this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] [email protected] 376 points 7 months ago (11 children)

Dude never donate to SA. They're profit driven religious wackadoos who have no idea how to run anything. The charity angle is just another religious scam.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

For religious people they're sure eager to sell used "personal massagers" for $10.

Also, frankly, here in the Reno area it's basically impossible to find a thrift store that's not run by incredibly religious wackadoos. Best you can do is Goodwill, which is far from irreligious. Salvation Army is one of the few that isn't blasting Jesus Rock on the speakers when you're in there.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Also, frankly, here in the Reno area it's basically impossible to find a thrift store that's not run by incredibly religious wackadoos.

Makes sense. Nevada's got a certain reputation because of Vegas, but folks forget about how it's also next to/inside the Mormon belt.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Lol, my friend is always on the lookout for "pro-life" thrift stores, apparently they have the best deals. (BC)

[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (3 children)

They often have no damn clue what they're selling and clearly just make up prices on the spot. I've flipped a few things for a 500%+ profit from the super-ultra-Jesus-ey thrift stores. Computer hardware in particular is something they just don't grasp the value of. If you ever need a managed switch or a spare monitor, check the thrift stores.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Got Wii Sports for $1 at a thrift store like that, whereas their glassware was usually significantly above comparable eBay listings (despite the labels sometimes claiming otherwise). Unfortunately, at least where I live, the odds of computer stuff showing up are few and far between.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 7 months ago (2 children)

SA is anti-LGBTQ. They will deny them services.

[–] [email protected] 113 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Give them disks of gay and trans porn, got it.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Don't forget to label them as "Bible cartoons and movies."

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

I'm about to blow $9.99 on some custom vinyl stickers

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

This is false and dangerous misinformation to spread. The Salvation Army will absolutely not deny services to LGBTQ people. They even run initiatives to help rescue trans people from sex trafficking, and run a trans dorm in Nevada.

The problematic part of the SA is that they lobby against gay rights in politics. So you should vote with your wallet and not support them. But if you are homeless and need help, they WILL help you.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 7 months ago

This they actually fund against Queer peoples rights

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[–] [email protected] 320 points 7 months ago (13 children)

The Salvation Army is the shit tier of "charities". Not only are they anti-LGBTQ but they have a long history of anti-union action and supporting strikebreakers. Ever wonder why so many US Labor Movement songs are to the tune of hymns? It's not because of their familiar tune. It's because the Salvation Army would send their band to labor actions and play as loud as possible to try to drown out organizers and make attendees uncomfortable.

I try to be more positive on this platform but with these scumbags, I cannot. They're in the company of the Pinkertons and other murderers and thugs for hire.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I try to be more positive on this platform but with these scumbags, I cannot.

Thank you for making this effort, by the way. The community on Lemmy versus the other platform we all know about is night and day because of people like you.

And I absolutely agree. I went to read a bit about the Salvation Army and I had no idea about their stance. I'm glad I came across this post. Truly appalling.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Damn it, it's so hard to find reputable good charities. So many of them are are either religious freaks or straight up scams.

Can we share lists of actual good charities?

I usually give to doctors without borders... Fingers crossed somone doesn't reply to me they kill puppies or something....

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago

There's always Charity Navigator, they rate charities based on financial health and accountability, at least. I've not heard any controversy with it, for what it's worth

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Another great charity evaluator is https://www.givewell.org/. Their mission is to find charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar spent, and their findings are research-backed and evidence-based. 100% of your donation goes to the charity you support. They also evaluate the lowest cost to save a human life, which is currently about $3k-$5k. Their top rated charities are involved in malaria prevention:

  1. Malaria Consortium
  2. Against Malaria Foundation
  3. Helen Keller International
  4. New Incentives
[–] ICastFist 18 points 7 months ago

When charities are written in law as a way to get tax discounts, it's no wonder the majority becomes scams. Charities are also a great example of the govt failing to do it's own damn job

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (8 children)

They are also the shit tier of thrift stores. They're over-priced and their stuff isn't as good. If you're in King County, WA, Value Village is king. I've found so many great deals at Value Village. 90% of the stuff in my house is from VV.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

Greenway suggests that the Wobblies stumbled upon this modus operandi as a means of combating the street bands of the Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America, who frequently would drown out Wobbly speakers in a "cacophony of cornets and tamborines." One enterprising IWW organizer, wishing to combat the forces of obscurantist "pie in the sky" theology, "retired long enough to organize a brass band of his own.

Denisoff, R. S. (1970). The Religious Roots of the American Song of Persuasion. Western Folklore, 29(3), 175. doi:10.2307/1498356

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[–] [email protected] 133 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (17 children)

Why are you donating things you expect to be thrown out? You're just costing a charitable organization money. But fuck the salvation army.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Salvation army fed me when I was living on the streets, and they treated me with kindness and respect, that's all I know.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (17 children)
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean that's good for you. But you really might want to look into other things they've done.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I donated some spindles of burned media and programs to Salvation Army expecting they'd throw 'em out

Good for them for not throwing them away, but if you assumed they would, why "donate" (more like dump) them to charity in the first place? They're not there to provide guilt free disposal for your garbage..

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Fair question: I saw they already had a partial spindle of mixed disks for sale. Just the one though, so I couldn't be sure it wasn't a fluke. Turns out it wasn't.

The spindles weren't the only thing I donated, just so we're clear. I just mixed them in with the rest of boxes of stuff, some of it pretty good. Someone can now snag an OG release copy of Bioshock 2 or Doom 3 for a song. Oh, and the entire Half Life Collection.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (8 children)

okay correct me if I'm wrong but this is definitely illegal, right?

[–] [email protected] 51 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yup. I've volunteered at a couple thrift stores, and we'd just toss stuff like this.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 7 months ago (2 children)

SA isn't a thrift store, it's a for-profit corporation. Look at what the CEO was paid.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What thrift store isn't nowadays.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Thrift" doesn't mean it's a charity either, take for example Value Village. There are also a ton of "consignment stores" that are for profit businesses and will get real mad if you call them a thrift store.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago (22 children)

Pretty unenforceable/unlikely to ever even get caught though.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 7 months ago (4 children)

So if someone buys them, are they pirating? Lol

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago

Pirating is a morally correct action in a world where no company wants you to own anything.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Thrift stores are getting in on the piracy game I guess. Can't say I'm disappointed.

Look, I might have better copies now, but if someone wants to spend $3 and get the first 150+ episodes of Bleach and Naruto burned to KDVD I'd say they're gonna walk away happy with the deal they got.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago (4 children)

If you are donating stacks of discs to a thrift store, make sure there's nothing on them you don't want to give away first. I bought a pack of CDs from a thrift store a while ago. I checked a couple at the top of the stack before I bought them and they were blank. I used about half of them without issue and when I put the next one in the drive, it mounted and opened. Someone gave away a whole bunch of banking info and tax records. I used them for target practice, but someone certainly could have used that info for identity theft if they chose to.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I went through every single disc before I donated them, yeah. Actually I did some organization so one spindle was all Anime, another was all SciFi, so on.

...found a fair bit of porn. I kept the porn. TV series are ephemeral. Porn is eternal.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Wait a minute, you're the New Vegas guy! Based.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Copy/pasting information/matter infinitely for the benefit of everybody? Where have I seen that before?

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