THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

That some people just need a good swift kick in the ass. In these modern times, I sometimes wonder if we need to line up behind some of the people who have determined to their own satisfaction (and wrongly so) that their shit doesn't stink. PharmaBro was one and now there is this asshole from San Francisco.

Move over Martin Shkreli. You now have competition for the title of America’s most reviled millennial.

The Internet once again exploded in outrage Wednesday after a San Francisco tech entrepreneur wrote an open letter complaining that homeless “riff raff” were turning the city into an “unsafe” and filthy “shanty town.”

In a Feb. 15 letter addressed to the city’s mayor and police chief, software developer Justin Keller wrote bitterly about how his Presidents Day weekend had been ruined by homeless people.

“I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society,” Keller wrote, saying that he arrived in San Francisco only three years ago. “The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day.”

Keller’s comments drew sharp rebukes, especially within San Francisco, where tech workers have been blamed for skyrocketing rents and gentrification. On social media, a flood of critics accused Keller of arrogance and insensitivity, not to mention ignoring his own industry’s reputed role in the city’s homelessness crisis.

The Guardian called Keller a “tech bro” whose letter demonstrated a “total lack of sympathy for the plight of those in difficult circumstances, focusing instead on the discomfort of the ‘wealthy.'”

And in a particularly blistering rebuttal, a woman who sarcastically identified herself as one of Keller’s “servants in San Francisco” told him that if he didn’t like the city, he should leave.

People are entitled to their own opinion about whatever. Nevertheless, the people of San Francisco should be allowed to give trash like Justin Keller a damn good smack whenever they see him. Unless he moves to someplace where they mandate deodorizing all assholes.