A measured response: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/opinion/homeless-drugs-meth.html Interesting that WV has simultaneously one of the highest OD death rates and lowest homelessness rates. Makes sense, but I've never heard it put that way.
That editorial was a thousand words of waffling followed by It's NYT hand-wringing distilled to its purest form - paraphrase the article, add nothing, and whatabout to questions no one has asked. your point was "clearly meth is driving the shitty homelessness crisis in LA." My point is "LA's shittiness is driving LA's homeless crisis, meth or no meth." Quinones' point is "there is anecdotal evidence that biker meth is mean because homeless meth users are mean" while Kang's point seems to be "as a journalist for the New York Times, I am duty bound to cast aspersions on all other journalism while simultaneously refusing to take a stand about anything." Quinones' whole schtick is anecdotal evidence. He's an ethnographer. Kang's whole schtick appears to be "I'm going to pretend my readers asked me if they should pay attention to an Atlantic article because I'm too cowardly to opine on my own. Here's my lack of opinion." Sorry. My hatred of the New York Times grows stronger every day.So, my answer to the reader’s questions: Quinones’s concerns over mental health and meth should not be ignored: If you spend a lot of time in or even near a homeless encampment, you’ll find people who seem to be experiencing the psychosis Quinones describes, but you’ll also see families who have been priced out of their apartments or who have had their lives derailed by the pandemic.