The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Gerry Adams, Ted Cruz, & Danny Healy-Rae

By Jade Hayden

This week, the Met Gala was on, Gerry Adams was racist, Danny Healy-Rae was problematic, and Ted Cruz elbowed his wife in the face. He also withdrew his presidential candidacy after the Indiana primaries, leaving the path clear for Donald Trump to secure the Republican nomination.

@GerryAdamsSF tries to justify use of N-word in tweet, fails #GerryAdams 

On Sunday night, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams watched popular Tarantino film Django Unchained. Gerry Adams liked Django Unchained so much that he decided to go on the internet and say a few words about it. Gerry Adams posted the N-word in a tweet about Django Unchained that was also about Ballymurphy.

While the tweet was swiftly deleted, it wasn’t long before Adams replaced it with another explaining exactly why a very well-known political figure such as himself was using the N-word on social media in 2016. According to Gerry, the whole thing was nothing more than a big misunderstanding, and we had all simply missed out on the blatant irony of the tweet. Silly us.

Adams’ claim that the oppression and racism that black Americans fought/are still fighting against is no different to the struggle nationalists underwent in the North confused – and angered – a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. One of those reasons was because those two things are not the same. Another reason was because, even if they were, the N-word is not our word to say. It’s racist. Everybody in the country knows it’s racist. Everybody except Gerry Adams, apparently.

Adams then proceeded to dig himself into an even deeper hole by stating that he did not see himself as white, and that if anyone should be offended by his tweet, it should be the people of Ballymurphy, because he was comparing them to Django, an “uppity fenian.”

Adams went on to say that although he does recognise that “being horsewhipped or hanged” is not the same as other forms of discrimination, he wishes that all people could be treated with respect and dignity, and that if anyone wanted to debate his use of the N-word with him, he would be happy to engage.

Lots of people on Twitter wanted to debate Adams’ use of the N-word, so they did. They also wanted to speculate as to how the Sinn Féin press office was going to sort this one out, so they did that too.

https://twitter.com/ChillySaws/status/727581803779887105

@TedCruz drops out of US presidential race, accidentally hits wife in face #GOP #Trump

This week, Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign came to an end when he lost the Indiana primaries on Tuesday night. Prior to dropping out, Cruz called Donald Trump a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral” in an attempt to win some more support, but it didn’t work, so he decided to call it a day instead.

Lots of people were very happy that Cruz’s campaign had finally come to a close because he is an anti-choice conservative who opposes marriage equality, denounces the Black Lives Matter movement, and supports the death penalty. He is also the Zodiac killer.

But Cruz’s loss was bittersweet because it meant that Trump had pretty much secured the Republican nomination – a fact that was confirmed not long after Cruz’s campaign termination when John Kasich suspended his own.

Trump still needs another 184 delegates to officially secure his nomination.

The #MetGala happens, Twitter talks about it

This week, the Met Gala was on. This was a good thing because lots of people looked very nice, people on the internet got to talk about those peoples’ clothes, funds got raised for something, and Claire Danes had a light up dress.

Every year the Met Gala has a theme. This year’s theme was Fashion in an Age of Technology, so lots of people wore silver. Some other people like Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry wore tamagotchis, and Zayn Malik had some tin over his arms.

Most people just wore suits and regular dresses and didn’t really make an effort. Except Beyonce. Beyonce looked nice.

https://twitter.com/etukachonce/status/727441642836353024

https://twitter.com/fairywiak/status/727993577100353536

#DannyHealyRae adamant that #climatechange is not a thing

On Wednesday, Danny Healy-Rae went into the Dáil and said that he did not believe in climate change because God controls the weather.

The Independent TD has stated that although he has been listening to Eamon Ryan and the Green Party talk about climate change for years, they have yet to convince him that actual human beings have anything to do with the destruction of the earth.

Surprisingly, Ryan actually welcomed the comments because they finally got people talking about climate change. Speaking to the Independent, he said: “If only it was true (…) But all the science for the past 150 years shows this has been happening.”

Twitter was not so welcoming of Healy-Rae’s comments, and instead spent some valuable time photoshopping photos and sending funny tweets. It was good.

https://twitter.com/Louise_OB/status/728192117064007696

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Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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