A few days ago, a woman logged onto Twitter.com and shared a vignette from her life.
"My husband and I wake up every morning and bring our coffee out to our garden and sit and talk for hours," @lilpantmami told the world. "Every morning. It never gets old & we never run out of things to talk to. Love him so much."
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It seemed innocuous enough, but people took offence to it and slammed her lifestyle, seemingly seeing her as overprivileged:
\u201c@lilplantmami For hours? But what if we weren't inherently wealthy and have to work and stuff? Lol\u201d— daisey\ud83c\udf3c\ud83c\udf31garden coffee lady (@daisey\ud83c\udf3c\ud83c\udf31garden coffee lady) 1666369742
\u201c@mrs_socialista @lilplantmami No, no. They\u2019re a \u201csmall business owner\u201d so they are actively participating in taking advantage of other people\u2019s labour so they can have these blissful mornings. They ARE Capitalism.\u201d— daisey\ud83c\udf3c\ud83c\udf31garden coffee lady (@daisey\ud83c\udf3c\ud83c\udf31garden coffee lady) 1666369742
The internet atmosphere got so tense, she even posted a follow-up tweet explaining that she and her husband "are not rich by any means."
"We’ve worked extremely hard to get to where we’re at," she said. "We live very minimally and consciously & work jobs that match our lifestyle and allow us to live the life that we do."
Then came those defending the woman, confused as to why people were so irate about someone having coffee:
\u201cHave spent the better part of the morning trying to figure out if people are, in fact, enraged that a woman has coffee with her husband in their garden.\n\nAnd yes. It\u2019s true.\n\nWe are collectively not ok.\u201d— saira rao (@saira rao) 1666529859
\u201cThat lady said she enjoys mornings with her husband and folks said not on my watch\u201d— T (@T) 1666445740
\u201cFolks are mad about a woman having coffee with her husband? Did I read that right? Folks calling her ableist\u2026for being in her garden enjoying her own life?\n\nI\u2019ll be glad when folks can admit they\u2019re lashing out because of our collective challenges. \n\nThat thread hurt my head.\u201d— Ren\u00e9 Brooks | Black Girl, Lost Keys (@Ren\u00e9 Brooks | Black Girl, Lost Keys) 1666540367
\u201cLogging on to find that Twitter\u2019s main character today is a woman who [squints] loves her husband and her garden and [double checks] drinking coffee in the mornings. Congrats everyone, good hustle, not weird at all\u201d— andi zeisler (@andi zeisler) 1666505701
\u201c\u201cEat the rich\u201d has gone from \u201cno one should be a billionaire\u201d to \u201cno one living above the poverty level treating themselves and their husband to morning coffee in their garden should be happy\u201d\u201d— Meech de Lioncourt \ud83e\udd87 (@Meech de Lioncourt \ud83e\udd87) 1666529574
And some people just didn't understand why the tweet went viral in the first place:
\u201cI hate coffee. I hate mornings. I don't have a husband. I don't have a garden. Am I Twitter popular now?\u201d— SneezingWithWetMascara (@SneezingWithWetMascara) 1666577688
Speaking toindy100 Daisey, or the 'garden coffee lady' said the negativity that came from the viral tweet hadn't affected her "because I don't engage with them in any way".
"I didn’t expect such a huge response, especially a response of negativity," she added.
"But quickly the negative comments were drowned with thousands and thousands of people being so kind and positive and spreading love around the post.
"It’s been kind of bittersweet, at first seeing all of the hateful comments, but then the good and kind always ending up on top is so sweet and rewarding".
The internet is truly a strange place.
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