An Influencer Who Made An Ill-Advised Selfie At A Funeral, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
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 woman who posted ill-advised selfies at her father's funeral, a guy whose wife was paralyzed with the fear of misgendering her transgender server, a guy who might have wished he didn't share his opinion about cover letters and a tech entrepreneur who thought men who took paternity leave were "losers."
Tuesday
Jayne Rivera
The character: Jayne Rivera, model, influencer and Florida woman.
The plot: Rivera made waves during the funeral of her father after she snapped a series of selfies in front of his open casket and posted them on Instagram, captioning them, "Butterfly fly away. RIP Papi, you were my best friend. A life well lived." She also included the hashtags: #rip #papi #veteran #ptsd #funeral #neverforgotten.
The repercussion: Rivera's funeral selfies went viral, appearing in headlines around the world and sparking a furor across the Twitterverse as people largely found the photoshoot to be in poor taste. She later deleted her Instagram account, but the internet had a field day with the controversial photos, roasting her with snarky captions.
Rivera later defended her funeral selfies saying they were taken "with the best intentions in a manner my father would have approved with had he still been alive."
"Everyone handles the loss of a loved one in their own ways; some are more traditional while others might come across as taboo," Rivera told NBC News. "For me, I treated the celebration as if my father was right next to me, posing for the camera as he had done on many occasions prior."
Wednesday
Gad Saad
The character: Gad Saad, Lebanese-born Canadian behavioral scientist, social dilemma case study.
The plot: On Wednesday, Saad tweeted that his wife "was frozen in fear" at their local café after she realized her server was "possibly transgender" and worried she "might use a pronoun that might offend."
Saad added that "language policing" was causing everyone to "walk on egg shelves (sic)."
The repercussion: Saad's tweet about his wife's momentary fear in misgendering her server was roundly mocked across the internet as many netizens pointed out this particular interaction did not require anyone to use pronouns. Others helpfully gave Saad a laundry list of inoffensive stock phrases his wife could have said.
Saad was flabbergasted by the dismissive reaction to his tweets, adding that he "truly understood" what Dave Chappelle was going through. "I think that I'm less afraid of the folks from whom we ran in Lebanon than some of the offended folks on Twitter," he quipped.
Dishonorable Mention
Nikhil Krishnan
The character: Nikhil Krishnan, the founder of Out-Of-Pocket, a Substack newsletter "featuring in-depth analysis and dank memes about what's going on in the US healthcare system."
The plot: On Wednesday, Krishnan weighed in on Twitter about the importance of cover letters: "Cover letters are basically a way to tell if someone is applying to dozens of jobs or actually cares about yours." He later deleted the tweet.
The repercussion: Krishnan's commentary about cover letters weeding out job applicants quickly sparked backlash, with many people criticizing his tweet as elitist gatekeeping.
Thursday
Joe Lonsdale
The character: Joe Lonsdale, tech entrepreneur, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Palantir founder and masculinity expert.
The plot: On Thursday, Lonsdale reacted to a tweet about Joe Rogan criticizing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's decision to take paternity leave to care for his twin newborns, by admonishing men who take six months of parental leave, calling them "losers."
"Wow. Great for fathers to spend time w their kids and support moms, but any man in an important position who takes 6 months of leave for a newborn is a loser." He added, "In the old days men had babies and worked harder to provide for their future — that's the correct masculine response."
The repercussion: Lonsdale found himself buried in an avalanche of quote-tweets, with many of his tech peers and other Silicon Valley CEOs dunking on his anti-paternity leave hot take.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian took the moment to share he was proud to take paternity leave and later pointed out on Instagram that the United States was the "only industrialized country without guaranteed family leave."
Despite the thorough drubbing he took from the internet, Lonsdale refused to apologize and continued to double down against paternity leave.
"Over ten CEOs so far today trolling me by explaining they are about to take six months off to spend with their families. Love you guys, Nothing is more important than our families*. Am excited to get home to Tayler and my girls tmrw after a short trip. *(But really, 6 months?)."
[H/T John Nicholson]
Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which includes a woman who threatened to burn her kid's Pokémon cards if they were bad and more.
Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected]
