I'm glad her name was posted to the internet. I bet she was pretty smug when she wrote that line on her tab. Not so smug, anymore! Now she and Applebee's both are feeling the scorn of the online community.
I really don't agree with this. Maybe she was smug when she wrote that message on the bill, maybe not. Maybe she was angry, stressed out, filled with an 'I'm-really-not-going-to-take-any more-shit-from-anyone-anymore' attitude. Who knows. Certainly not you or me - and that's not the point here, either.
Her
act was shitty and can be called out and commented upon, her
person is something we don't know very much about and should rather refrain from discussing imo. And the punishment of having her identity revealed on the internet for what she did? Totally out of proportion.
Now that her name and the place she lives and works are revealed, some might be fueled by the angry posts about her and seek her out personally to harass her. And not only her, but her family and her congregation, too, who really have nothing to do with any of this. Some might stop at pointing fingers, whispering and/or give nasty comments etc. - but others may go further and do things like place turds in her post box etc. etc. Not saying any of this
will happen, but it might. The net is filled with all sorts of people, jerks and weirdos included. Expose someone to this kind of risk for one incident of less than commendable behaviour at a restaurant? Totally not cool.
I think it's incredibly silly. I don't know a thing about any of the people involved in all of this. Sure, she looks like a jerk, but this kind of attention can be unsettling; don't know how I'd react. And the waitress who posted the pic? For all we know, she may be the worst employee at the place, may treat customers badly, may be lazy, may be one of those servers who treats people with disdain and condescension, then gets all outraged when the tip isn't enough to suit her. You know the ones I'm talking about. You can tip them 30% for shitty service and they still act this way.
This is all very true. We don't know anything about the personality or circumstances of the people involved in this case. The pastor may be a saint in all other respects, and slipped up on this particular occasion only because she was off her medication. Or something. Or she may be a total shithead in everything she does. And all the waitresses involved may be jerks, too. Maybe they steal from the cash register, spit in everybody's soup, bully all the guests and kick their puppies at home. We don't know.
As far as I'm concerned, the point here - the thing to 'call out' - is not the personality and general morality of anyone involved. It's the particular
act reported, and the tendency among some people (
not the majority, as Gretad08 pointed out above me) to think they're entitled to take out all kinds of shit on low paid workers engaged in serving them one way or the other. That's worth pointing out and discussing imo. Not a silly issue at all as far as I'm concerned. If it could educate at least some people that this is
not OK, then it would be worth it. (It may not, of course - but that's true of any discussion on any topic on the net...)
some of the people--not speaking of anyone specifically, here or anywhere else--doing it are likely far worse sorts of people.
Absolutely true. Of course. Like I said, the net is filled with all kinds, and you don't really know the persons behind the various usernames. Some may indeed be the kinds who steal and cheat and bully children and kick puppies. Absolutely. But just because some hypocrites may take part in a discussion because of schadenfreude, it doesn't mean the discussion itself is wrong and shouldn't have happened. Doesn't even mean that what the hypocrites are saying is wrong. They may be very right, in fact, even if they don't live by their own wonderful sentiments.
Separate the person from the argument is always a good strategy. 'You're just a hypocrite' or 'You're not any better yourself' are really not winning arguments in any discussion.