Reddit has always been a place where you can find spontaneous generosity with a fun twist. Just one example: there was a popular sub many years ago called "randomactsofpizza" where Redditors would send pizza to other Redditors who were hungry or down on their luck.
I don't know why we should assume Redditors are less charitable than people at large when if anything they've demonstrated otherwise.
The subreddit is /r/Random_Acts_Of_Pizza and still in operation. /r/RandomActsOfPizza was a copycat started with the explicit purpose of bartering nudes for pizza (forbidden in the original). It was later shut down when it turned out it was run by a scammer.
On the gorilla front, the AR15 subreddit helped the anti-poaching squads with technical advice and parts to help protect gorillas.
It's a good venue for charity and people helping others.
No one who has spent much time with humans should be shocked that the same people are also sardonic assholes at times.
There is still an imgur user doing this regularly.
I think username is pizzaguy
They used to do it on their own, and now they organise pizza nights, where a bunch of users sign up to donate, and those who need pizza sign up to receive.
For people who call themselves "retards" and "apes" with the perchant for doing reckless if not outlandish sh#t - I think it's very much in character and quite apt.
What you are missing is that this allows people who are otherwise unable to help to do so.
Helping animals has always been somewhat more popular than helping people because people have more agency and also tend to suck.
What do you suggest we do for the people struggling in front of us? Also that is a broad brush you are painting a lot of people with. It's likely that many /r/wallstreetbets users donate to other charities. Americans tend to be quite generous.
I don’t have hard facts, but I believe I’ve read that basically the generosity of the American people is largely the same amount as the surplus taxes of Europeans. And in better functioning European countries that money will benefit people much more than animals — so in a way it helps explain the difference in the quality of social nets.
I don't know why we should assume Redditors are less charitable than people at large when if anything they've demonstrated otherwise.