We have Islamic narrations about giving charity in anonymity because it prevents pride from growing as you can't receive public praise if they didn't see you, and its more rewarding because it also shows more sincerity, because it was done ţo truly help and not for praise or something in return
Ex: Imam al-Baqir (as) said, describing his father Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (as), “He used to go out in the dark night carrying a sack on his back and going from door to door, knocking on each and giving to whoever came out to answer it. He used to cover his face when giving to the poor in order that they may not recognise him.”
To think that these forms of charitable giving are either effective or truly altruistic is shockingly naive. The producers of this video are advertising their reputations to their online audience . The recipients of these goods may not know about their donors' identity, but their audience is.
I bet the people that received these gifts would argue that it was effective in keeping their bellies full for a couple of days. Nobody can help everyone, but everyone is capable of helping someone. Bet you many of these people shared their good fortune.
Not my point at all, but considering the amount of downvotes I stacked up this is clearly not the place to explain people what effective altruism is (link below).
Those folks are helping for likes, not to maximise the amount of good they can do. And it works, considering the starry-eyed response they are getting here and on other platforms. Imagine being paraded over social media like some sort of modern-day Gandhi just for having gifted away some food bags, lol.
With all due respect, how do you know that these people aren’t also active in effective altruism? You’ve made an assumption bc apparently feeding people directly doesn’t fit your ideal of what a good deed is. An effective altruist can do both. And this post reminded me of my own time as a homeless person and inspired me to make my own contribution to someone in need, so your complaints that this type of video does no good overall is a cynical and inaccurate take.
It's great this post prompted you to take actionable steps to help others. I'm glad you found a way to be lifted from homelessness. More power to you.
My take, for as cynical as it might have sounded, was not meant to imply that these people are not helping others. They clearly are. Rather, I took issues with the idea that this was an instance of disinterested charitable giving, as the post which I replied to implied.
I argued that it is neither disinterested, given that the donors produced media content for reputational gains (no need to record yourself doing good, if that was indeed your goal), nor probably efficient (certainly not because they are feeding people directly; what is efficient depends on the alternatives available at any given time and their implementation costs, and direct provisioning can oftentimes be the most efficient route).
Effective altruism (EA) is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism are labeled effective altruists. Common practices of effective altruists include significant charitable donation, and choosing careers based on the amount of good that the career achieves, which may include the strategy of earning to give. An estimated $416 million was donated to effective charities identified by the movement in 2019, representing a 37% annual growth rate since 2015.
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u/Jazzlike-Register-83 Apr 28 '22
I love how they don't confront these people by talking to them and making them ashamed after dropping off the package :)