by St. Elmo's Fire » Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:18 am
Does it make an asshole to think that charities have become WAY too invasive nowadays? It's near impossible to simply go about YOUR OWN business undisturbed these days. In one of the local supermarkets, which only has the one entry/exit hall (which is quite normal here), they literally stand on BOTH sides of the exit side, so you can't simply walk on the other side of someone else to use them as a "shield". Honestly they are stood in Police-checkpoint formation, almost kind of intimidating. I thought the United Kingdom had "aggressive begging" laws that were meant to curb this kind of thing?
For the record I did give them some money, but I still think it errs on the "unacceptable" side of things to stand there covering the exit like that. The shopping centre is the same, they stand about in a totally invasive way making just walking past them more of an issue than it should be. Charity has always been a thing, but the overly Capitalist way that the world is now where people and companies are completely bare-faced and don't even try to hide the fact that they are out to hawk every last penny from you via whichever means possible, even if it borders on illegal (or actually WAS illegal, in the case of the banks being forced to give people money back for loans the people had borrowed with unauthorised added costs on) means that charities, whose raison d'être has always been to ask for money anyway, have had to step it up a few notches...
FWIW I was against the ice bucket challenge as well and made myself quite unpopular on FB and my workplace for my lack of enthusiasm. To me, it is simply a case of "charity begins at home", and I deserve to be allowed to deal with my own needs before anyone else's...