It happened again yesterday. Someone sincerely posted a picture of barbecue they were excited about eating. Twitter tore them to shreds. The ribs looked very dry. We get it.
There were, of course, some good lines. That will happen when tens of thousands of people are making jokes about the same subject matter. But in the end, the poor place that sold the ribs (a little spot down 169 from Shakopee, Minnesota—i.e. a place where no one should be expecting world-class barbecue) got made fun of to smithereens, and the guy who tweeted the picture went from saying he was “excited for this” to “it did taste better than it looked” to “…trying to defend something I didn’t even do. I just ate the mediocre ribs. Probably will not be back.” Should he have stuck to his guns? Yes. But it wasn’t like he was saying those ribs were going to be the best ribs in the world. And the restaurant, to be clear, asked for none of this.
If it’s someone posting about the barbecue in Brooklyn, yeah, let ‘em have it. But in this situation, the Minnesotans weren’t hurting anybody. Let them be.
we live and die by the ruthlessness of the internet.
all must serve. all must die.