Vent: A neighbor cornered me about a joke I shared 3 years ago

I ran into Mrs. Patterson at the grocery store in Des Moines last Saturday. She brought up a meme I posted in 2021 about pineapple on pizza and said it 'contributed to a culture of division.' I stood there holding a bag of apples trying to explain it was just a silly food joke. How does a pizza topping opinion get treated like a hate crime these days? Has anyone else had someone dig up old harmless posts to call you out in person?

3 comments

3 Comments

laura_chen411mo ago

Oh man that is SO wild lol. Something similar happened to me two years back. I made a joke on Facebook about how my neighbor's lawn gnome looked like it was giving my garden the side-eye and she actually printed out the post and taped it to my door with a note saying I was 'undermining community respect.' Like seriously? It was a gnome. People really do go scrolling back years just to find stuff to get mad about, it's honestly exhausting. I just wanted to talk about my tomatoes, not start some neighborhood feud over a plastic gnome.

the_tessa1mo ago

Last year my cat sat on my keyboard and posted a status update about my landlord's haircut.

vera1951mo ago

Nah, I gotta disagree with you on this one. People remember stuff that bothered them, and if a joke hit them wrong three years ago, it still stung. The pizza thing might seem silly to you but to her it could've been the straw that broke the camel's back after seeing a million food fights online. She probably felt like you were part of a bigger problem, even if it was just a meme. I mean, I hate pineapple on pizza too but I wouldn't call a neighbor out for liking it, but folks have different lines. It's weird she waited so long though, that part I get being annoyed about.