• Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lot of these comments are weird.

    I’m fortunate enough where if someone stole my car, its not the end of the world. I work from home. I can afford to pay for Uber or public transportation. My life is mildly inconvenienced.

    Where my buddy works two minwage jobs. Steal his car, and he’s going to struggle a lot. I helped him when his car was in the shop, and he was a mess.

    And yet commenters here are going, “Poor car thief what a victim of circumstance.” While also totally cool with him fucking over others? Your empathy is fascinating.

    • VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The criminals here are the billionaires who created a system where you friend has to work TWO minimum wages job to barely get by. Don’t defend a broken system, eat the billionaires!

      • RobertOwnageJunior@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve stuggeled plenty in my life as well, yet I’ve never stolen anything. I hate billionaires and I also hate car thiefs. Don’t be a douche.

        • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What I think he’s saying by that is that we can keep having car tiefs arrested but they are the simptom not the problem.

          So or we keep bashing on the consequence or we go after it’s origins

        • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I’ve stuggeled plenty in my life as well

          And this is relevant because your past experiences and current context are both universal and everybody’s life is the same as yours, so therefore if you don’t do X, then anybody who does is stupid, ugly, bad and wrong. Because if you wouldn’t do it, then literally nobody can have any reason for it

        • Synnr@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Sometimes? I mean on this server’s local it’s not so bad. But on lemmy.world’s default? Ho. Le. Phuc. I can’t imagine being a young teen and not having the wisdom I do to discern what’s really happening in the world and just going along with the memes. Talk about a ruined person.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          why? it’s a conversation about the impact of theft. Theft is wrong and should be punished and shunned, but the only real solution is to attack the causes of crime, otherwise it’s whack-a-mole.

          Why is it a bizarre take to say “instead of just plugging the hole the water is coming through, we should also fix leaking pipes causing the flood?”

          (note italics to denote caring about several things at the same time, I think its weirder to assume crime has only one cause and one solution: the perpetrator)

      • soviettaters
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        1 year ago

        Sounds like you don’t want to work hard. Billionaires got to where they are through hard work. They may have started out as aillionaire, but the vast majority of them worked hard and now own the world because everyone else was too lazy to do the same.

    • Rukmer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Both can be true. People see his humanity, he’s not willing to put this baby in a bad position. He may very well be a victim of circumstance. But for all anyone knows, the people he stole the car from could have replied on it just as much. I know I’d never financially recover from that and I wouldn’t have a lot of empathy for the thief, but that doesn’t mean the situation isn’t nuanced.

      • mommykink@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        he’s not willing to put this baby in a bad position

        Probably because he didn’t want to get charged with child kidnapping. How much worse did this child’s life get because their parent’s car got stolen? “Sorry son, we had $8,000 started for you to go to college but someone stole our car when you were younger and that’s not something that you can bounce back from in this economy so you’ve got to take out loans.” Fuck him and fuck people who steal from their own class.

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I have the right to defend myself if anyone tries to steal my vial of gamer girl bathwater and I’ll do it.

          That’s how I deal with thieves instead of complaining about them online.

    • Codex@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I make decent salary and recently my old car was hit while parked and the insurance totaled it. Those thieves paid me the bluebook, which is about 2/3rds of what it actually would cost to buy that car again, if I could even find one similar. I could likely wait a month and buy back my own car after repairs for that new price too. The insurance company probably made money out of the deal.

      I figure the payout must be about the same for having the car stolen. So honestly, if anyone wants to steal my car just let me know and after you hock it for parts or whatever we can split the proceeds and the insurance payout and maybe we’ll both get ahead.

      But barring the magical coming of universal solidarity, I can confirm that it sucks ass to lose your car even for the relatively stable and well off.

    • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Yeah we used to hang horse thieves for a reason. Losing transportation can be a family destroying event, or even a death sentence.

      There was a passage near the end of The Road where the child calls the father a murderer for robbing someone, but the father said he didn’t actually kill the man.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah the thief is clearly an awful person. The parents are also bad. The only character in this story that deserves empathy is the baby as he will be doubly harmed by having awful parents who just suffered a dire financial set back because of the actions of the thief.

      That being said it is easy to commend the thief, even though we shouldn’t, because we automatically have that empathy for the baby and disdain for the parents for being so irresponsible.

      • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        I really don’t think an “awful person” would give two fucks about the baby. It sucks he feels like he has to steal cars but that alone doesn’t make him awful and the fact that he was so concerned about the baby supports the claim that he is NOT awful

        • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          He is stealing from the baby. If he cared about the baby he wouldn’t steal from its family. He doesn’t want kidnapping charges, that doesn’t mean he cares about the baby.

              • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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                1 year ago

                What? No, I mean instead of bringing the baby out, handing the baby to the parents and scolding them. Why didn’t he just drop the baby’s carrier in front of their house on the side of the road without even getting out of the car? His described behavior screams compassion to me

    • SSUPII@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      I have to agree here. Its true that the person is/was struggling, but its action has made others struggle too. My post of course was aiming only on the act of returning the child.

    • Vincent Adultman@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If someone steals my yet to be paid in the next 2 years car, I am going bankrupt for the next 7 years. I plan to sell it once it gets paid, then buy another one. If it gets stolen, I have no perspective and financial conditions in buying a car again just by saving money.

      • cashew@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Car dependance is a hell of a drug. The fact that urban design can put people in poverty like that is a wild idea.

        • kautau@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s what happens when you have the fourth largest land mass in the world and awful public transportation (mostly because of car company lobbying)

  • Nacktmull
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    1 year ago

    Most people who do small crime like this do so because of the material pressure capitalism puts on them. The actual evil criminals are the few privileged ultra rich people who steal unbelievable amounts from the public despite already having way more than enough, like Trump, Bezos and Musk for example. Those are the real criminals.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      When my parents got their car stolen, the robber used it for a joy ride and proceeded to crash it. I don’t disagree that there are other places to put blame, but car theft I don’t think is as financially motivated as something like stealing food or catalytic converters.

      • Nacktmull
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        1 year ago

        I somehow came across wrong I guess. I in fact do very much condemn non rich people stealing from other non rich people. Instead they should unite and fight the power.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I don’t believe Trump is rich. The enormous moron he is, he likely squandered all his inherited wealth. Now he is just lying because he wants to keep the rich man status to impress his cult.

      • Azzu
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        1 year ago

        Seems like people don’t get your joke :D I liked it

      • Nacktmull
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        1 year ago

        In my book stealing a car is a small crime. We are not talking about stealing the horse of someone who’s life depends on it in the old west but just a piece of Detroit trash. So no matter how a car fetishistic law system sees it, I still consider it a small crime.

        • SexyTimeSasquatch@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The system might suck ass, but having your car stolen isn’t a small fucking inconvenience. Many people who get their car stolen are one big event, such as having their car stolen, away from being in serious financial trouble. You can lose your job because you can’t get to work. I know a contractor who had his truck stolen with all his tools in it. He was basically fucked. We’re not always talking about someone having their third BMW stolen. It’s often easier to steal a beater car than a fancy one. Fuck car thieves. You’re defending poor people stealing from people one incident away from being poor themselves. If we were talking about stealing from rich people or big businesses it’s one thing. Stealing cars is likely hurting individuals who may or may not themselves be economically distressed.

          • VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            And being one incident away from colapse is normal ? That again is a crime made by the ultra wealthy. No one should loose everything because of a single problem yet they keep us on leashes by keeping us on the edge of loosing everything so we keep working for peanuts. Eat the billionaires ! Stop defending a broken system.

          • Nacktmull
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            1 year ago

            In many countries people don’t even need cars, the main problem you are unconsciously describing is the car obsessed US american traffic infrastructure. Of course it sucks when someone steals your car but that is still an incredibly tiny crime compared to what millionaires and billionaires are doing to millions of people and the ecosystem everyday.

            • edric
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              1 year ago

              I think both of you are arguing about different things. You are saying it’s a tiny crime relative to what billionaires do, which is true. But the other person is saying it is absolutely not a tiny crime from the perspective of a victim whose livelihood depends on their car being available. Yes it is a class war, but at the same time it doesn’t mean we can’t denounce a “petty” crime like stealing a car just because both parties are in the same economic class.

              • Nacktmull
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                1 year ago

                No argument from me there, I agree with all of what you just wrote. I just meant to point out the ratio of stealing a car vs stealing from millions of workers by exploiting them every day.

            • Rukmer@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              YOU were the one who said it was Detroit? If so these people need their cars. Other than in the main part of the city, you can’t get to anything without a car. Your original comment made a valid point but beyond that you just refuse to accept nuance. It doesn’t matter that America would be better without the car infrastructure when that’s not the reality we live in.

              • Nacktmull
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                1 year ago

                But I said:

                Of course it sucks when someone steals your car

                ?

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              In many countries people don’t even need cars

              Even here in car-centric Atlanta, I’d be more upset if somebody stole my cargo e-bike than if they stole one of my cars.

              • Nacktmull
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                1 year ago

                Naturally, source: I´m a bike mechanic specialized in cargo bikes. I´d choose a Bullit or an Omnium before a car anytime :)

                • grue@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Mine’s just a relatively-humble Lectric XPedition, but I still love the thing more than any of my cars (which is saying a lot, 'cause I’m also a car enthusiast). It would also immediately impact my daily routine in a way that theft of one of my rarely-driven project cars would not.

                  (The other issue is that I ought to go check and adjust my insurance policies, because I suspect my out-of-pocket replacement costs would be higher for the bike than the cars.)

        • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There are plenty of things to hate about capitalism but that doesn’t justify this their causing actual harm to real people. We can sit back and forth and discuss theoretical harm that the system causes but in the real world, we are forced to participate in it and should try reducing the actual visible harm caused by a thief stealing this family’s likely most expensive possession.

          If you have ever been curious why socialists don’t win election and why people cling to punitive reactionaries, It’s because ideology being put above pragmatism by so many leftists. If I’m struggling antiwork and fuckcars rhetoric on social media don’t pay my bills. So we are never going to get the support needed to reform the system if we justify violence against the people forced to participate in it.

          • Nacktmull
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            1 year ago

            So we are never going to get the support needed to reform the system if we justify violence against the people forced to participate in it.

            I never meant to advocate for violence and I very much condemn non rich people stealing or using violence against one another. Somehow my main point about the magnitudes of different kinds of crime must have come across wrong, apologies if I did not make myself clear enough.

        • BigBananaDealer
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          1 year ago

          if someone stole my car and it was never found not only would i have to say goodbye to my savings i would also be sad because i love my car

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sounds like he’s not a bad dude just a guy who’s struggling in life and doesn’t know what else to resort to.

    • SSUPII@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      i actually stole this image from Reddit r/madlads

      A lot of people are agreeing that he did it only so he doesn’t take kidnapping charges

      honestly very sad way to see the thing

      • noride
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, kidnapping doesn’t have a minimum duration before it becomes legally applicable; he already kidnapped the child the first time he drove off.

        E. If it wasn’t clear, my logic above is why I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt on that one small facet of this interaction.

        • Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          My understanding of US Law isn’t great, so take this with a grain of salt, but for a kidnapping to occur doesn’t the accused have to do it willfully and wrongfully?

          • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            from what i’ve learned there are 2 outcomes: they actually prosecute according to the law in which case intent is usually very important, or they prosecute according to who has more money in which case all that matters is what shit they can get away with sentencing him for.

      • pewter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’d gamble it’s because being a thief is different from baby kidnapper. Not all criminals are the same. I don’t expect a jaywalker to murder me.

        That part doesn’t seem that sad. It seems normal.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        True, but when it’s yours, or at least when it was mine, suddenly that was all worth it.

        Not that I would recommend having one unless you really wanted one. They’re expensive and a lot of work.

    • StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      C’mon, he’s obviously a nice guy who just needed a car because capitalism, and when he realized there was a baby inside he breastfed it, sang it a lullaby, and returned it to the parents. He now visits the family every Christmas and they laugh and laugh at how they all met.

    • SSUPII@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, i know that. I’ll correct it myself too.

      The baby was not returned to the family, but was dropped off to a nearby shop demanding the owner to call 911 for it. Then drove off.

    • smeg@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Unless your grandma was Chris Rock doing his standup then that’s probably not something you should be bragging about