Who The Hell Are 'Diamond And Silk'? A 30-Second Guide
Even if you're extremely online like us, you probably only know "Diamond and Silk" as just another item on the endless list of internet shouting people, like that guy who flogs brain pills to gullible people.
But the truth is that it's so much stupider than that. In the interest of keeping you well-informed, we've created a brief guide containing everything you need to know about this new cultural phenomenon.
Who the hell are Diamond and Silk?
Diamond and Silk -- real names Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson -- are sisters who rose to prominence during the last election by falling hard for Trump. They shot videos promoting his platform, ran various social media campaigns, headlined events, and toured the right-wing media establishment, racking up numerous appearances on such programs as Sean Hannity: Unchained Unlike Prometheus Because Sean Hannity's Clarion Knowledge Is Stronger Than Fire and Laura Ingraham's Hey Kids, If That Frisbee Lands In My Yard Again I'm Calling The Cops Show.
Why should I care?
After the election, they continued preaching the orange word to their sizable fanbase. They mostly pinballed around the right-wing vlogosphere, until some mom-and-pop conglomerate called "Facebook" had to ruin it.
You see, during that big ol' congressional hearing about Facebook leaking everybody's private information like a pasta strainer, several politicians took the time to quiz Mark Zuckerberg about the issue of conservative voices supposedly being silenced by the site, because there's no bigger issue in politics right now than the fact that someone somewhere isn't getting into a comments section shouting match with high-school classmates they haven't seen in 23 years.
One of the given examples was Diamond and Silk, who had alleged that the company was kneecapping their traffic. It was such a crime against humanity that five members of the panel asked Zuckerbot to explain this wanton bias against "Gold and Silk" (as one member called them). It was a bizarre display which peaked when Representative Marsha Blackburn declared that Diamond and Silk are "not terrorism," which is an endorsement that money can't buy.
Of course, after this, several groups -- including Facebook -- analysed Diamond and Silk's traffic and interactions, and found no evidence to support their claims of bias. One analysis even found that their page traffic went up, likely as a result of the media attention they got for crying foul. And then, whilst presenting during their own congressional testimony, Diamond and Silk-
Hold the phone, Diamond and Silk also testified in front of Congress?
Yes, and they maybe perjured themselves.
During their testimony, the duo talked at length about their low viewing figures and how it's sooo unfair that "someone with a liberal point of view that hate against the president" can go mega-viral, which is almost as big a self-own as complaining to the White House about your Twitter being unverified.
The duo were also questioned on whether they'd received any payments from the Trump campaign, which they denied, with increasing levels of shoutiness, several times -- a denial that was proven wrong by a campaign report listing them as having received $1,274.94 for "field consulting" services. After being called out for lying, they were swift to call it "fake news," insist it was a reimbursement for travel expenses (which still makes it a payment from the campaign), and argue more with the panel.
This is literally the dumbest thing.
Yup! And how did Diamond and Silk cash in all this newfound political capital? Well, an ad featuring them endorsing Paul Nehlen, a primary candidate in Wisconsin, started making the rounds. It was a weird move, because not only does Nehlen hate Trump with the fury of a thousand commenters screaming "CUCK" at everything, but he's also a self-avowed white supremacist who was banned from Twitter for doxxing political opponents, justifying it by saying that they're Jews, and making racist jokes about Meghan Markle.
In the likely event that he gets destroyed at the polls, someone saved a copy of the campaign ad that D&S were paid $7,000 to produce, but who knows?
American politics are a horrifying snake pit.
Correct!
Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook, and has a newsletter about depressing history that you should definitely subscribe to.
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