With 2022 wrapping up and tweeters getting ready to enjoy the holidays in a mostly internet-free bubble of families and hot cocoa, it seems like hot take season had passed us by. But right as Twitter users were literally debating what controversy should take the crown for most chronically online discourse of 2022, one Twitter user dropped a doozy of a take that had the site's most avid posters reevaluating their rankings.

Last night, a woman on the app posted this:

Alright yall, I have a theory:
The humanization of pets is a step on the road to normalizing bestiality.

The tweet is practically a perfect cocktail mixed to inspire dropped jaws and blistering counter-takes. It starts with a woman saying "Alright y'all," practically a guarantee on Twitter that whatever follows will be some truly elite discourse, then goes on to claim that humanizing animals – essentially "owning pets" – is just the first step on a slippery slope towards humanity having sex with animals.

If her tweet somehow got something about "parenting" in there, it could even arguably hold a claim to being the "hottest take of all time."

Though the woman's account is not large, her tweet swiftly made its way out of her bubble, as far larger accounts began riffing on it in quote tweets.

me, after talking to my cat & calling him My Lil Babyman: “…what are we?” https://t.co/JYuW0Ws2aY

— ⌘ left at london ⌘ (@LeftAtLondon) December 8, 2022

As the tweet began spreading on the site, many in the poster's replies took her theory head-on and argued against it. Multiple people pointed out that the "humanization of animals" has long been a human practice and yet humanity has not yet seen a significant spike in bestiality.

Given this, some suggested that her implication was merely a projection.

i have a theory that this might have more to do with your feelings specifically toward animals, which i find unnerving

— bosh (@boshj) December 8, 2022

“The definition of a puritan is the gnawing fear that someone, somewhere might be happy and then making it weirdly about sex.”
H.L. Mencken

— Антоний Георгиев (@manthatcooks) December 8, 2022

it's true, cats evolved to mimic the sounds of a baby so that you'd fuck them

— Lena (@banalplay) December 8, 2022

The woman locked her account this morning, likely mitigating a further pile-on that could escalate into a more serious issue, but her tweet undoubtedly shook up the discourse scene of 2022.

How does "having pets is just a step away from banging animals" stack up against some of the year's greatest moments like "having coffee with your husband is bourgeois," "giving chili to your neighbor is ableist" and the 'reading is ablelist' guy turning out to be a Lockheed Martin Nepotism baby. That's for the sages of Twitter connoisseurs to hash out over the following weeks.