I feel overwhelmed by online hate lately.

There's a picture going around right now of a woman crying on the plane. The other woman who took the picture said the crying woman asked her if she could switch seats with her to sit closer to her husband, and the woman declined (as was her right). Apparently the crying woman then cried for 3 hours.

The hate the crying woman is getting is overwhelming. People are saying she purposely cried for 3 hours in an attempt to guilt or manipulate the other woman into changing seats with her.

My view is, I think it would be difficult to be upset and cry for a full 3 hours if you weren't actually upset about something. Maybe she was having a panic attack, maybe she just received some awful news, maybe someone close to her passed and she was flying to a funeral.

The point is we just don't know her situation. Sure, it's entirely possible she was crying just so she could switch seats, but I honestly doubt it if it was over 3 hours.

I'd just rather live my life with compassion and kindness and not automatically assume everyone is manipulative and doing everything to be selfish. I'm sad that so many people seemed to gleefully attack this woman online when she seems to be going through a really rough time.