Oh? Strawmanning isn't respectable? Then why is the snipe at volunteering abroad made at "gap year" students? I'm not above flinging shite right back at Tumblr to show how gross generalizations and assumptions are useless - especially their favored straw man snipe, which in this case is students on break... who are apparently too ignorant to be of help and only want to "look helpful. It's the same shitty "allies don't care! They just wanna look trendy and steal our safe spaces" bollocks we saw after SCOTUS ruled on gay marriage. But I digress. Back to their snipe at students: Are those students incabaple of being qualified in needed fields? Are students all they send? Do groups like Peace Corps allow anybody to go abroad? I'm calling bullshit on Tumblr by reducing their arguments to the insane. Their whole sentiment is to bitch about privilege rather than a potentially valid criticism which ed_on_resdit touched on - t-shirt drops can have unintended consequences of hurting somebody's business. But Tumblr didn't do that. They equated this with shitty tourism - "work" that is really an excuse to go on vacation. And Philanthropic organizations like Peace Corps do hire out contractors and other professionals. Anecdotal, but I went to Mexico to build basic homes in slums (50x50 two room shacks with attic space) and we were teamed up with contractors - the volunteers, many of us were students, did heavy lifting, cooking, and painting to go along side the professionally measured, cut, and constructed wood frames. Similarly, my neighbor was an assistant English teacher in Africa before she came back to get her masters in English Lit; she taught kids at the local Catholic Church English. But Tumblr didn't simply call out the useless kids. They called out "voluntourism" as a general rule. No nuance. No exceptions. Just shitty "stay away" logic from Tumblr.