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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3500 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why should I do the ALS Ice Bucket Challange?

Woo yay we are cool because we realize it is stupid

shrug Let's stop talking about it





thundara  ·  3500 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey, as a whole, it's raised almost a hundred million dollars at this point. You can call the movement dumb, but it's gotten some pretty fine results.

caelum19: As to the distribution of donations, I don't think anyone can really claim fairness until millions start pouring into the neglected tropical diseases. Heart disease is by far the largest killer, but it's also the biggest treasure for pharmas to go after. I'm personally cool with people giving money to any uncommon disease, since cures don't normally disappear once discovered.

user-inactivated  ·  3500 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I further think it's depressing that not a single damn person who I have yet asked (in person) has been able to tell me what ALS stands for.

But fuck it, I didn't donate anything. So who the hell cares if I'm a big fan of Lou Gehrig.

fireballs619  ·  3499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Knowing the name of something != Knowing what the things is.

Even if they learn that it is a motor neuron disease, they are more aware of it than they were before.

user-inactivated  ·  3499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah but by that logic I should just go around donating money to acronyms.

fireballs619  ·  3499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No, not at all.

I'm just saying, knowing what ALS stands for, especially when the words are somewhat technical, is not the metric by which you should be judging people's knowledge of the disease.

user-inactivated  ·  3499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How else? It's a start. Before I dump ice on myself I oughta know why. Sure, "muscle atrophy" is also an acceptable answer.

thundara  ·  3499 days ago  ·  link  ·  

To be fair, it's not exactly composed of the most common words in the English vocabulary. I had thought that the "S" was "Syndrome" before I double-checked just now >_>

user-inactivated  ·  3500 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're right, of course. I think it's depressing that the plight of our most famous modern scientist, an ALS victim who has contributed a huge amount to our modern understanding of a lot of things, is not what spurs donations to foundations that fight ALS. But money is the bottom line.

thenewgreen  ·  3500 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yep. If I never hear about this ice thing again, that's fine by me.