Another day, another video of a Karen raising unholy hell in a grocery store because she interpreted an in-store mask mandate as an act of oppression.
The latest display of emotional histrionics and anti-mask sentiment took place at an HEB in Cedar Park, Texas, just north of Austin. Katie Bug—otherwise known as “HEB Karen”—claimed to suffer from anxiety and PTSD and was offended when another customer criticized her for refusing to wear a mask in the grocery store. So she responded in the only logical way: by filming her breakdown in an empty checkout aisle.
“HEB will not let me check out right now because I complained to a manager that some customer was harassing me about not wearing a mask, and I have anxiety and PTSD,” Bug said in the video, which was later posted to the r/PublicFreakout subreddit. “They were berating me about not wearing one even though I told them I have a medical exemption.”
Bug said she received no sympathy from the store manager and vowed to call their corporate office later.
“I just need food for my family,” she said. “They’ve turned off the light here and they won’t service me. The lady walked away.”
Bug also lamented the lack of “compassion left in this world,” a judgment she made because no other customers stopped to ask if she was OK. (In reality, those who did follow HEB’s mask policy and believe in the dangers of COVID-19 probably didn’t want to risk getting Karen’s respiratory droplets on them as she dry-heaved in the store.)
Despite the Karen fatigue in the news these days, there is something pitiable about seeing an adult woman with an alleged anxiety disorder recording her own public meltdown. But Karen sabotaged her sympathy bid with her next comment.
“All this because less than 10,000 people have died from COVID for real in the U.S.,” she said. “The rest of them had at least two and a half co-morbidities.”
Wait, what?
Maybe this should have already been obvious, but Bug is a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist, as evidenced by a follow-up video posted to r/FuckYouKaren in which she further detailed her HEB altercation. She’s also using her newfound publicity to promote a pro-life cause and the upcoming “Constitutional Rights Summit,” which is a fancy way of saying “COVID-19 hoax rally.” (The event poster promises to “push back against draconian tyrannical government overreach.”)
As of Tuesday morning, more than 183,000 Americans have died from coronavirus.
Bug revealed that after pleading her case in the store, another manager apologized and loaded her groceries into her car. She further detailed her exchange with the first HEB employee and shared some… interesting views on children wearing masks.
“I had told [the employee] what happened to me, which was a customer was harassing me about my mask, said, ‘If my 3-year-old can wear one, then you can,’” Bug said. “I said, ‘No, I can’t, and also, your child shouldn’t, ‘cause children 10 and under shouldn’t for sure.’ I didn’t tell her that it was child abuse, but anyway.”
As if her spectacular public meltdown didn’t draw enough attention, Bug implored viewers to reach out to people like her if they came across them in the wild—which, again, is kind of imprudent in the middle of a pandemic.
“Don’t be like that, guys,” she said. “If you see someone hurting in a store like I was, please stop and talk to them, ‘cause they probably do want you to talk to them. They probably do want someone to tell them it’s gonna be OK.”
Bug signed off with some choice words for all the sheeple who opt to wear masks in public.
“Those of you who still wear masks even though you don’t believe in them just to avoid confrontations yourself, you’re in the wrong, too,” she said. “Because people like me who really cannot end up getting harassed more, because more people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. Please be a light to this world and do not cover your countenance, because they’re stupid.”