Monday's Most Active Threads

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.

The next thread I'll discuss today was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Barr and Durham", this is probably the oldest thread about which I've posted yet. Started way, way back in October 2019, the original poster linked to two articles discussing speeches by then US Attorney William Barr and John Durham, who had just been appointed as a Special Council to investigate the investigation into Donald Trump. Both Barr and Durham described the role their Catholic faith plays in their execution of justice. The original poster was concerned that both appeared to be dangers to the separation of church and state. The thread has grown to 105 pages, so I can't possibly summarize it all, or even read it for that matter. But, I can discuss why it has suddenly appeared on the most active thread list. Durham finally ended his investigation — which lasted twice as long as Robert Mueller's investigation into which Durham was looking — this week. Durham's investigation has always been a bit of a farce. Allegations were repeatedly leaked that raised expectations of arrests and convictions of any number of "deep state" figures aligned with Democrats. In the end, Durham had more acquittals than he had convictions — his sole conviction coming on a guilty plea that led to no jail time. But, throughout it all, conservatives viewed Durham and his investigation as almost as monumental as the second coming of Christ. This thread is replete with predictions that it will be the Democrats' downfall. Durham, who once had a reputation for integrity, has show an unfortunate susceptibility to right-wing conspiracy theories and an apparent inability to accept his own failures. As such, his final report is less of an accurate summary of his investigation's results, and more a last ditch attempt to poison public discourse with more innuendo and baseless claims. Both Barr and Durham have demonstrated their understanding of the importance of getting their story out first, knowing that the truth will lag far behind. The unfortunate aspect of this is that plenty of right-wingers don't care about the truth. A half-baked, mostly misleading, and baseless allegation is more than satisfactory for them. As is amply shown in this thread, they have no hesitation in promoting such things as absolute fact. The last several pages of this thread mostly involve posters arguing divergent views of Durham's report, with conservatives making sensational claims while liberals point out that, in fact, the report offers no such evidence. This episode is another example of reality having a liberal bias. The stunning thing is that rather than adjust their views to fit reality, conservatives appear determined to further live outside the bounds of reality.

Third for today is a thread titled, "Men, do you care if your wife puts effort into her appearance?" and posted in the, "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Before even reading the first post of this thread, I can predict that despite being addressed to men, it will be dominated by women. The original poster explains that she works from home and has fallen into a habit of "looking sloppy". Recently she tried to look a little nicer. Her husband didn't seem to notice so she asked him about it and he said that it didn't make a difference to him. The original poster was not offended by that response, but asks whether this is common. True to my prediction, the first page appears to be almost entirely filled by women. Several relate their own experiences or opinions that they have learned from male friends and relatives. Generally men don't seem to care about makeup, a view many of the women are not prepared to accept. One of my favorites was from a poster who claims that men who don't appreciate make up "do not understand what they are looking at". Another poster claims that most, if not all men, have no clue about makeup. Apparently, the original poster should wear makeup regardless of her husband's stated opinion because he is more than likely too ignorant to know what he likes. For their part, the few male posters do little to alter perceptions of their cluelessness. Most of the males that I could identify appear fixated on weight above everything else. Based on their input, women can basically dress in burlap sacks with no makeup whatsoever and still be admired for their beauty so long as they are thin. On the other hand, other male posters, while still primarily interested in weight, expressed appreciation for women with curves. The thread, not all of which I've read, appears to be mostly women explaining what men appreciate, even, or especially, when men disagree. Just when I thought that this thread could not become more ridiculous, a poster managed to work Meghan and Harry into the discussion. Apparently even Harry doesn't know that he appreciates makeup. In summation, both women and men agree that men almost never express appreciation for make-up and will generally deny preferring it. But, the men are either lying or are too stupid to have a valid opinion. Therefore, women should wear makeup.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum. Titled, "How to handle: Terminally ill neighbor, helping with kid who is crossing several lines", the original poster explains that their neighbor is dying of ALS and they have been trying to help his family out as much as possible. They have been having the neighbor's children over more and carpooling to lacrosse practice. One of the children is a daughter the same age as the original poster's daughter. That girl has always been unfriendly or even hostile to the original poster's daughter but recently texted several of the girls' friends a picture of the original poster's daughter saying that she was a slut. This infuriated the original poster. Her husband wants to talk to the other parents, but the original poster is worried about putting this on their plate while they are dealing with a terminal illness. Almost universally posters support talking to the other mother. Their main argument is that the original poster's first priority has to be her daughter. One poster suggests talking to the other girl directly and telling her not to repeat the behavior and only then talking to the mom, but only to inform her of things rather than with the expectation that she do anything herself. There are exceptions to the general consensus, however, with one poster thinking that bothering parents with this problem under such circumstances would be worse than anything the girl has done. Some posters attempted to find a sort of middle ground in which the original poster didn't tell the other mother anything but also stopped interacting with the girl. Some posters suggested talking to the school counselor about the issue. The challenge those responding attempt to address is how to respect the other family's grief while still standing up for the original poster's daughter. It is impossible to say which, if any, of the responses get that balance correct and several of the posters, by their own admission, clearly prioritize one over the other. Balance be damned.