Happy Monday!
I’m keeping it brief today. I was noodling on some thoughts about Gen Z and financial nihilism, which has been a hot topic in recent months but has felt particularly omnipresent over the past week or so on my timelines. I was chatting with someone about the appeal of high risk, high reward financial opportunities and wanted to bring that discussion here, but my angle hasn’t quite come together yet. I’ve decided to sit with it so I can give you more organized thoughts on Thursday.
So today, I instead bring you a small round-up of links that have inspired my thinking on that this week, which touch on Euphoria, OnlyFans, crypto, and prediction markets. These include:
Euphoria: Chloe Cherry Calls Out Cassie’s OnlyFans Plot - Taylor Loren and Kathleen Newman-Bremang for Refinery29
Euphoria made sex work go viral. Real sex workers are still getting censored. - Anna Iovine for Mashable
Aliens and Angel Numbers: Creators Worry Porn Platform ManyVids Is Falling Into ‘AI Psychosis’ - Samantha Cole for 404 Media (from January but I feel like is relevant)
Why Crypto is Worse Than a Grift - with Ben McKenzie - Hasan Minhaj
Polymarket Asked To Work With Us. We Exposed Their Scam Instead. - More Perfect Union
Prediction Markets - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The usual 8Tracks and Yap Sesh are below. There are actually quite a few links because this weekend was pretty chaotic, with incidents varying in seriousness. If there’s anything I learned from covering breaking politics news on the weekends earlier this year, it’s that this may be one of the craziest years for weekend news. Anyways, see you on Thursday!
Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Here is a silly (kinda sexy!) mix full of $$$ in the song titles.
In this week’s playlist:
$$$$ - TECHG1RLS
$$$EX - Vanessa Hudgens, YLA
$T LOSER - Slayyyter
$ex Appeal - Baby Keem, Too $hort
PALO $ANTO - Jessie Reyez, Stormzy
$$$ - Gunna, Normani
Long Live A$AP - A$AP Rocky
$wag Princess - MIRRAR
Other things I want to share with you.
So much misinformation spread in the immediate aftermath of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. Even more conspiracy theories have proliferated since it happened, including that Erika Kirk is grifting and that Karoline Leavitt knew ahead of time. This exacerbates the bubbling conspiracies surrounding the 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump spread by his own followers. Here’s a fact-check about everything that went down from PolitFact, which I found personally useful in the confusing wake of this event.
Now they’re rebranding ICE as NICE so that… the media has to call them “nice agents?” Get us out of this timeline, PLEASE!
The Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson breakup is crazy, but the silver lining in all of it is that Megan could feel the love and devotion of her Hotties fanbase. Considering all that she’s been through off and online, the outpouring of unequivocal support for her has been frankly awe-inspiring. And of course, the edits of Klay fumbling on the court are hilarious too. (Some people have even ordered hexes on him.) After all that went down before her Saturday performance on Moulin Rouge, she still went on, breaking down in tears during the curtain call. The strength this woman has is unmatched.
@lesedits44 clay thomas lowlights || had to come out of my editing break for this || #megantheestallion #edit #klaythompson #planb #cheater
Who came up with the “Let Them” theory? People have become increasingly skeptical of Mel Robbins, bestselling author and podcast host. I saw this percolating on smart podcasts like Good Noticings and If Books Could Kill late last year, but now her ideas are being interrogated in The Atlantic.
Have you seen the trend of kids running into the Scientology building in Hollywood and seeing how far they could get? Well, after a slew of viral videos showing people barging into the building and pushing through staffers, the Church of Scientology has allegedly removed the outside door handles to prevent interlopers from coming in. Insane if true!
@vespulas Scientology speedrun reupload 2 #scientology
Speedy Mormon has left Complex after a decade and is taking his show 360 With Speedy independent.
Trisha Paytas was Madeline at Lily Allen’s concert the other day. I fear Trisha Paytas was not meant to be known outside of the internet. “She escaped containment,” as one friend put it this weekend.