If you’ve been on Twitter lately, you might have noticed people talking about or reposting Clint Bondad’s latest series of IG posts. Since last night, the model has been posting very cryptic messages, some of which have been called disturbing, on his Instagram account. These include non-sequiturs about the dark web, hell and danger, a photo of him edited to look vaguely demonic and a mysterious countdown. As of writing, Jul. 16 at 5:22 p.m., he just posted a new one a minute ago.
Many have pointed out that the IG stories may be alluding to his ex Catriona Gray and her new boyfriend Sam Milby, and might have been triggered by them going viral yesterday over Gray’s #PasstheKindness video. This is because Bondad refers to himself as “the ex” in multiple stories, and some of them have the word “sam” in it, although in a more cryptic way, like in “#666communitydays4sam” and “SawSam.” In one of the more recent stories, he also refers to “Cat’s friends.”
Last Monday, Jul. 13, he had previously shared on his IG stories that he sent Milby a DM over Instagram. The message simply said, “Want to become my client?”
Because of the way the Internet is, many people have used this moment to form conspiracy theories and/or make disparaging comments against Bondad, saying that Gray (the former couple broke up in early 2019) dodged a bullet.
I’m going to be honest, I found the IG stories disturbing too, especially when I had to view them in their entirety for this article, but not because of any hidden mystery or what have you. It seems to me that Bondad is clearly hurting and might be in real need of help. I hate to be an armchair psychologist here, but healthy people in the right state of mind typically don’t post that kind of disturbing and erratic content.
It seems more than a little bit distasteful to see so many people on the Internet make conspiracy theories and memes out of someone hurting in such a public way. The Internet as a whole hasn’t had a good history of dealing with these kinds of breakdowns.
Remember 2007 when so many people made fun of Britney Spears’ extremely public nervous breakdown, and how they turned a fan’s desperate plea to stop the mockery into one of the first viral YouTube memes? It’s not great either with dealing with mysteries—Naya Rivera’s death has been confirmed, and there are still people replying to her friends’ tributes with a theory that she’s actually alive and being trafficked.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that we should really take a step back here. Maybe if this all turns out to be a joke or he does something actually menacing, then sure, make the theories, etc. But right now it just seems a little mean to pile on someone who needs a friend.
Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash
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