to wander the streets without being medicated.
It’s right there in the Constitution.....someplace.
I haven’t found it but some judges did.
L
The 1970s era was when the whole notion of “tolerance” really took off. Kids were taught to be “tolerant,” that they cannot be judgmental about others, that all cultures were equally good. We have amost two generations now raised with these attitudes. These bums could pitch their tents on the front lawns of these “tolerant” people and daily defecate and urinate there and the property owners would still preach “tolerance.”
The ability to critically think about society and it’s problems was bred out of these tolerant people.