I joined landlord groups to persuade them to be better people to their tenants

Scope of the OP’s Tactics

• Many find the “infiltrate landlord groups and reframe choices” strategy clever and laudable, especially where it leads to paying tenants to move (“cash for keys”) instead of eviction.
• Others say this approach is not new or “radical” at all; “cash for keys” is described as common practice in tight or heavily regulated markets.
• Several commenters are uncomfortable with the admitted deception (lying about being a landlord, manipulating discourse). They worry this normalizes unethical behavior, even if the outcome helps tenants.
• A few see the piece as largely “please clap” content about routine landlord-tenant negotiation dressed up as a heroic intervention.

Landlords vs. Tenants: Power and Behavior

• Strong, often hostile polarization: some view most landlords as parasitic rent-seekers profiting off a basic human need; others stress the real work, risk, and psychological load involved.
• Multiple landlords in the thread describe long experience, significant costs (maintenance, taxes, vacancies, bad tenants), and efforts to be fair and responsive.
• Tenants and ex-tenants offer many anecdotes of slumlords, deposit theft, illegal behavior, and contemptuous attitudes in landlord forums.
• There is sharp disagreement over whether small “mom-and-pop” landlords are better or worse than corporate ones; experiences diverge by region and legal protections.

Institutions vs. Individual Decency

• One camp argues the core problem is weak institutions: slow or broken eviction boards, ineffective enforcement, background-check regimes, NIMBY zoning, and supply constraints.
• Others reply that even with perfect laws, people still need to be decent; no one wants to rely on courts to manage basic housing stability.
• Some emphasize that systems can incentivize or discourage decency (e.g., treble damages for deposit theft, better mediation services).

Structural and Policy Debates

• Recurrent theme: housing supply. Many point to underbuilding, restrictive zoning, and corporate consolidation as drivers of high rents and “price gouging.”
• Proposals mentioned include: large-scale public or social housing (Vienna/Finland models), right-to-shelter, banning or tightly regulating private landlording, and land value taxes / Georgism.
• Others defend landlords as key providers of “housing liquidity” for people who can’t or don’t want to buy, warning that banning profit in rentals would reduce supply and increase homelessness.