this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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politics

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Cross-posted from "How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns" by @Domiku@beehaw.org in !usnews@beehaw.org


A CNN investigation reveals how deceptive political fundraising has misled elderly Americans into giving away millions of dollars

Excerpt:

But as dementia robbed him of his reasoning abilities, he began making online political donations over and over again — eventually telling his son he believed he was part of a network of political operatives communicating with key Republican leaders. In less than two years, the man became one of the country’s largest grassroots supporters of the Republican Party, ultimately giving away nearly half a million dollars to former President Donald Trump and other candidates. Now, the savings account he spent his whole life building is practically empty.

The story of this unlikely political benefactor is one of many playing out across the country.

More than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and consumer advocacy groups reviewed by CNN, along with an analysis of campaign finance data and interviews with dozens of contributors and their family members, show how deceptive political fundraisers have victimized hundreds of elderly Americans and misled those battling dementia or other cognitive impairments into giving away millions of dollars — far more than they ever intended. Some unintentionally joined the ranks of the top grassroots political donors in the country as they tapped into retirement savings and went into debt, contributing six-figure sums through thousands of transactions.


I really hate the "interactive" stories like this where they spoon feed you details as you scroll, but about 1/3 down is the actual article.

all 27 comments
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[–] zcd@lemmy.ca 62 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And in one case an elderly dementia patient is the republican nominee!

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They only refunded 1/3? What a bag of dicks. That’s elder abuse.

Subscription plans for donations? We truly are on the worst timeline.

[–] fed0sine@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Eh, NPR mentions a "sustained donation" during their monthly support pledge drive.

There's also Patreon for ongoing support for content, and newspaper/media outlet subscriptions for ~~un~~ less-biased coverage like The Guardian.

I'm not defending elder financial abuse by any means, only widening the lens with examples.

[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 31 points 2 weeks ago

Unrelated to US politics, but I genuinely worry about how social media is fucking over the older generations.

My mother in law is 76, and only gets her news from Facebook these days. On Saturday she told me that Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, has been voted out during the week. Fuck knows where she got that from because it’s just not true. She doesn’t even live in London, but he’s a demon to the kind of ‘news’ sources she’ll read because he’s a lefty who does lefty things.

It’s mad.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Harris should strongly put her foot down on this. No dem organization should be employing pre-checked recurring donation boxes. If that's what it takes to win, then we don't deserve to win. Let the US turn into a militaristic Christian dictatorship before we cheat our own.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago

We need to go to further and make pre-checked recurring illegal.

[–] Orbituary@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

While you're 100% correct, this is why Dems lose. The GOP doesn't make thus sort of morality check. They just say, "survival of the fittest," and move on.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

And that is why having laws prohibiting things like fraud and political dirty tricks and then actually enforcing them, Merrick Garland, you useless piece of shit is essential to preserve democracy.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Not necessarily. I think dems lose for quite a lot of different reasons, and not sufficiently abusing the trust of their own people is not one of them.

[–] Random123@fedia.io 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

That would be ideal. In a less than ideal world, though, we should still remember the importance of ethics as a principle and how some voters at least, do take note of it.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 weeks ago

I consider this elder abuse and I am deeply disappointed that both sides seem to revel in this.

[–] verdantbanana@lemmy.world -3 points 2 weeks ago

While many mainstream Democratic candidates have backed away from the practice, both the Trump and Harris campaigns have recently been using donation pages with pre-checked recurring boxes to raise money, a CNN analysis of fundraising emails and Facebook and Instagram ads found.

because the two main parties that have stolen our country have no solid campaign platform to run on that would attract voters other than football politics and have to resort to these kinds of tactics