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I may have mentioned this, but I was born a bastard and worked hard to become an asshole. What makes me an asshole? Somebody who isn't an asshole wouldn't think the following, let alone post it.

I've become extremely cynical about people requesting donations and calling it "mutual aid". Most people requesting help genuinely need it, but will never be in a position to help me should I ever need it, so from them "mutual aid" is just a disingenuous euphemism for charity.

I refuse on principle to engage in charity: the principle being that I already pay taxes and that the taxes I pay should be used primarily to ensure that those in need get the help they need, regardless of who they are or whether they seem "deserving". Of course, that's not how it actually works, but I'm not sitting atop billions of dollars in wealth accumulated by shafting consumers, stiffing workers, and evading taxes so it's not really my problem.

Likewise with "allyship". The way it's used nowadays, it seems like a demand upon the "privileged" to give of oneself without any expectation of reciprocity. I suppose that whether one responds to such demands depends on one's sense of noblesse oblige. For my part, I'm hardly noble, and I don't see myself as particularly privileged, so I have no sense of obligation toward people who seem to see me as nothing but a means to their ends and thus try to exploit me by playing on what vestigial idealism I still possess.

Instead, I've come to think that Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo had it right when he said to Alfred's friends:

“Perhaps what I am about to say will appear strange to you gentlemen, socialists, progressives, humanitarians as you are, but I never worry about my neighbor, I never try to protect society which does not protect me -- indeed, I might add, which generally takes no heed of me except to do me harm -- and, since I hold them low in my esteem and remain neutral towards them, I believe that society and my neighbor are in my debt.”

I won't burn down the village just to feel its warmth, but if somebody else strikes a match, I will get involved lest my own house burn, too. I'm selfish, but not stupid, and my myopia primarily affects my eyesight, not my thinking.