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Tumblr in real life by Thaily
So I went to Welcome to Night Vale last night, and it was awesome.
But I observed some things.. Judging by conversations I overheard while waiting in line to get into the theater, and by my conversation with an old friend I hadn't seen in a while but who was there with a large group of friends, I think that at least 80% of the 300'ish people there were active on Tumblr. And we all know Tumblr's reputation; social justice warriors, for better or for worse, who fight for the equal treatment for people of all religions, colours, gender identities and so forth. Sometimes going to ridiculous lengths, but generally with their heart in the right place, which, while I sometimes joke about it, I can admire.
So why was I the only person who gave some change to the POC homeless guy standing outside the theater, in the rain wearing a salvation army jacket, after the show ended? I was waiting for my husband and gave him a 2 euro coin I had. Later, when most Night Vale fans had left, he came up to us and asked my husband for some change. I told him I already gave him some and he recognized me, then told me I had been the only person to give him anything, fishing the single coin from his pocket to show me.
Frankly I'm a little bit scandalized, and a lot disappointed. For all the on-line noise Tumblr people create about being a good person, even taking into account that not everyone on Tumblr is a SJW, I had expected the homeless guy to collect more than 2 euro out of a 300-person crowd.
But then I was also surprised to see a Caucasian woman, probably attempting to cosplay Carlos, wearing "tanface". Kind of like blackface, but more oompa loompa'esque. I jokingly told my husband, whom is of Indian descent, to go tell her he was offended. He just laughed, but in a room full of people who will go for the jugular on that sort of thing on-line, and with multiple POC in the room, I was very surprised to see that everyone was just cool with that.
For better or for worse, I am who I am, on-line and off. Maybe it's my own fault I had expected the same from other people.
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"I was always raised to believe that donations should be anonymous, that you shouldn't get off to donating"
Haha really? You wouldn't give a rain soaked homeless guy a buck because you'd get off on it?!
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That's not what I'm saying. Just that I don't always donate in public spaces (because we donate to help people not to make it look like we are awesome people). And no probably not, I'd rather give to a shelter or a food bank instead.
A guy like you saw I would rather buy a sandwich, my sweatshirt or a cab ride for. I mean what is he going to buy with a dollar? You can't rely on everyone else to pitch in.-
Apparently not.
I donate to organizations too, but when an old dude is out in the rain? 2 euro buys him a burger or some coffee from the MacD around the corner.
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Its a lot easier to bitch and moan about something online to look good then it is to actually do something, the person in "tanface" will most likely be demonized online and I'm sure there will be several accounts of how they chewed them out, all of which will be pure bullshit, Some might even bring up your lost man about how he clearly was on drugs or drunk or whatever and they where saving him from his horrible addictions by not helping him out, or and another bullshit story about how they gave over there coats and money and he just lit up like a child at Christmas.
(Side note, you did good by him and your icon is adorable.)
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Thank you and and thank you, Zenia made it.
She's cheap and awesome to commission.
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Rabies
I think it can be hard to judge where people's hearts lie by their public donations. I was always raised to believe that donations should be anonymous, that you shouldn't get off to donating, or use it to say " look at what a good person I am". So I rarely donate in public, the exception being veterans in my town. But yeah I never chip a dollar towards grocery store drives and I usually decline to pass out cash in public (it's hard to tell ow much money goes towards helping people and there are some organizations like SA and SG Komen that I don't agree with).
A lot of the places that I donate to such as blood donation, racing, Alumnae projects, urban shield and monetary donations as holiday gifts are regularly done. So while I'm cynical like you that people aren't the same online as they are offline just keep that in mind.