is it trendy? or is it the algorithm?? 👾🤖👹

Exploring the tension between man-made and machine-made trends and unpacking the politics of boyish "cuteness."

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"My Fellow Americans"
Biden Made a Courageous Choice
“Van Jones has an emotional response”
“Trump would never do this”
“Bing bong!”
As noted two weeks ago, if Biden stepped down, that would be the ultimate crush to one’s spirit. But — as expected — a rare thing happened in American politics: a politician put country above self, the future above ego. That is patriotism. I loved every post that said this too! An inspiration, that Joe <3

What a Kamala Would Mean for Climate
Kamala Harris’ Record on Criminal Justice
Can Kamala beat Trump?
AFL-CIO to embrace Harris
More than 160,000 people join Kamala Zoom
“The Villages is @KamalaHarris Country!”
Like the rest of the world, I am surprisingly energized by Kamala. Politics hasn’t been this exciting and hopeful in literally a decade! Or fifty! The Zoom trend is cute too: thank you Black women, as always. 

“this aged well”
“This has 2 parts”
“What really stood out”
I know this isn’t “news” but I want the record to show what was being seen for some time, as I noted for the past month: the astrology world called this. If you’re not on astrology TikTok, you need to get on it. The same Capricorn moon will hang over the election in November…

Let’s Knock Off the 25th Talk
I’ve been, say, listening to dog whistles about legal barriers against the aforementioned items and this story walked me off the ledge a bit.

Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird Ideas
Vance went from thinking he was gay to anti-LGBTQ+
“give votes to children”
“Jesus did not have children”
"South African tech bros try to grow their own redneck"
“A dozen Snickers”
Vance had a bad week! Because he’s a bad person! The couch memes were inspired..

Trump Allies Sure Are Talking A Lot About Civil War
“MAGA signaling they won’t accept results”
Trump urges Christians to vote
Not to alarm you! But.

Google co-founder backs biotech psychedelic
This is adjacent to the astrology item but: after AI highs wear off in the way that they did for “the metaverse,” biotech is the space where we’ll start to see more people get into. Eco-futures is the white space people will start peeing!

Flights canceled as environmentals target airport
”Things Big Oil has destroyed”
🫡

Heat Waves Are Pounding Egypt. There’s No A.C.
This story is one of the scarier reads in some time: due to power shortages, Egypt — where it hasn’t really been below 100º F since May — has been dealing with imposed power outages. This is an obvious disaster for workers and industries, not to mention anything trying to live. I read every word with eyes wide open.

"the right to use your data to train grok"
If you still have Twitter, do yourself a favor and tick this button off.

I had a strange realization last week, when writing the second essay of the Report™: I had been here before. We all have!

These weekly dispatches reflect the world and, as I’ve said several times, my jobs is to look at the smaller stories happening within culture to attempt to tell the larger story of us. What I’m finding is that these stories are repeating themselves, both because it’s what I see — and because there’s a ghost in the machines that I use to do my job. Finding stability in chaos from July 21, unpacking disillusionment from July 7, disenchanted community building from June 30, the potential of our futures from June 16, cultural void making from June 9, friendship scams from March 3, and vibe personality disorder from January 21: these all have a similar “thing” to them, as they explore our loneliness, spiritual droughts, and “unprecedented times.”

What gives? You know exactly what it is, what this “ghost” in is: the great curator, the algorithm, the sieve(s) that we allow all of culture to pour through. When trends emerge, I’ve started to become a bit more critical, battling what I see with what I feel: is this a genuine phenomena? Or is this simply a noise that was allowed to echo within digital structures so that people wouldn’t miss it, because it would “do numbers” and increase a tech entity’s profits?

Not that any of this is new but, once you notice “this,” you’ll find that algorithmically dictacted culture is everywhere, that there’s a very slim line between “Everyone is doing it!” and “The algorithm is algorithm-ing.” This is exactly what we saw this week as the Kamala Harris campaign roll out: while coconut pills have long been piling up (“Everything has fallen into place for her to fully inhabit her meme-ness…very soon, everyone’s going to do it.”: The Trend Report™ in 2022.), this week saw a metaphorical and literal collision with the other summer “it” trend, “brat summer.” You know what came next: explainer after explainer after explainer after talking head after talking head after talking head after think piece after think piece after think piece. Charli saying “kamala IS brat” was the 2024 Big Bang, in that it sucked in all culture and spit it out in its own image while (Quite strangely!) the artist who drove the algorithm remade herself suggested a resurrection in the style of Katy Perry in 2016. This was amplified by the “Pop Craveification” of news, which is less about news breaking and more about the algorithm chewing upon current events, a meal made of information and jokes collide.

(Naturally other items were sucked into the void too, collapsing many of the exhausting left-wing performance politics against reality: attempts to mount a Kamala name policing campaign were swiped down by reality; there was a war of reasonable people realizing the “I’m not voting at all because #Palestine!” is a bit of an unhinged take; the “Kamala is a cop!” narrative got swept up too.)

None of this “is new” as the building of any literal or online trend always builds in this way, as cultural games of telephone turn into a worldwide telethon. The difference here — both in the microcosm of this newsletter and the macrocosm of this week in Harris 2024 — is the speed and repetition, that the algorithm thrives by making slight nuance feel monumental, a trend upon itself. Ask the cores of the 2020s, ask the language of Gen A, ask the Sephora kids, ask the rodent boyfriends: these are less “things actually happening” and more algorithmic reflections, idle chatter that algorithms (followed by the media) lap up and spit out so that one feels as if that is the only noise in the room. Kamala glomming onto brat wasn’t authentic: it was parroting culture, which is less of an actual, mainstream movement and more a keen grabbing of "what’s trending” today and making it one’s personality. It’s brain rot as movement, Gen Z (and more) confusing momentary memes for legitimate action: these are half-life times.

And so: a brat becomes president. A fart becomes a hurricane. Cue the two dumb bitches mumbling “Exactlyyyy” to each other because that’s all we have, as social media’s “curation” of conversation dog walks culture.

AI Is Taking Jobs in the Video Games
Video game performers to go on strike
AI Chatbots Have a Trump Problem
Totally normal AI things to know about.

Why don’t straight men read novels?
A must-read of the week, which captures the intellectual poverty of men.

Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’
Another must-read of the week, as this stormed a lot of the internet. It’s quite sad! Come for the trad wifery, stay for the lost dreams :(

France faces glut of unwanted tickets
I saw someone on TikTok a few days ago talking about how students do not give a shit about the 2024 Olympics. Then I saw the above link and went “lol.” No wonder they’re allowing esports! And coming back to America — again! Too bad this wasn’t the opening ceremony (although we did get a right wing satanic panic.)

Luxury downturn fears deepen
…and people wonder why underconsumption is booming. We’re broke! And there’s enough shit on this planet!! As we discussed this in April, one of the biggest waves about to hit culture is buy-nothing-ness. TMI culture made literal! Death by TikTok Shop.

How “Drop Dead Gorgeous” Found Cult Success
A vitally important gay camp classic. This is also Amy Adams’ debut feature! I hope to do a Drop Dead Gorgeous and Arrival double feature this weekend. (Also: I’d like a Sugar & Spice oral history.)

How Horror Solves Their Cellphone Problem
We need more fun stories like this!!

Bikini | Nick León & Erika De Casier
After a mouth-watering tease, Nick León successfully engineered a biblically accurate song of the summer with Erika De Casier. Get your ass to the beach, people!!!!!

Here we are, in a new mini-section with announcements!! First, I meant to share this last week but I made a lil cameo in

Sam Valenti IV

‘s mid-year music review 😊

Also: is anyone reading this in Marseille? Or going to be in Marseille at some point in August?

The Fox Is Black

and I should be there for the month! If enough people are there, down, etc. maybe we’ll get a cocktail hour together 👀 I’d love to meet you all!!

Lastly — as always — if you ever need copy, strategy, and or general trend help, hit me up as I’m always looking for opportunities as a kinda sorta freelance person: send an email to 1234kyle5678@substack.com. Back to regular programming!

No one and everyone wants to look cute. Bows and ribbons, Prada and Miu Miu. A puffball dress. Silk Miami sleaze camp collar shirts from a French brand. “Grandma crocheted this for me,” a shirs say. “I’m a big kid now!” Can cute be sexy? Adult? I wonder this as I pull my socks up, returning to my times as a school boy.

“You’re so cute,” people tell me. I love it every time. It makes me feel “Aw, shucks.” inside. I feel rosy cheek’d, as if a little lad, a Campbell’s soup kid, a blue boy. What makes something cute? “Cuteness can operate as a kind of giving permission and license for you to explore your map of your own body and the way that you appear to others and yourself,” writer Amy Ireland told Dazed earlier this year. “Instead of producing yourself as a particular gendered person, you’re picking from this database of little bits and pieces, rearranging them until you find a way that they fit with your identity and your body.” Perhaps that is what people are responding to: the ability to remake oneself, to be a map of many points, of many folds, all at one time.

I have a pair of Bode shorts that Bobby got for me a few years ago. They were a very special holiday present that took months to make, to hand-painted cords to depict various vegetables and plants. I wear them every so often and I hope I look like all the boys who wear them in the pictures I see online, in the TikToks I watch for ideas on how to wear them. I don’t think anyone where I am cares or even knows “what they are” or who Emily Bode is. But we do! I can hold them out for the world to see, curtseying in my Weejuns like a little flower. Maybe one day I will get loafers with little bows on them. I could make them myself, if I wanted. How long will this moment last? Will the sun eventually burn us down to little men?

This is an aesthetic, undefined, that is and isn’t cute: it’s Americana but also classic British colonial; it’s romantic without romanticism; it’s Rococo for the everyday. “Rococo was seen as superficial, degenerate and illogical,” the V&A explained. But, somehow, this is a style that spreads like quilting, easily added upon, embroidered, beautified in ways imaginable and not. Yes, bows. Obviously! S.S.Daley, Tanner Fletcher, Palomo Spain: they talk to each other, chit-chatting on a lounge, whispering in each other’s ears behind fans, lace and tulle hanging off knees, eyelets dotting collars, ruffles and bows soaked in vanilla and rose. They imagine a future, ungendered, but steeped in boyishness, however flexible that idea may be. Fold yourself over yourself. What will you become?

“There's been a lot of really positive feedback from members of the queer community,” Tanner Richie of Tanner Fletcher shared with HighSnobiety recently. “Especially those who feel as if they have nowhere to go when shopping for clothes.” I would love for this to be my nowhere place. However: ruffled socks for $60, lace-trim shorts for $240, a bowed shirt for $390. I can be cuter, I can step into the greater queer me, if daddy lends me his credit card so that I may capitalize upon dreams.

If cuteness is close to godliness, people like us must be saints and, like saints, they aim their arrows in our direction just for existing. You shake your butt too much when you walk, someone once scolded. Why don’t you have any boy friends? someone once asked. You talk like a girl, someone made fun. And yet: isn’t that what makes cuteness so subversive? This tension, this friction, this possibility that a fire could start by the crossing of two little legs over each other.

“i literally did forget”
“who did this”
“is a which”
“overheard at the art store”
“you are savage”
“ANTM fade away”
“posting for a friend”
“into being Latino”
"tv isn't for everyone"
Best political posts this week.

“Always mentions Hannibal”
"just now clicked for me"
Speaking of: this week everyone opened their eyes and realized that Trump has been confusing people “seeking asylum” with “insane asylum.” What’s next? McDonald’s?

“conquer Puerto Rico”
“I say hello”
“A Krispy Kreme?”
“YAAAAAAS”
If I had to pick, videos like this would be the definitive media gesture of the 2020s.

"Inside the bird’s mind"
Read the community note before watching the quote video.

"conceived through a sperm donor"
“your dad cheated on your mom”
Some funny parent things. It feels like we have yet to have a sperm donor reckoning!

"What was that tweet about white people"
Absolutely ugliest Tweet of the week.

“IN THE HOOD!!”
"silent hill where da 🍃"
Been cracking up over this. Kelela hive…LET’S GET THAT HERB 🌱

“trying to be approachable”
If you see me doing “this” anywhere, that means I desperately am hoping to meet new people and talk.

“unnecessarily large”
I saw these disturbing dog testicles and now you need to too :)

"brainrot overconsumption"
This is slam poetry. Didn’t I say overconsumption was out?

“god isn’t real”
Being formerly Catholic is so real.

And, finally, a look at the real me.

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