That viral tweet about the coffee shop in Seattle that supposedly refused service to a cop turned out to be totally fake after I looked up the actual video footage from that day.

The original tweet had like 50k retweets before someone dug up the security cam clip showing the barista just handing them the drink normally no drama at all, has anyone else fallen for one of those outrage bait posts that turned out to be completely made up?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverbailey1mo ago

and honestly that's just the way the whole internet works now, it's all about getting people riled up before they even have a chance to think about what they're seeing... you see this pattern everywhere not just online but in real life too, like how a coworker will spread some rumor about the boss being unfair and by the time you hear it the story has changed three times because nobody stopped to check the actual facts first. people just want that hit of outrage, it's like a drug that makes you feel important for a second... and once you get that rush it's hard to go back to just reading something boring but true. the saddest part is these fake stories work because they play on stuff we already believe, like cops being treated unfairly or whatever side you're on, so your brain just accepts it without asking for proof.

parkerk561mo ago

Exactly, you nailed it with that "hit of outrage is like a drug" comparison. I see it all the time on my own feed, where someone posts a grainy video with a caption that's clearly designed to piss people off, and everyone jumps in to argue before anybody even asks if the video's real or what's missing from the story. It's wild how fast it spreads too, like within an hour that same clip gets shared by a dozen pages with completely different spin on it depending on who's pushing what agenda. The worst part is, even when someone does track down the original source and proves it's fake, the people who already got mad and shared it rarely bother to correct themselves or delete their post.