The Week in Tweets and Memes
Each Saturday, I do a round-up of the amazing and often humorous takes I come across while doing my research. This is a bonus offering to thank my paid supporters, but it's here for everyone to enjoy for at least the next few installments.
Some weeks the Internet makes you smile and laugh, and some weeks it makes you grieve and think. We got a bit of both this week, so let's take a gander.
The horrifying release of videos, one showing five Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols to death and the other a home intruder assailant striking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, left the nation stunned. Well, most of the nation. It didn't stop some very bad takes from emerging from the places we have come to expect.
As actor Jon Cryer quickly pointed out,
The right was quick to latch onto the idea that this police homicide couldn't be "racist" because the five officers were themselves Black. Let me stop you right there, said political commentator Mondaire Jones:
The killers were part of an elite police force in Memphis called "Scorpion" which was created supposedly to suppress crime. But this was a traffic stop, and they dragged a man from his car to kill him and attempted to cover it up. Some thoughts on this and how to reform it:
The release of the violent video itself was treated with breathless anticipation in the media, which is itself a really disturbing problem.
We didn't share the video on our social channels, but we did uplift a video about the life and beauty of Tyre Nichols life. You can see it here. If the video doesn't load due to size, click through to the tweet.
As for the Paul Pelosi attack video, you know we're in the upside down when Geraldo Rivera is among the voices of reason:
In other matters, Kat Abu (the first tweet in this thread) did a great summary of Fox News's priorities for the week, which were really something else:
Which leads us into the more bizarre antics of the right this week, beginning with the Vaccine Shakes. What are those? Anti-vaxxers on the internet have been posting videos of themselves supposedly shaking uncontrollably after having the Pfizer vaccine, which is weird because why did you take it if you're an anti-vaxxer?
This same logic applies to the death of "Diamond" of "Diamond and Silk" fame—two Black, right- wing, Trump-loving sisters infamous for peddling conspiracies including around vaccines. Diamond died from a heart condition, but Silk still alleged without basis that it was from the vaccine. This again makes zero sense if she had refused to take it. But that didn't stop Marjorie Three Names from chiming in:
(There is of course no dramatic increase of people dying suddenly except as it appears on social media through right wing propaganda.)
Trump made an awkward appearance at the funeral, at which he delivered this memorable line:
Anyway, back to the shakes. Here is an example of what the internet was flooded with over the week:
Yes, it got 13.8 million views. To address the absurdity of this and other copycat videos (and they were myriad), the internet went to work. Here are some of my favorites.
The makers of M&Ms succumbed to the political pressures exerted by the likes of Tucker Carlson and announced that the product's new spokesperson would be Maya Rudolph instead of the famous candies themselves. This led to some observations about that choice.
The other outrage, following on last week's fake outrage over natural gas ovens, is about natural women. Specifically, Aretha Franklin's iconic hit, "Natural Woman," which a small comedy / parody site in Norway demanded be taken off of Spotify as being anti-Trans. That's pretty funny, but not apparently to conservative media like Sky News of Australia, the UK's Daily Mail, and the New York Post, which ran the story as if the entire trans community had lost its damn mind and they were coming for Aretha.
Outraged members of the right, including Don Jr., cited the incorrect reporting as they decided they would be the last defenders of black music from the civil right era.
The discovery of classified documents at Mike Pence's house took the pressure and spotlight off of President Biden for a spell, but it also produced this classic from Andy Borowitz of The New Yorker:
And now for some internet potpourri I stumbled across to brighten your day:
Click through if the video doesn't play, it's worth it:
And who among us hasn't…
For some nostalgia, I remember the @ wars
The following is an amazing display of the prowess and dystopia of ChatGPT, asking it to compose a downsizing email whilst promoting executives, and using a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
And I would def watch this show:
Finally, for you grammarians, the AP Style Guide issued something so controversial it eventually had to delete it entirely. Because, you know, the French.
That's it for the week! Have a great weekend and I'll see you Sunday night with a quick view ahead.
— Jay
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