party A: [dashing off a post in 10 seconds without thinking] it sucks that i can't get a 40oz coffee at starbucks
party A: [replying to their first post] i don't want to do that very often and i know they can't stock huge cups but some days i could really go for it, haha
party B: [replying solely to the first post] yeah you're right. anyone who drinks less than 32oz of coffee in a sitting is a fucking reprobate who should hang and starbucks are fucking fascists for not having larger cups
party B: [proceeds to post the above 500,000 times]
party C: [coming in ten minutes later] uh. i get the jitters after drinking a single normal 12oz cup of coffee. insulting me over that is bizarre. also i work at starbucks and almost nobody orders anything larger than a grande, we can't afford to carry huge cups.
[half an hour later, party A and C are fighting tooth and claw over a disagreement they don't actually have.]
no matter what you say, some fuckwit will show up and say something completely different and utterly monstrous while implying it's the thing you meant. most of the time, you will not realize this has happened until you've spent three days screaming at people who think you said something you didn't. this makes it clear that posting any actual thoughts online is a mistake
You know, it's fucked up that they make you drive to get coffee when you need coffee to be alert at the car. Usually my smart remarks are written with me trying to make some sort of stupid metaphor about the subject matter and meta-discourse but for some reason this time I'm just mad about coffee.
15 years ago you could just post something dumb as shit because you felt like it and the only people who might possibly reply would just go "haha yeah!" and the only reason it's not like that anymore is because 90% of social media posters have convinced themselves that A) you HAVE to stop everyone from posting something Incorrect because there's some unseen yet massive group of people who are barely smart enough to breathe who will take it as the new word of the lord jesus christ, and B) assuming those people exist, you can somehow stop them from being dangerous disasters solely by policing the extremely tiny group of people you personally observe on social media.
i was going to say that this is a totally unrelated observation versus the original post but you know what, it isn't. it stems from the same thing: the assumption that anything anyone says online matters. it starts mattering when people decide to have a fight over it, up until that point it's just someone posting dumb shit that'll be forgotten if it's just left alone.
Hell is empty and all the devils are bored and posting
