Well, it's official. Chrissy Teigen has thrown in the Twitter towel and deleted her prolific and controversial account. The model/actress was a very loud voice on the website, but that visibility has not really worked in her favor. Over her ten-plus year Twitter career, Teigen often found herself under scrutiny. There were the trolls linking her to Jeffrey Epstein. Her weirdly mean past with Courtney Stodden. Despite her strange bullying of the ex-pageant queen, Teigen has been loudly complaining about being attacked by vicious internet trolls. While we're not advocating for any kind of cruelty, Teigen's Twitter account has been a consistent and tone-deaf display of privilege. It's hard to take a "victim" seriously when they're tweeting about accidentally buying $13,000 bottles of wine during a pandemic that's caused some serious financial damage within the working class. This out of touch behavior and Teigen's attempts to seem relatable rubbed a lot of Twitter personalities the wrong way. And now that she's gone? The jokes are coming out in full force.
privilege
Kim Kardashian has done it again. In what can only be described as an excruciating un-humble brag, the reality star decided that now was the time to tell the internet about her lavish 40th birthday vacation on a private island.
After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time. pic.twitter.com/cIFP7Nv5bV
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) October 27, 2020
This tweet is from an obnoxiously long thread in which Kardashian goes through pains to tell us all about her incredible trip. Surrounded by friends and family, Kim was able to indulge in activities like dancing, swimming near whales, movies on the beach, and probably some very expensive alcohol. The thread was punctuated with an incredibly tone-deaf disclaimer: "I realize that for most people, this is something that is so far out of reach right now, so in moments like these, I am humbly reminded of how privileged my life is."
Judging by the response to the thread, her humble appeal to the poors has not made anyone feel better. The fact that Kardashian saw fit to flaunt her wealth during the middle of a pandemic - while people are dying - is something that most people can't get past. While some people are calling Kardashian out in quote-tweets, others are employing a little more nuance. With memes. The "After 2 weeks and multiple health screens" tweet has become a popular copypasta, and industrious Twitter users are swapping out Kim's photo for funnier (and scarier) images from pop culture. Using everything from Jeffrey Epstein's island of sin to Jurassic Park, the memes are both scathing and excellent. Hopefully Kim will think twice before channeling Marie Antoinette in the future.
It looks like rich white celebrities have learned absolutely nothing from the Gal Gadot 'Imagine' video's backlash. While that controversial John Lennon sing-along was about the coronavirus pandemic, today's cringey video is an attempt by actors like Aaron Paul, Stanley Tucci and Julianne Moore to address racism. The video features the actors (and KeSha) "taking responsibility" for their roles in turning a blind eye to racism at home and in the workplace. While the sentiment is hard to argue with, the video is being ridiculed for being a tone deaf performative display of "wokeness." And we have to admit that it's hard to feel moved by rich and privileged actors reading from a script. Though we hope this is the last celebrity video of its kind, it's hard to help being amused by the tweets that mock the clip. And we've put a whole lot of 'em together right here.
We know that many of you are coping with quarantines, lockdowns, job loss and illness as the coronavirus outbreak worsens. And we feel for you. But there are some people we don't have sympathy for. We simply cannot deal with celebrities who are trying to show solidarity during this time. Folks like Sam Smith are whining about quarantine from their expensive homes. Other celebs are saying "We're all in this together" while sitting in mansions and eating food cooked by their private chefs. It all feels pretty ridiculous and disgusting. Memers have started to take notice of this gross behavior and are fighting the best way they know how: with memes.
Life is pretty easy for a lot of us netizens. These daft first world problems may be helpful in bringing some perspective to your charmed little lives. Maybe seeing how ridiculous our anxieties are will help you next time you find yourself sweating when your phone dips to 20%.
All you white people who live in Brooklyn, now you know whom to thank.
This enraged guy was filmed straight up screaming and threatening the lives of a couple who pushed their stroller into him while he was out for a run. In the middle of his anti-yuppie rant, he loudly took credit for 'settling' Brooklyn for white people like them.
Wut.
In an interview with The Gothamist, the man who wants to remain anonymous at least has some shame about the episode.
The man who was recently caught on video berating a couple after their stroller hit his leg has not yet watched the video of himself shouting about how he "settled" Downtown Brooklyn for other white people. "I'm not gonna watch it, I understand it's probably ugly, and I'll feel embarrassed about it," the man told Gothamist. "I can't stand to watch that stuff."
He explained his side of the events that went down when the stroller hit his leg:
"The woman is talking over her shoulder to her husband, and doesn't notice," he said. "So I said a snarky thing, which the brothers say to me when I bump into them, which is 'excuse you.' We all know that's acceptable in New York. It's a little dicky, but that's what people say."
Instead of apologizing or acknowledging the faux pas, B.A. says the woman "starts screaming at me, 'F*ck you! Who do you think you are?' Then the guy starts screaming at me, 'F*ck you,' and starts coming at me with his fists like this. Now as soon as the guy comes at me with his fists, I'm telling you, if you come at somebody with your fists, be prepared that [the other person] is going to put their fists back up."
If there is any leeway you can give this guy, it's that the supposed run-in with the stroller did leave a mark.
Still definitely not an excuse to claim ownership of bringing white people to Brooklyn.
I don't even know where to start with that.
