I'm genuinely sorry this comes at the expense of one of our own, but i really enjoy the current fun vibe of the thread!
I haven't been here as long as many of you, but I've come to realize this thread can become good hunting grounds for OTTs/munchies.
Maybe this is reading too much into their behavior as a group, but it reminds me of pre-COVID days. Almost all the online chronic illness support groups (especially reddit and facebook) were ONLY for physical illness. So you had these pockets of ADHDers/depressed people/etc who were upset they couldn't play with the chronic illness people, even though their illnesses were just as valid (this is what they said, this is not me editorializing or commenting on various forms of illness).
So there was already this weird hierarchy online, if you could "make it" in the chronic illness groups then you were DEFINITELY super sick.
The tide seemed to turn with the pandemic (maybe a little before it even). Understandably, a lot of newly-ill people were looking for support and were struggling to untangle physical from mental illness with no guidance from doctors or the government.
Now the vast majority of those groups are open to anyone who so much as has seasonal allergies. And we all know munchies like nothing more than a public challenge for who is the sickest. A supra-pubic pissing contest, if you will. Kiwi Farms becomes the final frontier. If they can get asspats for their symptoms in the KIWI FARMS munchie thread, that's like getting a double Hickman times ten!
They also assume these threads are full of only able-bodied people instead of all kinds of farmers. Abled people, disabled people, people with illness that doesn't always affect their daily lives, people who have experienced severe but sometimes transient illness like cancer, people with family members/close loved ones who are sick, and doctors who have seen the literal worst of the worst including lots of death. Adding to that fact is this isn't an asspat hugbox, so if someone says something outlandish they'll almost certainly be called out here. Whereas with reddit, the other munchies will take notes on this new symptom and will revere that day's Oracle of the Sickest.
That's my take at least, and why I personally go from zero-to-asshole once someone feels the need to talk about their rarest-of-them-all diseases. But I'm also just an asshole in general so I'm sure that shines through. (I was diagnosed by Mayo Clinic, so don't even ask!)
