No Buy 2025
but Guinness and a trip to a friend's wedding are allowed
Good morning! Ashe on the intro - and I think we have to talk about the shooting of UnitedHealth CEO and Luigi Mangione. Mostly the latter, I guess.
Ever since news of the shooting came out, I have never seen an issue have such little polar reactions (of course, other CEOs were obviously upset). Even Ben Shapiro’s followers weren’t all agreeing with perspective on the issue - which to me was astonishing. The amount of laudation online and communicated willingness to provide an alibi for ‘their hero’ was insane to watch.
And then it was released that Luigi was allegedly the shooter.
The internet broke loose with pictures of him, outlooks into his personal life, capcut edits, and shipping with him the olfactory thesis person. Now, I don’t know how I feel about the focus being shifted onto how much people find him attractive - but I feel like this truly is one of those times you really had to be online to get it.
Discourse emerged surrounding his political views (pieced together by looking at his following and tweets), conspiracy that he’s a patsy (CIA-planted, I’ve read), and of course, his possible dating life. Statements he made during his arrest are being used to share others’ stories about the American health insurance system, and the book ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’ is selling out.
The reaction to the crime is beyond just a showcase of people’s frustrations with current systems in place around the world - it’s also attitudes (regardless of political leaning) regarding authority and actors in systemic oppression becoming more and more publicly negative. 2024 has been a continuous fight for rights - protests are now more common than not. Tiring, it seems, to live through unprecedented times.
NEWS STUFF
ChatGPT was down and people came to realize how dependent they are on it.
Geminid meteor shower will peak the rest of this week - keep an eye out at the night sky from the 12th to 14th!
Google revealed the top searches of 2024: Euro 2024, Liam Payne, Trump and Dubai chocolate made the cut.
Lewis Hamilton had his last race with Mercedes - he moves to Ferrari’s F1 team for the 2025 year. Mercedes released ‘Sir Class’, a G-Wagon to allegedly commemorate Hamilton’s legacy.
Everyone’s bitching about Apple's photos app update, but it can be fixed.
TRENDS
Guinness
Forget tiny martinis and orange natty’s—if there’s one drink Gen Z is breaking sobriety for, it’s Guinness. The stout’s surging popularity has Guinness supplies running low, forcing strict rationing ahead of Christmas in pubs across Britain.
Funny how The New York Times blames Paul Mescal and Sally Rooney for making all things Irish—including Guinness—cool. But putting it into a larger perspective: Guinness has turned into the fboy status drink cuz it aligns with this year’s indie sleaze revival and British old-man aesthetics obsession. A pint just hits different when wearing a waxed Barbour, innit?
Olive Oil story
The trend going viral on TikTok this week features users sharing their cringiest moments in slideshows accompanied by the Pepe the King Prawn meme. It all started with TikToker Megan Chacalos, who recounted showing up to school with her hair wrapped in saran wrap and drenched in an olive oil hair mask - hence the #oliveoilstory.
Beef Tallow Skincare
Our keto, carnivore, caveman diet friends seem to have inspired skincare trends too. Beef tallow keeps being touted as a natural cure to every skincare issue. Dry skin, acne, anti-aging, sun damage.
Now - it’s not new. But the cult following is recruiting more members.
Many are swearing by their homemade beef tallow and manuka honey concoctions. We don’t see what it does that a heavily emollient moisturizer can’t.
No Buy 2025
New Year’s Resolutions are slowly streaming in on the feeds, and a popular movement is the ‘no-buy’. People showcase their ‘rules’ for their purchasing behavior for the year, aiming to reduce their consumption (and expenditure).
Coupled with this year’s ‘project pan’, it’s both a showcase of peoples’ active reduction of consumption - and maybe a sign that there just isn’t that much disposable income available for people anymore.
+ every good ‘no buy’ plan starts with doing an inventory on what you do own, and Emma Chamberlain’s new vid is sparking inspo around under-consuming too
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Destination weddings
We’re half a year out from summer, which, for those who’ve hit a certain age, means wedding invitations are landing in mailboxes. Thanks to the post-COVID thirst for travel, attending these nuptials often involves going abroad as more couples opt for destination weddings. It makes sense—why pick one hometown when you’re already living abroad? Just meet in the middle (or somewhere completely random). Some are thrilled for any excuse to travel, while others—like this The Cut article notes—are rolling their eyes at the extra costs.
On this side of the world (NL), we see locking it up in Italy is a thing. Whatever the destination, the video of guests swirling napkins in the air is inevitable.
“Raw, next question”
The women of the internet are continuing to flip the script on objectification (remember #WomeninMaleFields?). They’re dropping “Raw, next question” under photos and videos of men they’re deeply attracted to. While “Raw” packs layered meanings—from unprotected sex to pure desire—the “next question” means - end of the discussion. Period.
Men Cleaning Homes
Male influencers with the American Psycho aesthetic homes and their Aesop products are showing us how to properly clean and organize homes.
Is this a psy-op to make more men clean their homes?
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The Substance Conspiracies
The movie has surely inspired some of the conspiracy theorists to find celebrities - old and new - that look alike. Some of them eerily so.
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HOPECORE
It all started with actual edits that tried to spread hopeful sentiment - usually as a ‘break’ for doom-scrollers. Now it’s often ironic edits with someone speaking on anything (from drinking habits to hating their life) coupled with mountains and hopeful music.
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