Mutual aid spam is becoming a problem on the Fediverse.
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Mutual aid is a form of [collaborative] political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.
Charity comes with eligibility requirements that relate to these moral frameworks of deservingness, such as sobriety, piety, curfews, participation in job training or parenting courses, cooperation with the police, or identifying the paternity of children.
Nonprofitization has reproduced antidemocratic, racist, and colonial relationships between the winners and losers of extractive, exploitative economic arrangements. -
Same on Bluesky. And they are everywhere. Couple of years ago some accounts did this multiple times on Imgur. Even today occasionally some pop up again, but now the users are quick to call them out…with the admins doing jack shit. Which is classic for that site.
When coming across a sob story my knee jerk reaction is “bullshit”. If you want to give money to charity, do so through a reputable organisation. And don’t trust any rando on the internet.
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What kind of friend are we talking about?
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Unfortunately, email solved the spam problem by becoming centralized AF. Now everything requires a “reputation”.
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"Email solved the spam problem by becoming centralizing" yeah most of the span I get is from gmail or has a reply-to header with gmail address
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Mutual aide is mutual
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It might be better for them but it’s not better for the internet strangers, now there is an unknown beggar in their space.
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It is "mutual aid spam" because I believe these are posted in mutual aid communities.
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i had helped 2 people through Mastodon who seemed to genuinely need it on Mastodon a few months ago. I think it is nice to know that I can help people who need and they might help in my time of need.It is functional.
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Is it weird that I've never heard this term "mutual aid" before this thread but apparently everyone here knows all about it?
Anyway. There's just no way I'd give real money to someone asking for it like this because for every real person there must be a dozen scammers at least. It honestly seems crazy to me that this could work and people could send money.
If people are giving money away like this then they're part of the problem IMO. You're encouraging scammers, and perpetuating the practice, diverting money away from the people who actually need it.
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Is it weird that I've never heard this term "mutual aid" before this thread but apparently everyone here knows all about it?
May be an American thing? I don't know have never heard of it or encountered it.
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It isn't really that odd, considering you've only been here a couple of weeks. Mutual Aid is a foundational idea in most if not all anarchist projects and theory.
There may be many scammers, yes, but the goal remains the same - get help to those who need it from those in a position to give it.
As for being part of the problem, I must disagree. Scammers aren't leeching just this, they'd be present in any system purporting to help others (in gov't systems this is called fraud), the goal of these grassroots aid projects is to help those who fall through the cracks of more formalized systems and decentralize some aid in case the church/NGO/gov't can't or won't help (see the Hurricane Helene/Katrina responses when FEMA is overwhelmed).
Means-testing recipients is kinda a dick move anyway: those who have demonstrable need will have a harder time getting aid and time/money that should be spent helping are now spent with verification.
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I just mute all of them.
It may be my "3rd world syndrome" but to me, someone with internet access and a social media account who post regularly, is not in poverty. More likely a spambot.
My local beggar, in contrast, is a sincere person who tells me that he just want some cheap boxed wine or something to smoke. Refuses food or any kind of help. Cash only.
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It's a very terminally online leftist thing. You would see it in communist/anarchist leftist spaces, people retweeting posts of disabled/neurodivergent people asking for help with rent.
I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with it, and kudos to those who donate. But it quickly turns into a popularity/disability contest of who can fit the most disability categories in a GoFundMe.
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Hah.
I've probably been kicking around the fediverse longer than you, it's just this particular account that's only a few weeks old.
Anyhow, feel free to continue giving money to people asking for it on lemmy i guess.
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Fair 'nuff. I hadn't really considered an alt account.
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Personally only seen one asking for help and it was just a fella in my instance (super small) saying hey if u live in ___ my friend needs a place to crash at, retoot if possible (sounds super legit)
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I first heard it in 2019 or 2020 from the queer community but I have a feeling it has deeper roots
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Mutual aid is not giving random internet assholes money because they begged for it. I'm not saying they should be banned from doing so, but calling it mutual aid is 100% a scam. Mutual aid is given freely, within a pre-established network.
Hosting a friend on your couch for a week cause they're in between apartments is mutual aid. Feeding your friends without expecting anything in return is mutual aid. Enabling e-begging is not mutual aid.
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Aha. I consider myself leftist, but not in the ml corner. I had never encountered it.
Cheers for explaining!
