But what happens when the drama escalates? Not all fights are created equal and sometimes the circumstances can make it very hard to just forgive and forget. Reddit will always let you know if you’re in the wrong though which is basically what the “Am I an a**hole?” thread was born from.
A way for people to get objective opinions on whether they are the villain of their story or not, the thread has actually proven to be very helpful thus far and already has countless anonymous comments from users all asking the internet the same thing – are they the drama?!
Take this scenario involving a woman and her sister. Laying the story out for readers, the post is titled “AITA (am I the a**hole) for kicking my sister out of my house at night because she threw ALL of my food away?” and reads as follows:
“I seriously can’t believe this is a thing, but my parents are really upset at me.
“My sister and I grew up together but aren’t very close. It really wasn’t from any drama (we didn’t have a big fight to cause distance), but rather just have opposite personalities and interests. If I had to describe my attitude towards my sister it would be ‘apathetic love’. Like, she’s my sister so I want her to be healthy and happy, but we just unfortunately don’t hang out, call to chat, etc.
“She recently received an opportunity to interview for a job near our hometown, and reached out to see if she could stay with me for a week. My mother was ecstatic that my sister might be ‘coming home finally’. She moved across the county right after college and hasn’t been back in almost 10 years except for Christmas (she spends Thanksgiving with her in-laws) or the one off birthday/business trip/vacation.”
Thinking that it could be a good bonding experience for the two of them, the original poster (OP) said that she was “more than happy” to open her home up to her sister, admitting that though it was all “kind of awkward”, nothing “horrible” happened until the third night.
“I came home from drinks with my friends around 10 pm, went into my kitchen for a snack, and realised that almost ALL of my food was gone.
“I’m not even exaggerating. I swear 90% of my pantry was just gone. I asked my sister and she told me that she was shocked I ate anything with preservatives and ‘unnatural’ and that I was ‘poisoning my body’ so she took it upon herself to throw away EVERYTHING she deemed unhealthy.
Obviously completely shocked at the discovery, the OP emphasised that it wasn’t just a few items but almost everything she had in there including both packaged and unpackaged items – all of which she estimates came to around $1,000 worth of food. “Even things like spices that weren’t fresh were tossed!,” she continued. “It was like someone had robbed my kitchen. I demanded that she pay to replace everything, but she dug her heels in and said that she was doing me a favour and that the way I ate was ‘disgusting’ (her literal words). I know I’m biased, but my diet isn’t even crazy. It’s pretty much standard food you’d find at any grocery store.”
Explaining that she was “so upset” by the whole thing that she made her sister pack up and leave to go stay with their parents (who live a 30-minute car journey away), the OP said that their mother is now pushing her to apologise “in order to keep the peace”.
That doesn’t seem likely though. “I told my mom that if she wanted to lose not one, but both daughters then she’d keep pushing me to apologise for something I feel I have a right to be upset about. My dad says that she’s been crying every night though, and I love my mom so much I feel like a huge AH for being stubborn about the situation.
So, what’s the verdict? Reddit rules: not an a*sshole. According to the majority of comments, the original poster is well within her rights to be annoyed over the situation. “Who visits someone’s home and decides they have the right to play food police in someone else’s home? Seriously your sister needs a major reality check,” one supporter wrote, while another agreed adding that “she should replace everything”.
Some even felt that the OP should bring the matter further and involve the courts. Either way, talking the situation out with a group of impartial commenters seemed to help the OP with her own guilt… so maybe the internet isn’t so bad all the time after all.
Photography by HBO.