ALS Bucket Challenge

The ubiquity enhances the stupidity. I've been overwhelmed by celebrities doing this.
The other fads mentioned give me a giggle to some extent. The banality of doing the Gatorade bucket without the Gatorade is just boring and stupid.
If it were winter, and people were doing it outside, I might be interested.
 
OfficePants said:
A cynic might say its more about self promotion than any real interest in a charity.
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Another cynic might view that cynic as sitting there and searching for any flaws in any charitable, to prevent them from ever having to do any charitable act of their own.

99.9% of all activity on the internet is self-promotion. However, unlike most, including our back-and-forth, this activity has actually resulted in a huge donation to charity.
 
I'm tempted to make a claim similar to Neil Postman's point about how television is most harmful when it is seen as educational.
Has this lowered the bar, where now all charitable donations will require juvenile self-promoting and chain-hazing? Is a stupid fad any less stupid because it is latched to do-gooderism?
 
Most giving comes from social pressure. Look at our very recent time. A huge chunk of donations to charity, and charitable work in general, come through the fraternal organizations, social clubs, and churches/synagogues/mosques. Giving is one of the requirements for participation in those organizations.
Participation in those organizations is plummeting as a growing number of people sit on the sidelines and snipe away. Many people's idea of social activism these days is clicking a "like" on facebook or advocating on the internet that other people (usually the government) take other people's money and give it to their charity of choice.
If this stupid movement can, through social pressure, encourage people to give, I don't see the harm in it.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ice-bu...-firefighters-shocked-by-power-line-1.2743719

'Ice Bucket Challenge' goes wrong when 4 firefighters shocked by power line
A number of students witnessed the event
The Associated Press Posted: Aug 22, 2014 5:55 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 22, 2014 5:56 AM ET

A charity stunt that has grown into a social media phenomenon went terribly wrong for four Kentucky firefighters when a fire truck's ladder got too close to a power line after they dumped water on college students who were taking part in an "ice bucket challenge."

Campbellsville Police Chief Tim Hazlette said the power line was never touched Thursday morning, but it carried such a high voltage that it was able to energize the ladder truck, shocking the firefighters.

The two in the bucket were at a hospital burn unit early Friday. One was in critical condition and the other was in fair condition, the hospital said. The other firefighters were treated and released.

The firefighters had just taken part in the challenge that helps raise money for ALS research. They dumped water on the
Campbellsville University's marching band, but most of the students had already left the area and no students were hurt.

University nursing student Julie Smith said she was nearby and spoke to a couple of friends who witnessed the firefighters being shocked and said "they are taking it really hard."

"It's tragic, I feel for all the band members who were still there when it happened, that they had to see that," Smith said.
Smith later led a prayer vigil with about 100 people on the campus Thursday night.

Power knocked out
Power was knocked out for about an hour to 4,500 customers, including the school, said Natasha Collins, a spokeswoman for Kentucky Utilities, which owns the line.

The ice bucket challenge has been sweeping social media websites. The ALS Association said it has raised more than $41 million.

Police said Capt. Tony Grider, 41, and Simon A. Quinn, 22, were in the fire truck bucket. Grider, a 16-year veteran of the
department, was in critical condition at the University of Louisville Medical Center Burn Unit. Quinn, a part-time firefighter, was listed in fair condition there.

Firefighter Keith Bricken, who has worked with Grider for about three years, said he was a tough firefighter who trained colleagues.

"He's real outgoing. He loves to help in any way he can," Bricken said.

Also injured was Capt. Steve Marrs, 37, who has been with the department for 11 years, and Alex Johnson, 28, who has been there three years.

Campbellsville University, a private college, is a Christian institution that has about 3,600 students, according to its website. It is about 65 miles south of Louisville.

"A number of our students, of course, the entire marching band, witnessed the event and so we're concerned about them and the tragedy of this accident," university president Michael Carter told WHAS-TV.
 
I think this whole thing is dumb as shit but this is well done. Nobody gets electrocuted

 
"A number of our students, of course, the entire marching band, witnessed the event and so we're concerned about them and the tragedy of this accident," university president Michael Carter told WHAS-TV.

I am afraid the band will never be the same and have already started acting out
also-partially-nude-marching-band-led-Donnie.webp
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
Most giving comes from social pressure. Look at our very recent time. A huge chunk of donations to charity, and charitable work in general, come through the fraternal organizations, social clubs, and churches/synagogues/mosques. Giving is one of the requirements for participation in those organizations.
Participation in those organizations is plummeting as a growing number of people sit on the sidelines and snipe away. Many people's idea of social activism these days is clicking a "like" on facebook or advocating on the internet that other people (usually the government) take other people's money and give it to their charity of choice.
If this stupid movement can, through social pressure, encourage people to give, I don't see the harm in it.
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I don't see harm either. I'm just wondering if it were an ice bucket of piss, would there be the same enthusiasm for helping the cause. Because if it were a bucket of piss and there was $1000 on offer to the public, I assure you that there would be lines around the block to collect. Or if charity wasn't a tax break.

While many peoples idea of social activism nowadays is clicking like on facebook, I find it hard to draw a large distinction between that and a bucket of cold water.

It also forces me to consider what's charity and what's welfare. Because it's governed by a state, its welfare and to be demonized, but if its giving sponsored by a religion it's charity and good? Or is it just poor blacks that get welfare and not that military industrial complex factory worker whose job is just another piece of pork tagged onto a bill to win a senator's vote? I guess one breeds fatherless babies and the other actually works, but that said, it's still complex considering the work isn't needed and breeds bombs that kill people. And so then there's the liberal use of disability in this country (the handicapped parking space and wheelchairosaurus crowd), who could work if they wanted to, but get to suck off the teet.

I know I'm a bit of an asshole about this, so please forgive my tone, I mean it that I see no harm and I recognize the money being raised, but I'm just not impressed by this fad.
 
The problem with these phenomena is that they are the flavour of the day. The charity benefits by raising a chunk of change which then disappears and we hear nothing more. It gives people the opportunity to participate and feel good about themselves that they have done something and then they can forget it.

Let's put this into context. About 6000 people in the US are diagnosed with ALS annually. So it is incredibly rare when compared to many other diseases. That said, if this increases awareness it is a positive thing but as national begging campaigns go, I think they should be focused on issues that impact larger segments of the population and in areas where effective solutions can be implemented and positive results can be realized.

Otherwise this is just a drop in the bucket.
 
No people wouldn't do it if it were a bucket of piss. That's the whole point. Something that's really not all that hard, and you give a hundred bucks to charity. I understand the rest of your post (although I disagree with a few points), but I completely miss the relevance of that analogy. Can you clarify?

And it's a lot different than just clicking "like". (Many) people give $100 to a charity, where as a "like" is both free and relatively worthless.
 
thruth said:
The problem with these phenomena is that they are the flavour of the day. The charity benefits by raising a chunk of change which then disappears and we hear nothing more. It gives people the opportunity to participate and feel good about themselves that they have done something and then they can forget it.

Let's put this into context. About 6000 people in the US are diagnosed with ALS annually. So it is incredibly rare when compared to many other diseases. That said, if this increases awareness it is a positive thing but as national begging campaigns go, I think they should be focused on issues that impact larger segments of the population and in areas where effective solutions can be implemented and positive results can be realized.

Otherwise this is just a drop in the bucket.
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I completely disagree. I suffer from a non-fatal disability that affects less than 1% of the population (and the typical victim is a poor black male). By your criteria, no funding would ever go to research to fight it because it affects a small portion of the population, isn't fatal, etc...
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I completely disagree. I suffer from a non-fatal disability that affects less than 1% of the population (and the typical victim is a poor black male). By your criteria, no funding would ever go to research to fight it because it affects a small portion of the population, isn't fatal, etc...
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you make a valid point. every disease or condition deserves its day in the sun - just as ALS is currently enjoying - to raise awareness and to secure dollars for funding research. This campaign has raised about $41 M. hopefully the dollars are result in something positive. the cause of ALS is unknown and the current research funding strategy is to support therapies to palliate.

I suppose I was looking at this from a public health perspective, which is to identify conditions that affect significant portions of the population and to focus on improving their health and well being. i was imagining how $41 M could better the lives of the many as opposed to the few.

i appreciate that this perspective might not find purchase in those that comprise the few
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
No people wouldn't do it if it were a bucket of piss. That's the whole point. Something that's really not all that hard, and you give a hundred bucks to charity. I understand the rest of your post (although I disagree with a few points), but I completely miss the relevance of that analogy. Can you clarify?

And it's a lot different than just clicking "like". (Many) people give $100 to a charity, where as a "like" is both free and relatively worthless.
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Good debate.

Sure, to clarify, charity is sadly just an exercise in marketing. I don't really differentiate welfare from ALS, to cancer research or to government subsidies for corporate welfare and the disability crowd.

Boiled down, they are all structures organized to take money given to them and funding an attempted solution to a problem. The rest is just stereotype, belief systems, and (sadly) a popularity contest.

Welfare is unpopular. Boiled down, the social ills of abandoning a bunch of fat ass black single mothers will just create more criminalized kids that will require public money to fund prison cells.
Welfare is demonized because it is considered a system that rewards laziness. Because it is controversial, its extremely hard to weigh its social value (in essence, letting a bunch of fat as black chicks do shit is worth the savings in a bunch criminalized black kids).

Conversely, ALS has become this cute ice bucket thing (a thing that just killed a kid the other day) that a bunch of people have joined in on because of a dozen different reasons, but in the end, its a disease that affects very few and really doesn't deserve this kind of attention (all respect to anyone suffering from small impact diseases), because in a macro, numbers driven sense, diseases that affect the most people deserve the most money and attention. Solve that and turn funding and attention elsewhere.

So this stuff elaborates my main point, the marketing exercise associated with charity distorts the social value of the endeavor. Instead of a logical approach to fighting social problems where math and logic dictate where money should be spent, we are left with ice buckets and bullshit conversations about welfare, abortion, and the wealth of research on behalf of special interests. Then clever marketing people collect paychecks funded by the very money being donated to a "cause" and the campaigns have nothing to do with social value, but are tasked with selling the charity to the public. It's shit.

We are conditioned to believe that all things charitable is innately good and shouldn't be questioned. The cliche "its for a good cause" needs to be re-evaluated.
 
Economically this is a misprioritization and money that could be spent elsewhere to greater benefit. If charitable funding is a scarce resource, possibly a zero sum game, inefficient allocation is a net detriment to society. This is indeed a triumph of the emotional over the rational.
 
OMG, BEST ONE EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

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