manipulation from the 2x team who first cancelled it and then backtracked saying it's still gonna happen.
This is not true. The majority of the signatories who said that they were not going to support the SegWit2x fork anymore are still not supporting the SegWit2x fork.
If a few rogue miners decide to go through with it regardless, that's their choice but I don't think there's been any "manipulation" or dodgy activity going on here, just a fairly natural way of people figuring out what's going to happen.
It was people's faulty logic in expecting to get "free money" from SegWit2x which has caused this bearish move.
It's also possible that supporters of big blocks have moved en masse to supporting Bitcoin Cash, which has in turn caused FOMO for Bitcoin Cash and thus a bearish move for Bitcoin (hence all the threads from newbies who are somewhat emotional and confused).