In November, a woman posted the following thread to Twitter:

“Several guys moved in next door, students I guess. And I’ve gotten two confused DoorDash drivers for them in the last week, and their trash can was completely overflowing with pizza boxes. I don’t think they cook. I am feeling such a strange motherly urge to feed these boys.”

A minute later, she posted that she had decided to bring over a pot of chili when the weather cooled down over the weekend as a kind, neighborly gesture.

When I first saw the post, I was touched. In my mind, we all live in these disconnected universes, especially after COVID, and the idea that someone would notice what others were throwing away and would care enough to cook for strangers—I found that to be sweet.

But that’s not how others interpreted the post. This kind woman was trolled. Her initial post was retweeted 556 times with acerbic and vitriolic commentary. People accused her of “imposing” her life preferences on others, of being condescending, of being “presumptuous.” One wrote, “IDK how I would feel if a stranger came to my house with a meal I didn’t ask for.” Others took it even farther. In their eyes, she was “coddling,” and encouraging “man-child behavior.” Maybe, they wrote, this was her sick way of assuaging her “White savior” complex.

As is the way of the internet, the thread went viral.