I Broke My Legs Running to the Comments (And I Wish I Hadn’t)

I don’t know when the comments section became the main event.

But I see it everywhere.
“I came running to the comments.”
“I broke my legs running to the comments.”
“These comments did not disappoint.”

Except they always disappoint.
In the worst, most soul-rotting ways.

I keep reading them anyway to prove to myself that it’s still as bad as I remember. (Spoiler alert! It is.)

The other day, Lena Dunham posted a clip from her new show. And sure, she’s always been divisive…whatever…but what I saw in the comments wasn’t about her art or her words or even her personality. It was all about her body.

Comment after comment.
“She’s disgusting.”
“She looks like a pig.”
“What the hell is wrong with her.”
Thousands of people saying things I can’t even bring myself to type out again.

And the part that gutted me wasn’t just from the typical basement trolls. It was from women. From moms. From people with full fucking names and profile pictures and BIBLE verses in their bios.

Whyyyyyyyy are people like this?

Not all. I know that. I know so many good people. I know I’m not like this. I know you might not be either. But the people who seem to thrive on cruelty are everywhere. And they’re relentless. And I can’t understand it.

I follow a woman with a serious autoimmune disease who talks openly about it, about her body wasting away, about how she’s just skin and bones right now and fighting to stay afloat. And still, she shows up and makes funny little videos and tries to stay a part of the world. And the comments?

“Eat a burger.”
“You look like a corpse.”
“What the fuck IS this?”

Why? What on earth possesses someone to say that to another human being?

I’m not asking rhetorically. I really want to know. Because I’m at a point where I’ve lost any ability to make sense of it. And I don’t think I’m “too sensitive” for asking that. I think maybe not enough people are.

I’m not outraged anymore. I’m just empty.
I don’t even have the energy to be angry.
I’m numb.

And I think a lot of people are. Numb from how loud the cruelty has gotten and how normal it is now. Numb from how little anyone seems to care unless it’s affecting them personally.

I used to believe that people were mostly good.
Now, I don’t know what I believe.
But I know I’m so fucking tired.

Tired of opening Instagram and seeing violence in the comments.
Tired of trying to care about “content strategy” and “engagement” when it feels like the world is losing its grip on empathy.
Tired of trying to make anything “palatable” when nothing feels real.

I miss real life, conversations that aren’t optimized and people being allowed to be human without being dissected.

There’s no bow to wrap this up with. No lesson. Just grief. For what we’ve become. For what people are willing to say out loud.