As it stands now, this community serves mostly as a way to get money. That isn't a bad thing, but cash is not a 1-size-fits-all solution to every problem. Taking care of a persons needs is always priority #1, but at times, said person is unfit to handle money in a way that reliably alleviates those needs. Traditional, local, mutual-aid networks can usually address this in the form of community pot lucks, clothing exchange, etc. Here we are more or less limited to advice and more money.
Making a rule about unsolicited advice and being critical of users, limits us to just money as a tool to solve problems. Sometimes people need a tough conversation to grow as a person, sometimes people need to be reminded of the situation they are in. Yes, the capitalist system is oppressive. Yes, there are systemic issues that prevent us all from succeeding. That doesn't mean there is no situation where decision making is a factor. Sometimes, you do actually need help making better choices. This isn't to shame people for making bad decisions, sometimes there are psychiatric reasons, sometimes they genuinely don't know any better, but you still should speak up so they can potentially correct the problem and learn.
This rule effectively creates a hug-box where we all pretend that personal responsibility doesn't exist, that there is simply nothing to be done. It's incredibly infantile, it's a cope, and the people in this community deserve better than that.
EDIT: I feel I may have had a change of heart after reading the comments left by @EelBolshevikism If you are looking for a somewhat comprehensive response, those comments are likely a good starting point.
I am pretty sure "rachel" bragged about getting one over on all of us etc etc? or did I imagine that? p. sure they went off the deep end, not us
No, we went on the deep end either way. Even if she faked the whole thing and was scamming us that means we reacted the way we did (with a shitton of anger, and I remember seeing people respond this way before she was banned forever, and arguing about how she "scammed" them by buying drugs with the money, etc) to what we thought was a real homeless person
Either that or I'm seriously misremembering things which is possible. Either way there was a weird amount of rhetoric about how she was too irresponsible with money and "scammed" donators that made me really uncomfortable
I recall her calling me a f****t at the same time she was bragging about scamming me, so I don't really appreciate you suggesting the anger was unwarranted
the anger before that was unwarranted. Not going to defend transphobia
Nobody knew she was a shitty person before that. They were shitting on her for what they perceived as being a irresponsible homeless person
Please stop reading my posts in bad faith. I am not defending homophobia either. I am not defending her bigotry or even her actions. I am just pointing out the sheer ghoulishness of people's response before they knew HER ghoulishness.
Wtf why would you assume that
Disliking how a site treats what they assume to be a normal homeless person, but alsp disliking that homeless person for being a bigot after they reveal themselves to be one, is a completely reasonable position from my perspective.
Why would you even assume I'm trying to defend her bigotry? What the fuck are you even trying to imply, where is this jump coming from
I genuinely didn't even know she was a bigot until you mentioned it here, I checked out very early in the Rachel events it seems
Honestly, I was pretty upset at finding out that Rachel was back on this site and doing the exact same shit. You caught some friendly fire here and I apologize
I understand, I don't want to invalidate you and I'm sorry
No worries comrade
but they bragged about doing that tho
there's a reason they were banned....
To my memory, Rachel was actually banned for unrelated instances of certain queerphobic comments. That's according to the modlog as I recall it. Ultimately it had nothing to do with the incident you described. There was also genuine evidence that her account was actually taken over by someone else, leading to that post. But ultimately that wasn't the reason she was banned.
Before that, there was an actual transphobic witch hunt directed against her and other trans users of this site by wreckers off the site. Back when this place was new and called chapo.chat, we had regular raids coming in from kiwifarms and transphobic harassment discords pulling shit like that all the time because their attention had followed us here from the reddit banning of r/chapotraphouse.