if you're reading this, you're poor.

On the billionaire crash out era and mapping out a forward-facing way of thinking.

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Highlights from Trump's Inauguration
Here are the executive actions Trump signed
Trump will withdraw US from Paris climate accord
AIA "concerned" about Trump architecture order
Week one in Trump World America 2.0 went as good as expected 🫠 His approval rating is down though! As if that actually means anything right now, as we await a war over Greenland.

“Promises made. Promises kept.”
Adults want border security
Pope calls Trump’s mass deportation
Sanctuary cities shift tone
Schools brace for immigration arrests
"A bishop just called out Trump"
…and so kicks off a racial (and beyond) cleansing era. I was texting my mother this week, who works for an immigration non-profit in El Paso, who has weathered such threats before, and her tone changed some. “Crazy stressful,” she texted. “Like a scary movie.” If you’re looking to help, start with immigrants in your community.

A Nazi Salute is a Nazi Salute
Germans respond to Musk’s Nazi salute
A fork in the road for Tesla
…then Elon Musk did a fucking Nazi salute — twice — on camera, which the ADL attributed to “awkwardness,” only condemning his actions once he made Nazi jokes. This is less a “which could mean anything” situation given his meddling in far right, fascistic Italian and German politics in the past few weeks and his ongoing “work” to appear non-anti-semitic. Here’s the thing, which has been said again and again: the next four years will be about stamina in regards to noise, this being one of the many examples of “that” this week. It’s bad, obviously, as also both an expression of belief and a push to get people to lose their minds, to question what they’re seeing, self-gaslighting while facing actual gaslighting. The Trump campaign — and his larger party — are masters of theatrics, of cutting off the heads of chickens and allowing them to run around, distracted, as they plot more nefarious shit.

The Trump Presidency, by YouTubers
A sick-to-your-stomach read that builds and blurs the podcast media manosphere into a nauseating ecosystem that we all intellectually “know” exists but, seeing it laid out like this, it’s clear who the foot soldiers are in the Orange Reich. This is going to be a storyline this year as other similar pieces emerged this week. See also: the Nashville alt right shooter allegedly being “radicalized” by creators like Mr. Beast, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, and more. (Not to mention…the linked shooters on social.)

What happened to the ‘resistance’?
Thousands hold anti-Trump rally in Washington
"Sort of a Women's March 2.0"
Did you know about the marches this week? Few did, it seems. They weren’t as big as they were in 2017 — but they were still sizable. Silent or silenced? That’s the question. Anyway, we’ll see if the cute boots Jan 29 protests actually materialize but, as the first story posits, “resistance” in this era is off to a subdued, sputtering start.

The L.A.-to-NYC Migration Has Begun
LA fire victims fear rebuilding
A bummer which, unfortunately, we will never hear the end of. The second story features voices of many real, non-celebrity people who lost it all. One is a friend, Shawna, whose GoFundMe you can support here (among others). Also of note, re: last week’s industry city piece: the Stay in LA movement, which is advocating for the city to take action to keep productions in the city.

Thai LGBTQ+ couples register marriages
Good news is good news! I’ll take it along with a gay salmon dinner!!

Usha Vance’s dress was the first dog whistle in a deafening week. “Usha Vance at the VP’s dinner in custom Oscar de la Renta velvet,” Vanessa Friedman reported, while also noting Melania donning YSL, Dolce, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, and Manolo Blahnik in one look. “I’m telling you this time is different and not in a good way,” someone quote posted, invoking a similar feeling to Pixar and Disney’s recent removal of “woke” storylines like trans identities and environmental preservation, which plays into the larger creeping feeling of people in power getting in line, showing that priorities are less ideological and more financial. But who is surprised? Capitalism, etc.

Then there was Delphine and Alexandre Arnault — who are of the French LVMH billionaire family — attending the inauguration, inches away from Zionist mega-donor Miriam Adelson. LVMH brand Givenchy made a dress inspired by Audrey Hepburn — a person who worked and advocated against Nazis — for Ivanka's inaugural ball appearance. Vogue went full MAHA, couching coverage of Melania and Usha and Ivanka next to words about MLK Jr. Billionaire Kim Kardashian rushed to Instagram to re-share a captionless photo of Melania, the so cold vibe inferred. Lesbian fitness star Jillian Michaels, singer (and queer ally) Jewel, some DJ named BLAU, dude Vince Vaughn and the kid from A Christmas Story: they were present or involved, in some form or fashion. Not to be outdone, Carrie Underwood, Nelly, and Snoop Dogg (among others) performed for Trump. “They paid me a bag,” Soulja Boy explained in a searing video, counting out stacks of bills and pacing around his house. “Did Kamala call my fucking phone? Did Obama call my mother fucking phone?...Trump called my phone.” As Ts Madison said in one of the better takes on the state of things, “They’re rich. They’re in a different tax bracket…All money ain’t good money.”

And thus turned direct what we’ve all known and felt intellectually since the first recession in the late aughts, which Biden tried to act like he and the Democrats were incapable of helping: the oligarchy has turned direct, the various kingdoms of the United States — And the world! — making them and their jesters known, as we the serfs and village people watch, dirtied and tired, hoping that the castle catches on fire so we can all be freed. “The norms are becoming him,” AOC explained to John Stewart. “There are all these cultural symbols…All of these people who were scared of being associated with him, from the most common, basic level, to the most elite level. They’re all in now. This is a billionaire feeding frenzy.” As if Elon’s presence didn’t make it clear enough, as if Marc Andreessen’s egg headed simping didn’t make it obvious, we’re in the CEO and billionaire crash-and-cash out era which is an American thing, sure, but also an entire world thing as they are now fully emboldened to do whatever they want wherever they want: they own everything, not limited to the US but also Panama and Greenland and Mars too. Front row in office siren apparel, Zuckerberg and Musk and Zi and Altman and Cook and Bezos and Pichai and Ramaswamy were all there, all men, some gay, some not-white, some not-American — but they were all there, to participate in a Human Centipede style celebration of passing riches back and forth between them. While Open AI made a move for the worst of the week (with Spotify and Larry Ellison in the running too), it was TikTok who was the biggest loser by turning their app into a giant propaganda machine — and perhaps the biggest indication of the changing tides.

But we knew all this! All the creators, all the AI, all the diversity losses, all the checking your son’s penis: America’s incel loser era has arrived, the revenge of the nerds fully realized — but not how we thought. When the 2010s shifted nerd culture from dorky to cool, startup culture yielding rise-and-grind hustle culture, wider culture was pushed so that everyone had to polywork and gig economy as they aspired to bootstrap upward, which was sold as the evolved American dream which in turn rewarded the already well off: tale as old as time. Now, in the 2020s, we’re staring down the barrel of a future where anyone under 25 is a money hungry billionaire simp, red pilled while being squeezed penniless. Where will this end? To where there have no other option but to enlist in the military, to fulfill the green dreams of modern imperialism.

And, yet, we’re meeting this with t-shirts and identity and a capela songs. These are rough times and, while Gritty and Costco have our backs, what actually needs to be done? We have our work cut out for us, clearly, as our positions have been made clear. Who else will crash-and-cash out? Which of your friends will fold? Which noted progressive will go green too? A wave is crashing before us — and we have to start our anarchist calisthenics, our weapons practice, our unplugging from the system. So starts the fight.

Netflix Shares Soar
Netflix Raising Prices in U.S. Again
Interesting that the sports items — One of which was extremely right wing! — worked and, despite knowing zero people who watched it, Squid Game struck gold again. All that, just to turn more directly into cable with price hikes.

Are the Oscars Scared of Sex?
Another sign of the times, as it mirrors larger cultural conservatism. And, of the very questionable nominations, Emilia Perez may be the final lib out movie (despite historic firsts) which may end in the right parading “penis to vagina” as proof of leftist Hollywood degeneracy, inspiring public teeth gnashing and acts of contrition before Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voigt.

"the end of the world via PopCrave"
"i honestly really respect them"
"watching popcrave tweet every executive order"
"pop crave doing better anti-trump work"
Another sign of the times! Now…can they affect change? I have doubts, as they’re news watchers of the Aaron Parnas variety.

First Lady Fashion at Inaugurations, in Photos
In general, when did people start getting prettier? Around the 1970s? The big takeaway from this is that most people before the 1970s were, um, brutal.

So Long Quiet Luxury
In Paris, Street Stylers Embrace Colors
"louis vuitton fw25 menswear"
"accessories is so creative!"
The “kidult” and kidification of adulthood thing is cool in that it inspires playfulness in menswear — but Louis Vuitton making Mighty Max ass jewelry is where it turns putrid. I did enjoy Julian Klausner’s dandy-cutesy core first collection for Dries! And the Willy Chavarria collection is an early contender for a 2025 (Or 2020s??) defining moment. Outside of that, everyone just seemed to be copying Lemaire’s visions of the future via 1980s sci-fi, a la oversized suiting with subdued brights. Also clearly bootcut jeans and “cowboy” style are back and shorts-all-year have finally arrived (be it because of climate change or not — which is a whole other thing).

"i get a pdf that looks exactly like this"
"This seems like the same person"
"huh we actually do live in hell”
These three are related, no? It’s all very “I’m a project manager in LA.” starter kit, via what happens when people (and their self-expression) are copies of copies of copies, resulting in Camilla XCX-itis and the general enshittification of expression. Vibe personality disorder! The loss of taste! Capitalism…strikes again!

What is the ‘hyperpigmentation’ trend?
"She doesn’t understand her impact"
"#hyperpigmentation"
For the past few months, there’s been a huge delay-then-boom of memes, meaning they’ll go around years in advance to resurface in breakout moments. First it was “send it to me Rachel” then “mama a girl behind you” now hyperpigmentation. Is this the result of the internet culture pipeline breaking down, creating a further stratification of real posters (too online non-normies) getting sucked up by TikTok brain rotters before casual posters and beyond take note? Or is this simply the law of cause-and-effect in a landscape so glutted with stuff?

This week, in Paper, the musician Björk gave her analysis of this moment. She said —

There have always been apocalypses. We had Noah and the flood, we’ve had plagues. There’s always been this narrative, and now I think it’s about being active and being part of the solution…I do find it hard to watch some of these post-apocalyptic shows or films. It’s like you’ve just given up — the nihilism, the self-pity, it’s like it’s cool to give up. [Laughs] I don’t think it’s cool to give up. So it’s about figuring out how we can keep humanity and soul in the future worlds we’re building.

Also this week, in

Zeteo

, the journalist, professor, and Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa spoke about the state of America. She explained, in the relationship to Ricardo Duarte’s dictatorial democracy in 2010s Philippines —

We’ve had coming up on a decade of disinformation pounded for power and money. That transforms us at the cellular level, each of us as people. The inflaming violence and hate…That’s what has transformed our world. That’s the termites eating away at the wood that we stand on. Having said that, we move from hell to purgatory, and I have great hope that we’ll do better.

These both get at something really important to remember right now, a worldview that I’ve long subscribed to: positive realism. Versus toxic positivity and brightsiding — which replaces action with hopes and dreams — or nihilism and doom stewing — which views action as pointless — positive realism allows you to look at a situation and see it for what it is while using it as an opportunity to build. The concept has taken various forms, from the very dense philosophies of Maurizio Ferraris, who uses the expression to bridge thinking with experience, to the well-being sciences of Richard Davidson, who has written extensively on the balancing of the brain. The way that I look at this is to see the glass as more half-full and, more importantly, as something that I can add to, something that I can continue filling versus continue emptying.

As discussed a few months ago, this invokes the idea of creating not an unrealistic utopia but a “realist utopia,” where nannying and perfection isn’t the end-goal but instead trying to meet in the middle to build. 2010s cancel culture resulted in emboldening conservatives while sparking the conservatism of Gen Z, less in the literal now and more but more in our discussions of these ideas for years, where liberal piousness and unabsolveable sins created an environment of purity and perfection without a dogma that offered forgiveness. “It’s the hyper-policing of other people’s behaviors, their actions, their thoughts…that’s why a lot of people turned to conservatism,”

TEXAS GARDEN FAIRY

explained on TikTok and in an essay: a toxic cultural-political perfection inspired macro-doomerism, which the dust is still settling from. “Fuck the man,” said the man, while pointing at you, as he built the backwards idea of a perfect world because you thought the world was terrible.

Positive realism is likely to have a breakout as 2016 style “RESIST!” politics has expired (Toxic positivity!) while we fully know the playbook being used on us is one intended to stun us still (Nihilism!). Big or small, change comes from a place of seeing potential to make a difference, where you plan and work and build. Be like my mother! See the world for what it is — then have the integrity to know it can be changed by your hands, versus hoping for magic or suffocating yourself still.

"explain the concept of he/him lesbians to him"
"OH, THAT'S NOT..."
“Jill Stein rn”
“there are two sexes”
“I have to go to the inauguration”
“being a good american”
"hi protestor from chile"
"Trump is the newest crypto billionaire"
Just some lib memes to get us through these times.

“lowk disrespectful”
”North West recording”
”really cute that she’s singing in Japanese”
Obviously, Eusexua is good, like Ray of Light for the 2020s. That said — and we’ll go in on this next week — the North West item is…embarrassing. Shameful even!

"Asking Nigerians their opinions after 'Wicked'"
I love how everyone hated the singing and thought that was unnecessary.

"imagine hating on me"
Who wants to roll hoop with me?

“The speaker”
What an innovation in hearing aid technologies!

“dearest mother”
Welcome back, Four Seasons Orlando Baby.

“Whoever is farting”
"INSERT POO"
“Just pooped”
"about the german toilet"
Just some good shit and fart thangs. The toilet thing is so wild and I’ve been thinking about the politics of these shitters for days.

And, finally, what I’m giving my children for Christmas 2025.

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