You know...

[author_by_night]

When in the past twelve months, three people I know have had cancer and two of them have died because of it, "repost if you hate cancer" is the last f___g thing I want to see. (Excuse my french. I just don't think any other word properly expresses my annoyance.)

And also, many those photos being spread around are of kids who've already died or never were dying, and  their parents are sickened. I mean, seriously. Just donate to a charity of your choice and post about THAT to Facebook.

I mean, I get it because I used to be that person.  I thought I was making such a difference in the world, one Facebook guilt trip, one chain email guilt trip, one LJ post guilt trip at a time. And then one day I realized I was just making important things trivial by turning them into chain memes, and that some of the stuff I was posting was actually quite patronizing. So I stopped.

Love to beatriceeagle for keeping me from going batshit on said individuals last night.

(Keeping this post public on purpose.)

ETA: And for the record, it's not bad to post about bad things. I'm not saying that. Just... don't attach pictures of kids if you don't know where the picture is coming from, and enough with the guilt trips attached and the patronizing stuff.

Comments

[daintress.livejournal.com]

I second this. In some cases, reposting those things is only perpetuating hurt for the families involved. :(

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And I even posted about it the other day, but nobody who was doing it said anything and that hasn't seemed to stop the posts.

[daintress.livejournal.com]

You never will. It's like trying to stop people from posting untrue political crap. You'll never stop them.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And when it's pictures of dying kids or abused animals... just, no. I'm willing to bet nobody taking care of those kids or animals authorized those pictures. Which is, incidentally, why if I post about (actual) problems, like missing kids or pets, I always include a link of sorts. ALWAYS. And I make it clear that nobody is to feel obligated to share.

[koloagirl.livejournal.com]

It's become my approach to not repost anything if it contains any of the following:

• XX% of people won't post this, will you?
  
• Show you care by pasting this into your FB status.
  
• Cute child Y in community-far-away needs your help -- I will visit the person's Race for the Cure page, etc., but I will not repost. If it's a local child with a local fundraising effort, that's another matter b/c I can verify the circumstances more easily.

[13oct.livejournal.com]

My mother had breast cancer. Two of my father's sisters had breast cancer. My great aunt died of breast cancer. I seen cancer up close and personal. I loath these messages. They are an insult to those who actually deal with cancer .

[quinns-crossing.livejournal.com]

I don't like those cancer awareness posts, either. This morning, at least 3 people posted the picture of the bald girl on FB. I'm sure none of them know who she is (or was). No bra colors! For that matter, I don't repost for lupus, diabetes, autism, depression or anything else.

I do the ones that make fun of those, like the one of being eaten by dragons or the one on stupidity. I think I did another one by "people who just need crap to copy and paste."

[quinns-crossing.livejournal.com]

P.S.: I also don't respond to those invitations from FB friends to join FB groups like "KEEP ALL CHILD MOLESTERS OFF FB, CLICK LIKE IF YOU AGREE!" Those pages and "communities" do nothing to protect kids. It's just another feel-good project or a guilt trip depending on how you look at it.