In the column Straight Nonsense, columnist Moises Mendez II takes a queer eye to the insanity of straight culture.I understand that people love their pets as if they were their own children; trust me, I live with a woman who considers her cat her biological daughter. So it makes sense that Hasan Piker faced swift backlash after he was accused of using a shock collar on his dog Kaya during a recent livestream. In a clip, Piker can be seen telling his dog to settle down and seemingly reaching off-screen when his dog suddenly yelps and then lies down. (@) The video quickly made the rounds on social media with many people calling him out, accusing him of animal abuse, allegations to which he quickly denied. The Twitch streamer, who has amassed over six million followers across Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube, addressed the questions of abuse during a stream when he was asked about it and said, "Yes, I am incredibly abusive, to the not only best trained, but also the best behaving and most spoiled dog on the planet."He continued, "She yelped because she fucking clipped herself on something when she was getting off the bed. I gave her the place command while she was getting off, and then she yelped. She had broken the previous bed. I suspect its coming from some crazy haters. She yelped when she was getting off the bed, because I assume she either stepped funny, or clipped her foot on something. (@) The argument of animal abuse isn't even made in good conscience, as Newsweek reported, pointing out that many of the comments were Islamophobic. It follows the very natural progression of being a beloved public figure on the internet. At first, you have a tight-knit community of true fans, but as you get more popular and attract mainstream media attention, your content is then shown to your oppositions circles that will then later follow your every move. Some internet haters don't have a good enough reason to hate you, cancel you, or call to de-platform you, so they wait for that "gotcha moment," a moral wrongdoing on your part that is universally understood to be unacceptable, to push a targeted campaign aimed at the people they dislike to get them off the internet.There are times where it's warranted and should have worked I'm looking at you, Jeffree Star, James Charles, and Shane Dawson but the internet will move on and welcome canceled content creators with open arms if given enough time. That's not to say there aren't people who don't remember, but the internet moves so much quicker than it did five years ago, nonetheless 10 years ago. But this idea of cancelation doesn't apply to Piker because there isn't proof this happened, he debunked it, and there's a darker reason as to why this is happening.He took time out of his stream to show his viewers the collar they had seen during that livestream and debunk the conspiracy theories. "It has the capacity to vibrate and that's it," he said, plainly as he shows the Airtag that's embedded in the collar and the part that vibrates, saying that it also has a tracker and a flashlight. (@) Ethan Klein, one of Piker's most vocal critics, used this as an opportunity to take another jab at him after prolonging their never-ending feud. "Horrifying animal cruelty by Hasan as he activates her shock collar for one tiny step off of her bed," Klein's Instagram Story reads. "She cries in pain, poor baby. Always thought it was extremely bizarre that his young energetic pup never took a step off bed.But no matter how much he denies the allegations and proves that he did not use a shock collar on the dog, the misinformation campaign continued to spread across social media like wildfire. This is yet another example of the ways in which the internet doesn't care about right and wrong because we live in an individualistic society where people only care about what they feel is morally correct and social media is a megaphone to project those ideas to a large audience. All it takes to build a platform (or gain clout) is having the loudest megaphone. (@) It's not about the dog, it never was. It's about tearing down political opposition. It's a ploy to undermine a prominent political figure who is providing a voice to a party whose influence is waning in the face of an authoritarian administration, but hey, let's continue arguing about this while young kids are being ripped out of their homes and zip-tied together as they watch their parents be arrested by ICE agents in Chicago. Or maybe watching priests get shot in the head with pepper balls by ICE agents on a rooftop.The dog, obviously, deserves a loving, safe home but that was never called into question in the past. You're welcome to have your opinions on Piker's politics. But one of the streamer's purpose online is to amplify the atrocities currently taking place and undercutting that with sound political commentary in a time when every political official in Washington decides to treat the White House like a cartoon villain's lair. All of this conversation surrounding his dog is a distraction and we (nor Piker) should fall for it.Moises Mendez II is a staff writer at Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram @moisesfenty.Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.