OceanGate, Cage Match, Buff RFK, Wagner Coup
Twitter News Digest for the week of 6/21-6/27
Hey everyone,
This week’s digest covers the submarine, Zuck-Musk cage match, Buff RFK, and the Wagner Revolt. Don’t miss the memes at the end, and please subscribe!
OceanGate
Last week, a missing submarine launched a private company called OceanGate dominated headlines for four days.
Sunday, the experimental sub known as the Titan lost contact with the surface during a private expedition to explore the Titanic. The sub was being maneuvered with a video game controller and contained five passengers
The story was viewed with skepticism on Twitter as coverage became inflamed along typical culture-war lines.
Thursday afternoon, it was reported that debris from the Titan had been found on the ocean floor. The debris suggested that the sub had imploded, killing its passengers instantly.
Things got more complicated on Thursday night, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House and Navy had known since Sunday that the Titan likely imploded.
Why would the White House and Navy let the public think there was hope for the Titan as long as they did?
The Twitter consensus was that Titan had been used as a distraction from other news events.
The past week was rough for the establishment: The Biden Administration is mired in tax and whistleblower scandals, medical authorities are facing growing skepticism on vaccines, and the war in Ukraine is going badly for the West.
Whether the events around the Titan were accidental or not, their breathless coverage soaked up attention from more consequential happenings.
On Twitter, the strange timing of the Titan caused the hive mind antenna to go up.
One clip from The Simpsons went viral depicting a scenario easily similar to that of the Titan. Simpsons Predicts the Future is a popular meme about the show’s penchant for anticipating events.
Others focused on the relationship between the Titanic and the Federal Reserve, drawing parallels between 1913 and our own moment of global financial transformation.
One video fleshing out the Titanic conspiracy went viral.
Google whistleblower Zach Voorhies argued that the OceanGate accident would be used to stop others from investigating whether, in 1912, the Titanic was destroyed by an explosion as part of a plot to eliminate opposition to the Fed.
The Titan’s implosion could’ve just been a timely distraction, or maybe it possesses deeper significance.
Either way, the media circus around it felt deceptive.
Elon commented on the mood by reposting a meme from last year.
In another tweet, he zinged Snopes’ coverage of the events, which tried to tie the sub’s failure to Starlink.
What do you think—was the sub a convenient distraction, random tragedy, or something more nefarious?
Cage Match
As the submarine story was winding down, Elon engineered his own grand distraction by floating the idea of fighting Mark Zuckerberg in a UFC cage match.
Zuckerberg accepted on Instagram. Elon responded, “If this is for real, I will do it.”
Signs are pointing to the fight actually happening. UFC President Dana White released a video to Twitter with a Zuckerberg vs Musk t-shirt. In an interview, he said, “both guys are absolutely dead serious about this. They both wanna do it.”
White predicted the event would be the most-watched fight in the history of the world: “You don’t have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everyone would want to see it”
The fight quickly became the most-memed topic on Twitter.
Zuck has been attracting attention lately for his physical fitness and jui-jitsu training.
On Memorial Day, he posted that he’d competed the ‘Murph Challenge’ Crossfit workout in under forty minutes. The workout involves doing 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and two miles-long run, all with a weighted vest.
Some people expressed concern for Elon. His mother Maye Musk urged for the fight to be called off.
A number of martial artists reached out with offers to help train, including Andrew Tate, Lex Fridman, and Georges St-Pierre.
Monday night, Elon agreed to train with St-Pierre.
He also said he’s been sparring with Fridman. Last night, Fridman posted photos and wrote, “I'm extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground.”
Last year, Elon challenged Vladimir Putin to single combat. In August, he told Full Send podcast he would use a move called the The Walrus against Putin.
Will Elon use The Walrus to submit Zuck? And how much Dogecoin are you willing to bet on it?
Buff RFK
On Saturday, videos of a buff and shirtless RFK lifting weights went viral.
RFK tweeted that he intends to “restore America as a global example of health and well-being.”
As a meme, Buff RFK captures growing optimism in the health freedom movement, spurred by his appearance on Joe Rogan and the ensuing explosion of vaccine debate on Twitter.
Throughout the week, the vaccine skeptics stayed on the offensive, aggressively questioning statements made by Hotez and other public health officials.
Attorney Aaron Siri challenged famous vaccinologist Paul Offit to a debate; Offit walked back on some criticisms of RFK
Cardiologist Peter McCullough offered to debate Hotez in place of RFK and said vaccines were based on lie
Hotez posted multiple articles arguing the lab-leak hypothesis of covid origins is a conspiracy theory
Journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted that Hotez would not grant him an interview; Physicist Eric Weinstein said Hotez would not negotiate any conditions for a debate
RFK reposted an article tying Hotez to gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
Hotez tweeted mainstream articles arguing that he shouldn’t debate and was being harrassed
Jordan Peterson accused Hotez of feigning victimhood and called on him to debate
RFK blamed Obamacare for making Big Pharma part of the “tribal structure” of the Democratic Party
Tucker’s sixth episode was titled “Bobby Kennedy is winning”
Bill Maher discussed vaccines and Covid with RFK and praised him for having “a pair of balls”
The Wagner Revolt
The insanity of the week continued into the weekend when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of a Russian mercenary army Wagner, staged a brief but alarming coup against Vladimir Putin.
Saturday morning, Wagner occupied the Russian city of Rostov. Putin reportedly fled Moscow and released an emergency address to the nation.
As Wager advanced toward Moscow, it looked like Russia was on the brink of falling into the hands of a billionaire mercenary warlord.
Western media outlets, neoconservatives, and other war hawks cheered what they viewed as an opportunity for US/Ukraine to capitalize on Russia’s weakness.
Saturday afternoon, it was announced that Belerussian President Alexander Lukashenko had negotiated a truce between Putin and Prigozhin, ending the coup.
Amazingly, neither Wagner nor the Russian army suffered any casualties. Somehow Prighozhin was allowed to live.
After the coup’s abrupt ending, theories swirled on Twitter about the true nature of events.
The most popular idea was some variation of the following: the CIA tried to bribe Prigozhin to turn on Putin. Prigozhin took the money and feigned the coup before siding with Putin, as they’d intended all along. Putin allowed the coup to happen as a test of loyalty.
Adding fuel to the fire was a viral post from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs listing three CIA-instigated conflicts. Saturday afternoon, “The CIA” trended with over 100k tweets.
Several astute observers noted the coup’s outcome was that the Wagner mercenary army ended up moving to the Belarus-Ukraine border, significantly closer to the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev.
Monday night, Putin delivered a statement about the events in which he addressed Wagner troops who did not participate in the coup, giving them the option to stay with their unit, enlist in the Russian army, or go home.
Later, Russia dropped charges against Wagner and Prigozhin for armed mutiny.
Afterwards, there was near-zero consensus about which (if any) events were authentic, which were staged, and which product of hasty or politicized news reporting.
Maybe the world brushed up against nuclear annihilation.
Or perhaps nothing happened at all outside the movement of troops and a flurry of breathless news stories.
Elon’s Memes
Dogey Treats: News Bites
Resumed paying bills for Google cloud
Head of Comms Joe Benarroch sent email about Twitter’s policy on leaks
Tesla completed Dojo supercomputer, working for a few months
After Twitter Spaces journalist Mario Nawfal was accused of being a crypto scammer, Elon said, “Well, he seems to create some good content. That said, use of this platform for any scams will result in account suspension.”
NBC news ran an article about how social media competitors are copying Twitter.
US Politics
Joe Biden joked that he “sold a lot of state secrets.”
YouTube continued to censor RFK.
The federal government’s attack on crypto continues to drive it offshore. Tyler Winklevoss described the new dynamic as the east/west flippening.
Actor Jim Caviezel accused the CIA of operating the biggest pedophile network in the world.
Video of “Patriot Front” protesters went viral after they were unmasked by other protesters. Elon tweeted, “always take off their masks.” He later added, “Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation.”
After NYC moved to ban coal-fired pizza ovens, a man went viral for throwing slices of pizza at city hall. Elon said, “this is silly.”
CNN released audio of Trump accusing the military of trying to push his administration into war with Iran. Reuters found that every living President except Donald Trump descended from slave owners.
John Durham testified to Congress that Obama and Biden knew claims of Russian collusion came from the Clinton campaign. Matt Gaetz accused Durham of being part of the Russiagate coverup. Durham called for accountability
Health
Peter Hotez tweeted that Covid-19 is a leading cause of death for American children. After Hotez zinged RFK for not wearing sunscreen, a Twitter debate about its merits ensued.
Clips from The Highwire circulated, including a speech from Del Bigtree and depositions from famed vaccinologists Stanley Plotkin and Dr. Kathryn Edwards
Russia-Ukraine
Tucker Carlson’s seventh episode is about the erosion of democracy in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelensky said there will not be a Presidential election in his country until the war is over.
Ruble-denominated Tether trading spiked during the Wagner revolt.
The All-In Podcast discussed evidence that the US scuttled a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Memes of the Week
It's ALL Risky!
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