cash in 🤑 crash out 🫨

On culture as one giant gamble and why forced fun is making us all mad.

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• 🤓 The next Trend Report Live™ is happening is December 7 at 5PM in Barcelona! This will be the last one of this year, before the next one happens stateside. More on this soon! We may treat this as a Trend Report™ holiday party too so…come on through, Barcelona! RSVP HERE!!

• ✏️ A free talk on writing coming up!! 📖 Happening December 3 at 9AM PST / 12PM EST / 6PM CEST, Sarah Labrie will be doing a deep dive into memoir, essay, and beyond: RSVP here!

• 🦿HIP REPLACEMENT🦿was technically boneless this week as Ben Dietz and I were joined by series producer (and Ben’s son) Campbell Dietz to talk why Boomers are the ultimate iPad kids, Kirkification and the pipeline to alt right antics, and why there are “no young photographers” because of things like Instagram: listen on Spotify and YouTube!

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UN Council Adopts Trump’s Peace Plan for Gaza
Peace Plan Would Force Ukraine to Cede Land
EU says any peace plan must consult Ukraine

Capitulation? Capitalization? Unsure, but I have my doubts on these, as they both seem to advance “peace” with certain caveats like Ukraine caving to Russia. Gaza Riviera, anyone?

Chile’s presidential race heads to a runoff

“Between a communist and a pro-Trump conservative” too. As many pointed out, here we are again at the iconic puppy-versus-doo-doo election meme.

4 questions, answers about the Epstein files
House bill condemning “horrors of socialism”
Trump, Mamdani form an unlikely alliance
Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign

What is going on? What a week, as Triden falls and Zohrump rises.

ICE Agents Raid a Church
Charlotte faith leaders push back on Trump
“a Citizens Patrol vest outside”

The ICE happenings in North Carolina seem to be evolving the “resist” narrative in interesting ways, underlining what Catholics were onto last week. Finally…some morals!

Microsoft, Nvidia to invest in Anthropic
Peter Thiel’s fund offloaded Nvidia
Nvidia CEO rejects talk of AI bubble
Oracle is already underwater
“tracked down to seven companies”
“ handful of companies are propping up US economy”
“Nvidia Earnings Day”
“Really worth as much as Ford?”

Big week for “Bubble? What bubble??” news despite very clearly bubble activities. Someone asked me this past week what my biggest worries are now and…this would be it! As it will make all the myriad issues politics, economics, climate, social issues, etc. way worse.

Struggles of the world’s ‘second lung’
We Linked Auto Industry to Nigerian Lead Poison

I would put money on there being a larger justice pursuit — or the pairing of various domestic inequality calls — crashing into stories like the above, not just as it plugs into stories of South America and Asia and Africa being tortured by colonial capitalism but that it may awaken people upset by losing chocolate, etc.

Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Colorectal Cancer
“45% of risk of higher pre-cancer”

Especially in women under 50. Kinda related to the above and not: I wonder if a group of very smart people will sue corporations from the 2010s that fed so many Millennials ultra-processed food for “free lunch,” getting us to over-work ourselves whilst using free snacks as bait — only for said snacks going on to kill us. I wonder…

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I send out these emails and I hope you read them. But “hope” isn’t the right word, and neither is “send,” even if both are technically right. What I’m actually saying is: “I gamble with each email and I bet you will read them. I craft headlines and conversations, gamble my time and my energy, my social life and my personal life, all for the chance that you will read and like and comment and share and subscribe, thinking of me as more than another number within another social media platform, forgetting that I live within a slot machine, crying for your attention as we all gamble our lives away.” Everything is gambling now: I bet you I can watch TikToks for twenty more minutes, until after midnight, and still get up at 7AM; I bet you I can move to another city and continue to be happy; I bet you if I only drink wine on weekends I can live to a hundred; I bet if we as a species continue consuming at the same rate that we do that the planet will become unliveable by 2100.

It’s not novel to say any of this but, increasingly, life is just gambling in the metaphorical and literal sense as our compassion rubs against what some would call nihilism. Social media — or the rise of the “Like” and follow counts, real and fake expressions of clout — is one of the clearest pushes into turning everything into gambling, as we’re trained to post and to bet on replies and to even through algorithmic corridors betting that the next video, post, etc. will better. Then we can quit! Were iPhones and apps designed before social media not slot machines too? The internetting of ourselves then means we bet on our friends, on our relationships: will my friends or won’t my friends cancel? Will they think less of me if I bail? How far can I stress a relationship before it breaks? The job market now sucks, largely because every application is a gambling of your time against new helpless tools. Labubu’s breakout this year was heavily based in gambling, as “unboxing” evolved into “blind boxing” — or even betting on if your Labubu is real or not, if you or anyone will care or not. This isn’t new as LOL Surprise trained a generation to gamble for fun, evolving into Blumes and Magic Mixies into DIY blind bags, which all sounds silly but consider adults with Amazon Prime enjoying their daily blind boxes to get by: anything to feel something, anything to care, a life spent gambling on little treats to dopamine distract yourself from reality. Why not take it to the next level and buy a 450 pound pallet of Amazon mystery goods, your reward a mountain of plastic clothing? “Bet,” we say, nodding, pushing BUY NOW again and again and again.

As we zoom out from such always on daily gambles, it’s unsurprising that so many things become life and death bets, doing something “for the gram” when the circumstances are actually life — if not world — altering: just ask Tyler Robinson. Game shows in popular culture — Squid Game, Hunger Games, Running Man, Beast Games — bet your literal life. Immigration, a bet on your future against populations that don’t want you. People bet their health on their work, negotiating cancer with a career. For those that do die, a storyline of the human species gets a curious twist: what if your inheritance is just a bunch of stuff? Was the bet of a relationship worth it then? Bet your fortune on NFTs and Ethereum and Bitcoin, bet your life on various AI schemes. Then there’s the billions of dollars bet on sports, the billions bet on pay later schemes, assets liquified in a million tiny glimmers of hope.

In a way, betting and gambling are expressions of hope, a belief that the next thing will be better, that one can achieve what they’re setting out to do, which is being minimized to dopamine, young men trying to make themselves more appealing, a bet against their peers to be seen as more likeable. The flip side — the truth — is that these are desperate times and our gambling so casually are the desperate measures we take to succeed. No wonder everyone is on social media, given that it’s a global talent show where anyone, anywhere can be plucked out of obscurity and into the good life. You’re either that or “an entrepreneur,” another gamble for another grindset mindset. All of this is ironic when placed in the context of those who can afford not-to-bet as they’re actively removing any such bets from life, affording them to live in a reality softened from what’s real: designer babies and gene editing repackage eugenics as you don’t have to question your genetics; pumping cash into politics to stiff arm democracies in the direction you want, assuring your future as a better future for the majority fades away; obsessing over aging and being able to aesthetically — and perhaps even physically — roll back the clock; creating an ecosystem separate from the rest of the world, using money to buy privacy and seclusion from the “real world”; buying your way to dual, tri, quad, etc. citizenry, to play monopoly in more places than one. Why rig one game when you can rig them all?

Hope is great when it doesn’t stray toward addiction, when these behaviors turn from sweet to sad — and we’re firmly in “Bless your little heart 🥺” domain. “Everyone needs to get addicted to one thing,” Rachel Sennott gave as her recent subway take, telling a joke that feels too real to be funny. “i would argue that nearly everyone in the modern world, especially america, is addicted to at least one thing, though some addictions come with less immediate or fatal consequences,” a popular comment on the video went. “a lot of people are addicts without even realizing it.” Such is the world we live in, such is our future within the slot machine: life’s a bet and then you die.

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Cognitive, mental health correlates of short-form video
“young people with dementia”

This boogeyman keeps coming around, connecting social media and short form video with literal brain rot. Is any of this as true and as scary as it seems? That’s to be seen, but take this as your sign to cut back on screen time.

‘Kirkification’ memes are running rampant
“solely Charlie Kirk brain rot”

Closing the loop on an item from last week, Zay — a TikTok linguist — revealed why he’s been reposting Kirkification memes: to see if his engaging with these videos reshaped his algorithm to be more right wing. The results are fascinating and worrying: these memes are very likely to surface more Charlie Kirk content, propelling his ideas which some may find appealing to their current situation. Cue the Giorgia Meloni parody song from the late 2010s!

Raccoons Showing Early Signs of Domestication
“racoons are experiencing domestication”

If you ever wanted a pet raccoon, that time may be coming soon as the animals are evolving to rely on us, making themselves cuter so we’ll keep feeding them. Also: raccoons are having a moment in general, which Mara Dettmann wisely pointed out this week.

A Prison Hospice Offers Care to Dying Inmates

Any story about dying I will read, and this one is particularly good as it explores what death in prison looks like and the rise of the aging inmate. Sad stuff! I also feel like this has been a decade(s) coming, but I’d also put money on (lol) a larger cultural shift on death led by Millennials or maybe even Gen X, as we witness the death of people in our lives and want more for them — and us! It’s not just the rise of water cremation or the appeal of Ask A Mortician but the growing idea that death is something to have a relationship with.

African Imperial Wizard exposed as white
“wacky side plots”
“not watching”

Best niche music drama of the week — second to the “tech house is bad” convo — was Jamie of Xiu Xiu outing the electronic act “African Imperial Wizard” as white.

Kevin Spacey: Homeless, cancelled and crooning
“unhoused”

Cringe read of the week, as the god awful Telegraph featured the noted Hollywood sex predator.

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Target is now ensuring employees “smile, make eye contact, wave, and use friendly, approachable, and welcoming body language” to customers. “We believe handwritten notes on our cups are a meaningful way for our baristas to connect with customers,” Starbucks wrote in September. This was and wasn’t an inadvertent follow up to a memo from January updating their expectation for writing on cups, that baristas were to include “a personalized note” ranging from smiley faces to well wishes like “seize the day.” Not to be outdone, Tiffany implemented a mandate for workers to post positive content on an internal app, which very quickly turned sour. “Only 39% of workers feel that someone cares about them as a person at their company, down from 47% in 2020,” Bloomberg’s Beth Kowitt observed of the “forced joy” phenomena earlier in the year.

While not new, “forced joy” is becoming a theme of the year if not the decade, of being gaslit into thinking “things are good” when they’re not, that we need to smile and show up for shit even if we’re very clearly being squished. Mariah Carey’s holiday return with Sephora is a great example of this. “You can’t cancel Christmas,” she scolds a tired elf who is quitting due to poor working conditions, only to be transformed into a snowman as she screeched “It’s TiIIIIIIIMMMMmmE.” at him. “i SAW AN OPPORTUNiTY TO BRiNG MiSCHiEF TO YOUR BELOVED ‘RESTAURANT,’” The Grinch said in a press release for McDonald’s inbound Grinch Meal, the same company that recently hosted Trump who — in turn — made a company commercial to point out how the company embodies the American dream. Mind you, McDonald’s — like Starbucks — has its fingers in the Palestinian genocide. Cue a new video from the Department of Defense, which implores air travellers to “dress with respect,” which we can assume is a dig at people for looking like “they’re going to bed” when they fly. Forced to smile at work, forced to celebrate the holidays, forced to put on church clothes to endure one of the least convenient experiences imaginable — all of which are things you have to opt into or pay for, be it with your time or your money. No one tells you thanks for any of this either.

“Forced joy” is very much a byproduct of a time when everything is bad for 99% of people and the 1% want giggles and clapping as they tug our nooses and wrap the ropes tighter. Sure, all social media apps have become the television — but that doesn’t mean that we have to have fun on there anymore. Sure, AI and robots promise certain people help — but that doesn’t mean we have to celebrate that it’s introducing kids to harm and making people lose their minds. Sure, Kim Kardashian doesn’t pass the bar — but that doesn’t mean we have to show up and shed tears with her as she cries for our attention. Humans crave validation, sure, but holding a gun to someone’s head and yelling at them to compliment you so you feel better is exactly how you train someone to take up self-defense, so that they can steal the gun and aim it at their attacker.

2025 will be the year when many realized a shift as the camera angle changed on these times and everything started to feel ugly, distorted, and gross. This is why a soft power collapse is being teased, as people realize their involvement in mass NPC brain, that gorging ourselves on branded slop of the land is no longer aspirational, that a mass stupidification is actually not as fun in practice. “We’re witnessing the death of celebrity culture,” someone explained of Kim Kardashian’s legal crash out. “People are just tired of this shit. So many people are burnt out and the economy has changed…A certain portion of the internet now is growing much more skeptical of people who are overly polished.” “If everything is perfect, nothing can be interesting,” TikTok philosopher Khaenotbae said this week. Enter the death of brand social conversation! Enter the forced likability of Lauren Sánchez Bezos! Enter the forced cultural clout of Saudi Arabia, who boasts comedy shows and Mr. Beast theatrics, stealing EA and potentially Warner Bros., storming the White House to wash away the sins of political murder to flash dwindling cash. Enter the void, if you will.

The vibes are off now, as the economic-political horrors of America carry on in various ways worldwide, as many are scrambling and starved — and yet we end this year as we always do, with a season that typically brings joy. The difference is that in 2025 that feeling is being demanded of us, that we enjoy our work, enjoy our families, enjoy our travels: you must enjoy a season of “giving” while within a deeply evil and deeply greedy time where no one is looking out for you. “What the radio sounds like when the country is falling apart, you hate your job, and it’s 75 degrees in the middle of November,” a viral TikTok says, as a person sits in their car, staring blankly ahead, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” playing softly. “Christmas music just sounds like propaganda rather than nostalgic now,” someone replies. “Christmas music is starting to sound like horror movie music,” another says. “How America feels this Christmas,” another viral TikTok goes, with a person playing a version of the Vince Guaraldi Trio classic “Linus and Lucy” on piano — but it’s off key, notes slipping, the whole thing sounding bad. “Christmastime is here (threat),” someone comments. “Charlie Brown American Horror Story,” another says. Having fun yet? Turn that frown upside down, before a demon comes and forces you to be happy.

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“There’s a certain witchcraft”
“pants oklou”
“Padam?”
“wearing a jock”
“this gif”
“fat green fish”

I briefly mentioned the Ice Spice “Big Guy” meme on Tuesday, which had a big week this week. I am obsessed with it, and these were my favorite posts.

“Which book”
“Bill I’m gagging”
“Right wing version”
“THE BUSEYBANK”
“backshots by Scooby Doo”
“my ig reels”

A few things AI could never recreate, which the Ice Spice song is technically too.

“the dream puppy”
“my puppy poops standing up”

The standing pooping puppy is one of the funniest dog things you’ll see this week.

“a cult founder”
“come off a little strong”
“burn the place down”

Favorite new show is TikTok’s Love Clinic, as host Venus Cuffs is so good at diagnosing these often off-kilter wannabe lovers.

“I vape on the train”
“In this house”
“You’re fat and nasty.”

I think I linked to one of these clips last week but — Let me tell you. — I’ve watched each of these Ivy Wolk on Straightiolab clips multiple times this week. Especially the first one about vaping! IT’S FOR NERDS BITCH!! So many stims here.

“SARAH”

While the funeral stud won my heart, I don’t think anything compared to this entry of the “testing motherly instincts” trend. It’s the extreme screaming, yes, but also that she sounds like Kamala Harris very briefly, as someone said in the comments.

“bike lane”

Why buy a turkey when you can bike by one?

And, finally, what it has felt like in my brain this year.

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TR.BIZ: 11.20.2025

The Taste Report™: Zackary Drucker

TR.BIZ: 11.18.2025