Yeah, that went exactly how I expected it to go.
But, I’m sorry, am I really the bad guy here? I don’t know.
I have no idea who this “DisTrumpia” person is, I wasn’t even following him, his Tweet only showed up in my Twitter feed because someone else that I am followed had liked it. But when I saw it I was just immediately put off by it. I mean, sure, the act he described doing is nice, but then he comes to Twitter to post about doing it, and that just felt like bragging to me. Like, hey everybody, look at what a good person I am! And the thread was full of people telling them just that, praising him for his #RandomActOfKindness which just made it seem to me like that was him real motivation for it.
He was even retweeting people who were praising him.
Seriously, that’s just two tweets, but he retweeted about a dozen tweets from people who had retweeted him and praised him. And then as if all that wasn’t enough, the next day, he retweeted himself.
Because I guess all the praise that he got the first day wasn’t enough? He wanted to make sure even more people, who may have missed it the first day, had the chance read about this great act of kindness he committed?
And yeah in the original thread it was not only filled with people praising him for his act of kind of kindness but also those then recounting times they’ve done good things for people. The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like if you’re going to do a good deed it should be because the deed itself is its own reward, you shouldn’t need to inform the world about it.
I posted about this on my Facebook page, one person said “Well, if one person reads that and is inspired by it, it was worth your scorn.” I tried to make my point that my “scorn” was at his bragging, not his action, but he dismissed that. And maybe he’s right? Maybe I’m the asshole here? I’m sure to the fellow at the grocery store with no money this person’s motives are irrelevant. Someone helped him get groceries when he needed it, that’s all that matters to him. Maybe I’m judging this too harshly? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. . .
iBLOGalot 
I hear what you are saying and on a surface level I agree with you. Yes, for an emotionally secure person, the deed should have been reward enough. However, we all grow in different circumstances and clearly this guy has a need for validation. Perhaps he didn’t get that from his parents as a child, maybe he’s lonely, maybe his life’ experiences have led him to feel inadequate or less than or maybe he is just narcissistic.
Ultimately, he did a good thing and I think that trumps (no pun intended) his desire to broadcast it. The man who needed help got it. DisTrumpia didn’t have to do that. I am happy that ultimately a fellow human being was helped at his time of need. We need more of that in this world.
Nice to see your blogs again J.R.
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Thanks for reading, Becks, I’m trying to get back to it!
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Twitter is really, really bad for having any sort of complex, nuanced conversation because you can only post very short message on it. I prefer blogging and Facebook to Twitter, because it’s much easier to clarify what you mean on those platforms. I think there’s too much potential for misunderstanding on Twitter.
In any case, I can see someone Tweeting about something like this in order to encourage others to perform similar acts. Was that what this guy was doing, or was he just fishing for compliments? I don’t know.
I actually think the much larger issue that needs to be addressed is WHY is this sort of charity necessary. Much too often good deeds like this are widely praised without anyone pointing out that if everyone was actually paid a living wage and had affordable healthcare then people would not have to hope for unexpected charitable acts. These sort of anecdotes feed into the GOP’s propaganda that the government should not be in the business of helping the poor because private individuals and entities are supposedly much better positioned to do the job… which, of course, they actually are not.
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I agree with you on this. The fact that you did the deed was great but then you have to post about it not once but twice tells you that maybe your motivation for doing it wasn’t so much in just doing the deed but in the fact that you wanted to go home and tweet it for all the world to see. That tells you a lot about their character. If people do good deeds just to say “hey, look at what i’ve done!” then I don’t think that is a good thing in the long run for humanity. I have come to know and experience that the good you do is rarely recognized but as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and rest at night that is all that should matter.
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That really comes off as selfish on his part. It’s worse than liking one’s own status on FB. Sadly, it reminds me of one time when I called out someone for doing that by saying how it’s like giving yourself a high-five and he responded that he always gives himself high-fives. Geez, egotistical much?
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