While You Were Offline: Want a Preview of Trump’s America? Watch Twitter

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In case you didn’t notice, there was a presidential election this week. Just kidding—there was no way you could have failed to notice that, even if you wanted to. By the time President-elect Donald Trump’s victory became imminent Tuesday night, it was already the subject dominating everything, online and off, as the Internet (and everyone else) started reacting to the outcome. Days later, that’s still the case. Here are some of the conversations you might have missed over the past few days.

Twitter Tracks Day 1 of President-elect Donald Trump

What Happened: The day after the election, the United States got to see what the next four years looked like. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign had its share of divisive language, and for those who might have hoped that, once the election was over, things would calm down, the disturbing reality was quick in coming. These tweets are from the first couple of days after the vote:

Such reports continuned after that first day. You might have noticed journalist Shaun King being tagged in a couple of the above tweets. He was keeping a tally of some of the heinous things that were unfolding across the country starting Tuesday:

Reports of this kind of behavior were also, slowly, picked up by the media.
The Takeaway: Trump has been called upon to speak out against this behavior, but as of this writing (Friday, to be clear) he has yet to do so.

#NotMyPresident

What Happened: For many, the fact that Trump was so out of touch with their values meant that they dismissed the results of the election, declaring he was not their president.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: So, as it turns out, Trump actually didn’t win the popular vote. With that in mind, #NotMyPresident becoming a trending hashtag on Twitter following the election almost seems like a foregone conclusion. Sure enough…

The sentiment went further than social media, of course; Trump’s victory sparked a number of protests in cities across the the country. Protests that Donald Trump seemed conflicted about, if his Twitter account was anything to go by:

Those tweets were just eight hours apart; the time in between was presumably spent with someone explaining that he had to seem more presidential now that he’s, you know, going to be the president of the United States. Much more convinced of their opinion were Trump’s supporters, who weren’t impressed by #NotMyPresident at all:

The Takeaway: For those who believe that the popular vote deserves recognition when so many more people voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, there’s a Change.org petition to try and make that case to the Electoral College. Otherwise, expect the protests to continue at least until Trump’s inauguration.

The Short Good-Bye

What Happened: With the election out of the way, and a change in direction imminent, social media decided to think about the man who’d led the US for the last eight years… but only briefly.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter
What Really Happened: But what about the man who Trump will be replacing? Now that the campaign is finally over, the prospect of Barack Obama leaving office sunk in for a lot of people, prompting this tweet on the day after the election:

En masse, Twitter was ready to offer the outgoing president some gratitude, and maybe a piece of advice or two:

Of course, not everyone entered into the spirit of kindness:

The Takeaway: There really is just one thing to say, isn’t there?

In Order to Form a Much Smaller Union

What Happened: What if all the states that didn’t vote for Donald Trump broke off from the US? Turns out, they were thinking about that.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened:It escaped no one’s notice that, on an electoral map with a lot of red, the left coast of the United States was stubbornly blue in this year’s election—leading many to return to an oft-discussed idea:

Not everyone thought that succession would be the best thing for California, however (even if that was deemed a good thing for the United States overall, in their eyes):

Nonetheless, succession talk soon spread beyond social media and onto “mainstream” media pretty quickly, and the Yes California campaign was there to take advantage of it, reminding people that there really will be a referendum on the subject in 2019.
The Takeaway: It’s not just Californians, either: Oregon, too, is considering leaving. Could there be a United States of The West Coast of America by 2020?

I Can Haz Memes? Not in Spain, Apparently

What Happened: The Spanish government is launching a war against online memes. Because, you know, that’s definitely not going to backfire.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: But, hey! Let’s focus elsewhere in the world for a bit, just to keep it light. Maybe something is happening in the UK? Well, a massive, post-Brexit housebuilding slump isn’t really what we had in mind. Canada is usually a sure-fire bet for some levity, but they’re a little bit “new phone, who dis?” right now. What about Spain? Well, the ruling party there has proposed legislation to outlaw memes making fun of them, so maybe not. Think that last bit is a joke? It’s not.

Guess how the Internet reacted to that legislation?

The Takeaway: If only there was one perfect tweet to sum this story up…

That’ll do. Until next week, there’s this:

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