Everyone take a seat. We’re going to stray from our typical topics of dick jokes and boob praise in order to have a serious conversation about social injustices. Homeless people exist, my friends. No matter how much we try to look at the ground or pretend that we’re looking at a really interesting thing in the sky when we pass them, homeless people are real and they need to be treated with respect as human beings. Even the homeless dudes who sell drugs outside my local library or the ones inside that library watching porn – they all deserve their dignity.
That’s why ideas like the now defunct “HoboJacket” are supposedly bad for humanity. What exactly is HoboJacket? The philanthropy’s founder, MIT student Jin Pan, explains that it is “a competitive platform where you can donate your rival college’s jackets and shirts to the unfortunate because it’s terribly unfortunate that people actually went to that other college.”
For example, I hate Marshall, so I would donate some Herd gear and $10 to HoboJacket and it would serve two purposes: 1) A person who needs warm clothing would get just that; and 2) People would see a homeless person wearing a Marshall jacket. Basically, because homeless people are all dirty with their big beards, crazy eyes and B.O., this would be embarrassing for Marshall fans.
Now, imagine how this idea has gone over with social activists. Go ahead and check the HoboJacket website for yourself. Yeah, it’s gone over about as well as a fart in a spacesuit.
An Apology
I thought I had a clever idea for leveraging existing college rivalries to raise money to provide warm clothing for the homeless.
But I did not actually understand that my gimmick was dependent on objectifying the homeless.
The site’s so-called edgy manner was designed to spread quickly, but I realize now that it also allowed my insensitivity to go viral.
I wish I could rewind time to Sunday and reverse the decision to take the site live.
But time is irreversible and I’ve learned a hard lesson.
I’m sorry that I offended so many, and I’m disappointed in my own lack of judgment.
I’ve matured a lot over the last 3 days in listening to the flood of more mature voices out there.
I especially apologize for using those who can’t as easily speak up for themselves.JP.
From a purely humanitarian standpoint, yes, HoboJacket is wrong. It is exploitative and just all-around dickish. But is it really worth calling this dude Hitler on Reddit and acting like he’s the worst person since, well, Hitler? I mean, he’s actually doing something good. Sure, it’s self-serving and mean-spirited, but do you think the man freezing his ass off on the street cares if he’s wearing a Notre Dame sweater as a form of mockery?
I just don’t see the big deal. It’s not like we’ve never exploited the homeless before.
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Fucking PC bullshit. Instead of actually helping people you once again say nay because it “objectifies” them. Do you think they care what warm clothing school name it has? Fuck no. I’m sick of everyone who is spoiled, compared to the homeless, and saying well you aren’t doing it is a pure charity way then you obviously are doing something wrong. NOPE. Helping people was the end objective to this not making rival school look hilariously stupid. The one’s who lose in this situation are the supposed ones that are being objectified. What about those shirts of the losing Super bowl teams that we send to Africa huh?
We have to fly over there and take them all back now. Otherwise, we’re no better than Kony.
^^Burnsy with the…burn(sy)!
I am seriously pissed about this. What a bunch of shit. This site was a brilliant idea and certainly would have done more for the less fortunate than every single one of the blowhards who complained about it have combined.
Fuck them. I’m starting my own Hobojacket, and I won’t be a pussy about it.
There are people who’s job depends on there being a ‘homeless problem’. If the homeless were to disappear their jobs would be gone and thus they would become homeless. It’s a vicious cycle.
Yeah, it’s a lucrative racket. There are literally dozens of dollars to be made.
Don’t get me started on those fatcat soup kitchens.
All those sociology grads have to find work somewhere.
The guy had donated 660 jackets to the homeless before the site shut down. That’s 660 unfortunate people who now have something they didnt have before to keep them warm for the winter. Unless my definition of “exploited” is out of date, the homeless were certainly not the ones being exploited, the college rivalries were. Ironically the homeless were the ones actually benefiting from the exploitation. Bumfights exploited the homeless. This did not. By exploitation, the opponents of this venture meant that someone else was getting credit for doing something good, but because it wasnt politically correct and it was distasteful the end result didnt matter. And more importantly, why didnt I think of that? Thats what the opponents meant by “exploiting the homeless.”
The unfortunate problem is that people want to help the homeless, but only around the holidays and in the NorthEast, winter when its cold. The other 9 months out of the year, people dont give a shit and simply pretend the homeless dont exist. Then these same people get pissed when someone actually does something and more importantly has FUN doing it. Charity isnt supposed to be fun, you are supposed to be somber and depressed while doing it apparently. Thats the main reason I didnt do any charity work for a long time. Its too depressing. Now I run for charity and I have a good time while doing it. Guess Im exploiting all those poor kids with neurological diseases that I run for and raise money for…
this guy wins. Well said sir.
Yup.
“Bum Fights” exploit the homeless.
This site exploited college rivalries, to help the homeless.
Very eloquently and directly said, sir. Thanks.
If only this idea had been around during Bum Fights. We could have given them all college hoodies and recreate March Madness in a frigid December alleyway.
I now immediately change my opinion on Bum Fights.
You know what’s way worse than this? Whatever Peter Dante was trying to raise money for in his Don’t-Be-A-LAX-Bro video.
Or simply Peter Dante.
Calling it “HoboJacket” probably wasn’t the best place to start.
Actually it was a great place to start, because it was a great name to draw people in, the first step in getting them to donate. It was nearly as brilliant as the idea itself.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Here in Cypress Creek we just turn the homeless into mailboxes, or tires.
[i.imgur.com]
Rudy Giuliani had them all secretly killed…
Kind of sucks, since the end result was good and homeless got clothing.
If some dumb website tricks morons into actually contributing to the plight of the homeless, I call it a win for society. I highly doubt the people that thought they were sticking it to their rivals by clothing a homeless person are the type to donate their time or money otherwise.
Also, if I’m cold, I’ll take a jacket from anybody, even if they think they’re mocking me. Being cold sucks ass!
In actuality, if you bought a jacket of your rival team, wouldn’t part of the sales go towards said team?
So you’d be contributing money to the rival school, donating clothing to cold homeless people, and laughing at said homeless people wearing the rival teams jacket. win / win / win.
Haha, good point!
“Take that ya Duke shitheads, I just spent 10 bucks at your school store through a 3rd party!”
I’m sure some guy freezing his nuts off is happy he’s not being objectified. If it’s one thing people dying of hypothermia have it’s their school pride.
Why don’t we relaunch it as “HOJACKET”? Y’all can fill in the rest.
It’s too bad this was shut down, because A) the exact argument BlackToothGrin had and B) as a UConn fan, I have about eight rival schools who dicked us over in realignment that I want to punish. That’d be eight jackets to the homeless.
Maybe I’m naive, but I’ve always thought helping people in need was a good thing, even if the motive was skewed.
First of all let me say that I don’t really have a problem with this.
I get what people are saying here in the comments, but I think the point against it isn’t “you cannot help the homeless that way.” I think it’s “why don’t you just help the homeless without the malice.”
Here’s the two choices: you are freezing and cold. You need a coat. You could take a coat from the person who is going to laugh when you wear it, or you could take a coat from someone that’s just a coat.
The people calling him Hitler are crazy, and again I don’t have a huge problem with this, but I do think that painting either side of this story with a broad brush is a disservice. He isn’t an asshole who just wants to turn the homeless into a billboard mocking his rivals and people against him aren’t all lunatics who don’t like fun.
I guess my point is that he should be able to do this but I wouldn’t donate to him.
I can get behind this. If this idea offends you, but it motivates you to do it your own way, its a good thing. Homeless peeps still gettin jackets.
All I know is that if I ever get mega-rich, I’ll make fun of a sports team by donating money to a hospital so they can build the Yankees Suck Pediatric Oncology wing.