Already planning for how to survive in jail

Lt. Worf, son of Mogh@lemmy.ca to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1348 points –
57

...As you pass by 5 people at self-checkout doing tactical shoplifting.

Remember, if you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.

Also Remember, stealing from publically traded corporations is stealing from sociopathic thieves that have no problem hurting vulnerable people to get what they want, in the name of insatiable greed "rational self-interest."

They dictate the laws to their paid lackees in Congress. Equating legality with ethics or morality in this capitalist captured dystopia makes one a fool. Our laws are designed to defend the desires of property owners against the basic survival needs of human beings with nothing that our society has already catastrophically failed.

You can catch charges for the misdeed of feeding the homeless here.

(and to anyone who wants to chime in with "well feeding homeless people might make them linger, effecting property values which needs to be a consideration alongside feeding hungry poor people." 🖕)

They factor it into their decision to use self checkout. If the increase in shoplifting is less than they save on staff reduction (it is, significantly so), they consider it a tradeoff, so it's hard to call it unethical.

Walking through customs at the airport

Much more understandable though. Even without anything to declare, the "please come here" can mean that you'll lose the next 20 minutes looking at your dirty underwear with a stranger, while you are probably already kinda stressed from the travel.

20 minutes looking at your dirty underwear with a stranger

Some people pay good money for that, you know!

One time I got trapped in a store because the door was behind the counter where the register was and a guy was sitting there the whole time. I decided not to buy anything, but I looked around for a while so I felt like he might question me. So I just kept pretending to look around which made it even more awkward to leave empty handed.

I think I decided not to buy anything after 20 minutes but spent a whole hour in there trying to figure out how to leave

Legend says he's still stuck in that store to this day

Man I've done this before but maybe spent 15 minutes and that felt like an hour. A whole hour must have felt like a whole day.

My problem is that I AM buying something but I stand there analyzing all the options just walk out with 1 thing. As I'm checking out I start to wonder if anybody realized that I've just spent 15 minutes standing at one shelf to end up buying 1 bottle of infant cough syrup.

When I shop without a cart or basket, the mental energy it takes to not put something in my pocket so I can hold things better is a lot more than 0

I regularly put stuff in my pockets while im browsing. Sometimes I even pay for it.

I accidentally put a product in my purse at Walgreens to get my phone out, and within 5 seconds an overhead page went off saying “code zero, code zero”. I quickly grabbed the product back out and half yelled “omg I’m sorry!” before going to the register to pay for it and also mumbling to the cashier who probably gave no fucks that I was sorry, it was very much an accident.

This reminds me of how I this summer I went to a store only to discover that they don't sell the ice cream I wanted to buy, so I just ended up buying some crackers to not feel akward. (but anyway, the crackers were good)

I have obsessive guilt about silly things, but even I cannot comprehend why people would feel guilty about simply not buying something at a store.

It might look like you stole something. And the more you think that as you walk out the door, the more you start to look like you stole something.

It's a consequence of our capitalist society, of how we're not allowed to just exist in most places without buying or consuming something. About the only places we have left are sidewalks, public parks, libraries, maybe a large mall. Anywhere else and you can potentially be asked to leave if you're not seen "doing" something or at least looking like you're going to buy something after awhile. If the staff don't care, you can "get away with it" (that is, get away with just existing), but more often than not you may be asked to leave. I'd try to test the theory out by just standing around for a few hours, but who actually has that kind of time?

But why would you want to hang out at a clothing store?

It’s a consequence of our capitalist society

It's more a consequence of place and purpose. If you're in a place and don't use it for the usual purpose, then your motives will be questioned. A store is place to get items. Even if there was no exchange of money, but you went into the store and walked out without anything, it would appear odd.

Go brush your teeth at a library, stand on a sidewalk for a long period of time, ride a bike through a mall. All these things don't cost money but they are still weird.

And for me the feeling is inversely proportional to the time spent there.

I'm looking for something very specific, they don't have it, I leave. But man, does it seem I just went in real quick to steal something as fast as possible.

Take comfort in knowing the employees probably aren't paid enough to care

My wife always feels guilty about leaving a small shop without buying anything and will say stuff like "We'll be back!". I have to remind her we're under no obligation to buy anything and you shouldn't feel guilty about it.

I won't let myself leave a local book store without buying anything, hence I only visit when I'm out of reading material.

Probably plays back into when I helped watch my father's and mother's trade show tables respectively. My father would sell sports cards back in the 90s and he was lucky to have one paying customer all day at an event we had spent all morning setting up for.

My mother used to paint whimsical designs on chunks of wood (toll painting) and set up a table of her painted wood art various church sales. I saw the hours my mom had spent tracing and painting those dumb little seasonal characters, only to see these rich bitches saunter by her table, turn her work over, say "That's cute!", And walk on.

To this day I will not walk into an antique store or junk shop or book store without at least ten bucks to burn. It feels gross to take up a shopkeeps time and space without buying something.

3 more...

It’s bad how we responsible for a businesses model.

Me when i walk in to get my daily powerade and they don't have my flavor. I'm in and out in 30 seconds flat but i feel so guilty over nothing.

Me, who has 13 salamis tucked in his pants: Oh, it's not wrong to steal? Whew. What a relief.

Whether you doing it because you're broke, or just love the thrill, remember:

Publix, Kroger's, and Walmart heirs have all donated to neo-Nazi causes so steal from them the most.

All jokes aside.

Please people, do not actually steal from these stores. This is the quickest way to get arrested and end up with a criminal record.

The prosecutor is not going to give a damn what your reasons were for stealing so please keep that in mind.

Things that will also get you a criminal record:

Feeding the homeless

Giving water to voters

Public Assembly

Telling pigs to stop being pigs

Punching Nazis

The first one I get, but the rest have issues.

The giving water to voters thing is for political candidates. Gift giving is by far the most effective way to manipulate people into doing what you want. That's why Jehovah's witnesses give you a free book when they're on mission.

Peaceful public assembly is litterally protected by the constitution. That doesn't stop police from declaring peaceful assembly a riot and shutting it down, but that's a different matter.

Arguing with cops never gets you anywhere good. Likewise insulting them to their face.

Nazis are objectively wrong and bad, but their right to peacefully assemble in public is just as protected as yours. Attacking them unprovoked is assault even if you have the moral high ground.

I agree with the spirit of everything you said. It's just that vigilante justice just flat out doesn't work. You become an example of your party's supposedly blatant corruption and now they have someone to rally against. In most cases laws need to be changed, not broken.

Hey man, you do you. Who am I to stop you?

I just want to put it out there that even though I get your intent, it’s not necessarily something that will be taken without criticism. I’d rather people not get in trouble for stealing, no matter if you think it’s justified or not.

For people that are in need of food assistance and located in the U.S. you can visit here https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/state-directory and select the state you’re living in. That should get you started in receiving food assistance and necessities from the government.

A shoplifting community was created on lemmy a while ago (!shoplifting@lemmy.ml) and a link was posted on there with some info for those involving themselves in shoplifting.

https://lemmy.ml/post/302763 (use the webarchive link shared among the comments if the original doesn't work)

I would love to understand the psychology behind this feeling.

In my case I think it was being raised by an ex-Catholic. Whole lotta undeserved guilt trips in my household growing up!

Raised catholic here too, maybe catholic guilt but personally I think it's more so the pervading idea that people implicitly aren't allowed to exist in a space outside the home or offices unless they spend money and by walking out without buying anything bypasses the normal routine of going to a store to get something and going through some kind of checkout process.

yeah the more hours you spend outside without spending money the worse it gets