DailyKos is one of the most well-intentioned communities there is -- whether you consider it merely virtual or wholly real, this is a place where people come together because we believe in our collective power to change the world.
But sometimes those good intentions can be taken advantage of, and as the holiday season rolls in, I feel compelled to drop a note urging skepticism towards those who may seek your aid this season.
Lord knows, we've had good reason to be skeptical. Just last week we had one user posting a sob story about his family and his alleged firing from his job for on-site political activism -- he was able to raise (he claims) $3200 from 80 users in one night. But when I and others expressed skepticism towards his claims, he acted with hostility rather than understanding -- not once, but again in a diary days later -- and then disappeared from the site altogether.
[Note: I'm not going to link to any of the diaries in question, because I feel weird about directly attacking people who may not be here right now to defend themselves. Indeed, I was attacked last week by the diarist in a diary I didn't know about until today, and which he edited before I could ever see the full attack he posted. I went back and forth on this, and I think the diary stands on its own without my having to prove specific examples. ]
We've had a congressional candidate who raised tens of thousands of dollars, much of it from this community, and who has for two years failed to file the necessary FEC reports to demonstrate what he did with our money. Did he keep it? Did he ever actually raise it? We still don't know, and he's still treated by many as a legitimate member of this community.
And we've had a bad case of B.O. in the Boston area, to put it mildly.
In at least two of these cases, we know for sure that the goodness of this community has been taken advantage of.
So, what are we to do?
It's simple: use the same analytical and research tools you use to dissect Republicans to determine the validity of anyone here who asks you for money -- individual, candidate or organization. Never give to an individual through this website, in fact. There's always going to be a demonstrably legitimate local organization to which you can donate your support with confidence that your money will be used in an efficient way to help actual people.
And even with charities and candidates, use your brain: do the research with GoogleNews and other sources to prove to yourself that they're legitimate and viable before you give your money away. Use sites like Charity Navigator to review their fundamentals, and think long and hard about candidates as to whether their seemingly sincere pleas online can be matched with an actual chance to win. (Here's a hint: if there's been nothing in the local news about the candidate for two weeks, he's probably not doing well.)
A final note: Other than the hostility towards skepticism in the first place, nothing disturbed me more than the occasionally expressed attitude that I don't care whether he's legitimate -- being able to give proves that I'm a good person or I'd rather be a person who trusts and gives, because it comes from a pure place.
Quite frankly, that's narcissism, not charity. It has to be more about the recipients than it is about us. This is a time when we open our hearts and demonstrate what's best about ourselves, but we shouldn't be closing our brains in the process.
edited to add: A super-final note: As Elwood suggests below, it's important to recognize that we have no idea what actually happened with the Buffy situation. What we do know is that these situations demonstrate how alluring and gratifying it is to believe that we can help strangers while sitting at our computers, but that powerful desire to be helpful is not always the same as actually being helpful.