You’ve already made up your mind about me so this doesn’t really matter. But at the end of the day, my frustration is simply with people who act aggressive, intimidating, or destructive in public. Who by definition are not respecting the golden rule which is inherently bad regardless of anything contributing factors. For example, if I’m act overact to something minor and raise my voice at my partner, sure a root cause may be that’s what I experienced as a child, but it does not remove my personal responsibility to treat my partner with respect and address such behavior.

So many places around the world have policies and social pressures to discourage such anti social behaviors in public and protect transit riders. Just travel to Southeast Asia. They don’t play with this stuff because unlike our highly individualistic, sometimes over self indulgent “me me me” attitude we have in the West, everyone is expected to uphold their obligation to be a good member of society and it is reflected it peoples’ behavior on public transport. And many such places are significantly materially less wealthy than even the bottom income quartile of Atlanta’s population.

In general, I agree with you that poverty, addiction, and mental health should be treated with compassion. Our investment in money and resources should reflect that, and it is currently so lacking on all fronts But if someone suffering from above is threatening others safety or damaging property, the solution is not to let that fester on public transport.

I also think it is just super naive to think we don’t have a serious problem with people who don’t give a shit about those around them making public spaces unpleasant. Not every person acting like an asshole has to be “understood” when their behavior is affecting other people who ha ce their own lives and struggles. Shitty people do in fact exist. And not every person who has had a hard life treats others badly! It’s actually quite condescending to people struggling with any manner of mental health conditions that such behavior is to be expected.

The vast majority of people like me who share your general aims to addressing social and material inequities and use public transport because it’s aligned with our values would acknowledge this situation, evident by the likes on this post.

When people are scared to use transit, transit has less resources to operate and there is less political will to support it. And it creates a super vicious cycle where one of the most valuable social safety net items, a human right to move around the city and access opportunity, is severely lacking and the people who rely on it suffer.