A Woman That Claimed That Zits Didn't Exist In The '80s And '90s, 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 conservative nonprofit that accidentally made a good point about racism, a woman with a harebrained take that acne didn't exist in the 1980s and 1990s, a billionaire with a poorly received poem and a business magazine that tried to make "office bod" a thing.
Sunday
PragerU
The character: PragerU, a facts-challenged conservative nonprofit; not an actual liberal arts university.
The plot: On Sunday, PragerU's social media account tweeted a jeremiad ostensibly intending to criticize anti-racism activism, saying "Young people are enamored with 'anti-racist' rhetoric because they think they are fighting racist systems in America," adding "The TRUTH is they are fighting America itself and the very values the country was founded on."
The repercussion: PragerU found itself buried under an avalanche of quote-tweets pointing out that the conservative think tank had inadvertently made the solid argument that challenging America's founding values was intrinsic to tackling racism in America.
Someone also pointed out that most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in fact slaveholders.
Despite being flattened by a torrent of Twitter dunks, PragerU proudly kept their tweet up.
Monday
Juliana Lung
The character: Juliana Lung, a "wellness" influencer, someone who clearly didn't live through the 1980s and 1990s.
The plot: On Monday, Lung claimed, "I don't think people suffered from acne until relatively recently as industrial seed oils became a prominent component of modern diets[.] If you look at images from the 80's and 90's, no one had acne."
The repercussion: Lung's tweet went viral, but not in the way she had intended, with scores of people debunking her claim. Many Generation Xers and older Millennials — who lived through that time period — correctly asserted that acne is not a recent phenomenon.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett also weighed in that she herself got acne in the 1990s.
Lung continued to double down on her contention that acne was caused by recent changes in our diet and gloated about the virality of her tweet.
Dishonorable Mention
Elon Musk
The character: Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, controversial SNL guest, meme thief.
The plot: On Monday night, Musk pushed back against the criticism of the billionaire space race — with people saying perhaps the wealthy should be focused on earthly humanitarian efforts — with a poem-like tweet.
"those who attack space
maybe don't realize that
space represents hope
for so many people"
The repercussion: Musk's poem — er, tweet — did not win him many fans.
Others poked fun at the electric car mogul with poetry of their own.
Thursday
Bloomberg Businessweek
The character: Bloomberg Businessweek, weekly business magazine, body police.
The plot: On Thursday, the business publication tweeted out an article about American workers exercising in preparation of returning to the office in a post-pandemic world. The caption accompanying the linkout read, "Americans who soothed themselves with calorie-laden comfort foods are frantically trying to slim down for the perfect office bod."
The repercussion: Businessweek's article and tweet characterizing workers gaining weight during the pandemic and now returning to their offices as a "minor crisis" was thoroughly roasted by the internet, with many incredulous of the term "office bod.
Ultimately, regardless of the outrage provoked by the story, the "office bod" article seemed destined to be one of Businessweek's top-trafficked articles of the day, which is probably what they wanted.
Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which includes Henry Winkler possibly making a veiled threat and more.
Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected].
