Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
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@randahl I understand your concern whether the account is actually real. But just as we have no laws against begging in public spaces, I don't believe we should have a policy in a virtual space. Some will give; most won't.
Not taking a position on this yet but noting that we know the people begging in public are people that are there and not bots.
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Not taking a position on this yet but noting that we know the people begging in public are people that are there and not bots.
Only in the interest of truth, I should state that several countries have laws against begging.
I am not saying this as an argument for rules on Mastodon. I am simply stating the facts.
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Only in the interest of truth, I should state that several countries have laws against begging.
I am not saying this as an argument for rules on Mastodon. I am simply stating the facts.
@randahl @the5thColumnist After I wrote that I did wonder if it was accurate.
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@JimmyB I share your frustration with the situation in Gaza. It is 100 percent flat out horrible.
But you will not change anyone’s point of view by calling people names and accusing others of being Zionist, because they have a different point of view than you.
I happen to agree with many things you have said. But I strongly disagree with the way you communicate.
It is in kindness we find dialogue and enrich each other’s perspectives.
@randahl @JimmyB i don’t know much about https://gaza-verified.org/ but they warn of scammers and link to people who post on timeline - i warn of scammers who post DMs, so at least on that i agree with them
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@JimmyB I share your frustration with the situation in Gaza. It is 100 percent flat out horrible.
But you will not change anyone’s point of view by calling people names and accusing others of being Zionist, because they have a different point of view than you.
I happen to agree with many things you have said. But I strongly disagree with the way you communicate.
It is in kindness we find dialogue and enrich each other’s perspectives.
@assaf @randahl so Randahl - I used to believe this too. But I am now convinced that tone trolling only serves to help fascism. And tech dude bros spreading Zionist lies about starving Gazans definitely qualifies as fascism. So I don’t do the ‘let’s all be nice’ any more because that is leading is directly over the cliff. Sorry - but no. You cannot persuade tech dude bros. They already know. Debate is useless. Worse than useless. Confrontation is -sadly - essential
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@randahl @JimmyB i don’t know much about https://gaza-verified.org/ but they warn of scammers and link to people who post on timeline - i warn of scammers who post DMs, so at least on that i agree with them
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@assaf @randahl so Randahl - I used to believe this too. But I am now convinced that tone trolling only serves to help fascism. And tech dude bros spreading Zionist lies about starving Gazans definitely qualifies as fascism. So I don’t do the ‘let’s all be nice’ any more because that is leading is directly over the cliff. Sorry - but no. You cannot persuade tech dude bros. They already know. Debate is useless. Worse than useless. Confrontation is -sadly - essential
Here’s the reality… https://mastodon.social/@israajamal/116053480667353152
These are the people you are tone trolling against.
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@JimmyB I share your frustration with the situation in Gaza. It is 100 percent flat out horrible.
But you will not change anyone’s point of view by calling people names and accusing others of being Zionist, because they have a different point of view than you.
I happen to agree with many things you have said. But I strongly disagree with the way you communicate.
It is in kindness we find dialogue and enrich each other’s perspectives.
@randahl @assaf coming back to your post Randahl, it’s quite offensive: I am not trying to change that US based posters mind. I’m making sure that his evil post doesn’t sit unopposed. I’m not accusing him of being Zionist. And definitely not because he disagrees with me: don’t be so lazy! Please - if you want to engage then engage with the point actually being made which is that this CA based tech dude bro’s post is indistinguishable from Zionist prop. Which. It. Is.
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@aral Now, since we agree that identification is essentail to human aid, can we also agree that tag spamming is not a proper use of Mastodon?
Because when I see, say, an African account creating dozens of money request posts each day, tagging as many users as they can fit into each post, I feel they are using Mastodon in a way which is not helpful.
Like everyone else, I have a finite limit to how many people I can support, and this limit is not raised through spam.
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Mr. Randahl jerkwad. While you are so worried that people involved in humanitarian aid are "civil" to you and your ego, people are starving, getting killed, and being tortured in prison. You are awful.
And yes, I have a background in humanitarian aid, so I know of what I speak. You lack the sensitivity to understand suffering.
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@randahl Hey Randahl,
It’s 2026, not Dickensian England; we call it mutual aid, not begging.
If we’re talking about Gazans, they are currently facing genocide at the hands of Israel with the full support of countries like the USA, Germany, and the UK and the complicity of almost the entirety of the so-called civilised West. International organisations like the UN are deliberately being prevented from functioning by Israel and US.
If you want a list of people we’ve verified via video calls that you can help during this ongoing genocide by settler colonialists, please see:
https://gaza-verified.org/donate/
I would strongly urge you to take the context into consideration. Ask yourself what you would do if you couldn’t feed your family, if you couldn’t afford to treat your sick children, if the institutions that were supposed to be helping were shackled, and if you were actively being hounded off of every other online space by corporations complicit in the genocide being perpetrated against you.
If people are being forced to ask for help, it’s not their failing but the failing of the system that is forcing them to do so.
@aral
There is no shame in asking for money on social media. Lord knows, most of us are one setback away from penury. Giving money to people who need it is an necessary charitable act.But please don’t call it “mutual aid.” Mutual aid is mutual. Mutual aid is people working to take care of each other collectively. Mutual aid is building power and changing our circumstances together.
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@randahl Hey Randahl,
It’s 2026, not Dickensian England; we call it mutual aid, not begging.
If we’re talking about Gazans, they are currently facing genocide at the hands of Israel with the full support of countries like the USA, Germany, and the UK and the complicity of almost the entirety of the so-called civilised West. International organisations like the UN are deliberately being prevented from functioning by Israel and US.
If you want a list of people we’ve verified via video calls that you can help during this ongoing genocide by settler colonialists, please see:
https://gaza-verified.org/donate/
I would strongly urge you to take the context into consideration. Ask yourself what you would do if you couldn’t feed your family, if you couldn’t afford to treat your sick children, if the institutions that were supposed to be helping were shackled, and if you were actively being hounded off of every other online space by corporations complicit in the genocide being perpetrated against you.
If people are being forced to ask for help, it’s not their failing but the failing of the system that is forcing them to do so.
But please don’t call it “mutual aid.” Mutual aid is mutual. Mutual aid is people working to take care of each other collectively. Mutual aid is building power and changing our circumstances together.
Charity is transactional, not mutual. It is someone with power (money) giving to someone without and not otherwise changing anything.
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@Iveyline @randahl and how would a desperate and very poor person ‘verify’ themselves to a satisfactory standard?
I prefer to accept that very occasionally funds go to someone who I would not have given to were I aware of exactly who they are than risk being that privileged and hard hearted person who finds a reason not to help desperate people.
