If there is one place we can count on for our daily dose of drama, it's TikTok. The app is filled with millions of users who have millions of opinions, and many of them are not afraid to share.
Sometimes, TikTok users intentionally share their controversial thoughts so they can stir the pot with a giant group of people all at once. And when they really get the crowd going, they go viral. Just ask Leslie Dobson.
Dobson, a forensic psychologist and TikToker who posts as @drlesliedobson, did her best to shake things up on May 30 when she said she refused to return her shopping cart at the store. Her quick 16-second clip garnered 11 million views and started a heated debate. Dobson doesn't care what people think, but it seems most people believe she's totally out of line.
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Dobson was not pulling any punches.
She explained from inside her car that she wouldn't be returning her shopping cart, and people could judge her all they wanted.
"I'm not getting my groceries into my car, getting my children into the car, and leaving them in the car to go return the cart," she says.
Dobson then looks straight at the camera and says, "If you're going to give me a dirty look, f— off."
Well, then. We guess she told us.
Dobson's hot take got a lot of people heated.
It's no surprise the comment section came hard for her. Some wondered how she got the kids to the cart.
"How did your kids get to the shopping cart safely? Did you leave them in the car alone and go get the cart? Or were they portable enough to make it without a cart?"
This person agreed: "Ok so a fun trick is; remember how you got your child to the cart? When returning the cart just do that but in reverse! It's fun because having a child is a responsibility:)"
And this person called out Dobson for not wanting to do the work: "Nah just pure laziness not to mention the damage it does to cars."
Lots of people pointed out the 'shopping cart theory.'
The Shopping Cart Theory went viral on social media a few years back. It states that the way a person leaves their shopping cart defines their moral character. You are a good person if you return your shopping cart to the cart corral or store.
If you leave it in the middle of the parking lot for someone else to deal with, however, you are considered to be a jerk. Dobson's comment section thought she fell into the second category.
One person asked, "and the worker who has to retrieve your cart. what about them? what about the cars that the cart could hit? I once saw a worker get hit by a car in a parking lot trying to grab a cart."
Tons of creators stitched Dobson's video.
And none of them were very complimentary. People were shocked that Dobson didn't feel the need to put back the cart, but they were even more disturbed by how she ended her video.
Nurse Jen Hamilton, who has 3.5 million followers, posted Dobson's video but covered her face and withheld her name to protect her identity. She said she wasn't sure if the video was rage bait, but she took the bait. Hamilton made it clear that she thought Dobson was doing the wrong thing and teaching her kids a terrible lesson.
"If we don't show our kids the little things, it's going to be really hard for them to grasp the big things," she shared.
TikToker @jennyfromtheburbs agreed and captioned her stitch of Dobson's video, "I will be keeping my kids safe while also teaching them basic manners and respect. It's possible. Put your cart away!"
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The mom clapped back.
In the least surprising move of the year so far, Dobson posted a second video defending herself and citing statistics about child predators and how unsafe it is to leave children unattended. But the haters continued to hate, and it didn't seem as if anyone was buying what she was trying to sell.
One person wrote, "somehow all of us other moms manage to return the cart."
And another mom suggested, "You're missing the very obvious option that is to park next to the corral and take the kids with you to return the cart. I do it all the time with 3 kids."
But Dobson commented back to many on both videos with the same response copied and pasted, "I want women to feel empowered to trust their intuition if they feel unsafe, ignore judgment. Risk isn't worth it and our lives are precious. I have seen lives destroyed. I hope you never do."
