These people have a mental illness. They’re being taken advantage of by unscrupulous companies. They’re in exactly the same boat as people with gambling addictions. We should feel bad for them, but not (always*) as bad as homeless folks, who are still worse off.

*One of my elementary school teachers was married to a gambling addict. The guy was secretly hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of heavy construction equipment to pay off some of his loans. The guy ended up in a police chase and took his own life before he could be arrested. His wife, the teacher, was left massively in debt (he had secretly remortgaged the family house to pay for gambling debts) and grieving the loss of her husband but also in shock at discovering the extent of his crimes and debts. Really awful situation and nothing but profits for the casinos!

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know.

Some people are defending things tooth and nail when trying to reason. Not only things like this either, might be something purchased or some ideology.

I have a really hard time emphasizing.

[–] kellyaster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Did you mean "empathizing"? I'm having difficulty empathizing with cases like that too. I mean, ugh, it's mind-boggling, $10k is a life-changing amount of money for most people and this guy threw it away on a video game that's not even out yet. Still, people like him are being exploited for personal gain, and that is also wrong.

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, I meant that, sorry and thanks (if nobody says anything it has the tendency to stick) . Typo and not native.

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

I mean it's not like any person has ever to decide between "should I buy something fun" (whatever the definition of "fun" is), or rather "should I just go and donate 100$ to a random homeless dude"