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The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Physicians Assistant yelling “HELP ME” while stealing a CitiBike ?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. For the cave dwellers out there who have yet to become familiar with this story, it involves a video that was originally posted on TikTok but, after going viral was circulating just about everywhere. In the video, a woman is shown sitting on a CitiBike — a New York City bikeshare service — while a young man holds the bike's handlebar. The woman is yelling "help, help me!" while the man calmly insists that it is his bike. He holds a phone in his hand that appears to show a CitiBike rental while the indicator on the bike shows that the bike has been rented. The woman at some point starts to cry, though the authenticity of her tears is questioned by people in the video. Eventually, the women gets off the bike and walks away. Why is a thread about this yesterday's most active thread, you ask? Well, I left out some context. The woman is White and the young man is Black. To many, this seemed like an example of a White woman weaponizing her screams for help and tears against an innocent Black man and, as is the tendency these days, was enough to cause the video to go viral. The original poster of this thread posted because she didn't understand what all the fuss was about and wanted it explained to her. Several posters helpfully explained what was happening in the video and others added additional context. As the thread goes on, posters scrutinize the video as if it were the Zapruder film, engaging in a number of disputes about what is shown and what is not shown. Most posters felt that the woman was at fault, with some questioning the state of her mental health. Several reserved judgement because they believed the video was either inconclusive or may have been edited. A number of posters seemed to bend over backwards trying to exonerate the woman, causing exasperated posters to complain about the lengths to which people will go to excuse the behavior of White women. Several White women, on the other hand, agreed that the woman's behavior was unacceptable, but questioned whether she deserved to be the victim of an Internet mob. One poster posted about a statement by the woman's employer saying that they were looking into the incident and several posters expected her to be fired. Fundamentally, this incident is not about the bike, but the long history of White women exploiting prejudices to the detriment, and even endangerment, of Black men. But, on the spectrum ranging from Emmett Till to Central Park Amy, frankly, this incident should not even register. Unfortunately however, Internet pile-ons don't generally involve much in the way of nuance.