421–430 of 634 posts
How upset we get when someone is "profiting"
How things we don't like or understand become something that automatically has a negative reaction.
Really, what is our role in this situation? We're the flowers.
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It's funny how these videos say they're intended to spread love and encourage random acts of kindness, but the actual effect of them is decreasing trust in strangers (that they might be filming us for their tiktok). This makes me not trust anyone that goes up to me in the street.
With the amount of beggars in cities, I already highly distrust anyone who comes up to me to speak to me. 99 out of 100 times it is someone who tries to somehow enrich themselves.
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My wife and I, individually, and on various occasions over the years, have paid for random strangers' shopping. We don't do social media, we don't even tell anybody, except for this one time, right now to support your point, so I think it's appropriate in this case. We've told each other because we talk about our finances and it's reasonably to discuss why the grocery bill was double triple, etc what it would have be…
Would you mind sharing how you do this without making it awkward for the recipient or a spectacle? I’ve never been able to work that part out.
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I don't want to tar an entire generation with the same brush, but I have noticed that younger people seem to be really taken in with these very shallow like-farming operations on YouTube and TikTok. Mr Beast is incredibly successful at this, in that his stunts produce massive numbers for very little outlay. A friend's kid in his teens was telling me about how he's the most generous person he's ever seen and it make m…
> I don't want to tar an entire generation with the same brush, but I have noticed that younger people seem to be really taken in with these very shallow like-farming operations on YouTube and TikTok. I don't fault them. They're only responding the world that we, the older generation, are implicitly condoning. Fact is, our culture does not teach the benefits of generosity much, and the few instances we see are often…
Good luck convincing people of this. One of the primary purposes of religion was to provide that role model figure, but society has thrown out that concept altogether. Nowadays I see more of a "everyone is flawed and whoever you think is a role model is probably a secret pervert or something" philosophy as common. So what does anyone expect? If we decide the theological/moral foundation of society is false without replacing it, then obviously morality will change as a result. It's like throwing out the bath water, and then complaining that there's no baby for some mysterious reason.
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It's the TikTok-effect in action I guess. I had a fun experience with the Instagram-effect recently. I tried to visit an arboretum earlier this year (don't judge me, it's interesting!) and I couldn't get near the viewing platform because someone had a crew lighting their shots for Instagram. They asked me to wait for a couple of minutes to get finished, which I did. Ten minutes later a crowd had built up on the ramp…
Years ago I was walking with my wife and parents along a path/boardwalk across a marsh to the beach on Cape Cod, MA. At the top of the platform where the wooden stairs went up the dune and onto the beach there were three people standing, one holding a sun shade. We just walked past them, but my Mom chatted them up briefly. Apparently they were doing a photo shoot for a J. Crew catalog, but I never would have guessed…
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It isn’t. A primary tenet of Christianity is to identify with Christ, mainly through suffering. Much the way a workout can be rewarding in and of itself (e.g. the runner’s high), the suffering of sacrifice can be its own reward if given in the correct mindset. What makes this possible for the Christian believer is the faith/knowledge that one’s sins have already _been_ absolved, so Heaven has already effectively been…
So what is the motivator for people to give charity if there is no reward from God? I would have thought there were some sort of reward for charity in Christianity.
That said, Jesus commanded his followers to practice charity often and directly linked doing so with gaining rewards in heaven.
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The other day at the transit station there was a man sitting on a bench with a shopping cart of his stuff, having a loud argument with nobody in particular. Like shouting at the top of his lungs, for at least a half hour. A couple of weeks ago I had to avoid an altercation with a woman who talking to herself on the subway, she didn't like the way I "looked" at her as I was doing my best to mind my own business. She s…
You understand that most of these are examples of mental illness, right? It would be great if schizophrenic people would behave themselves, but kind of the whole deal is that they can't.
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My wife and I, individually, and on various occasions over the years, have paid for random strangers' shopping. We don't do social media, we don't even tell anybody, except for this one time, right now to support your point, so I think it's appropriate in this case. We've told each other because we talk about our finances and it's reasonably to discuss why the grocery bill was double triple, etc what it would have be…
Would you mind sharing how you do this without making it awkward for the recipient or a spectacle? I’ve never been able to work that part out.
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You can avoid that content by not watching the video or visiting places where videos like that appear.
That is the exact thing that children get told when they are being bullied. "Stay away from them, ignore them, just don't read it online." It doesn't work
I forgo something when I opt out, but I absolutely am in control of that choice whereas a bullied child is not.
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>> Even car accidents... I hate when a real car accident is attributed to a drunk driver when it was not. There are plenty of wrecked cars from actual drunk driving, you don't need to lie to get an example. Some people think their intentions justify their actions, even when their actions can accurately be described as "lie" or "cheat" or "for profit" or some other dishonest thing. This may be effective in many cases,…
> Random acts of kindness DO happen, but are usually not captured on video. Indeed. In fact, when the act is intentionally captured on video by its performer, not only is it already very debatable that it is an act of "kindness"... but it is also obviously NOT "random"! (For the colloquial meaning of "random" of course)
Before I left, plans changed, so now I was in the mall parking lot, and had (to me) useless flowers. In the parking lot, I saw an older woman sitting in her car.
I walked up to her, proclaimed "surprise, flowers!", which she took, and I walked away.
It is sad to think that these days, it almost makes more sense to just throw them away, instead of giving a bit of unexpected joy to someone.
(the woman seemed surprised, and happy)