Arson is bad. Arson is something no one wants in their community. I don’t wish it on anyone, and it should be handled accordingly. I also believe that homelessness is bad. Our refusal to really address the mental health issues faced by the unhoused matters. One element of this story that I will agree with is alcoholism and drug abuse can lead to homelessness, and homelessness can lead to alcoholism and drugs. In the 1980s, then-President Ronald Reagan made huge cuts in care for the unhoused and a plan for how to help people find a way to get back on their feet. “Homeless by choice” was the idea that conservatives ran with, and still run with today. This has led Tucker Carlson and Fox News to a running opinion that boils down to the unhoused are our enemy, and we are going to do something about that right away. He comes up with a handful of instances of crimes against trees, assumes it is a national plague, and then follows that up with demands regarding the unhoused. The Fox host notes that the streets are more dangerous than they have been in decades, which makes me wonder how his idol Donald Trump managed to do nothing to stem that problem, nor were Republican states able to do much, but I digress. According to them, the problem with America is that we treat the unhoused as human beings, and according to Carlson, that has to stop. Read more