The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter: Virginia Shooting, Black Monday & Blaming Gluten

By Jade Hayden

This week, Twitter experienced the fall of the stock market, witnessed the fatal shooting of a journalist and a cameraman in Virginia, and slagged Rosanna Davison (a lot).

Two shot dead on live TV #Virginia #wdbj7

On Wednesday morning – while broadcasting a live interview with a chamber of commerce official – reporter, Alison Parker, and cameraman, Adam Ward, were shot dead by Vester Flanagan. Flanagan, who had been a former employee of local news channel WDBJ7, filmed himself approaching Parker and Ward, murdered them, and then proceeded to upload the video onto various social media platforms.

After the shooting, Flanagan also posted several tweets from an account that has since been suspended. He attempted to justify the incident by claiming that “Alison made racial comments,” and that “Adam went to (human resources) on me after working with me one time!!!” Soon afterwards, while being pursued by Virginia’s police force, Flanagan killed himself.

Speaking soon after the incident, WDBJ7’s station manager, Jeff Marks, stated that “This is the worst day of my career – of all our careers.” It wasn’t long before condolences, and criticisms of America’s gun laws, started pouring in from around the country.

However, some people are still under the impression that the implementation of stricter gun laws wouldn’t have done anything to stop the countless shootings that have shook the U.S. this year.

The issue here is that shootings keep happening – not that “disgruntled employees” are unhappy with their terms of dismissal. Surely, if nobody has a gun then nobody can get shot…

Fears of economic meltdown rise on #BlackMonday

On August 11th, China devalued the yuan and lost $5 trillion from global equities. On Monday, in what has been described as ‘The Great Fall of China,’ the country’s markets, and most important market indexes, continued to fall, leaving the rest of the world’s stock markets to follow suit.

So what does this apparent market meltdown mean? Well, according to an article that I just read five minutes ago, it means that the value of  some shares are decreasing, barrels of oil are cheaper, and really, really rich people are losing millions (but still remaining really, really rich, of course).

According to David Buik – who knows a lot about the stock market – the slump could continue until Christmas. But according to some other people over at The Guardian, most of Europe and America have basically recovered since Monday’s drop.

Oh, and oil is expensive again.

Same-sex marriage facing further delays as #marref appeal goes to Supreme Court

Remember those two fellas who tried to claim the result of the marriage referendum was unfair because An Post printed some lovehearts on their envelopes? Well, they’re back… And this time, they’re headed for the Supreme Court.

Earlier today, policy director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), Tiernan Brady, tweeted that although the Court received two appeals to review the referendum’s result, this does not necessarily mean that these cases will ever receive a hearing.

While it’s likely that the Supreme Court will dismiss the appeals, just as the High Court and the Court of Appeal did, this does not make the disclosure of these cases any less offensive and insulting. Same sex marriage was legalised by popular vote. Ireland wants same sex marriage. Ireland will get same sex marriage. Get over it.

No one wants #RosannaDavison‘s diet advice #BlameGluten

This week, Rosanna Davison suggested that autism, arthritis, and schizophrenia could all be cured by removing gluten from your diet. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except they can’t. Rosanna was wrong. And Twitter started a ‘blame gluten’ hashtag to make fun of her.

It might have been (a bit) harsh, but the result was amusing, and that’s all that matters.

It’s actually hard to believe that Davison even said what she said considering she’s got a qualification in Nutritional Therapy from the College of Naturopathic Medicine. I mean, partial nutritional therapists know absolutely everything about mental health, don’t they? And, they’re definitely qualified to say that someone’s autistic because they eat bread, right? No? Oh, okay. Never mind.

Following the backlash, Rosanna issued her own statement where she declared that gluten does not cause autoimmune or neurological diseases (who would’ve thought?), and that she only “…felt that it was acceptable to share the experience that (her) husband had.”

She then provided quite a long list of links to studies that prove that gluten-free diets can have many positive effects for sufferers of the aforementioned diseases, but finished by stating that she doesn’t endorse any of those claims.

Judging by the amount of tweets still appearing in the ‘blame gluten’ hasgtag, I don’t think anyone believes her…

 

Featured image via rosannadavisonnutrition.com

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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