THEY’RE WEAPONIZING YOUR WOKENESS!!!!!

On how viral stories based in woke behaviors become jokes that are weaponized, and an interview with an ambient duo from Copenhagen on ambient music and Copenhagen.

Sep 27, 2026

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It feels like we’re in year two or three of a stupid discourse cycle of liberal-thing-turns-evil, which we’re going to get into today. Plus! We chat with an ambient duo whose new album feels like a warm autumn day.

I’ve been non-stop recently, but have a few things I’m doing in NYC, if people are around: today I’m battling the Nor’easter to hit the NY Art Book Fair and Public Records later; Wednesday I’m going to try to hit the Williamsburg Breakfast Clubbing; and Thursday I’m going to Arias with a Twist with some friends. Drop a line if you’re around!

And if you missed the recent live HIP REPLACEMENT? We’ve got a video for you: kate lindsay chatted with Ben Dietz and I about celebrity surrogates and the existential (and not) threats of AI. It was a lot of fun! And we’ll be doing another live episode…SOoN!!! Listen to the episode on Substack, YouTube, and Spotify.

Alarm over sanctions threatened by US
Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech at the UN
“delegates walked out during Netanyahu’s speech”

The UN “is important,” but gatherings like UNGA and COP feel like a performative politics Olympic games at points.

TV networks halt video coverage of Trump
White House Launches ‘Trump TV’ Amid Feud
CNN, MS NOW, Politico reporters regain entry

“The lion would never bite my face off,” the people who visit the lion every day said, before the lion — who they had been filming for profit — mauled them. And the Trump TV thing? It definitely feels like a post-presidential media play, as he’s been trying to get a Trump channel going for years now. This is very Hugo Chavez, sure, but this is also what it looks like when you look at Trump as the male Oprah Winfrey.

Polymarket presses Europe

I’d Polymarket bet that the EU bends on this, which would be a huge deal if this economic brain rot goes global. (The “although it is possible to access the services using a VPN” offers a key here.)

El Niño projected to cause more than 450K deaths

By February, and largely in places where spring is setting in like Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan, India, and Brazil, among others. I don’t understand why more action isn’t being taken about this! I’m talking to you, UN!!!!

Meta’s Charm gadget carries big AI ambitions
“Tamagotyourdata”

There is no greater fail-up company than Meta. They ruined their properties, failed at making the metaverse happened, nuked their pervert glasses with Kylie Jenner’s help, and are now trying to crib Friend, all while being “successful”? Clown show.

AI Exec: “The Largest Theft of Labor”
“trained on stolen human data”
OpenAI’s breach of Australian department prompts rebuke
OpenAI Breached Four Other Targets,No Prompting

Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but the Meta thing paired with these items make it feel like we’re in the penultimate or final act for AI. I can dream!

Grand jury declines indictment in Wells’ death
“despite hearing many inconsistencies”

A sad “conclusion” to the Nolan Welles story, which certainly will not be the end.

I

“Our decision had been informed by values shaped by my years of reporting on the enduring and too often seemingly hopeless battle for school integration,” journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote last week, in a viral story reflecting on the ramifications of choices made in her daughter’s education. It’s a particularly knotty story: the well-meaning pursuit by Hannah-Jones and her husband to keep their daughter in an underserved, predominately Black school to help elevate the school; the ongoing decisions to keep her daughter in poor educational environments; their daughter’s increasing realization that these decisions stunted her intelligence; the grief carried by all over these failures. It is a heartbreaking story, one where everyone — the parents, the child, New York City, America, Gen A — loses. “I wish instead of always thinking about other kids you would have thought about me,” Hannah-Jones’ daughter, Najya, said of her. “I never really got the education I wanted.” Oof.

“There are people that are close to us and love us who are really disappointed in our decision, and that is completely understandable,” a volunteer said, a person representing the Greenfield, Massachusetts’ Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue, a space for “dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their friends.” The bar is the subject of a very viral story about how the bar fell apart due to financial difficulties, which sparked the bar shifting its values, which meant moving from being a space for mandatory masking at all times to a space that required masking at all times save for Saturday night. This backlash received undid the bar, as it was seen as ableist and hateful by the queer, disabled community that supported it. The owners of the bar quietly stepped away as bills piled up with no one to rescue them. The community was indifferent, seeing viewing their situation as karma. One hit after another, it feels. “It’s so understandable why they feel hurt by the way we did it and the fact that we did it,” the volunteer added, a remorseful statement on getting punched when down.

These stories went hugely viral for a few reasons, partially because they offered important post-woke reflections on values but because they capture our schedenfreudian now. Thus, a “now” trajectory that I call the Horseshoe of Woes™. Here’s how it works —

It starts with story shock, where those who typically would read such stories react with surprise. Think Millennial very online Twitter and media types, the canaries in the coal mine who chirp first when The Cut publishes a very wtf personal essay.
This puts the story in a meme launcher, where those in the wider Twitter and TikTok periphery find humor in the story, zooming in on a shocking detail or series of events which they make jokes out of and amplify, amplify, amplify.
The conversation ends with a crucifixion of values, where laughs die down as the story transitions from the learned to the memers to the value holding masses who flatten the story and its associated choices to rule the situation as a reflection of stupid choices made by stupid people. This is how we end up with Gavin McInnes and Ted Cruz using these stories to advance certain ideas.

The whiplash here is a reverse milkshake duck, the idea of something everyone loves being discovered to be bad moments after virality. In this Horseshoe of Woes™, something interesting, intellectual, and important is kneecapped as proof of how “wrong” (progressive) culture has become. Milkshake duck starts from the fun-loving tail of a creature, only to turn it around to encounter its evil eyes. The Horseshoe of Woes™ starts with a creature’s pleading pout only to turn it around, inspecting its anus to rule it shits too much. One offers truth, the other undermines it.

This is so now, a situation we keep finding ourselves in again and again and again that defines a very 2020s brain worm that may have started in 2021 with the “Bad Art Friend.” Think back to August, with the Drew Afualo and Jools Lebron situations, where Drew’s talking about the beauty of the trans experience was skewered and where Jools seeking medical help invited digital flogging. These situations represent this Horseshoe™ well — a well-intentioned point of view that shocks some, the blasting of it into a meme talking point, before sticking a lance in the subject to bleed it dry — which conjures similar stories like Gen Z bringing iced coffees to interviews and the actor Jack Haven asking for help and a job. These are very serious issues (economic nihilism, economic insecurity) that we take for jokes and then apply a bootstrapiness as we become robber barons ourselves.

For Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Horseshoe™ deemed her a doing-her-best liberal who sacrificed her daughter to political causes. For the western Massachusetts queer community, the Horseshoe™ was interrogating the dynamic of queer spaces that was sacrificed at the altar of woke brain rot. The Horseshoe™ forces common concern into gifts for right-wing propagandists, not by design (as many leftists are fearmongering) but because the crucifixion of values ultimately is a gift to the right at the expense of “woke 1”: Nikole Hannah-Jones trying to uphold her values is seen as performative and proof that Black students “are worse,” while the lesbian masking gay bar suggests disabled and queer persons cannot get anything done and that they “are crazy.” These are huge gifts to the right to propel racism, sexism, queerphobia, and ableism, which is easily hijacked and manipulated in the joyous meme stage, which is an amplification system that disseminates hammers and nails to be picked up by the right to give to the left to crucify displayed values and anyone looking up at Golgotha. Who wins? Not the subjects, nor the values and politics they stand upon.

“Some of you are becoming so woke, it’s making you everything you hate,” a TikTok summing up the week said. This is a gong we’ve been banging for months and months into years and years, evoking the 2025 sacrificing of Sabrina Carpenter on her knees and Celine Song advocating for the poor: no one left can be right, no one progressive can be a winner. Everyone fails but the conservative, as political psychosis grabs the Horseshoe™, bonking us so many times on the head that we see everyone as bad faith actors. The assumption is that nothing is done with good intention, that everyone harbors evil and that their failures are proof of such darkness: this is an incredibly pessimistic and paranoid worldview. We can be discerning, but discernment shouldn’t start a suicide mission that conducts priceless opposition work during a midterm election year. And yet: such is the norm, we the pavlovian digital dogs are eager to maul each other once we learn of a peer’s weakness. The multi-tool of dehumanization adds the Horseshoe™ to its weapon’s cache.

An Argument

A coda of the Nikole Hannah-Jones story, where her daughter speaks about the subject on This American Life. It’s very interesting — and justice for Najya! I want to give her a hug. (But is this the dramatic reckoning we were anticipating? No, it feels more like a behind-the-scenes promo piece.)

CFDA Vice Chair Aurora James Sued for Fraud
“should be held and reserved by Black people”

Following up on Thursday’s note on fashion week’s flopness turning direct, the heat placed on the aforementioned stories should be directed at someone like Aurora Jones who was actually acting in bad faith.

Is George Lucas’s project the end of the art museum?
The Worst Pavilions at the Venice Biennale

I love reviews of bad art, but these both get at something very thorny: what does it mean for art to become post-contextual? What does it mean to be in a time of neutral, anti-intellectual art? These are not good things, and certainly something to push against in the grander space of museums and art. This plays into the late 2020s trend of no one having a backbone!

‘Choosin’ Texas’ Topples Mariah’s Record
“I’m genuinely trying to find the words”

I’ve moved on from Ella Langley hate, especially when compared to someone like Stella Lefty. Let her cook, even if she’s cooking ass. She seems fun though!

How’s your apocalypse stockpiling coming on?

Prepping in a non-doomer-but-realistic way is very in, and I appreciate this story for acknowledging the reality of what everyday prepping looks like. It’s not easy! And requires intention.

Every TV company is spying on you

We should assume all new tech is spying on us, shouldn’t we? Or: anything connected to the internet is uploading you to the internet, right? (While we’re here: here are New York Times’ 100 best shows of the 21st century.)

Toys ‘R’ Us is opening 120 new stores
“adult-only households”

Why is Toys ‘R’ Us expanding? Because sales of toys in adult-only households has outpaced that of kids. I hate this, less because “people aren’t having kids” but more that so many adults have embraced a shutting in. This is BYOB (be your own baby) culture, I suppose.

Kojima explains the surprise split with Sony

Hideo Kojima is one of the greatest artists of our time — and yet! He’s struggling. Not that he was operating “outside the system,” but such a situation reveals how even the most brilliant and commercial fail within corporate rot.

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We’re in for a treat this week: we have our very first dual trend interview. The pleasure goes to Johan Carøe and Jason Dungan, two Copenhagen-based musicians who just dropped their joint album Routine. The project is a mesmerizing ten track capturing of Johan and Jason’s multi-instrumental talent that is some of the most soothing ambient music I’ve heard in a while. Neither transcendental space ambient nor minimalist drone ambient, but instead experimental folk ambient that feels like lying on a wooden platform in a field as the sun warms you. It is an effortlessly beautiful album that is as cozy as it is caring. A treat, one designed for my seekers of grace out there. I can’t think of a more darling release this year.

I relayed questions over to the duo to ask about their thoughts on trends, but also on why they think the Copenhagen music scene is so special given its being home to beloved acts like ML Buch and Erika de Casier. I also was curious what they think ambient music means now, as it feels post-trend. We discuss the importance of nature on one’s creative practice, how the size of Copenhagen and the curiosities of Copenhageners makes for musical breakthroughs, and why this style of music is a response to an environment that will never go away. Some really special ideas here!

Tell me about a trend you’re following that you’re really into.
Johan: I’ve been kind of an architecture buff as a pastime interest since I was a teenager (I really enjoyed all 3.5 hours of the brutalist), inheriting the interest from my mother. She strongly hated whenever people in the neighbourhood would paint their bricks in a period-inappropriate colour, asphalt the old gardens for their cars, remove original details etc. I feel there is an emphasis in contemporary millennial culture now to keep the original details, use and reuse original materials etc. — more people are trying to keep and maintain shared culture-heritage, and I think that’s something. Architecture and visual space is something that I draw a lot of inspiration from, I think many musicians obviously benefit from playing into a beautiful space, both when recording, playing live and rehearsing.
Jason: I think that people are more and more concerned with various types of wild spaces, whether that’s something like a nature preserve or planting local flowers in their garden in in order to support the insect population. I grew up in Dallas, and in my childhood the main focus was in having a pristine, green square of lawn, which was constantly trimmed and basically supported no animal life. People in places like California are planting cacti and succulents in their gardens instead of grass, and a lot of people in Denmark are focused on letting their gardens get more wild and to function more in relation to nature instead of thinking of a garden as a kind of plant show. I think this is quite inspiring in terms of my relation to the world around me, and gets me to think more of small ways that I can interact with my surroundings in a way that’s more positive and productive.
What’s a trend you hope never dies?
Johan: Being politically aware; when I was growing up, caring about politics, progressive values or just basic human rights was considered very nerdy. I think young people today are allowed to be politically aware and cool and that is a win for society. Same for getting out into nature — when I was young, hiking gave the ick, now it’s hot and I love that. I also hope straight and wide legged pants are here to stay, I’m not ready for slim jeans.
Jason: I have been a music obsessive since I was pretty young, and I’m old enough to have a CD collection from my teens/20s that I still have and listen to regularly. My daughter is now old enough to be getting seriously into music, and CDs have been amazing for her to be able to absorb lots of different music and to buy albums pretty cheaply in the local stores in Copenhagen. CDs are kind of a perfect medium for teenage music consumption, so I’m excited to see them coming back into circulation, as a way of listening to music outside of a computer / streaming interface. I think that people need more than the connection that streaming offers, and I think (hope) that physical media will continue existing in various forms I also have a car with a CD player and it’s still the best format for car music.
What’s a trend you are so over?
Johan: The far-right turn around the world, would really appreciate less of that.
Jason: Maybe this is an obvious answer, but: all things AI. I have no use for it whatsoever in my music work, and I never use it for writing. I feel that the process inherent in writing or art or music-making is full of twists and turns which reveal to you the full possibilities not only of the thing you’re trying to make, but also one’s own possibilities as a person and a thinker, writer, music-maker. Using computers to vomit out loads of mediocre material seems entirely pointless to me.
What do you think defines contemporary music from Copenhagen as someone within the scene?
Johan: It’s a small city where everyone kind of knows everyone, goes to the same events etc., and the recent hype is much deserved, there is a lot of incredible boundary pushing talent and a broad pallet of genre and expression, on the highest level. I think it’s worth mentioning we do have a lot of government funded institutions and grants, which have achieved to leave most of their municipality-core and jazz school bias and focus and support the frontrunners and the left-of-centered-ness. I think the Copenhagen palette is widening from the first emerging labels from the 10’s that maybe had a more dark, serious, stilleben sort of aesthetic — not that I don’t love that — but we are hearing a broader variety of genre and crossover with room for more playful, colourful, sometimes even silly aesthetics. And some of the underground pioneers from the 00’s and 10’s are also able to keep working in the scene, they are continuously staying relevant, pushing boundaries and we all benefit from that.
Jason: The music scene in Copenhagen was a big part of why I wanted to move here. I I think there’s a few things that make it special. My experience is that a lot of the important labels and venues are run by artists, and that musicians themselves are engaged in a lot of organizing of projects here, which contributes to a certain openness and connection between musicians. It’s the capital city, but it’s not that big, so you end up seeing a lot of the same people around, which makes you aware of a wide range of music and also simply lets you get to know people. I would regularly see things here that range between experimental pop, free jazz, electronic music, noise...People here are working across a lot of sounds and genres, but there’s a nice overlap between them. And I think that although people here are of course aware of American or British music, it’s not really the main influence on things here... there’s a lot of local sounds and ideas that are perhaps more important, and so I think that distance from American culture allows for some fresh ideas to blossom.
How would you describe the current state of ambient music?
Johan: I think the state of experimental instrumental music is flourishing, if we use that as an umbrella term; and I don’t think ambient will ever be over, it is one of the strongest minimalist expressions when it’s created with intention. I haven’t really thought of Routine as an Ambient Album but that said; there is some ambient to be found in 1 or 2 tracks. For me the album is a revival of a lot of the sounds that has inspired Jason and I throughout our lives, like NYC’s leftfield music scene in the 80’s or Iceland’s bedroom community around 2010.
Jason: I think in a lot of ways that I don’t actually know about current music that falls under the ambient genre, although I’m sure there are artists that I listen to that would land under that umbrella. I think when ambient-adjacent music has been at its most interesting in the last few years, it’s when people have used certain approaches to create their own world, a space of sound that can be quite immersive and transformative. In those ways, I could include both Sofie Birch and Ellen Arkbro, but in those examples, Sofie’s music is a much more personal exploration of a certain language and sound space, and Ellen’s music is maybe more related to Modernist composers like LaMonte Young. Each of their music asks for a quite different type of response and environment, but what I like about those artists is that each still asks for a quite active listener. Their music isn’t passive. I think that for myself and Johan, our music is meant to be quite active, and it’s built up in quite an intricate way. Some of the tracks verge on a kind of low-key pop feeling, and I think that Johan’s background as a film composer impacts on the music a lot. For me that means that the music influences and impacts on our experience of the space around us — it changes our emotional state, how we feel in our bodies. I think that the best kinds of ambient music are very aware of these possibilities.