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Donate or Die !?

Hm, where do I start now.. I am supposed to give a presentation about donations and I was bored to death by that topic.. And then I just got into that whole conspiracy-mood, and here comes the main argument of my presentation which I have come up with:

There is no such thing as sincere donations with pure motivations.

My whole argument is that not a single human donates sincerely and that there is always an egoistic aspect to it. Everyone who donates does it because he also sees a personal gain in his donation. This gain might be buying yourself some fake "good conscience," or being forced to donate (more like the manipulation from posters like "Donate now, or this tiger will not survive!"). So the whole point is that every donation has some selfish motivation.

Now I am thinking about quite direct stuff like the following Youtube video Donate or Die or very subtle manipulation of our hidden desires in the following picture on Deviantart Donate or Die (by the way, that stuff is not mine)

Maybe a more serious example would be those charity muggers called "chuggers" (google it!). Basically, they are people who stand on the streets and just lunge at the next person asking for a donation..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a misanthrope. Indeed, I am very well so concerned with the future of humanity, but when I read and see stuff like that...

Then there is one more thing I would love to share with you: After discussing this with a friend, her point of view was that "In order to get people to donate, every method is justifiable." as in

"The end justifies the means."

I do like this point, but it would be kind of radical to just walk up to somebody and threaten him with a gun only get some donations out of him.. But oh, well, it's worth a try..

Anyways, that is my current info about this topic and now I just wanted to hear some other opinions..

What do you think? Is there something like sincerely felt donations?


PS: I am awfully sorry if I had to handle the links, or whatever else, differently..
Original post by Outglorious
Hm, where do I start now.. I am supposed to give a presentation about donations and I was bored to death by that topic.. And then I just got into that whole conspiracy-mood, and here comes the main argument of my presentation which I have come up with:

There is no such thing as sincere donations with pure motivations.

My whole argument is that not a single human donates sincerely and that there is always an egoistic aspect to it. Everyone who donates does it because he also sees a personal gain in his donation. This gain might be buying yourself some fake "good conscience," or being forced to donate (more like the manipulation from posters like "Donate now, or this tiger will not survive!"). So the whole point is that every donation has some selfish motivation.

Now I am thinking about quite direct stuff like the following Youtube video Donate or Die or very subtle manipulation of our hidden desires in the following picture on Deviantart Donate or Die (by the way, that stuff is not mine)

Maybe a more serious example would be those charity muggers called "chuggers" (google it!). Basically, they are people who stand on the streets and just lunge at the next person asking for a donation..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a misanthrope. Indeed, I am very well so concerned with the future of humanity, but when I read and see stuff like that...

Then there is one more thing I would love to share with you: After discussing this with a friend, her point of view was that "In order to get people to donate, every method is justifiable." as in

"The end justifies the means."

I do like this point, but it would be kind of radical to just walk up to somebody and threaten him with a gun only get some donations out of him.. But oh, well, it's worth a try..

Anyways, that is my current info about this topic and now I just wanted to hear some other opinions..

What do you think? Is there something like sincerely felt donations?


PS: I am awfully sorry if I had to handle the links, or whatever else, differently..


What about people who donate their organs when they die? What do they gain by doing that? Nothing.
"This gain might be buying yourself some fake "good conscience,"" In this case absolutely all of our actions are based on egoism. What I personally believe anyways. We are just programs.
I was a chugger. It's not like that at all!

But yeah i agree that donating is not selfless, i always feel guilty after giving homeless people food/momey because of the feel good it gives me. When i go past a homeless person/charity collectiom and don't donate then i feel sort of worried and panicky and think about it for ages and so give more - but purely just to fix my feelings. Thus it is not pure motivation.


Tbh i doubt there is such a thing as pure motivatiom. Like joey said, there is no such thing as a selfless act.
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Avatar for Beska
Beska
21
I don't like your argument because it's unfalsifiable. You say that some donations stem from manipulation of posters that say "donate or this animal will die" and I accept that premise, however you say that every other donation one is just doing to "buy yourself good conscience". Through your fallacy of accident, there is no possible way for any donation to be altruistic because of your second premise. It's generalising. Somebody has already given an example of something that is more-or-less closest to altruism as a donation can get - donating organs after you die - which already discredits your second premise.

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