ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: You my friend are an idiot

Warning: Rant Ahead

Last night, John challenged me to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  Here's the video of me accepting the challenge:

 

 

The ALS Challenge has two purposes: 1) Raise awareness about ALS and 2) Raise money for ALS research.  And as Will Oremus at Slate.com says, the challenge is clearly meeting at least goal #2:

And the campaign is clearly working: The ALS Association told Fox Boston that it has raised $1.35 million in the past two weeks. It raised just $22,000 in the same period last year.

That’s welcome news for the 12,000 Americans who have the disease, which is devastating and ultimately fatal, and for their families and future generations.

Now before I go much further, I will admit that we have a family friend (father of our kids' friends) who has been battling ALS for the past three years and I may not be fully objective when it comes to my views below, but anyway, if the campaign is working so well, then WHY DOES WILL OREMUS SPEND THE REST OF HIS ARTICLE CRITICIZING THE ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE?

Yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that, for most of the people posting ice bucket videos of themselves on Facebook, Vine, and Instagram, the charity part remains a postscript. Remember, the way the challenge is set up, the ice-drenching is the alternative to contributing actual money. Some of the people issuing the challenges have tweaked the rules by asking people to contribute $10 even if they do soak themselves. Even so, a lot of the participants are probably spending more money on bagged ice than on ALS research.

Yes, the challenge is a bit odd...either pour cold water on your head, or donate money. But as Will pointed out in the previous paragraph, people ARE donating. 

So why be cynical Will? 

But Will's idiocy doesn't end with this slight critique...he goes on:

As for “raising awareness,” few of the videos I’ve seen contain any substantive information about the disease, why the money is needed, or how it will be used. More than anything else, the ice bucket videos feel like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own zaniness, altruism, and/or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt.

Will, Will, Will, we live in a time when messages have to be conveyed in less than 6 seconds and less than 140 characters.  Not a lot of information can be conveyed in that time.  But we also live in a time when the most extraordinary invention ever is available, in our hands, at all times:  GOOGLE. 

Ever heard of it? 

Now let me demonstrate how GOOGLE might actually be helping with the awareness component you seem so concerned about.  Here is a Facebook post from a family member:

I saw somebody else post the question: What is ALS? Do you know? There is a huge effort to "raise awareness" and I've seen a hundred friends dump ice water on themselves in the name of ALS awareness and I just had to look it up. I knew it was Lou Gehrig's disease, but nothing more. Did you know anything more than the ball player who had it? I'm supposed to dump water on myself soon. Thought I should look it up.

See how that works Will?  The poster was only slightly aware of ALS.  He was challenged to dump water on himself.  He wondered why?  He Googled ALS.  Now he is MORE AWARE!

Amazing.

So what, oh wise-Will, do you propose is a better way to raise awareness?

That’s why I’m proposing what is sure to be an unpopular alternative to the #icebucketchallenge. It’s called the no ice bucket challenge, and it works like this:

1. Do not fetch a bucket, fill it with ice, or dump it on your head.
2. Do not film yourself or post anything on social media.
3. Just donate the damn money, whether to the ALS Association or to some other charity of your choice. And if it’s an organization you really believe in, feel free to politely encourage your friends and family to do the same.

via www.slate.com

BRILLIANT! Your solution Will is to DO NOTHING other than what was being done before?  Hope people become magically aware?  I'm pretty sure the folks who have been trying to raise awareness about ALS for the past 75 years are pretty happy with how this campaign is working.  It's the best thing that has happened for their cause since Lou Gehrig declared himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Donations follow awareness.

Research follows donations.

Progress follows research.

So Will, here is my suggestion for how you can help raise awareness for ALS. 

SHUT UP.

No seriously, just shut up.

It makes no sense, for idiots like you to weigh in.  Why criticize something that clearly has had a positive impact and at worst a campaign to which others are indifferent?  If you don't want to support the cause, don't.  That's your choice.  Just as it is the choice of 322,860 people and counting to use #ALSICEBUCKETCHALLENGE on Instagram to post videos of themselves being naive enough to participate in such a collosal waste of time (SARC).

Even if only a tiny fraction of those posters are now more aware, well, I think the conclusion is obvious. 

At least to most.

Unless you're an idiot.