"Holding Space With That..."
Being Luigi-pilled, Mysterious Drones + more from our 2025 vision boards / Issue 74
Hello Angels,
It’s felt a little awkward to write about things the last few weeks and truth be told, we have written and deleted several versions of this 74th edition of IHTEFYW…
What cringe-inducing AI news could possibly be worth summing up for you all, with the loud thud of the election still reverberating?
How do we “hold space with” (hee hee) our multiple, conflicting realities now?
And then to add to the absolute chaos of it all, there was that United Healthcare CEO murder that somehow felt like it deserved an entire newsletter of its own because there was so much to say, so many conflicting realities to honor and so little that the NYTimes and other outlets were actually covering.
All that to say, we are giving it a go again this week and diving back into some web tidbits that will hopefully give you a chuckle or help you remember that kindness and honoring human life is important because it turns out some news actually needs a publicist way more than the toxic narratives that drive the headline machines.
Highlights from our last IHTEFYW of 2024 include:“Fartcoin” has Arrived, The Luigi Mangione News Cycle, How to Opt-Out of AI Facial Recognition While Traveling, The Sheer Stupidity of Coca Cola’s AI Holiday Ad and more.
Most of all, happy holidays and best wishes to everyone in the New Year!! Thank you for reading our little ol’ newsletter (◕‿◕)♡
Krista + Zoe
“Fartcoin” and the “Crypto President”
With Bitcoin and XRP soaring the last few weeks as we lead up to the inauguration, it’s kind of funny to read about a new cryptocurrency called Fartcoin… but what IS Fartcoin? It’s a “meme currency” that has already had more success than dogecoin and shiba inu…
The rise of Fartcoin is, in many ways, the same story as any crypto gains that have been happening lately. Traders are riding a wave that started when Donald Trump was elected. With Trump’s vow to be the “crypto president,” as well as staff appointments that are much more crypto friendly—including Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto enthusiast who will take over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the upcoming resignation of SEC chair Gary Gensler—virtually every cryptocurrency has soared, even memecoins.
Only time will tell if like a real fart, it will leave as quickly as it showed up, but until then let’s all laugh at how stupid our simulation is.
Why being Luigi-Pilled Makes Sense
Speaking of simulations… Despite the MSM prioritizing corporate interests over the voices of the people, it’s really not that hard to understand how so many people have become “Luigi-pilled” the last few weeks after the same Luigi murdered a CEO in the middle of New York City. Let’s look at the absolutely unhinged new media paradigm below:
The New Yorker published THIS article.
Once the alleged murderer was captured at a McDonalds in PA, the NYT published this piece and commenters went OFF with their own personal horror stories dealing with health insurance companies and the system itself.
(after less than 24 hours and 7k comments, NYT Turned off the comments)
MSM outlets initially refused to publish the killer’s manifesto.
(Ken Klippenstein published the full manifesto on Substack)
Many reporters and regular people (including celeb gossip site, fauxmoi) went deep on Luigi’s Good Reads account looking for answers…
NYT published this article - “Objectifying the Accused / What happens when Violent Crimes are overshadowed by appearances?”
NYT sent internal memos asking that everyone not use images of Mangione’s face.
Eddie Huang said this…
Even Mangione’s favorite writer weighed in on how unbelievable this all is
Instead of talking about media literacy, cultural commentator Imani Barbarian makes a succinct point about why we need to talk about the people literacy of the media.
This story is still developing and while everyone agrees that murder is never a good thing, it also seems a majority of regular people from all walks of life and political persuasions are feeling conflicted - as many of us and/or our loved ones have been victimized by the broken healthcare system in our country and the greedy, profit-driven corporations who put profit above human life…
Have a Good Cry
With all the craziness it’s important to look at stories like this one as much as possible: if you haven’t seen the video on social media, an adopted man in Chicago did a DNA test only to find out his bio mom is the owner of his favorite bakery!
Opt-out of Airport Facial Recognition
As we learned recently with Luigi Mangione, NYC and many modern cities are chock full of facial recognition and surveillance opps that seem pretty terrible when you think about our civil liberties… so here’s a handy article detailing how to opt out of facial recognition at the airport while you’re traveling this holiday season!
Don’t: Watch the AI Coca Cola Ad
As you may have heard, Coca Cola used AI to make their cheesy ass holiday ad which is stupid and terrible but if you want to learn more about why without lowering your IQ 10-20 points by watching it, please click here.
Do: Watch The Movie FLOW
Get your ass to the nearest movie theater that’s showing the film FLOW; this animated feature was made entirely with open source software originally intended for video game modeling and follows the incredible journey of an adorable group of animals. Fair warning, there is no dialogue and when you see the film, there will most certainly, not be a dry eyeball in sight.
Beam Us Up?
According to mostly people in New Jersey but also everywhere else, people are spotting a lot of UAPs lately and doesn’t seem like anyone has any good information beyond that.
We’d like to believe these are UAPs from either aliens or interdimensional beings but if so, the real question becomes, why are these entities so heavily concentrated Down the Shore??
Ancient Science in Athens
Due to global warming Athens is hotter than ever and water is becoming more and more scarce so in addition to modern scientific solutions, the city is bringing back an ancient aqueduct that dates back to the Roman Empire. We love a science story that taps into ancient tech!
Blake Lively’s PR Nightmare Explained
Color us naive but turns out some PR firms that do “crisis management” aren’t just putting out statements on behalf of their clients and trying to make things right :-/
Following the Blake Lively / Justin Baldoni drama we saw this week that some “PR” firms are actually hired to generate negative headlines about their clients’ enemies using somewhat untraceable channels via social media… But the tea hath been spilt and texts have been revealed and boy are they badddd. We have absolutely no skin in this game but seeing this unfold is stomach-churning: if Justin Baldoni didn't have anything to hide then why would he put so much time and money into hiring people to slander his co-star in order to feel “safe”? Hmmm.
The Biggest Smallest News Moments
Here’s a handy overview of the biggest “micro news” moments of 2024 - many of which made it into the newsletter already! Let’s pour one out for Raygun, Pommel Horse Guy, Moo Deng, Mob Wife Aesthetic, and so much more.