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SORRY. MOON NOT BEAUTIFUL

A Meat-Based Man Who Was Not Turned On By The Latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

Molly Bradley
Molly Bradley
A Meat-Based Man Who Was Not Turned On By The Latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
This week we've also got a writer who doesn't think we should celebrate Father's Day this year, an astrophysicist scornful of your admiration of the moon and more.
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Every day somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on Twitter from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.



This week's characters include a writer who doesn't think we as a culture should do Father's Day this year, an astrophysicist who doesn't want you to think the moon is cool, a YouTuber who doesn't understand abortion, a meat-based man who was not turned on by the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and a guy furious that he couldn't get peanuts on a flight.



Saturday

Emily Gould

The character: Emily Gould, novelist, bookseller, former Gawker editor made infamous by a calamitous interview with Jimmy Kimmel and Father’s Day abolitionist

The plot: On Saturday, Gould went scorched earth on America’s holiday honoring fatherhood, asking incredulously if Father’s Day was still happening in 2022, tweeting, “I love my dad and I love my kids’ dad but I gotta ask… are we… as a culture… Father’s Day… are we really doing that, this year??”



The repercussion: Gould’s stance against Father’s Day went viral proving decidedly unpopular with netizens on both sides of the aisle, as her suggestion to cancel the holiday this year got ratioed into oblivion. Many people, especially those with single fathers, asserted that good paternal figures deserved a day to be recognized.



Gould doubled down on her anti-Father’s Day hot take, claiming the “greeting card holiday” was invented by the daughter of a Confederate soldier.



Ed note: The origin of Father’s Day is a little more complicated than Gould’s flippant tweet would imply.

Sonora Smart Dodd, the woman responsible for Father’s Day in the United States, was inspired to suggest the holiday after listening to a Mother’s Day sermon with her father at the Central Methodist Church. Dodd felt her dad who had raised her and five younger brothers alone also deserved some recognition. And while her father may have initially been a Confederate soldier, he later changed ranks, and enlisted as a Union soldier.


James Crugnale



Monday

Neil deGrasse Tyson

The character: Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, giant bummer

The plot: To kick the week off right, Neil deGrasse Tyson ruined Sunday night’s beautiful lunar eclipse for everybody by tweeting about how “un-spectacular” it was. I wrote about deGrasse Tyson’s penchant for bumming everybody out shortly thereafter, but I am forced to include him here, too, in the week’s roundup of tweets that blighted the internet.



The repercussion: All things considered, deGrasse Tyson’s tweet was, while obnoxious, generally benign compared the main characters that follow below. Still, it must be noted that Twitter did not take kindly to the astrophysicist’s attempt to strip us of the humble joy that nature deigned to grace us with.

Personally, I’ve got qualms with the whole “let people enjoy things” sentiment — because, let’s be real, some things suck and liking them is stupid. But in this case, I am truly begging Neil to let people enjoy the freaking moon.





Molly Bradley



Tim Pool

The character: Tim Pool, YouTuber, “journalist,” “disaffected liberal,” “commentator” (these terms are his own, from his Twitter bio)

The plot: The main characters just kept on coming Monday as Tim Pool decided to craft a tweet so dumb it almost doesn’t merit covering here.

Pool decided to toss a wildly unrealistic scenario about abortion into the cesspool of Twitter in order to ask, essentially, “What then, huh?”


The repercussion: People rightfully got on Pool’s case about his tweet that seemed to make the extraordinarily bad-faith assumption that people who are pro-abortion are so eager to abort that, in response to this question, they would have to… admit that they would kill a baby that was carried to term and born?? Cool “gotcha” that has absolutely nothing to do with abortion, Tim!

The bulk of the responses parodied the nonsensical quality of Pool’s own tweet.



Molly Bradley



Jordan Peterson

The character: Jordan Peterson, right-wing carnivore, psychologist, author, YouTuber (that’s all I’ll say here; Google if you’re lucky enough to not know him)

The plot: On Monday, for absolutely no reason at all, Peterson quote-tweeted an image of model Yumi Nu on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, writing: “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.”



Nu is the magazine’s first-ever Asian curve cover model.

The repercussion: Peterson’s tweet has since racked up over 10,500 quote tweets and many, many replies. While the odd freak sided with the author in his criticism of a random (and objectively gorgeous) woman, most people wasted no time ensuring he’d been thoroughly roasted.



Even Yumi Nu herself had a few (of Nicki Minaj’s) words for Peterson.


@_yumi_nu

anyways…

♬ Itty Bitty Piggy - Nicki Minaj - spencer goulding

Within hours of the backlash, Peterson announced he’d be stepping away from Twitter, writing that returning to the platform had seen his life get “worse again almost instantly.”



He also lamented “the endless flood of vicious insult” that takes place on Twitter ⁠— ironic, given that this whole thing started with Peterson needlessly insulting a woman on the internet.



Unsurprisingly, people had things to say about Peterson’s inability to take what he dishes out.



Some sad news: despite promising us his departure from Twitter just three days ago, Peterson continues to tweet.



Darcy Jimenez



Tuesday

Bret Weinstein


The character: Bret Weinstein, Intellectual Dark Web guy, airplane snack enjoyer, peanut fan

The plot: Were you on Bret’s recent flight? The guy who resigned from Evergreen State College and churns out hot takes worse than last-minute, hacked freshman assignments was mad because he was denied nuts on a plane.

“We’re being denied nuts on this flight because we have a passenger onboard with a nut allergy,” he tweeted. “Also, we’re asked not to consume any nuts we may have brought on board and not to force anyone else to consume nuts, even if we believe they’re capable of digesting them safely.”



I’ve flown maybe twice or thrice in the past couple of years and don’t remember getting peanuts. Biscuits or pretzels usually come through, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen peanuts being given out on a plane. Either way, I’m no health expert, but serving and eating peanuts when someone could turn out allergic in the same space can easily be avoided. Otherwise, just fly private and eat whatever you want.


The repercussion: Weinstein's complaint that he was being deprived nuts because of a passenger's allergy was not received well



Big brain’d Bret finally came around and said sorry.



Adwait Patil


———

Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which included a guy who couldn’t get a new dishwasher because of socialism, somehow, and more.

Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected].

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