The Most Active Threads over the Weekend

The most active thread over the weekend was titled, "President Biden acknowledged 4 year old granddaughter" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This thread was started after President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden provided a statement to People Magazine discussing the daughter of Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts about whom the Bidens had previously been silent. The child has been the subject of considerable legal contention between Hunter Biden and Roberts and Republicans have been vociferous in their criticism of President Biden for not having previously acknowledged the girl. As could be expected in today's political environment, the statement did nothing to stem the flood of Republican attacks on Biden. Indeed, even the original poster claimed, "The statement today seems politically motivated". In addition, Republicans simply moved the goalposts. When a Biden-supporter pointed out that Republicans had complained that Biden had not acknowledged the child and were now complaining that he had discussed her, a Biden-critic replied saying, "Biden hasn’t laid out plans to welcome her to either the [White House] or the Biden family home". As anti-Biden posters sought to portray the controversy surrounding the child as a significant moral failure by President Biden, pro-Biden posters suggested that the moral outrage was selective given the moral shortcomings evidenced by former President Donald Trump. For instance, Trump reportedly urged his former wife Marla Maples to get an abortion when she was pregnant with Tiffany and Trump has often given significantly less attention to Tiffany than his other children. Similarly, Biden supporters reminded Republicans of the support demonstrated for Herschel Walker even after all of his paternity issues were revealed. In a classic case of hair-splitting, a Biden-critic responded asking, "Was he running for president?" The more relavent question would have been, "is he a Democrat?" given that Republican morality concerns tend to be entirely partisan in nature. On the other hand, a small number of Democrats in the thread expressed discomfort with the way the Bidens have handled this issue. But, one poster in the thread described themselves as "a person born to an unwed mother" and expressed considerable understanding for Joe and Jill Biden. In this poster's view, it was entirely appropriate for the President and Fist Lady to remain aloof from the conflict between Hunter and Roberts. As the poster explained, "if Hunter has no relationship with the child then the Bidens can't either."

The second most active thread was posted in the "Travel Discussion" forum. Titled, "Why all these stories about fliers not wanting to give up seats?", the original poster linked to an article in the Daily Mail about a TikTok creator who had filmed herself smiling after refusing to give up her seat so that a mother could sit closer to her child. In this case, the woman received considerable support because her assigned seat is considered a highly-coveted one and the "child" in question is 13 years old. I have discussed threads about giving up seats in order to unite families at least twice previously. Moreover, this thread is 19 pages long and, hence, too long for me to read. Therefore, I am not going to say much about this thread. From what I did read, posters leaned heavily in support for the passenger not giving up her seat. It appears that the length of this thread is not due to discussion of the incident highlighted by the original poster, but rather the larger topic of giving up seats. Several posters appear to feel strongly that airlines should do more to keep families together while others think this is an issue that passengers should resolve by planning ahead.

The next most active thread over the weekend was titled, "Who is this Great Falls racist and ahole man?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster embedded a TikTok video by creator TizzyEnt involving the aftermath of a minor automobile collision in Great Falls, VA. Apparently a White male had rear-ended an Asian woman and there was a dispute when he was asked to provide his insurance information. In the video, the woman — who apparently is the one who filmed the encounter — is heard demanding the man's insurance card which he says he doesn't have. He tells her to speak English and yells at her. At one point, the man refers to the woman with a derogatory, racist term. That man also sounds as if he might be drunk. Understandably, many posters are appalled by the man's behavior and supportive of the woman. But, several posters express fatigue with Internet mobs being riled up in this manner. In particular, the TikTok creator, TizzyEnt is the target of criticism due to a feeling that he is "a real bully and mob inciter". A small number of posters questioned whether the incident really occurred as reported. More reasonably, a number of posters expressed concern about "doxxing" perpetrators like this. They warned that the wrong person might be identified and harm done to innocent people. I removed posts in which the man or his apparent business were identified for this reason. There was also an effort to disassociate the man from Great Falls, with several posters trying to tie him to other locales.

The next three most active threads were all school-related threads that I've already discussed. That means that the next thread is actually the seventh most active over the weekend. Posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the thread is titled, "Advice needed: Sister-in-law’s touring dozens of no-name colleges with student-athlete daughter". The original poster says that her niece plays a sport which her parents want her to continue playing in college. Therefore, the girl and her mother have been touring a large number of colleges in preparation for submitting college applications. The original poster has two concerns. First, she says that her niece is simply not very good at the sport and should give it up. Second, the family is not wealthy and has no college savings. Therefore, the family will have to borrow significant funds to pay for the colleges being visited. The original poster seems to believe that her niece doesn't really like the sport and will quit at her first opportunity. Moreover, she doubts the girl even likes the colleges being visited, which she described as "no-name". Therefore, the original poster wants to know what she can to to prevent the family from making what she views as a terrible financial decision and, instead, doing something that is more in her niece's best interests. There is considerable sentiment among those who respond that this is simply not the original poster's business and that she should stay out of it. Posters also point out that the original poster's niece might not only be a good enough athlete for the schools' teams, but might even receive merit aid or an athletic scholarship that could bring down the cost of attending. I haven't read much of this thread but I noticed that the original poster refused to provide any details about either the colleges in question or the sport. Therefore, posters came to their own conclusions with posters getting into fights about "no name" colleges. Several posters described relatively unknown schools that they believe to be quite good while posters who haven't heard of those schools expressed doubt that they could be all that great. Also, several posts are critical of parents who devote significant time, effort, and money to supporting their children's sports in the hope that there will be a payoff come college application time.