I have a principled position of refusing to donate to any healthcare-related fundraisers like this. Instead, I donate money to progressive candidates and organizations that are fighting to provide healthcare to all Americans.

I really don’t have much to say, but this is just a miserable state of affairs that claws at me.

The whole issue of “deservedness and worthiness” is particularly salient. It’s as if the human tendency to want to prevent freeloading—the agressive egalitarianism whereby those who hoard without contributing are rooted out—is misfiring. I imagine it’s why Reagan’s welfare queen took such a hold on the popular imagination.

An acquaintance of mine had a daughter that suffered from cancer her entire life and died in her early 20s. Horrible, long-term situation. About 2 years before she died her boyfriend raised $50,000 to help her during another round of treatment.

Excellent cause? The first priority listed was getting her a new Jeep. Her mother was an RN at a hospital that probably made a decent salary and had health care for her. Her Dad was a financial planner, who played for 12 years in the NHL, with excellent benefits and money.

I can"t believe anyone donated to that campaign. I have enormous sympathy for people like the bartender cited but far too often I see people posting and getting rewarded for idiotic reasons.

p.s. Was anyone else in that campaign to donate to cancer boy Lucas and the thank you that went out to thousands was a group message without BCCs? What a shitstorm that was.