Gondor Has No Pants

TW: Human trafficking, SA, torture, discussion of scam farms

I see a whole bunch of people arguing that they would rather risk giving to a scammer than ignore someone's gofundme. I also see people saying things like "I can't believe some sick people are profiteering off genocide" and like, me neither, but I feel like you guys really don't understand who actually runs these kinds of scams and what they are.

Scams of noticeable scale-- like scam asks being sent from hundreds of accounts to every user on Tumblr!-- are typically related to organised crime in poor countries, not Susan from Milwaukee who wants a new coat and has no scruples. People get trafficked by gangs to scam farms in Asia and Africa where they're worked to the bone and tortured trying to get idiots in wealthy countries to part with their money. Genocide profiteering is pretty much the least evil thing these people do.

Here's a UN article on it. Obvious warnings for content related to human trafficking and SA.

When you donate to a scammer, you fund these organisations and give them a reason to exist. It's possible some of the fundraisers are legit. I honestly find it unlikely given I'm not seeing any from any other countries where urgent fundraisers would seem to have great reason to exist but which haven't captured the same level of attention on Tumblr-- the number of Sudanese, Congolese, Ukrainian, Burmese or Uyghur fundraisers in my DMs is a fat 0. In any case, there are safer ways to help.

If you want to help (which is great!) you don't have to take the risk of paying for human trafficking. Donate to legitimate charities which have the resources to safely and effectively ensure the money and help is getting to the right people. Funding human trafficking rings in Myanmar is not a good risk to be taking while trying to help.

And even if all these gofundmes were real, donating to a reputable organization does more good than donating to an individual.

Donating to a medical debt relief organization that buys off entire CDO's worth of medical debt from creditors at a fraction of the value is going to do far, far more good than giving the same amount of money to an individual trying to pay off a bill at full value plus interest.

Donating to a food kitchen that buys non-perishable foods in bulk at a fraction of the retail price is going to do far, far more good than spending the same amount buying one meal for a homeless person.

"The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check."

Not a spoof, not a sarcastic summary. An actual, honest-to-fuck quote.

Waltz and the moderators after Vance said that:

The "Progressives" Who Won't Do Anything!

We are progressives 

Who don't do anything 

We stay home and we

Refuse to vote!

And if you ask us 

To do anything 

Well just tell you...

...We're abstaining

Well I wouldn't vote for Hillary 

Cuz she was problematic 

And I couldn't vote for Biden

Cuz that geezer's hit the wall

And I won't accept an ally

If we disagree on anything 

And I'm not voting for Harris in the fall...!

Cuz we're "progressives"

Who won't do anything 

We just like to act

Righteous online 

And when minorities 

Beg us to do something 

We'll just tell them...

...We're "protesting!" 

This is when Aragorn lost my respect!

The dead dudes in the cave had problematic histories and problematic beliefs. Yet Aragorn ignored that in order to focus on the goal of defeating Sauron.

A true hero would not have compromised his morals. Aragorn should have flipped the problematic ghosts the finger and just let Sauron take over.

The affects this would have on his friends and family, the environment, and himself aren't important. At least Aragorn would be able to say "Hey I didn't vote for either of them!" when Sauron scorched the earth and enslaved everyone.