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This is a bunch of gatekeeping with “yeah, they save lives, but might cause harm”. Has anyone actually done analysis to determine if a bunch of amateurs is actu

This is a bunch of gatekeeping with “yeah, they save lives, but might cause harm”. Has anyone actually done analysis to determine if a bunch of amateurs is actually a net negative? Search and rescue people get upset by these people not following authority, but that’s a standard response anytime amateurs show up to something. It’s the same dilemma of allowing regular people to serve food to large groups. Sure, discourage it if there is enough actual food to serve the survivors, but you sure as hell shouldn’t be doing it when the alternative is starvation. The same applies when you have dudes like this pilot who was flying where nobody else was. The people out there had 0% chance of rescue without him. Grounding “the cowboy” is just an authority flex.

_djo_ 2y ago
Do you not think that, if every disaster response and search & rescue organisation is saying the same thing about people just rocking up to get involved without the right coordination, that they might have a reason for it rather than just 'gatekeeping'?
- jquery 2y ago
  Heavy downvotes on all the reasonable comments throughout this thread. Made me suspect there was more going on than just this incident and yep, Fox News and conservatives are trying to push an agenda filled with misinformation about how nobody is being allowed to help.
nrjames 2y ago
Sure, talk to the American Red Cross Society, which is the only nonprofit with a Congressional mandate to provide services during disasters. During Katrina, their Volunteer to Paid Employee ratio was about 64 to 1. It literally is an organization that exists to train volunteers for providing appropriate response during disasters. Is it bureaucratic and bloated? Sure, but its entire job is to get trained people in during these situations. Likewise, the Southern Baptist Convention provides most of the mobile kitchen that the ARCS uses (though they have no mandate to do so). There are official channels for getting volunteers trained up for these situations. The untrained folks have a tendency to make things worse, which is why the authorities usually don't want them there.

_djo_ 2y ago

Do you not think that, if every disaster response and search & rescue organisation is saying the same thing about people just rocking up to get involved without the right coordination, that they might have a reason for it rather than just 'gatekeeping'?

jquery 2y ago
Heavy downvotes on all the reasonable comments throughout this thread. Made me suspect there was more going on than just this incident and yep, Fox News and conservatives are trying to push an agenda filled with misinformation about how nobody is being allowed to help.

nrjames 2y ago

Sure, talk to the American Red Cross Society, which is the only nonprofit with a Congressional mandate to provide services during disasters. During Katrina, their Volunteer to Paid Employee ratio was about 64 to 1. It literally is an organization that exists to train volunteers for providing appropriate response during disasters. Is it bureaucratic and bloated? Sure, but its entire job is to get trained people in during these situations. Likewise, the Southern Baptist Convention provides most of the mobile kitchen that the ARCS uses (though they have no mandate to do so). There are official channels for getting volunteers trained up for these situations. The untrained folks have a tendency to make things worse, which is why the authorities usually don't want them there.