Emotional Blackmail and Charity.

I feel like I should come up with a signature intro for my blogs. Kinda like how the Hodgetwins are always like "You lookin' ta beeeeld some muscle? You are man. That's good maaaan, that's reeeeeeaal good man". I'll work on that. I probably won't.

Anyway, time to go into another thing that annoys me about day to day life. What annoys me is the way charities and other non-profit organisations use emotional black mail to get people to donate. I may seem like a dick but I only tend to donate to causes that I personally deem worthy. I'm not going to spend so many dollars a year supporting some African kid just because he looks sad in the TV ad. Frankly I think giving aid to these third world countries is hindering their potential to progress. I mean look at how Rwanda turned their shit around not long ago when they started exporting coffee beans and creating an industry and a way to sustain themselves. Sustainability is the issue, giving them shit isn't going to fix that. It'll help for a while sure, but developing countries need help in supporting themselves. If there's any good causes for that, I'll sure as hell donate. But that't not really the point of the article.

I don't mind charity, if it's something I feel is important. And I'm happy to hear out anyone in a shopping centre or on the street talking about a cause they want me to donate to. Ideally (for me personally) they'll explain their cause, explain the problem, why it's a problem and how my money will help out. If they leave all the emotional blackmailing out of it I'm more likely to be interested. What I don't like seeing is all these ads on TV carefully marketing their message and trying to make the audience feel like shitty people for not helping. It's not my fault shit's bad in other countries or some animals aren't getting adopted, don't put that blame on me. I'll help if you want to explain the situation like I suggested before, but depressing me about something isn't going to interest me. Making me feel like shit isn't going to work. Yeah I feel bad for the people facing their problems, but I don't want you to spin that into some kind of a sales pitch to make me give you money.

People who participate in blood donation are particularly annoying for this. I know a few people from school and work who feel like they're the shit for donating blood. Sure it's a good thing, but that does not make you the best thing to ever happen to the world. There's people out there doing so much more. This sense of entitlement and arrogance that comes with donating blood for some people really destroys the point of giving to a charity. It shouldn't be about boosting your own ego or making yourself look good. Give to those who you feel genuinely need it. Leave your ego out of it.

And that's what bugs me about a lot of companies who support charities. They do it for the positive PR. People will respect the company and want to buy their shit becaues they made their water bottles pink for breast cancer or something. If they genuinely cared for the cause, why not just donate the money and not make a huge deal out of it?

Anyway, this was a little all over the place. Feel free to comment and all that.