'Silicon Valley' actors recount run-in with Trump supporters
Technically Incorrect: The actors who play Dinesh Chugtai and Richard Hendricks in the celebrated series take to Twitter to describe an ugly incident.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Middleditch and Nanjiani. Cucks, allegedly.
In the days since the election, tensions have been high, not least racial tensions.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has counted more than 200 incidents of what it calls hateful intimidation and harassment.
Two actors from the celebrated HBO series "Silicon Valley" say they had their own harassing encounter in Los Angeles on Friday night.
As Kumail Nanjiani (Dinesh Chugtai in the series) described it in a series of tweets, he and Thomas Middleditch (Richard Hendricks in the show) were drinking in a bar when two "fans" sidled over.
Nanjiani described them as "2 white dudes, 20's, who'd been there for hours."
"'We're big fans of you guys. (To Thomas) I trolled you on twitter yesterday.' He goes on to say how we're wrong about Trump," tweeted Nanjiani.
Nanjiani continued: "I go 'Hey we don't wanna discuss politics right now.' His friends goes 'oh they're cucks.' Then starts yelling at us. 'CUCKS CUCKS CUCKS!'"
Should you be unfamiliar with this term, yes, it derives from "cuckold." In the Trumpesque, alt-right sphere, as Middleditch explained on Twitter, it has another connotation. It simply means "One of them, not one of us."
Nanjiani suggested that things took a difficult turn. "He starts getting in my face. Thomas puts his hand on the dude's chest to stop him. 'Don't touch me you cuck. Wanna go outside?'" he tweeted.
And outside they went, said Nanjiani. Well, at least the two Trump supporters did. Nanjiani said that a bouncer came over and threw the two Trumpists out. He described his and Middleditch's reaction as "stunned."
Nanjiani is Pakistani-American and Middleditch is Canadian. As Nanjiani explained: "This happened at a bar in LA surrounded by ppl. I can't imagine what it must be like to be someone who looks like me in other parts."
He added: "We can't let hate/racism/bigotry/sexism be normalized. If something happens, be safe, but let it be known we won't stand for this."
Surely, few can deny that the open embrace by the president-elect himself of racist and sexist overtones has likely empowered others to express prejudiced sentiments more openly.
Nanjiani said that those who voted for Trump might insist they're neither racist nor sexist, but they at least ignored such overtones or overlooked them.
The actors offered bitter conclusions. Middleditch described this as merely "Week 1."
Nanjiani was equally pessimistic: "We thought Internet would give us access to ppl w different points of view. Instead it gives us access to many ppl w the same point of view."
As for the accusation that they're cucks, Nanjiani pleaded guilty: "Have you met @Middleditch & I? We're cuck af."
No, the "af" doesn't stand for "Abercrombie and Fitch."