Getting annoyed at virtue signalling on Facebook local groups

[Floogal]

Ignoring the fussing questions everytime a police helicopter is on patrol or fireworks. Where I live it's usually the same thing. Always along the lines of;

" I've got a lot of old tat but want to donate it to charity"
" I brought the homeless guy on the high street a coffee and had a chat with him"
And, this " how many homeless people are there in town? My (photogenic well dressed) twin daughters want to give out Xmas packages" obviously hoping to appear on the local news or "and finally...' on ITV news. Usually the 'ooooh aren't you wonderful' gushing replies. Gives me the raging arsehole.

I personally love the we have things to donate but only to a worthy poor person. Please DM me your tale of woe and I shall decide from on high who now gets my offering, and tasteful post on Instagram what is being served to the anonymous peasant I have deemed worthy.......

Someone has cleared out their cupboards on local fb, trying to giv away fray bentos pies…. No takers so far….

Just thought of one from a while ago. There was uproar about a guy camping in the woods, which slowly turned into "he must be after our kids!!!"

The police in the end had to post a message to stop the poor guy being harassed that he was a homeless man who had been kicked off the high street due to complaints from the locals and had nowhere to go and that they were getting him help.

a litter picker noticed a man hanging dog poo bag in a tree and had a go at him, he told her to go away, all on facebook, plenty of people told the litter picker to mind her own business

@SafeMove

I did the Christmas Card thing for the first time this year. I announced it on FB mainly to avoid all of DP's family (who live down south) wondering if I had fallen out with them as I usually send cards to all my family and friends. I don't think communicating that you have done something different is 'virtue signalling' is it?

I wanted to donate to Barnardo's in memory of Star Hobson, and money has been a bit tight so instead of spending money on cards and stamps I donated in her memory and shared Barnardo's appeal. A lot of people on my FB have been wringing their hands about about the recent child murder cases so I wanted to do something tangible. I used to work in Children's Social Care and poverty is a huge risk factor for abuse and I don't think people know that, so I wanted people to watch Barnardo's appeal. Emma Thompson is their seasonal ambassador. Shaming people who want to donate instead of sending meaningless annual cards is a bit harmful to charities who rely on people to not only donate, but share their appeals on their social media to widen the reach.

@SafeMove

Donate to charity = great

Stop sending Christmas cards = ok with me

What irritates me (not having a go at you, just explaining my viewpoint) is that it often comes across as "Can't be bothered doing cards, but rather than admit that, I'll dress it up as a virtuous choice"

Most people I know can easily afford to send cards AND donate to charity, so it's not a binary choice. If they don't want to send cards, fine, but I wish they would own that

Another of my favourites is when you hear several emergency vehicle sirens at the same time going down the main road near me.

You then get the "anyone know why there are sirens?" or someone asking if anyone knows what's happened, "as they have family out and about"!

It really is ridiculous that the poor emergency services can't attend anything these days without people constantly flagging it up on FB for any information or there's loads of speculation with many being told to stop being so nosy!

Whatever did they do before FB eh?

@CerealKiller22

Come to think about it, during the first lockdown I found someone's iPhone. When it started ringing, I risked my life by picking it up and answering it and then waiting with the phone until someone was able to come get it. They did thank me profusely in person but where was my FB thanks didnt post my good deed on SM but that's not the point is it. Ungrateful CF.

A couple of months ago as I was getting a trolley to go into Asda I saw a ladies handbag hanging on the back of a trolley, I took it off there and handed it in to customer services.

I now realise the error of my ways, I should have took it home, rifled through it and took pictures of all the items including the contents of the purse and put them on Facebook begging for the owner to contact me.

It’s a rookie mistake I won’t make again 😀

OP! Thanks for this post - I also hate on ours sanctimonious litter pickers. All 7 of them posing in hi viz and those flaming picker uppers and rings with bin bags! Dunno why they give me the raging arsehole so much. I’m also taking this phrase - thank you! Cheered me right up this post!

@CrapDrawer

I get annoyed by similar posts and also posts where someone has found a phone/ bank card/ jewellery and posts on FB to find the owner. What if they’re not on FB. Really annoys me. Take to local police station or send bank card to the bank! Always seems to be someone wanting a bit of glory for doing a good deed but not thinking of the best way to actually get an item back to its owner.

I agree with something that can easily be identified but this is not always the case. Our tortoise was missing for 2 months and the person that found her posted a message on FB. I am not on FB to the mum of a friend of my son is, saw the post, and called us to see if it was our tortoise. It was!

“But the mum”,not “to the mum”.

@JackTheHack

I bet if I said 'Tony the homeless man who lives on a bench' other people on here would know who was talking about from a certain Facebook group. He's very dividing

I know who you mean!

@Thewolvesarerunningagain

Heck yes Coffeerunner. That is definitely something that boils my piss. ‘I have chosen to donate to charity rather than send cards this year’. So that’s two quid fifty for the cat rescue then? Great, they’ll live large on that. Crazy virtue signalling that only comes from people who could easily afford to send cards and donate to charity.

Oh Jesus, I’m mortified, I did this!! I stuck a post up but it was more to tell people I don’t have loads of interaction with through the year but with whom I’d normally exchange cards with! I’m not a massive user of Facebook but it seemed like a sensible place to put it. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was rude (and/or dead!) 🙈

We have an amazing charity that supports the homeless / vulnerable all year, and do a 'shoebox appeal' every Christmas. We always make a couple of boxes. A couple of years ago, they posted that they were looking for gifts for a family that had been relocated due to DV. Family - Mum, Son age 13 & Son age 8. They had basically fled with nothing, and the charity were looking for Christmas presents - so gave details ages, and then what they were interested in - ie lego / drawing etc - but no more.
A couple of responses early on about used clothes/toys etc. The person from the Charity was really lovely and polite, but was trying to nicely say they were looking for brand new gifts to be donated as Christmas Presents - It ended up with loads of nasty comments - 'should be grateful' / second hand is good enough for me, and I work' etc etc.

@Broody1976

Thewolvesarerunningagain Heck yes Coffeerunner. That is definitely something that boils my piss. ‘I have chosen to donate to charity rather than send cards this year’. So that’s two quid fifty for the cat rescue then? Great, they’ll live large on that. Crazy virtue signalling that only comes from people who could easily afford to send cards and donate to charity.

Oh Jesus, I’m mortified, I did this!! I stuck a post up but it was more to tell people I don’t have loads of interaction with through the year but with whom I’d normally exchange cards with! I’m not a massive user of Facebook but it seemed like a sensible place to put it. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was rude (and/or dead!) 🙈

I also do this every year and have done for years, for the same reasons that you do. Are you really going to stop because of a Mumsnet thread?

@DevonTF

We have an amazing charity that supports the homeless / vulnerable all year, and do a 'shoebox appeal' every Christmas. We always make a couple of boxes. A couple of years ago, they posted that they were looking for gifts for a family that had been relocated due to DV. Family - Mum, Son age 13 & Son age 8. They had basically fled with nothing, and the charity were looking for Christmas presents - so gave details ages, and then what they were interested in - ie lego / drawing etc - but no more. A couple of responses early on about used clothes/toys etc. The person from the Charity was really lovely and polite, but was trying to nicely say they were looking for brand new gifts to be donated as Christmas Presents - It ended up with loads of nasty comments - 'should be grateful' / second hand is good enough for me, and I work' etc etc.

It's the old beggars can't be choosers line. It's almost as if people in need don't deserve to have nice new things.

The amount of bloody people on Facebook asking why there are helicopters flying around is astounding. Umm I don't know, could it perhaps be something to do with the sodding SAS camp just down the road???

@Smokeahontas

If you want a real laugh, download & join NextDoor.

I agree 100% about nextdoor i got told off for moaning about people posting pointless things on there!!

@DevonTF

We have an amazing charity that supports the homeless / vulnerable all year, and do a 'shoebox appeal' every Christmas. We always make a couple of boxes. A couple of years ago, they posted that they were looking for gifts for a family that had been relocated due to DV. Family - Mum, Son age 13 & Son age 8. They had basically fled with nothing, and the charity were looking for Christmas presents - so gave details ages, and then what they were interested in - ie lego / drawing etc - but no more. A couple of responses early on about used clothes/toys etc. The person from the Charity was really lovely and polite, but was trying to nicely say they were looking for brand new gifts to be donated as Christmas Presents - It ended up with loads of nasty comments - 'should be grateful' / second hand is good enough for me, and I work' etc etc.

That’s a terrible lack of empathy. Maybe a certain amount of othering or victim blaming is involved for the nasty people.

[quote JustJustWhy]@Broody1976

Thewolvesarerunningagain Heck yes Coffeerunner. That is definitely something that boils my piss. ‘I have chosen to donate to charity rather than send cards this year’. So that’s two quid fifty for the cat rescue then? Great, they’ll live large on that. Crazy virtue signalling that only comes from people who could easily afford to send cards and donate to charity.

Oh Jesus, I’m mortified, I did this!! I stuck a post up but it was more to tell people I don’t have loads of interaction with through the year but with whom I’d normally exchange cards with! I’m not a massive user of Facebook but it seemed like a sensible place to put it. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was rude (and/or dead!) 🙈

I also do this every year and have done for years, for the same reasons that you do. Are you really going to stop because of a Mumsnet thread?[/quote]
Probs not, it’s just more the whole being judged for it… ugh. Despite our intentions, there’s always someone there to judge isn’t there?

@SD1978

I personally love the we have things to donate but only to a worthy poor person. Please DM me your tale of woe and I shall decide from on high who now gets my offering, and tasteful post on Instagram what is being served to the anonymous peasant I have deemed worthy.......

I've almost left our local FB group over this, it annoys me so much. "I have this piece of plastic tat but I only want it to go to a lil bub who really needs it so I can see their excited lil face" Followed by loads of "Oh hun you have a heart of gold" comments. Sigh!

Min's full of dogshit complaints, parking complaints, neighbour complaints and lost cats.

@blessedbethechocolate

This prompted me to look at the groups this morning. Apparently there was a chicken on the loose last night and someone before Christmas had a wrapped pack of jelly tots thrown at them by a Santa on a motorbike. The fun never ends round here.

Omigod - it's an absolute crime wave!

The air ambulance has just passed over the top of my house , FB will be full of people asking what's happening, hope everyone's OK in a matter of minutes I expect...

[quote JustJustWhy]@Broody1976

Thewolvesarerunningagain Heck yes Coffeerunner. That is definitely something that boils my piss. ‘I have chosen to donate to charity rather than send cards this year’. So that’s two quid fifty for the cat rescue then? Great, they’ll live large on that. Crazy virtue signalling that only comes from people who could easily afford to send cards and donate to charity.

Oh Jesus, I’m mortified, I did this!! I stuck a post up but it was more to tell people I don’t have loads of interaction with through the year but with whom I’d normally exchange cards with! I’m not a massive user of Facebook but it seemed like a sensible place to put it. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was rude (and/or dead!) 🙈

I also do this every year and have done for years, for the same reasons that you do. Are you really going to stop because of a Mumsnet thread?[/quote]
If you’ve done it for years why announce it? No one is expecting a card from you which seems to be the general justification.

Our local group had someone say they had covid symptoms and were unable to get a PCR test and asking for advice. Cue someone saying 'I had a terrible cold and cough a few weeks ago. Coughing so much my ribs hurt. It never even occurred to me it might be covid,. There are other diseases out there you know'.

This showing about 1500 of his local community what a total twunt he is.