what about ME??? 😭

Exploring an oxymoronic trend expressed by those in power across the spectrum and exploring an aesthetic based in hoarding.

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• 🚨SEE YOU IN 2026🚨 as this is the last newsletter of the year! We finally made it! Enjoy the break, and be sure to share your thoughts in the annual Trend Report™ Reader Poll by filling out this form.

• 🌴 I am writing this from Los Angeles! And I’m doing a meet-up on Dec 28, among others: read about them and RSVP here. Then…I’m headed to NYC!!

• 🦿HIP REPLACEMENT🦿’s last episode of 2025 included Cami Fateh of Feed Me, who joined Ben Dietz and I to chat about the return of nightlife, the state of young journalism, and why HBO’s Industry continues to slap. Listen on Spotify and YouTube!

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Suspect in Bondi Beach Killings Charged
Questions linger about gun reform, anti-Semitism
What we know about Brown University
Brown University student on surviving two shootings

A grim, violent week no matter how you look at it. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian sentiment, all while letting students go to the wolves. While I disagree with the anti-woke underline to Dave Rich’s opinion piece, I do think this sentiment is right on — and may emerge as a larger theme for many soon: “Nobody should have to live like this. More to the point, our societies cannot continue to function if this becomes the norm. The whole basis of western liberal democracy, the belief in shared values within a diverse society, is endangered by these attacks.” (One other thing about the Brown shooting: the shooter — and his having murdered an MIT professor who he went to school with in Portugal — is the stuff of a true crime wet dream, Reddit tip and all. The multi-decade connection between victim and murderer smells of a much bigger story we will all hear more about soon.)

Turning Point

To the above: this Harper’s story is one of the week’s must-reads, as it so wisely explores the battle for the soul of the right and how d the funding of the Israeli state plays into that. See MTG as sizzling proof!

Trump announces ‘Patriot Games’
Handpicked board to rename ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’

This authoritarian loser lmao

US jobless rate for Blacks, teens surges

I really don’t like the use of “Blacks” in this Reuters story but it shows how — Surprise, surprise! — two vulnerable-to-unemployment groups are going jobless. What does it mean? Well. You know exactly what it means: a terrible soup of racism and sexism via recession indicator.

Europe’s center is barely holding
Trump envoys raising eyebrows in EU

We’re MAGA heavy this week and I apologize but: pointing this shit out as always because what happens in the states is hardly contained. Cue the German racism in housing story! (Distantly related is the concerning authoritarian behavior happening in Puerto Rico, which feels like the colonized parroting the colonizer. Save us, Benito!)

WA flooding damage profound but unclear

As this story suggests, a lot of damage and issues are happening with the heavy northwest rain — but the results of the disaster are a bit hazy, even if the situation got major TikTok play. Keep an eye on this!

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These things are all related. Can you tell me why? I’ve talked about them all before because they’ve been bugs in my bonnet for years. I thought they were all of different species of critters but I’m realzing they’re actually all the same. We’ll start small and get bigger.

• The viral charli xcx “death of cool” essay. “I have always rejected the idea that art, film, persona or music becoming commercial means it cannot also be considered cool,” she writes. “The rejection of commerciality ‘just because’ is such a boring and immature argument…Disliking something purely because of its widespread popularity or links to commercialism comes with a distinctly art school type energy that is super triggering to me.” “Blockbuster hit with street cred” is the antithesis I’m hearing, which is eye roll inducing but alas.

• The Marty Supreme press push, less from the tactics and more the central figure: Timothee Chalamet, whose work promoting this non-indie with a full team is being seen as a brilliant performance. The rapping and the Soulja Boy, the jacket hawking and the Wheaties boxing are all suggesting an of-the-people-ness, or at least a being in the trenches with certain communities. Solidarity is great, yes, but at what point is name dropping cultural underdog and singing show contestant Susan Boyle because “she dreamt bigger than all of us” and getting called “two percent Jamaican” by Druski a big troll? Or at least cultural and class-based drag?

• From late November: “Kim Kardashian doesn’t pass the bar — but that doesn’t mean we have to show up and shed tears with her as she cries for our attention.” From early December: “News emerged that Kim Kardashian has ‘low brain activity’ which promptly went viral. ‘The front part of your brain is less active than it should be,’ a doctor explains, tying it to stress and her studies as she tries to pursue the bar, a test she did not pass, which inspired tears and the suggestion that we need to to feel bad for rich people.” So rich, so dumb, so sad.

• From 2022, but has stuck in my mind for years: in response to Spider-Man: No Way Home not getting a Best Picture nomination, the director Kevin Smith said, “What the fuck? They got ten slots, they can’t give one to the biggest fucking movie of like the last three years?” At the time, the movie set the record for second-biggest opening weekend of all time. “Really wish I understood what level of success will satiate these people,” Brandon Streussnig mused on Twitter. “Cultural dominance, billions, oscar noms for Black Panther, Joker & Logan. When does the underdog routine stop”

• In February, JP Morgan Chase executive Jamie Dimon cursed out workers. “Don’t give me this shit that work-from-home-Fridays works,” he said, offering a clear view of how the top looks at the bottom. “We’ve entered the era of ‘do as I say’ leadership,” Beth Kowitt posited in Bloomberg Opinion, weeks after highlighting the return of “forced joy” at work. “It’s no longer enough for employees to manufacture a product or service for customers,” she said. “They must also manufacture a feeling. And if management can’t motivate workers to do it organically, they’ll decree it by edict.”

• “Instead of being able to bask in his accomplishments and glory in his plans, he’s being told by the political experts in his orbit that the people aren’t happy,” Ed Kilgore wrote in Intelligencer last week of Trump staving off the mass grumpiness of Americans. This behavior isn’t new to him or his public, as such behavior has been directed at people like Zelensky and Ukranians repeatedly not to mention Americans, as he demanded appreciation in 2018. This has been a theme for him this year, no longer asking but ordering gratefulness via the recurring use of “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” “Why are y’all so angry?” Joy Reid lamented of such GOP sour grapes in September. “You have the White House, you have both houses of Congress, you have a Supreme Court that is completely obedient to your president…You have everything: why are y’all so angry?”

Do you see it? It’s not just “forced fun” but instead what I’m calling a cultural body dysmorphia, where someone or an entity is one thing but demanding it be treated as another. Charli claiming cool while being commercial, Timothee claiming indie while being a studio talent (and white while feigning Black — just like his girlfriend), Kim being a billionaire but acclaim for her woes, comic book nerds griping to be taking seriously despite having rewritten the whole of entertainment culture, financial executives furious people are people instead of workers, politicians mad that you’re not glad for everything they do: these are all examples of those in cultural, financial, and or political power trying to have it both ways, sore winners kicking and screaming to not just have all the world and culture’s riches but to have street cred too. Cue when Zuckerberg started wearing that damn chain and “got fit”: those in power are no longer content to “just be” but are making their praise fetishes known, that they want to oppress us and fit in too. Why have it all when you can demand more?

As Charli even copped herself, this is all “deep rooted insecurity,” as we’ve reached the point in the French Revolution of the 21st century where the royals take our money and our time but insist upon our feelings too, the only domain that cannot be cajoled on command or captured in any meaningful way other than atmosphere. This is all such loser shit, which will never really be grasped as there is indeed a massive media apparatus and literal economy devoted to the appeasing of these elite kinks. AI as “innovative tech” to make losers of all stripes do the most cringe things to feel something, enabling racists to manufacture success for attention whilst robbing the world of its resources and you of yourself: it’s all of-this-kind. “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,” Aaron Bushnell said as he self-immolated in protest of Palestinian genocide. We live in an unending production of A Christmas Carol, a world ruled by Scrooges without any promises of happiness for anyone else in the wide ensemble cast: all the joy in the world, only reserved for them — never us.

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Rob Reiner Dies at 78
Rob Reiner loved America.
Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Others Remember

The death of Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner is so beyond fucked up, a Hollywood tragedy played out in multiple parts with multiple storylines, thanks to the modern paparazzi machine working overtime, drawing in Bll Hader and Conan O’Brien and Albert Brooks and so many more. The Trump of it all is stupid and to be expected, but it did create a few fascinating ripples like wrestling legend Mick Foley quitting the WWE in protest of the organization’s complicity. We’ll certainly continue hearing about this through awards season as the Reiners were not only great cinema talents but the rare community leaders who applied their wealth toward change.

‘Lolita,’ passports,more famous figures
See photos, docs from Epstein files

Sure, new Epstein files made the GOP flee on Friday — but what was most interesting was the growing cast of characters: Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Noam Chomsky, David Brooks, Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, Mick Jagger, and many more. And yet: this will likely result in no justice for the victims or punishment of these people. Take it away, Cy Canterel!

White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term
Vanity Fair photographer defends portraits

Woo, wee: I have not read the Vanity Fair “hit piece” on Trump 2.0 yet but I — like most of you — have seen the photos. Hearing photographer Christopher Anderson talk about his approach and methodology is fascinating, in that something like Karoline Leavitt’s filler injections being revealed by turning on a light is wild. I guess it’s easy being evil when you are a feckless child who doesn’t care for themself, as these images and such “leaders” prove. Anyway, the analysis of these images have been so great — as is the journalist Chris Wipple’s thoughts on the story.

K-pop power player HYBE looks to Africa

This is cool! I feel like Tyla is a bit overhyped, but what will come after her will be very exciting. Very interesting that HYBE didn’t opt for Saudi Arabia as I am sure they are pleading for such a deal.

“Pop Mart shares fall”
Paul King to Direct Labubu Movie for Sony

We talked about the soulless moment in Hollywood on Thursday, which this whole deal really embodies. I cannot believe this movie is going forward. Flop!

“The ‘DoorDash lifestyle’”

Ben Dietz flagged this one, and it’s a fascinating (and viral) Twitter take that basically says that everyone above Gen Z sees the world and finances in a macro way while those below see everything in a micro way. Think getting paid a lil bit daily versus biweekly paychecks, think paying to eliminate a discomfort now versus a 401K to cushion you in the future. It’s interesting! And also plays into the larger modern cultures of both gambling and meaninglessness. Unsurprising!

“in a romantic relationship with his AI chatbot”

Who is? A near A-list TV actor. I am dying to know who it is so — if you have any intel — please tell me and I solemnly swear to not tell. Promise!! (My guess is someone from Big Bang Theory or Kevin James.)

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There was a moment early in the twentieth century when it was trendy for photographers to take pictures of people and their stuff. The idea was to highlight disparities, but also to emphasize waste, gluttony, the embarrassment of riches that some citizens of the world have and others aren’t fortunate enough to have. Peter Menzel’s Hungry Planet from 2005 comes to mind, featuring an international cast posed with all of their groceries, a pre-haul politi-aesthetic exercise revealing who can afford what in the world. Gregg Segal’s 7 Days of Garbage from 2014 is similar, but food is replaced with trash as people are posed with their waste, the effect less second-hand embarrassment and more a modern performance of what it means to be alive now: giddy with your garbage, a proud accumulator of stuff. This style isn’t new, as I wrote about last year that people posting with their stuff (Particularly groceries.) was popping even in the 1940s — but we can likely go back much further for such imagery: Marie Antoinette posed with her globe in 1775, The Tribuna of the Uffizi depicting George III’s excess of artworks in 1772, Sir Lawrence Dundas in his study amongst many paintings in 1769, Louis XIV and his family in 1711 set against an opulent terrace. We’ve always loved peacocking with our stuff.

The modern iteration of this idea of me-and-my-stuff is being defined now, in literal and metaphorical ways: this is best captured by Aria Zarzycki’s photos for Ninajirachi, whose album artwork for her late summer release I Love My Computer offered a visual manifesto, the artist laid upon a bed of cords and cables, laptops and keyboards, boxed in by monitors and stacks of books and records, walls covered in anime posters and covered up with piles of clothing, plants, speakers, surge protectors, etc. It’s a striking image that manifests all the aforementioned ideas with an honesty, a brutality — but also a flex. The suggestion is that you are what you accumulate and, in Nina’s case, it’s not Labubus or Stanley Cups but a mountain of old tech and the ephemera of technologies past, present, and future, analogue lusting coming to its pornographic conclusions. The image isn’t the first time such a posed image has been crated but it is perhaps the most emblematic image in this style, her being the grandest Ophelia of waste.

These Ophelias are myriad and multiple now: Bella Poarch exhausted, lying with opened packages, cords, a purse, a cat, and an Otamatone, “sleepyhead” as the caption; Kylie Jenner half-sitting on a director’s chair in her underwear, robe around her waist, her fingers around a glass of white wine, luggage and products and cords and pillows behind her, “BEST DAY EVER PARIS” she says from the messy hotel room she does glam in; Jenna Ortega collapsed before a window, a busy Korean city in the distance, the street a mess of lane markers and glass buildings, trees and ads, she a lover of Seoul too overcome to stand it; Billie Eilish and friends digging through stacks of old Playboys and Penthouses with friends, all these naked women among clothed women, some wrapped in plastic, some tossed open but mostly covered, a simple statement of “lyfe” from the artist. All the photos are taken from above, in keeping with the modern history of this style, you and your waste, you and your filth, literal and not, all intended to flex where you are and what you have, whether your literal items or a place as an accessory. Instagram is the museum and you and your mess are a density of consumer information for all the eyes watching to excavate, to build affiliate empires to, to tap so your sponsors get rewards.

This has been the vibe all year and maybe even all decade, each of us weary within the mess. Much of the work of Cody Critcheloe for Perfume Genius’ Glory manifests this, but also his recent photography for The Gossip, Kim Petras, and Katseye which crashes into the other album artwork trend of being the calm in one’s storm as best represented by Demi Lovato’s calm amongst the shit of life. A recent issue of Dazed MENA has Bella Hadid in such a position, she a mess of patterns upon a mess of patterns, smizing seriously at the camera. The painter Wangari Mathenge has managed this space all year with new paintings featuring people in repose within a mess, to express memory and colonialism’s creep upon African and Black bodies. Nnena Kalu’s Turner Prize winning sculptures and paintings may be without subject but these cocoons of wrapping materials and trash amongst swirling, scribbling drawings suggest the “stuff” has taken on a life of its own, our ephemera ready for their own close up as they’re shipped off to the landfill that is everything and everyone. Objectify the shit culture you are so keen to collect.

“Damn bitch, you live like this?” you might think, which is exactly the point as the neckbeard nest has somehow become aspirational instead of an embarrassment. The “Esports Gamer Reportedly Leaves Hotel Room A Horrible Mess After Two-Year Stay” story recently went viral because of the mess but also because many may have seen themselves in it: “messy girl” and “maximalism” aesthetics confused for considering you and your stuff to be akin to an artist in a studio amongst materials versus a person with things that are and will become trash. The woman from Hoarders giggling, tucked into her waste, is now a meme that people recreate every so often, seeming to say that so many of us exist in parallel consumerist semiotics. These are messy times too, which is perhaps what our subconscious wants to Ophelia here: Bo Burnham sleeping with all his recording equipment in 2021, while making the COVID epic Inside; more and more Boomers dying, creating an incoming avalanche of literal shit that Millennials have to deal with; on the first day of the year, the Times published an opinion piece on the “defense of messy,” excusing the glut of stuff on mental health and being gentler in regards to things like cleanliness; the slow build around the Japanese idea of the reclusive, stuff-accumulating hikikomori, which not only had a Substack breakout this month but was a key “Gotcha!” in Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 The Anxious Generation, as he posited of internet-pilled American teens (“Some young men in America and elsewhere are behaving like hikikomori. Some young men have even taken both the Japanese word and ‘NEET; as tribal identifiers.”) (“NEET,” or “not in education, employment, or training,” had a similar breakout a month ago, via new FT findings.); “Ignore my messy room” has become a caveat on Twitter, to remind you to focus on the person in the selfie versus their mountains of stuff.

Perhaps this is what we get for having spent a decade focused on Kimye minimalism and Millennial gray: we’re craving to let it all hang out in the face of intersectional collapses. Pose with the stuff instead of trying to sweep it away! Enjoy your filth instead of being ashamed of it. Brag about your consumption instead of trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle!! This is defeatism, but also what two thousand of twenty five years of not giving a fuck as a species looks like. Damn, bitch, we really do live like this.

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“feels so good”
“Christmas kirkie”
“future Hallmark card”
“melania kreesmas”
“the worst tree on the lot”
“What you want for”
“came out clean”
“Merry Christmas Charlie”
“And that’s all”
“ozempic santa”
“star is born”
“What’s wrong with Tiny Tim?”

The best holiday content to keep you content over the holidays.

“most glamorous realtor”

We were blessed this week, as the TikTok journalist icon Matt Shearer interviewed Boston’s most fabulous realtor Benjamin Smith. He needs a reality show!! (Second best recent Matt Shearer doc was this wild / cuter dating story.)

“so many lamps”

Where Heated Rivalry discourse crashes with the reality of being gay, exposing those who know queer culture and those who don’t. (While we’re here, the Hudson Williams beauty tips story and video are so delicious. I love him and Connor Storrie and I hope this press tour never ends. Keep the party going with his Hollywood Reporter interview. What a dream boat! And funny too.)

“mother is crowning”

The best content to come out of Jon Cena retiring from wrestling thing.

“to stop looking British”

The best take about Bryan Johnson that we may ever get.

“#CapCut”
“#dog”
“#Dog”
“4th one”
“wtf”
“#bruce”
“HELLO?”

AI is dog shit but I appreciate really bad AI that still exists and that I hope will always exist (It will, in some form!), which is best embodied by this French men’s hair style trend that has lead to some of the most spectacularly freaky fails.

“trapped in my mouth”

The best video you’ll see of Jojo Siwa trapped in someone’s mouth.

“break it down”

The best gay Toy Story September 11 content that you’ll see this week.

And, finally, how I will be acting all holiday break.

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TR.BIZ: 12.18.2025

TR.BIZ: 12.16.2025

turd of a year