Pranks can be pretty fun, but there’s a fine line between “harmless fun” and bullying. Everyone’s opinion on where that line is differs, but personally, if you know that there is zero chance of the victim laughing along with you afterwards, you’ve probably crossed that line.
Also, if the person being pranked is never let in on the joke and made fun of behind their back for falling for it, it’s bullying. Full stop.
Personally, I think this story falls into that category.
Now, I know the world loves to make fun of vegans and sometimes those memes are On Point, but a person’s dietary choices don’t mean it’s okay to mess with them in the way Redditor veganthrowaway192847 had to deal with.
She chose to use a throwaway account for her post, to make it easier to remain anonymous.
According to her, she’s avoided eating meat since childhood.
Basically, as soon as she was old enough to understand where meat came from, she became a vegetarian. About 10 years ago, she switched to veganism, removing all animal products from her diet.
While we can’t know how much she may have talked about veganism or her diet with friends and family, it’s good to note that this wasn’t a new fad thing. It’s her well-established norm.
According to her, she and three friends got pretty drunk and were hungry.
The friends provided some chicken nuggets and before taking a bite, she asked if they were vegan. The friends told her they were “Sunfed”, a brand of vegan meat substitutes.
In her post to Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” group, she said, “They tasted off to me but I figured it was just because I was drunk. I was wrong.”
It wasn’t until the next day that she was tipped off by her sister to check Snapchat.
In her friends’ stories, there was a video of them giving her the nuggets — including the part where they lied about the brand — “and then later them mocking me and pretending to be me when I found out I ate meat (things like fake crying and yelling ‘the CHICKENS!!!’).”
Why did she post about this in a forum dedicated to being judged for your personal misdeeds?
Because after recording the videos as evidence, veganthrowaway192847 took it to the police and her three, now former, friends may be facing charges for food tampering.
“They all think that I’m overreacting to a ‘harmless’ prank, so Reddit, AITA? In my view, they took advantage of my drunken state, tampered with my food, and publicly humiliated me. In their view, it was just a prank.”
Personally, I think that by mocking her behind her back, it crosses the line.
It’s also questionable about whether it can be called harmless. People who have stuck to meatless diets for a long time can get sick when eating it again for the first time. It’s a shock to their digestive system and nutritionists recommend slowly introducing meat protein back into a diet to limit the effects.
Though she did feel sick the next morning, veganthrowaway192847 says there’s no way to know if it was the chicken or the drinking.
However, since she wasn’t made seriously ill, I can see why people think pressing charges is extreme.
Maybe a visit from the cops will make her friends reconsider their next “prank”. If the cops are taking the complain seriously, then it obviously wasn’t “harmless” like they assumed.
Because you shouldn’t mess with people’s food. That’s gross and you really can’t know how it might affect them.
