fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #6877 ]

[ SECRET POST #6877 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6877 ⌋

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I've encountered some bizarre discourse on the local social media groups about Halloween candy. Evidently, some kids had their candy stolen by teenagers, which to my mind is not a cool thing to do, and has long been associated with bullying. However, there are people defending the teenagers. The arguments are along the lines of, "it doesn't affect you, so it doesn't make sense for you to care;" "perhaps they are not well off and needed the candy more than the kids;" "your kids aren't any more entitled to or deserving of the candy than the teenagers who took it;" "you're giving out candy for free, it shouldn't matter to you who winds up with it." These are not teenagers making the arguments, by the way. It's adults in the area.

This would weird me out regardless of added context, because I don't think anyone should argue that it's okay to go out and steal Halloween candy from kids who are trick or treating. It's not a matter of who needs the candy more (arguably no one needs candy anyway, it's a treat), but a matter of treating other people well. It's selfish at best and cruel at worst to take from someone in this way. But what makes it even more perturbing to me is that this is all in line with a strange general attitude toward theft that I've noticed around me. Many people think that theft is not something to be bothered by, that our empathy should be directed toward the thieves and not the people who've been stolen from. I've been in more than one discussion in the past few years where the argument has been that the thief needed the stolen goods more than the people they took them from, and that if you do have something stolen from you, then you should focus on how happy the person who took from you now feels, instead of focusing on yourself and your own negative feelings. The most distressing example of this happened at work, while I was helping someone whose bank account had been tapped. He did not want to do anything about the person who'd stolen from him, because some of what they bought was from a supermarket, and he didn't want to get someone in trouble for buying food. Keep in mind that this young man now could not buy food himself, because all his money had been stolen.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. I think these ideas stem from an initially good place, about redistributing wealth and extending understanding to people who commit crimes out of desperation, but it's like that's all been applied way too broadly, where it's less that it's possible to have too much at the expense of others and more that there's something selfish about having anything at all. It makes no sense to support the robbery of people who are themselves struggling to make ends meet. And it can't be good for a community to come to the conclusion that it's okay for us all to just take things from each other.

Anyway, if you also have something you'd like to get off your chest, go for it.

Stealing from a corporation? I don't really care. Stealing from an individual? Nah, you are an asshole.

By defending teenagers stealing from kids all these people are doing is reinforcing the idea that you can do whatever you want to people who are more vulnerable than you. Steal from a corpo, which has all the power? Fine, great, love that, you're doing amazing sweetie. Literally take candy from a baby? Jail for a thousand years.

what really pisses me off is parents who steal their own kids' Halloween candy.

Ikr? I never did that. It was theirs! My kids often offered, but that was never an expectation from me or my spouse. I’ve NEVER understood parents that take from their kids. Seems like a weird power play.

My parents never took my candy, so I didn't know that when parents said that they were taking the candy to get x-rayed it was a way for them to keep the candy they wanted before returning the rest of it back to the kids. I always thought parents who said that were just joking. Until I was an adult and found out about rhe "chocolate tax".
Like, dude, you're an adult. Go buy yourself some candy. WTF do you mean you're taking your kids' candy??
Halloween candy generally tastes worse anyway!

My sisters and I always put all the candy we didn't like in a bowl for our parents, and I was surprised when I first found out that wasn't what everyone did.

There's definitely a general lack of empathy going around these days, combined with a bolder sense of entitlement and fuck-you-ism. Also, some people just like to argue in bad faith, even if it means twisting themselves into mental knots trying to justify their shitty take.

Example: ohhhhh maybe those teenagers were diabetic and going into shock and needed that candy for an emergency WHY DO YOU HATE DIABETICS NONNY??!!!!

And sometimes, people just don't have any goddamn sense or the desire to exercise it.

That's awful. Actions have consequences and given that the teenagers are older and at an age where they should know not to steal from little kids, the teens should have been rounded up and be given a lecture and made to return the candy and apologize.

I'm a little heated about this because I'd been the small kid who had a thing ruined by older kids and be met with shrugs and no accountability. It's a real blow to trust and community building.

Do we want kids and teens to grow up to be the type to defend those smaller and weaker than them?

THEN LEAD BY EXAMPLE
Hold the bullies accountable and stand up for the little kids. Quit making excuses for the shitty behavior.

Like, yes there is time and place for "kids will be kids" but is there that difficult of a discernment between teens doing something dumb but in the long run harmless and bullying kids smaller than them? It's maddening!!!

Getting your candy stolen by older kids is a vital part of halloween. It teaches you how to be sneakier, and also gives you something to look forward to in a couple of years. Important life lessons.

Nah, disagree

Important life lessons that people do not teach their children any decency? Yeah no, nothing good about it

I sometimes get tired of the attempt to make everything into some kind of Discourse and excuse any type of bad behavior as "Maybe there was a really good reason for it." Maybe the teenagers were starving to death and stole the Halloween candy because they hadn't eaten in three days, but let's be real. More likely that they were assholes who wanted the candy. People do shitty things sometimes because they want to and because they can, not because they have to. Not every person who steals is doing so because they're at rock-bottom and have no other choice. Stealing candy from children is asshole behavior, full stop.

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[ SECRET POST #6877 ]

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