Took me 3 months to forgive that influencer for the fake charity thing

Honestly I was one of those people who was totally ready to cancel this travel blogger forever after she got caught pocketing money from a GoFundMe she set up for a local animal shelter in Austin. She posted this long apology video crying and all and I just rolled my eyes. But then about a month later she posted a full breakdown with receipts showing she actually donated double the amount to three different shelters and even started a volunteer program. My girlfriend who works at one of those shelters said she's been showing up every Saturday morning at 7am for months now and never posts about it on social media. Ngl that changed my mind completely because the apology was nice but the consistent action over time is what actually convinced me. Has anyone else had that moment where you just had to admit the person really did turn it around?

2 comments

2 Comments

murray.robert11d ago

You nailed it with that part about "consistent action over time" because that's the whole ballgame right there. Words are cheap, especially on the internet where anyone can type up a tearful apology and call it a day. But showing up at 7am on a Saturday for months on end without posting about it? That's the kind of thing that actually costs you something - your time, your energy, your sleep. In my experience, people who are just looking for a quick redemption arc burn out after a couple weeks once the attention dies down. The fact that she kept going after the spotlight moved on to the next drama tells me she probably felt genuine guilt and wanted to make it right for real. I'd take that kind of quiet, boring consistency over a viral apology video every single time.

adam_baker11d ago

Hold up though, I'm not totally sold. You're giving her a lot of credit for just showing up somewhere. Like, she could have just been guilt tripped into it by her friends or managers. I've seen plenty of people get pressured into doing volunteer work just to save face, then they quietly quit once nobody's watching. Remember that influencer last year who posted about building wells in Africa? Turned out she was just there for three days and her team staged all the photos. The whole thing crumbled when someone checked flight records. I'm not saying this woman's a fraud, but I also don't think we should hand out hero medals for doing the bare minimum of being a decent human being after messing up.