The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Kanye West, Planned Parenthood, & Flat Earth

By Jade Hayden

This week, Kanye released the track list of his new album on Twitter, Kanye misinterpreted the acronym KK, Kanye tweeted seventeen reasons why he was not a fan of Wiz Khalifa, and Amber Rose outed Kanye as her #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch.

Some other stuff also happened on Twitter this week, but they may as well not have done, because Kanye was all anybody talked about. Those things were Planned Parenthood being cleared of all criminal charges in the States, rapper B.o.B becoming a flat-earther, and people tweeting some supermarket movie titles.

#KanyeWest creates Twitter beef with #WizKhalifa, insults #AmberRose, gets distracted from #CreativeProcess 

Everybody has seen Kanye’s latest Twitter rant. And if you haven’t seen it, you’ve at least heard about it because it’s all that anybody has been talking about. A full explanation of Kanye’s outburst can be found here. There are a lot of elements to consider in that myriad of tweets – most of which have since been deleted – so here is a short, potentially inaccurate summary.

Kanye tweeted the name of his forthcoming album during the week. He called it Swish. He said it was going to be the greatest album ever recorded, or something. Then Kanye decided to change the name of his album to Waves. Wiz Khalifa decided to vaguely diss Kanye’s new title. Kanye dissed Wiz back. It was grand.

Some time afterwards Wiz tweeted something about becoming yourself while hitting a KK. In Wiz world, KK means Khalifa Kush – his own personal brand of weed. In Kanye world, KK means Kim Kardashian – his wife.

Kanye sent a string of tweets insulting Wiz, Wiz’s music, Wiz’s ex-wife Amber Rose, and Wiz’s child. Kanye then realised his mistake, claimed that he has been distracted from his creative process, deleted the majority of his tweets, and got back to tweeting about his album.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/692449710452379648%20

Kanye did not apologise to Amber, so she asked whether he was still “mad I’m not around to play in ur asshole anymore? #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch.” A day later, Kanye responded by saying that he never goes near that area. #KanyeAnalPlaylist trended worldwide for a bit. It was a whole thing.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/692967570740224001

It was one of Kanye’s better, more entertaining rants, as it paused to reflect on Wiz Khalifa’s pretty cool pants mid insult. But it was also one of Kanye’s worst, more problematic, deeply misogynistic rants, as it made a conscious effort to attack Amber Rose and her child. For no reason.

Many saw Kanye’s outburst as a prime example of the way he views his exes or women in general – as pawns to be dragged out every now and then to either assert his own position of dominance, or to confirm his unadulterated love for his wife, mother, and daughter. Others simply saw Kanye’s outburst as the greatest thing that ever happened, ever. All of these people tweeted about it.

https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/693097332921991168

Earlier today, Kanye took to Twitter again to apologise for bringing Wiz and Amber’s child into his vainglorious rant. He has yet to respond to Amber.

#PlannedParenthood cleared of all sting video charges #IStandWithPP

During the year, a series of videos were released that appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of foetal tissue. The videos – which have since been revealed to be entirely fake – led to a criminal investigation of the family planning clinic. This week, it was reported that Planned Parenthood were cleared of all charges. Instead, those who created the manipulated videos were indicted for tampering with governmental records and for trying to purchase human organs.

It was great news for all those people at Planned Parenthood, for everyone who avails of their many reproductive health services, and for anyone who recognises that giving a person the choice to terminate a pregnancy should not be met with hostility, accusations, or general asshole behaviour.

https://twitter.com/Chirlane/status/691766471316377600

However, the clinics remain under harsh scrutiny as they will face potential defunding some time this year. The decision would not only affect people living on low income salaries who rely on Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings and contraceptives, but also the thousands of women who use their abortion services every year.

#B.o.B takes to Twitter to prove the earth is flat (it isn’t)

Remember rapper B.o.B? He had that one song that one times about airplanes in the sky. Hayley Williams featured on the track. It was alright. Well, he’s back and he’s banging on about the sky again – more specifically, space and the horizon and the curvature of the earth that supposedly does not exist. Yep, B.o.B believes the earth is flat.

#FlatEarth is an idea that aligns itself quite nicely with other mad conspiracy theories like 9/11 being a lie, Kubrick faking the moon landing, and holocaust denial. It has about as much credibility as a Mystic Meg Sunday World column, a reddit thread condemning feminism as the root of all evil, or the Bible.

During the week, B.o.B took to Twitter to share his flat earth theories with the rest of the world.

https://twitter.com/bobatl/status/691439089543880704

https://twitter.com/bobatl/status/691430107919945728

Following B.o.B’s outburst, lots of people took the time to step in and try to explain just how wrong he really was. This included astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who subsequently ended up in a rap battle with B.o.B about curvature and space and actual scientific fact.

B.o.B’s song Flatline was eventually removed from his soundcloud due to its anti-Semitic, extreme right wing, undertones. Salon.com subsequently published an article critiquing the media’s approach to the rapper’s tweets, stating that his views were a lot more dangerous than they were being presented.

A lot of other people just thought he was being ridiculous.

Twitter makes some #SupermarketMovies

Yesterday, #SupermarketMovies was trending. It was a tag where people took some names of some shops and replaced them with some words from well-known movies to make a supermarket movie title. There was no real point or purpose to the tag, but it was vaguely entertaining.

Here are some of its tweets.

https://twitter.com/nugentdave/status/693089654418055168

Featured image source.

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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