do YOU have capitalism poisoning? 🤢

On the potential to build a new economy as one economy collapses and reflecting on how lots of people want to be American.

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A guide to the 7 battleground states
The Scenario Where Trump Loses, Takes Power
Early voting is surging, unclear who benefits
Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator
Donald Trump groped me
Y’all don’t know how close I am to turning on an election blocker because I am stressing! The fuck! Out!! With!!! THIS!!! SHIT!!!!!!! Another thing: are we living in a post-October Surprise world? Did Trump break that too?

American creating deep fakes targeting Harris
This story is legitimately wild: a Florida, former Marine moved to Russia to help them create (viral) deepfakes and misinformation to aid Republican. This is some deeply evil shit and the inverse of that amazing CIA TikTok.

Naomi Klein on 2024 Election
Not to throw fuel on stress fires but watch Naomi Klein’s appearance on Democracy Now! as she zooms in on Trump’s misinformation campain and how Kamala is maybe not talking to normal people (versus the college educated). I love you, Naomi 😭

The tragedy of a 50-50 America
An imperfect but necessary read that defines these times, that the United States is so unique in its inability to agree largely related to — you guessed it — the loss of religion and rise in secularism. Death by toxic individualism? Yes. See also: the viral mega church post this week.

Washington Post, LA Times refused to endorse
“Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage” is it. This sums it up too.

Kamala raises nearly $1bn
Sure! But what is happening to this money? I hope that pavement is being pounded because winning the fundraising race isn’t the same as winning an election, y’all!!

Justice warns Elon: $1m to voters may be illegal
"Why Musk will sacrifice democracy"
Speaking of stressed, this giant baby has a lot invested in the race.

Moldova votes yes to joining EU 
“A defeat to Russia.” Sure!

Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?
Florida woman used Roblox to instruct child to kill infant
Not to stress parents out but…these tech stories are wild.

Infants died at higher rates after abortion bans
Obvious, sad, etc.

Is nature’s carbon sink failing?
“Earth scientist here!”
Everyone see this? Let’s not forget the bigger picture >__<

An era is ending, another way is emerging, meaning we have an opportunity to make change — but will we? I’m only so optimistic.

We’re seeing endings everywhere, in both obvious and non-obvious ways. Let me count the ways.

• Despite Trump’s non-brand-approved appearance, McDonald’s is failing as a major E. coli outbreak hit their (icky) onions (along with Burger King and Taco Bell too), sending shares down. It’s not just the E. coli but one of the brand’s fry suppliers closed meaning that, yes, people are skipping fast food. See also: the closure of 150 Denny’s. Also also: Target, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, and more were hit by tainted frozen waffles and bad Boar’s Head, all because of rampant listeria that’s likely tied to Trump’s relaxing of safety standards.

• Nike is getting absolutely pummelled in a too crowded athletics space, recently experiencing it’s worst business day ever this year and huge sales drops. Things are so bad that Tim Cook stepped in to help the brand turn shit around. People are looking to Starbucks’ slumping as a bellwether: is Nike the next mainstay to crumble? Speaking of: despite it being pumpkin spice season, not even the seasonal drink is reviving the coffee’ giant’s sales.

• This isn’t luxury fashion’s year: LVMH continues to slide while it was revealed this week that Kering is headed for the pit too. If we’re looking for scandalous smoking guns, there’s the Dior and Armani sweatshop issue, which turned the spooks of Balenciaga into real harm. Lest we forget how high fashion is cozying up with AI which isn’t to forget that red carpets and press tours have become the new runway, which is a definite signal of two industries holding hands, struggling to breathe. Signs of life (or death) can be found in Loewe styling movies and employing movie stars for ads, whom they refer to as “casts.” This isn’t new but the sledgehammer Tom Ford wielded at the walls of these industries continues to slam. See also: fashion’s pivot to food.

• The luxury car market is slowing as Hyundai’s profit drops, as UK car production slows 20%, as the European car market fades.

• Weddings are being chopped too as the industry shrinks.

The connection isn’t hard to see. It’s not just that the “nice things” infrastructure is collapsing (luxury fashion, cool shoes, nice cars, fancy weddings) but that the economy of tradition is sputtering, gasping, in the same ways that culture production is sputtering, gasping because there is too much stuff. Death by choice! Unalived via decision fatigued! We’ve gone beyond the bell curve of capitalism, of innovation, now damned by the glut of ease and options (fast casual creep, crowded sports spaces, coffee shops everywhere, a century of vintage wears). We live in zombie capitalist times, where everything is wheezing, grabbing at you to buy shit you don’t want or need because you already have enough. Drone bomb me, Gladiator II popcorn bucket.

This presents an opportunity: unlatch from the jaws of industry — and embrace new paths. As more and more have less and less, price hikes are fading as it’s claimed that the global fight against inflation is “largely won” — but no one believes that given the flies in our wallets. “The burden is hardest among the lowest income but also touches middle income. Spending patterns of low-income Americans will take years to recover,” a US economist told USA Today this week — and they’re right. That is the worldwide vibe. What do we do? Get inventive with what it means to have and spend money. What are signs of this? Second-hand site Vinted is expanding into electronics, books, toys, etc. as sales have gone up 61%. The second-hand smartphone market is having a moment too as big brands like Ikea and like Zara owner Inditex are creating their own outlets for selling used items because there’s enough stuff. Even Rolex is into second-hand! So is Bookshop! Yeah, sure, sure, the grey market — but resale is the sale, especially for clothes. Why buy new when literally everything already exists already for cheaper?

We’re solving the too-much-(physical)-stuff problem via our economic problems, which would inadvertently help solve our consumerism problems which in turn would solve some environmental problems. And that’s great! But, like in 2020, when the potential for environmental care and more human ways of working presented themselves, we spat in its face. I fear we’re at a similar moment of the machine breaking down and, instead of picking up an inventive manualness to life or voting for change, we’re poking the machine with our cultural illiteracy and a lack of self-awareness. There’s a simultaneous hucksterism and mental emptiness that is meeting the moment and, wooo weee, I’m worrying, darling.

“It's only a real policy if it was created on TV,” someone observed of a Don Lemon interview, where a Trump supporter denying facts to his face. Learned helplessness seems to be a political, cultural vibe that’s colliding with the erosion and demonizing of schools, resulting in the learned helplessness of children as they careen toward further illiteracy. Again: it’s not just the kids but us as something as simple as financial literacy is gone, as people boil Fabuloso and have no idea how to food shop. What’s worse is the deep capitalism poisoning that confuses consumerism with culture: a new water bottle despite having water bottles, simping for and falling for billionaire theatrics, happily welcoming the AI-fication of everything. A loser landscape is emerging, as teens want less sex in movies, as nightclubs close and sober bars rise, as nightlife fades to be replaced by coffee clubs and Fred Again tees. Transactions as salvation! Why not let LCD Soundsystem make a new album? We deserve it, for having such simplistic baby palates, for being so tasteless.

Too much stuff, too little money, too little willpower, too little creativity to do anything other than the same old thing: the wheel of time is about to spin again, to continue on as things have been going for the past two, three, four, five decades. Change can happen! But that takes work and many of us are tired. I get it! But the promise of a different future isn’t achieved with button pushing but by getting uncomfortable, by doing a little bit of work.

Why Is My Fave TV Show Taking So Long?
Not to say it (I’ll say it!!) but this is a reason why people are increasingly uncaring about television and movies because they’re over-working the process and being anti-timely. I’m looking at you, Severance!!

"director of this film worked for 6 years"
There was another example of this that I lost this week but: we talked about this in May 2023 and recently regarding an art fair as we’ve reached an interesting point where certain aesthetics have been so cannibalized by AI that people tune out and make fun because they don’t believe something is human-made. Good for them for questioning but woof as far as being able to discern one thing from another.

Nicole Kidman Says She’s Acting to ‘Create Jobs’
People joke that Nicole Kidman has some ransom on her head but this is actually…amazing. Not entirely philanthropic but, as the industry struggles, it’s these sorts of uses of power that keep doors open and inspire some innovation.

Florida arts orgs devastated by DeSantis's cuts
DUH DUH DUH

What Is Usha Vance Thinking?
I honestly don’t think it’s that deep? She — like Vance — just want power and, while smart, are so deeply, spiritually fucking dumb in their pursuit of upward mobility. Unsurprisingly for this behavior, she grew up in the San Diego area.

We Tried J.Crew’s Designer Collaboration
"@J.Crew x Christopher John Rogers is here"
SOMEONE BUY ME THIS GOLD LAMÉ WORK COAT BY J.CREW AND CHRISTOPHER JOHN ROGERS I AM B E G G I N G Y O U

“Ariana Grande shirt”
“If only y’all could live my world”
“Aunt D is very aware”
“WAITT”
Mental Health World — a la, Bria and Shay and Aunt D — are the TikTok characters of the moment. They make me laugh, they make me cry: they’re perfect angels. (Is there a discussion to be had about over-filming people? Yes — but I understand that people cope in different ways, etc. Aunt D has said so herself!)

It was when she was standing outside of the hospital that I realized the trick the movie had pulled: she wasn’t in Los Angeles but instead in a place that was performing the city. When she entered a too-wide alleyway, which was more like a courtyard parking lot, it clicked: they physically were in Europe even if the “setting” was Los Angeles. A shot from within a refrigerator, where a jar’s label revealed a very specific local brand of French yogurt, confirmed it. “Did you notice they weren’t in LA?” I asked Bobby. “That was LA,” he said. I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t. It was somewhere in France.” That was part of the joke, a hallucination to make you go “Is that place really that place? Or just inspiration of what all places aspire to be now?” He didn’t agree but, after some quick Googling, it was confirmed: The Substance was shot in the south of France — not LA. “Hollywood is just one example,” the director Coralie Fargeat said of the movie and its themes. “But it's true everywhere, in every country, for every woman.” This is to say what we said last week: what starts in LA eventually hits the whole world.

What Fargeat is getting at is a very small (but major) fact of culture creation, something that I’ve been thinking about a lot, a lot, a lot in my now two years living in not-America, a fact that Americans know but may forget in the day-to-day: what happens in America happens everywhere. I say this again and again to friends but America is still that girl, meaning that it continues to be the epicenter of cultural capital. Metric after metric after metric after metric puts America on top when it comes to soft power, that the country is the biggest driver of influence, of making and shaping what people worldwide aspire to be. To be outside of America is to be in this shadow, or to be in dialogue with a place that may or may not acknowledge your presence at all. I’ve written about this subject before in some ways but, as paid subscribers read earlier this week as we hypothesized what the “best country in the world” is, America continues to be the apple of the world’s eyes despite its flaws, despite feeling from the inside that it’s far from perfect. Just this week, the IMF warned that the European economy is continuing to slip as America advances further and further upward. “The rest of the world is glued to the United States,” Dexter Fergie wrote for The New Republic. “Foreigners follow American news stories like their own, listen to American pop music, and watch copious amounts of American television and film.” Living outside of America is to be physically one place but to have your eyes focused on the land of the free.

You don’t see this from within North America but this is brightly vivid not-in-the-states. On any corner, in any European city (and likely any world city), you’ll spot someone wearing an LA shirt or a New York hat or a Miami jersey or a tote that says “Denver.” Yes, sure, these could all be kids studying abroad or people on vacation but, in interacting with locals, you learn that’s not the case. “Why are you here?” someone asked me, point blank, on the first day of a class I took. “I want to go there.” “LA,” another person told me, pointing over their shoulder. “That’s where the real world is.” “What is it with people wearing clothes with random American states/city names on it?” someone asked on r/India. Talk to a not-American and you’ll hear them talk about longing to see a yellow school bus for themselves. “It’s just always been on my bucket list, to visit Wisconsin,” a young woman in Ireland told Conan O’Brien this summer, while wearing a sweatshirt that said “WISCONSIN, USA.” (And the photo above? I took on the street days ago, as it can feel like America is stalking me.)

Why, then, are we surprised that immigration to America is as high as it’s ever been? In fact, the US has one-fifth of the world’s international migrants, even though Donald Trump bemoans that America is in decline (a bait that many Americans are sadly taking). The fact is that, from the outside, America is still the land of opportunity because life and opportunity outside the red, white, and blue are slim for most people. No wonder everyone is copying our notes: Everywhere has Silicon Valley now! Everywhere has Hollywood now! Every culture has burgers and fries now. Everywhere speaks English. From adult dorms in the UK to Florence, Italy looking like Bakersfield, California to the middle of Japan looking like the middle of America, the semantics of America are now international gestures because everyone wants to be American.

Sure, “want” may be oversimplified but “inspired” and “influenced” by are very accurate assessments of this phenomena. “Everyone” may be an oversimplification of “the non-well off”: that is likely true. But, regardless of if one does or doesn’t long to be American, one thing is definitely true of all people on the outside: the world is holding their breath regarding the American election because what we do will ripple everywhere. Everywhere else in the world is in the US’s echo, whether we believe it or not. A land of opportunity where those vulnerable within it need protecting, yes, but legislation trickles worldwide, reflected as extremism being given permission from those dictating cultural rights and wrongs, align closer with the most disgusting of US behavior. Hitler was inspired by America a hundred years ago and similar inspiration is being gathered from the ongoing grasp of Trump, everyone taking notes on how to evolve their fascist playbooks for the 21st century. “Once Trump became ‘normal’, events that seemed even more extreme did too,” Owen Jones wrote last year, reflecting on this cultural-political creep.

While summer patriotism may have warped into stress, know that the world watches because, like The Plastics in Mean Girls, we in the masses are awaiting how we will be influenced, what trends we will be following. That’s the thing about the modern world: it has been shaped in America’s image, for better and worse, that the modern father, son, and holy spirit is Uncle Sam. It’s a beautiful thing to be so inspiring, so beloved. But: great power, great responsibility, etc. These things aren’t just about making America great again but about making the world great. It’s hard being that girl.

"funniest post of all time"
"your coworker in Deadpool shirt"
“kind of like this nightmarish reality”
“hate to get political”
“Where Violent J stood”
“These texts have to stop”
“democrat onions”
“We. Are. Coming.”
"Ghislaine was packing absolute JUMBLIES"
Best political posts.

“can’t stop laughing”
You gotta hear this woman sing the national anthem. Here’s the full video. (Yes, it’s real and, yes, it happened in the alternate universe of third party clownery that includes Jill Stein.)

"the characters"
“Perfect!”
“Temu happy halloween”
“proud of myself”
“😭”
“quadruple platinum on MSNBC”
“My Moo Dam costume”
“Girl let’s go to the club”
Best Halloween posts.

"actually the universal mark of the non-Westerner"
“this means you”
Crying at this. It’s like y’all don’t have hispanic mothers or something!

“Helen Keller is not real”
I had to watch this Talk Tuah clip so that means you have to too :)

"legitimately a @ClickHole headline"
“Stevie Nicks interview”
Are celebrities…okay?

“benson boone via Instagram”
Best read in a while. Add Shawn Mendes to this list too!

“got to go”
Somehow, the “hope she plays ‘Hot To Go’” meme continues and, somehow, this is the best one.

"bjork when she worked with shygirl"
And this is why we stan Björk.

“I’d know that hog anywhere”
This is a gay test.

“My brother on his secret admirer shit”
This little brother is an icon.

“does this gay little jump because”
Very cursed Elon theory that I saw so now you have to see it too.

“you dont speak fluent TikTok”
Most important state of these times. 

"Average number of bowel movements"
I tried to fact check this map but couldn’t find anything conclusive so, if you have a source for this shitty map, please share it because why are people in Spain and Italy going boo boo so much?

And, finally, a look into the process of your ingesting all of this information that The Trend Report™ provides.

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