Not sure how many people were around four years ago for the original drama, but @storyofrachel@hexbear.net was a banned user from early on the site’s history, and I’ve seen quite a bit of speculation recently that a current frequent poster in c/mutualaid is an alt of hers due to having a similar MO and personal details (such as them both living in the same city)
For context, u/storyofrachel was an unhoused trans woman, who frequently solicited money from the community and had problems with substance abuse. She eventually made a post bragging about scamming money from users here (I myself was one of the users who sent her money) and blowing it on drugs (with a picture of the drugs in question) and a
bunch of homophobic slurs (TW: homophobia, self harm).
She later claimed that her account had been hacked, which frankly I did and do not believe. She was unbanned but later banned for other shit which I don’t recall and am unable to reconstruct from the modlog and came back on a bunch of different alts, all of which were banned.
If there’s any truth to this, it is deeply fucked that this person is still here, evading her ban and scamming people four years later. As one of the people who was taken advantage of previously (and, possibly, again with this current user!), people should at least be able to make an informed decision with all available context. If we want this community to function, and I say this as someone who has sent hundreds of dollars to people over the years through this community, we should be able to guard against bad actors who are trying to take advantage of the compassion and generosity of our user base.
Edit: There’s an Instagram with both usernames on it, publicly available. It’s 100% the same person. Not going to post it because I don’t want anyone to get doxxed but yeah.
Edit edit: I’m going to go touch grass now. Anyone who is being willfully obtuse about why I made this post can read it again or any of my other comments in this thread
“Getting someone to stop using” shouldn’t be the goal of anyone here looking to do mutual aid online. There are specialized services that help with that and if you want to help people stop using go work with or volunteer at those services.
The goal here should be to keep people alive long enough to make the choice for themselves to seek the help they need. Assuming they even have access to those services, which many unhoused folks with addictions do not or cannot access those services for various reasons.
You aren’t going to get someone to stop an addiction by posting at them. All you can do is help them stay alive long enough to hopefully choose to find help
It’s so gross and protestant brained when people look at mutual aid and direct giving like they’re somehow morally responsible for trying to fix or control a person’s behavior. Like yeah they might spend the money you give on shit that won’t directly benefit them, sorry we live in such a sad, fascist society that one more good feeling seems more productive than attempting to get out of a bad situation. We’re just trying to keep people alive, not perform rehab.
I don’t ask for receipts when I give someone cash, but them not coming on here bragging about scamming me, calling me slurs, and then asking for more money is a reasonable ask, I think
yeah i’m not really commenting about your post, just that other poster’s attitude about mutual aid. obviously people who are bigoted opportunists that take all the air away are not welcome.
to clarify to you in particular, i was commenting in agreement with this point by infamousbit and nothing else, i generally stay out of something as messy as a user that has abused the mutual aid system that i know for a fact has benefited some of our most well-known and kindest people here.
Generally I don’t care how people choose to spend the money I donate to them, however if it leads to a loss of trust in our community and subsequently causing people more reluctant to donate, then it negatively impacts all other comrades who are genuinely in need of monetary aid.
On a side note, I wonder how Rachel is doing these days and sincerely hope that things work out for the better for her.
i’m really not talking about the particular user who abused it. but if their abuse leads to reactionary attitudes from others, we still have to work out those reactionary attitudes, no?
i didn’t ‘post at’ her. i politely ignored her and hoped others would wisen up and do the same. i only started passing judgement out loud when i found out 4 years later that my gut instinct was more or less correct, and she’d gone down in flames because of it