Heads up: You can go ahead and dump this story in your “So terrifyingly sad it kind of makes me wanna die” folder. It’s a slightly confusing and convoluted tale but the gist of it is this: Somebody videotaped a toddler smoking pot in a bathroom while the adults cracked up, like it was, you know, funny (seriously, WTF?)
Through the Grape Vine
The aforementioned video got uploaded on the Internet by a Vine user named @ChiefSmokes. Another Vine user, @NicoWavy, saw the insane video and re-posted it himself, causing the brief clip to go viral, as crazy things do on the Internet. This caused a wave of angry backlash directed at the Nico guy; i.e., the who re-Vined it. As one Twitterer wrote, “Who cares if you didn’t film it you’re ignorant for uploading it.”
Jumping on the haterade bandwagon, Reddit launched one of its classic manhunts for @NicoWavy, causing at least one user to report the story of the video to California’s CPS. @NicoWavy took to his Twitter feed to remind everyone that he was not the user who filmed and posted the grotesque video. Still, his name will most likely be forever linked with the disturbing piece of content (which has now been pulled offline).
Unsettling News, to Say the Least
This story is messed up on a couple of levels, right? The first is the obvious and worst: the sheer horror and incredulity of someone thinking it was perfectly okay to get a child stoned. It reminds me of the Indonesian smoking baby from a few years ago—everyone went collectively apeshit over that and that was just nicotine (by the way, I know that was obviously seriously wrong on every level, too). But why in the hell are people doing this to their children? Do they really think it’s cute or funny or okay? And if so, how can they think that and fall asleep every night pretending like they’re normal everyday humans instead of monsters?
This whole story is also disturbing for how vehemently the Internet decided to turn against @NicoWavy who, again, did not film the initial video and truly had nothing to do with it. It’s seriously shady when an unruly mob of faceless crusaders take it upon themselves to guilt trip and shame someone who’s technically guilty of not more than scouring someone else’s feed for “viral” video potential. Let’s vilify the real villains, okay?
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