A prostate cancer charity has returned $6000 to donors from Reddit because it doesn’t want to be associated with their toxic money. Chalk this up as another proud day for Reddit.
So here’s the story: With Reddit emerging, over the past several days, as one of the central distribution hubs for a vast cache of stolen nude pictures of assorted celebrities – including not only an adult Jennifer Lawrence but at least two celebs who were underage when their photos were taken – one Redditor thought he saw a way for the newly created TheFappening subreddit to spin itself as a public-minded enterprise rather than as a large-scale enabler of criminal activity: why not take a few minutes off from frantic masturbation to raise a few bucks for charity?
The charity chosen for this PR stunt was the Prostate Cancer Foundation – the joke being that Jennifer Lawrence is already supporting prostate health as the unwitting supplier of nude pics of herself, because masturbation can help to reduce prostate cancer. Hilarious. So one Redditor set up a page on the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s website in the name of TheFappening, to raise money in her “honor.”
In less than a day, the subreddit had raised $6000, which might sound impressive at first glance, but which sounds decidedly less so when you consider that TheFappening has signed up more than 100,000 subscribers and generated millions of page views since being founded only a few days ago. This was enough to get TheFappening listed as the top fundraiser on the PCF’s home page.
At least until the Foundation, not wanting to be used for propaganda purposes by a bunch of skeezy assholes, shut down TheFappening’s fundraising page and returned the tainted cash, declaring that “[w]e would never condone raising funds for cancer research in this manner.”
Naturally, Redditor’s fappers were outraged.
![CaptainDogeSparrow 2356 points 18 hours ago* So they rather watch people with cancer die than to take reddit money? They are literally saying that Jennifer Lawrence is more important than cure for cancer. Disgusting. Edit: Source for OP's pic: http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.9200789/k.C50B/Prostate_Cancer_Foundation_Response_Statement_to_Reddit_Post.htm permalink save report give gold reply [–]BonsaiGoat 720 points 18 hours ago* I would love it if JLaw herself called out this bullshit. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]Jon_Snows_Dad 561 points 18 hours ago I am willing to guarantee she won't say anything. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]mm1234565 400 points 18 hours ago Yeah despite Reddit's infatuation with the woman they think is just like them, she's as fake-realperson PR-trained celebrified as they come. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]krazykellen 253 points 17 hours ago Tits are real and that's what matters here.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/jlawcharity.png?resize=444%2C582&ssl=1)
Meanwhile, another Redditor put up a petition on Change.org begging the CEO of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to take their money:
Our donations were refused due that it was being raised in an inappropiate manner. Which is not the case. We wanted to give back and are willing to donate if you will let us. We want consent so we are not wasting our time. Even though the donations were first formed out of humor the number of donations kept coming in and were about to trend even more. This is due to us wanting to show the community that we care and will put our money where our mouths are. So please “TAKE OUR MONEY!!!”.
The top comment on the petition page:
Oh, Redditors, will you ever understand how terrible you are? There are things worth more than your $6000. Like, for example, not being associated with your bullshit. Indeed, had the Foundation taken the money, the resulting PR disaster of being connected with you assholes would have likely cost them a lot more than $6000 in donations. As it stands, the Foundation’s reputation remains intact, and it’s likely to get some extra donations for taking a principled stand.
Indeed, if you would like to donate to the foundation to help fund prostate cancer research and reward the charity for its stand, the donation page is here.
Over on TheFappening, some of the regulars decided to move on to a new charity, Water.org, which has also reportedly refused their money.
But before Water.org caught on to what the Redditors were doing, the “fappers” celebrated the fact that an anonymous Redditor was briefly honored as a “featured donor” on Water.org’s website. One Redditor posted this meme, with the comment “that’s right buddy.”
Naturally, other Redditors responded to the meme with masturbation jokes:
![kli561 85 points 14 hours ago And theres more where thats cumming from permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]Liquid_paper_lies 19 points 10 hours ago Let's milk it for all we got permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]Happy_Shopper 3 points 3 hours ago That's a stroke of genius](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/jlawcumming.png?resize=439%2C222&ssl=1)
Elsewhere in the same thread, other TheFappening regulars joked about the fact that the pictures they were all “fapping” to together included actual child porn. After one “fapper” noted that the anonymous Redditor’s donation was bigger than the donation of another “featured donor,
” a “little girl,” this edifying discussion ensued:
![Fappers_Delights 24 points 14 hours ago That girl doesn't look so little, lol. Easily at least a teenager. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]runealex007 37 points 11 hours ago Good enough for me permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]runs_and_chews_gum 11 points 11 hours ago nope. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]13abie 15 points 7 hours ago She donated before she was 18. They need to remove it.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/jlawnotlittle.png?resize=439%2C313&ssl=1)
Reddit: where the terrible meet to celebrate one another’s terribleness.
[EDIT: I updated several paragraphs about Water.org to acknowledge that the charity is now reportedly refusing money from Reddit’s fappers, and added a link to PCF’s donation page.]
[EDIT 2: I corrected the bit about the petition, which is directed at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, not the Prostate Cancer Foundation.]
I’d like to believe that these are all just very young teens, too, but obviously they are at least old enough to make donations online, meaning they have to have paypal or some other online banking set up. But then, every time something like this happens, I hope it will just be a bunch of dumb teens, and it always ends up being a big batch of awful 30 year olds.
For some reason, if they were, I think it would terrify me even more. I guess I just wouldn’t want to think that a group of 13-year-old boys could rise to this level of evil.
Of course, I know its undoubtedly a gross oversimplification of the human psyche, but I can’t help it, and I keep wondering what these guys’ mothers are like. My mind just has trouble computing the twisted brain patterns that would lead them to behave this way if they have mothers or sisters that they love and respect.
I’ve worked for non-profits most of my career. These seflish reddit jerks have no idea how important it is that you uphold the ethics of the profession and never take money associated with illegal activity (much less crimes of a sexual nature). Imagine explaining to your board of directors “well, we got an unexpected windfall of a few grand after some assholes violated women, masturbated to them, then felt guilty and like they should give us some cash.” It’d never fly.
So, is anyone else looking forward to the inevitable manosphere wank about how the gynocracy is trying to kill men by defunding prostate cancer research?
They know perfectly well that it isn’t acceptable in society, and that’s why they howl so loudly when the people behind the names are exposed. See the outing of Violentacrez, the dude who ran a couple of creepy subreddits, including creepshots and jailbait. He turned out to be 49 years old, married, an employed dude with pets. Reddit lost its collective shit over Gawker putting a real-life name to this individual.
Everyone on reddit who does this kind of thing knows full well that they are doing terrible things, and they count on anonymity to get away with it without consequences.
So I take my head out of Baldur’s Gate look around and see a spirited defense of child porn and the end justifying the means.
Nope back to fighting beholders I go.
As McKayla Maroney’s lawyer has confirmed that the leaked pictures of her were taken while she was underage, I’d think any charity would run as fast as possible away from anything in connection with the 4chan celebrity photo leak. “Six thousands dollars, or being linked to child porn?” I think PCF gave the obvious answer.
Wow, it must be terrible having your privacy violated like that.
If you haven’t read the Gawker article I highly recommend it. The double-standard was not lost on the article’s author.
http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web
Well, running the risk of sounding like an authoritarian asshole…the only way this will stop is when names are named, and charges are charged (as in criminal charges).
I don’t think it’s authoritarian to say that people who break the law should be found and punished. It’s not a violation of privacy if it’s warranted investigation of an actual crime.
@Kevin K
Naming and shaming won’t stop those with no shame. 4channers see themselves as a collective, and anyone actually brought up on charges or the like is seen as someone failing at being anonymous. It’s mocked then forgotten about. A few people who probably wouldn’t engage in this sort of deleterious behavior in the first place might be deterred, but it’s exactly the sort of collective that isn’t dramatically affected by deterrence measures.
It’s the same as with sociopaths, but the group as a whole is what is sociopathic.
Can we collectively raise a few bucks both for prostate cancer research and treatment AND to honour the PCF’s refusal to take money raised through violating the privacy of others?
I’m broke but now I must send them something.
Is there a Secret Option No.3 where a charity can take the six grand but still save face? Like taking it anyway but making a very public “fuck you” statement? I dunno, maybe.
I hope they can.
Hey PoM, I just want to remind you that Gawker DID NOT expose ViolentAcrez identity. He did that all by himself, by coming to Reddit Meetups and introducing himself as ViolentAcreZ and giving out his real name. I’m sure he got a lot of pats on the back from his fellow shitheads for all of his “good work.” He probably felt like a real king strutting around the other neckbeards, who no doubt showered him with praise and free drinks for running the subs he did.
Also want to remind the world that /r/creepshots is not dead. It merely changed its name to /r/CandidFashionPolice, and posts the exact same kinds of photos as before. That is, photos of women’s asses and breasts, taken without their knowledge and posted without their consent. They simply hide behind a very thin pretense of critiquing the “fashion choices” of the women,
On the front page of that sub right now, 19/25 photos are of a woman’s ass, 4/25 are pictures of someone’s cleavage, and one of the pictures is of an overweight couple on the subway, probably the only one with any kind of fashion relevance due to their unusual clothing. The rest are of women wearing perfectly normal bikins, pants or shorts. Almost all of them are taken from behind, and/or from far away. You’d think that a fashion sub would want to look at the front of someone’s outfit before judging it? It’s obviously still the same sub, and the fact that Reddit was willing to take down /r/creepshots and not /r/CandidFashionPolice is proof positive that the content wasn’t the problem, just the publicity.
I’m not on board with this thing about throwing employees out of the building, and shipping their personal possessions on to them minus expenses. It seems to me that in doing that you’re committing theft. I think that in fighting monsters we must be careful that we don’t become monsters ourselves.
There’s a mention, released an hour ago, that the Water.org ‘fundraiser’ has fallen through, thank everything.
http://betabeat.com/2014/09/charities-are-refusing-reddit-donations-inspired-by-jennifer-lawrences-nude-photos/
Georgina Hale,
Are you for real?
How..
Whuuu?
You’re joking, right?
Sure. All the people who wanted to donate can just go to the website, click “general donation”, click the “Anonymous” checkbox, and leave the “Optional Message” field blank.
I like to think the best of people, so I’m going to assume that they’ve done this already.
Theft of … what exactly?
@Georgina Hale, um, how is that committing theft?
You needed any more proof? Reddit administration wasn’t really willing to get rid of violentacrez – they defended him.
…Firing people for looking at child porn is comparable to looking at child porn?
Water.org isn’t taking their money either, looks like. There’s a link about it at the top of the subreddit (I’d rather not link directly).