😈 become unmanageable 😈

Why workers need to reclaim their power while serving up a plate of reheated nachos.

Real ones share The Trend Report™ with their friends 🤭

Some Migrants Are Sent to Panama
“The deportees trapped”
“If Hitler had a social media account”
A must-read as far as seeing the trickle down of the heartless treatment of immigrants, complicated by human rights violations set within faux-modern (Brutal!) hospitality settings. To this, continuing the storyline of my mom’s work: V.Gailrosario’s nonprofit — which helps unaccompanied immigrant children — is being told to stop work by the government. If you can, donate here!

‘DOGE dividend’ check program: It’s reasonable
Bannon on Musk: “parasitic illegal immigrant.”
“DOGE dividend” checks are a symptom of brain rot, of hopeless hope. Might as well hold up signs at a Drake concert! And don’t be fooled by Bannon’s Elon hate as it’s a xenophobic dog whistle considering his Nazi salute at CPAC on Thursday. Don’t think that’s bad? France’s far right enfant terrible cancelled his CPAC speech in protest.

Mitch McConnell won't seek reelection
“The longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision”: a wild statement. Take this as an opportunity to follow this guy on TikTok who digs into how good or bad your representatives is. Great stuff!

The 48 hours that Trump turned on Zelensky
"Senators from both parties reacted"
An International Authoritarian Alliance?
Vance’s real warning to Europe
“the end of the Old World”
Trump Rattling Europe’s Far Right
This was the week when European politics imploded, as a “new world order” emerged — and certainly made it feel like very real threats are in the air. I was getting at this two weeks ago but: America fingering everything means a dismantling of everything too. A silver lining is European stocks are (Somehow?) outpacing Wall Street, even if that does nothing for the average person.

All eyes on far-right AfD in German election
“how is this even possible”
Germany’s Left comes back
“a surprising comeback”
Germany’s election is today and, darling, I’m worrying! I take some hope in the Left’s return but I will believe it when I see it. (This reminds: I read Good Girl — which is great — and very clearly highlights how Nazis never left but took on new forms, expressing themselves “politely.”)

Microsoft could lead quantum computers
“first quantum chip”
“no big deal”
I don’t fully understand but I know this is major and will make computing a lot faster. It also created a new state of matter, which hurts my brain to process. This is the sort of development that should be talked about more than gd AI!!!

'Drunk dialing' videos exposes YouTube
A fascinating look at YouTube stats to celebrate its twentieth (!!) birthday, which reiterates something I’ve said for years: YouTube is everything. Part school, part life, part entertainment: everything.

When I left my last job, I left behind a team I managed that fluctuated between four and ten people. It was a bummer, an expression of economic uncertainty and shifts in the larger tech world that trickled down to the little people at agencies, at third parties. On the way out, I did what I could to empower the team: I shared my portfolio so people could pull assets and stats for their own; I bought an insane Cameo from Azealia Banks to offer a pep talk (watch at your own risk here); and I started a group chat. The group chat has become a lifeline that I’ve been meaning to write about because such spaces are a salve in shitty times, a venue for meme sharing and to maintain the pace of relationships while bemoaning layoffs and continued lack of adjusted wages for costs of living. Considering our co-workers are often the people we talk to most in our lives now, these chats are important in a world where “the man” continues to fuck us over. We talk shit, we share gossip, we send intel about larger corporate moves, about current and old bosses, about the industry — and it keeps us (Or me!) sane. The former co-worker group chat is a meme-filled Garden of Eden in turbulent times, a digital third space that undoes parasocial friendships enabled by social media, undoing “professionalism” by maintaining a constant line-in.

It also dovetails into something I keep hearing and feeling: as we’re more or less required to work, we must use jobs to apply pressure, to speak to world issues within the limits of “what we’re allowed.” It’s the teeny tiniest form of anarchist calisthenics by dismantling the system from within. As my chat on change this week with Salary Transparent Street showed, communication and “organizing” — be that a union or out-of-work group chat — is an integral part to bending the system in an increasingly panoptic workforce where jobs no longer mean what they used to be. In the 2010s, the fall of journalism and new media came via the tech-backed “pivot to video” switch. This gave tech work a greater caché, meaning you were set for life — then came the 2020s layoffs to remind that tech to is fallible. In the past decade, the bastion that was once called Hollywood followed similarly, a dissolved industry divorcing from place. Now, one of the final frontiers of worker safety has been pierced: the government job, as massive layoffs at Trump/DOGE's hands are forcing out workers in FEMA and the DoD and the IRS and NIH, inspiring a devastating new genre of termination stories (despite the false flag of right-wing dissent from within). No job is a “safe job” anymore and, in these broligarch times, the little people like us matter less and less. You are a number. You are a dollar sign. You mean nothing to those in power.

The question is: how does one rage against the machine from within? As a friend said a week or two ago, in an aside at the end of a catchup, she was working on a project for her company that intended to push against fascism. It reminded that, at one of the companies I currently work with, we’re using the platform to galvanize people to push back against the moment’s vibe shift. Similarly, people are going further with their bare minimum, using the time to volunteer, pursue the self, or generally “make a difference.” In fascistic times, your job and your life doesn’t stop, an observation within a rising conversation: why not grab your wrench and swing it against things? Fart everywhere instead doing some Pina Bausch dance! Or, Alec Leach spotted recently, do what billionaire Marc Andreessen said happened in the late 2010s and early 2020s: revolt. “The employee base is going feral,” the egghead reflected. “There were cases in the Trump era where multiple companies I know felt like they were hours away from full-blown violent riots on their own campuses by their own employees.” Where has that anger gone? Make bosses scared again. Bring back the “no one wants to work” trend! Lie flat! Hire someone to quit your job for you!! Work together and force a company to work for you. Don’t take the bait that someone like Kim Kardashian “is working,” ignore Jamie Dimon’s hate of his own workforce: make employers fear workers again. If they see us as disposable as we enter a post-jurisprudence era, reflect back their cries to work harder despite proof that they care about you. HR is out.

It’s fitting a show like Severance is back right now and is storming conversations as it’s a show where employees fight from the inside to get out, to break the system down in their little pencil skirts as they pretend race doesn’t matter on the job. But doesn’t it matter? Don’t these things mean something to workers, to us people? They want our little, queer, non-white asses to give everything in the name of padding the coffers of the stakeholder lords above while doing nothing to support you, as they construct AI pathways to cut costs and outsource your livelihood? They don’t give a shit about our lives and our families and our debts: we are disposable to them — and we should treat them the same. Don’t be scared. Make that group chat. Sever yourself! No one will save you, least of all the head of your company.

Some things to share! As I have lots of programming notes for y’all!!

• All my Madrid people: reminder that I’m doing drinks March 6 at 6PM, likely at Gota. Let me know if you’re coming! I fear it will only be Bobby and I and…that’d be okay too!! But would love to meet y’all 🤭

• The Amialivecore story from last week was written up in Daily Dot, featuring comments from moi. My PR people are really good!! (I am my PR people btw.)

• For anyone who follows Ben Dietz over on [SIC] , you’ll notice that…I made an appearance on the pod this week! That is also to say…

• Ben Dietz and I are launching a podcast! Coming in March!! Called Hip Replacement, the idea is to create intergenerational conversations to help us understand each other. Ben is X, I’m Y, and we’ll start with lots of Z guests first (before adding in Boomers, X, and Ys, etc.). If you wanna be a guest or know someone who might be good: send me a note below!

• A L S O ! ! Today I’m prototyping TRL™ — The Trend Report Live™ — with a few friends at my place. It’s a live, gamified version of the newsletter and…I’m planning the first public one in a month, on March 30 in Barcelona. Stay tuned and, if you have a venue or want to partner, hmu 👀⬇️

Thank you, angels, for everything <3 Now back to regularly scheduled programming!!

The 'Normal Gay Guys' Who Voted Trump
Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy is Done
COVID Pushed Young People Right
‘MAGA Youth’ Celebrate Trump
Exhausted by the MAGA think/culture pieces complex. The Curtis Yarvin one isn’t new but he’s becoming a TikTok talking point. The latter two get at what I was talking about two weeks ago.

'Uber for Armed Guards' Rushes to Market
"We may no longer live in a society"
Conservative times mean a rise in deep military culture, as socio-political fears turn personal for the Amazon-Uber-Postmates-Instacart set, encouraging them to hire Protector (Ew.) security to stroke egos to take their Citizen and NextDoor stalking to the next level so they don’t have to see homeless people. It’s all deeply anti-people and conservative, all of which comes when one has a touch of money. You ain’t shit, loser! Experience the world raw like the rest of us!!!!!!

KFC is leaving its ancestral home
A larger piece about Texas (and Nashville too) could be written but not by me. This is a symptom of (obvious) conservatism a la: CA 2 TX bc GOP, etc.

Forever 21 Plans Hundreds of Store Closures
A small win, as one era’s fast fashion final bosses has been slain. Next up on the cultural conversation agenda: is Hooters going to close because #woke?

5 charged with murder of trans man
"Sam was looking for love"
“Madeline Pendleton’s “im literally trans””
"My hot take"
"weird she gets into fights"
"“non binary death” plays into the rise in fascism"
"ANTI-DEI ART BACKLASH"
"Transgenderism should be eradicated"
"transphobia has real life repercussions"
Sad week in queer news, specifically around the trans community. This is why, whenever someone dogs on queer people at large, you have to stand up and call it out as it enables very real harm — and even harm from within, as we saw from the Madeline Pendleton/Kat Blaque saga. Give the trans and queer people in your life love! Sam Nordquist’s torture and murder may be a new generation’s Matthew Shepard but will go unnoticed in such callous times.

Q Lazzarus vanished
One of Pop’s Tragic Mysteries
Goodbye Horses TRAILER
The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus
The Q Lazzarus album (Compilation?) is a must listen, as she formed a very specific aspect of punk-dance music. It feels like a lost Shannon Funchess/Light Asylum release until you realize Q was the blueprint. Her documentary comes out in March and I cannot wait as it captures the fate of so many creatives whose life and work are squeezed by the world. (See the above essay, etc.)

Dalí would have loved the expression “clock that tea.” Specifically, the young Dalí, the one who was romantic with Federico Garía Lorca in the seconds before he pivoted to fascism. This was the experimental guy who cut open fake eyeballs and melted landscapes into the iconography we all know and love now: he’d love this TikTok from last summer, where someone stirs a bathtub of tea bags as small clocks drift along the surface. “Clock that tea,” the audio goes. A hand pets the bath, dragging tea bags across the water’s wrinkles. “Clock that tea.” Surreal, absurd, stupid: a triumph.

This specific TikTok from July is a stop along the queer rodeo journey of absurdist language that is having a moment now, a moment similar to when “slay” and “yassification” went into overdrive in 2021 along with khia asylum and “motherquake” late last year, all of which reiterates the Gay Twitter language generator. We find ourselves here again because expressions like “what the chile” and “nachos”/”reheating nachos” and “clock that tea” are having converging moments that loop us around the Internet carousel of brain rotted inter-community lingo that is now spreading to not-the-community. (All of this is born of AAVE too and, if you want to feel crazy, read a Wikihow on "clock that tea.") If you understand all these expressions and or have heard them before their breakout week: congratulations! You passed an early 2025 test of online endurance. Your prize is the partial lobotomy that has been slowly taking place over the past few months.

The thing about this lingo — as is the case every time we hit this point of the carousel — is that it dissolves into that meme of the woman on the bus talking to herself: it’s a mountain of nonsense constructed out of nothingisms that, while an impressive statement of community, is a needless language within a language that the very online mumble to each other and ourselves as they force us into the lavender gulag. It’s always two dumb bitches going “exactlyyy,” right? Yes — until it’s fourth graders, who are more likely to quote incel shit as they playact adulthood by making podcasts about nothing and putting on anti-aging cream upon unaged faces.

But why are we really here again? It feels like these expressions are simultaneously high art, anti-AI communication but also deeply AI coded, inspiring an embedded trend: people pointing out that these expressions literally mean nothing, which in turn inspires intentional psychobabble to shock and fool the system as the endurance test implicates celebrities. This suggests a post-slang state as…imagine trying to explain any of this to a real person? Just to explain this to your boss, as you try to write social copy for a brand: how’s that feel? That’s the charm, in a way, of creating community infrastructure through language that becomes impenetrable for people to enter.

Perhaps that’s the lesson, as we high-five each other from deep within the annals of gay Twitter’s large language model: we are making our language more deranged, ugly, grotesque, and demented to mark our territory — and push people out. Or, rightly, to make people think we are crazy, as we continue picking flowers as “more serious” things happen. Then again: isn’t language itself a coping mechanism, linguistic dazzle camo used to escape from within? Are we not clocking the gag from the chile khia asylum to piggy the tea girl? Purr.

“I have so much going on with work and school”
“yoga is rooted in”
“The year is 2028.”
“Big Ashley”
Just some thoughts about life today-ish.

"The world is turning into this"
“#PicVerse”
“my 80yr old grandma”
“when your dog is being put down”
“Make more of this”
AI insanity is getting more insane. But the AI microwave trend is a gem! An insane blood diamond but still: a gem.

“you’ve changed”
“me after injecting”
“just being cruel”
I am obsessed with the “crushed butterfly death” meme.

"Y’all… 😂😭"
Mom of the year, obviously. Can anyone pick me up sideways, so we can recreate the first image? I’ve been working on my core strength so I think I can hold myself up too.

“Do you think Scooby Doo can vote?”
The best video essay I’ve watched in a long time. Need Charlie Brown and Snoopy to fight Scooby and Shaggy!!

"How insane would you have to be to do 8"
If you’re sleeping like number 8…please reply to this email so we can have you committed.

“Europeans are like we don't have racism”
Unfortunately this is accurate.

And, finally, a kindred spirit who was just like me as a child.

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