@SigridTruther:You are a vile person. You need to wash your smug bitch face once in a while, not just layer over fake tan and hope no one notices what a self-obsessed mess you are.
Replying to @Sigrid Truther
@DontBelieveTheBS: Ugh Sigrid = Absolute Headmelt.
Replying to @DontBelieveTheBS
@EmilyCares: Someone needs to start regulating these YouTube families, they are sick abusers.
Lindy continued scrolling with increasing anxiety. She knew the Maxxed Out channel had plenty of similar comments. Though thankfully not directed at Adam and Max. She was certain this was because Adam was a man and therefore the people of the internet barely expected him to parent his son. More often than not, if the comments were critical, they rooted her out to direct their ire towards. ‘Where’s the mother in all this? Why doesn’t she put a stop to this?’ That kind of thing.
Jamie had a dedicated intern working practically round the clock to delete comments and block users. Lindy tried her best not to dwell on the comments. It was easy to dismiss a lot of them as trolling. The gratuitously cruel ones she wrote off as crazies. At first this had been a way of reassuring herself.They’re just crazy, she’d think. And then she’d begun to consider the words: They’re just crazy. They’re crazy. They watch my son and they’re crazy. She shook off the thoughts: they were safe here in Monteray. Maxxed Out was under control. Right now she needed to get back to Rachel’s snag.
‘So which of these accounts is you?’ Lindy frowned at the screen.
‘The thing is, Lindy,’ Rachel ignored the question, clearly eager to explain herself, ‘back in the day, I was really, eh … let’s just say I had self-esteem issues, and I think looking at This Scandi Life just really got to me. And it’s something that really feels unresolved.’
‘OK … and why now?’
‘I know it maybe doesn’t sound like much, but my own daughter, Evie, is starting to act up and leave comments on the accounts of people she doesn’t like, and I thought if she saw me taking responsibility, she would see how toxic it is. It was like smoking or something – I knew it was bad for me but I just fell into a habit and then I couldn’t stop. I’d hit “dislike” on all her videos the second she’d post them. And then I made up more accounts so I could dislike the videos I’d already disliked to give them even more thumbs down. It was ridiculous. Then I started commenting loads. And getting into rows with other commenters underneath the videos. I was compulsive. I’d be raging back and forth with some other internet person about God knows what, under a video of a crown-braid tutorial. It was becoming unhealthy.’
‘So when did you finally stop?’
‘A few months ago.’ Rachel looked mortified.
‘O-K …’ Lindy had been expecting this to have been a youthful folly, but no. There was, it seemed, no end to how crazy grown adults could act on the internet.
‘I’m so glad I’m doing this with you. It’s really uplifting to see Roe and Eileen seizing the day and fixing their snags. I’ve made up excuse after excuse to avoid facing it head-on. I need the accountability of another person pushing me.’
Lindy nodded. ‘OK, c’mon, Rachel, enough stalling: how many of these are you? This doesn’t work unless you are honest.’
Silence. Finally Rachel exhaled. ‘I know. OK, I’ll call out the handles but what are you going to do exactly?’
‘I’m going to trawl the activity on these accounts and put together a presentation for Sigrid detailing every one of your sock puppets. She deserves to know it was all you behind them and not an army of people who share these opinions of her.’
‘But loads of people agree with me. I do have a bit of a point here.’
‘Rachel, do you want to fix this or do you want to continue wasting your energy hating her and criticising her life choices? Up to you.’ Lindy was getting impatient as Rachel lapsed back into silence, staring at her lap. ‘Regardless of whether you have a point or not, anonymously hurling abuse kind of undercuts that point, Rachel. Also, I just don’t think this is about some crusade to protect these children. I’d say you don’t give a shite about these kids. If they were running around screaming in a restaurant while you were trying to eat, you’d be wishing you could taser them. You called the one in the overnight-chia-pudding-recipe video a “pudding-faced bitch”. She’s six.’
‘I know, Lindy! I’m sick.’ Rachel looked up with a beseeching expression.
‘Rachel, give me the full list of accounts and the passwords so I can do the leg work.’ Lindy tried to soften her tone. She wanted Rachel as a case study – she couldn’t let her feelings towards her get in the way. ‘How many of these handles are yours?’
‘Quicker to say which isn’t mine,’ Rachel muttered. ‘RachyRantz isn’t me.’
Well, thatis embarrassing. ‘OK.’ Lindy hid her disdain with what she hoped was a gentle nod. ‘So the rest of it here, @SigridTruther, @EmilyCares and @DontBelieveTheBS, is all you? You replying to you?’
Rachel nodded; she was blinking away tears. ‘I was really unhappy in my own life. I’m not trying to make excuses. I know claiming to care about the kids’ welfare is total crap. They’re actually really annoying kids. Especially the youngest.’
Lindy snorted. ‘Ugh, I know, I’ve met Narnia in person!’
Lindy spent the next half an hour creating a full document compiling all of Rachel’s YouTube accounts – twenty-seven in all.
‘OK that’s it.’ Rachel read the last one off her phone.
‘Right, passwords? Do you have a list you could email me?’
‘No, they’re all the same password.’ Rachel looked sheepish.
