"I say things that people don't want to hear and if they disagree with me, it automatically becomes personal about how fat I am, I'm a disgusting white woman of privilege, I only get anywhere because of my dad."
On Thursday, "The View" addressed Chrissy Teigen's decision to leave Twitter over the negativity it brought her life, something with which Meghan McCain could relate.
While Teigen said attacks from "trolls" could weigh on her, the reason she left was because she was tired of "letting people down or upsetting people" and felt like she'd been doing that on repeat. After McCain praised Teigen for being "incredibly brave" with the subjects she addressed on social media -- specifically, her recent miscarriage -- she went on to talk about why the subject was a "weird topic" for her to discuss.
CHRISSY TEIGEN BIDS FAREWELL TO TWITTER: After building a huge social media brand, Teigen announced that she’s logging off from Twitter because she can’t take the negativity anymore — the co-hosts react. https://t.co/ccJADpnF6M pic.twitter.com/UAGM261IJM
— The View (@TheView) March 25, 2021 @TheView
"I love Twitter for a lot of reasons, I met my husband on Twitter," she explained, before pointing out how useful the platform can be for amplifying charities, connecting with other like-minded journalists and keeping up with current events. "I feel I have a professional obligation, it's not really an option for me not to be on Twitter," she added, "I need to follow it to be updated on current events by journalists."
"The flip side of this is, I spend a quarter of my life trending on Twitter," she continued. "I was trending on Twitter yesterday. I don't think it's ever been positive. It's always something negative. It's not just random people, it's people with blue checkmarks and I do not need a pity party, I said there's no crying in baseball yesterday, I have chosen to do this work, it's not indentured servitude."
McCain became a trending topic on Wednesday after she argued race and gender shouldn't be more important than being qualified for a job -- while totally ignoring the unequal playing field for women or POC. She was called out by a number of people, including "Westworld" star Jeffrey Wright and journalists like Soledad O'Brien, Jemele Hill and Abby Phillip.
"But I am the one conservative woman in all of mainstream television, I'm the only one left and with that, I am saying things that are not said in an echo-chamber normally," she continued.
Meghan McCain Dragged on Social Media for Comments About 'Identity Politics' on The View
View Story"I say things that people don't want to hear and if they disagree with me, it automatically becomes personal about how fat I am, I'm a disgusting white woman of privilege, I only get anywhere because of my dad," said McCain. "Everything you guys have said is not anything I haven't thought or felt and been insecure about my whole life. The problem is, anytime I say something political that people don't like, it becomes deeply personal and now is involving my child."
She said she understood why Chrissy left the platform, saying social media has "100% affected" her own mental health. "I have suffered from depression because of things people have done to me on social media," she added, "but I don't feel I'm in a place where I can quit social media because I need to use it for my job. It's a Catch-22, we're living in a toxic time."
McCain then put blame on Silicon Valley for not doing enough to regulate some of the hatred that gets a pass on social. Adding that nobody should feel bad for her, she said the sympathy needed to be funneled to "teenagers who are being bullied in school and think there's no other option but to kill themselves."
Putting it all into perspective, she said that if someone with the bonuses someone like Teigen has in life can't take the toxicity, "maybe we have a problem." She ended her rant by adding, "I'll probably trend on Twitter after this again too."
At the time of publishing, she hadn't.