Happiness Is Schadenfreude Re: Kpop Fans Causing Campaigns to Overpromise And Underdeliver In Real Time. And In This TED Talk I Will...
Top of the Monday morning, oh lovely humans! Still haven’t quite woken up yet, so let’s get right to it…
My favorite social media chronicler and yours Taylor Lorenz covered the story that made my weekend: in examining why the much-criticized Trump campaign rally held in Tulsa, OK the day after Juneteenth only attracted 6200 attendees, despite the Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale crowing about the 1M+ ticket requests, it seems as if Gen Zers on Tik Tok and other social media platforms engaged in organized efforts to reserve spots at the rally, with absolutely no intention to show up. And while the actual super low attendance was likely due to coronavirus concerns and listing enthusiasm for the candidate, there’s a delicious schadenfreude looking back on those Parscale tweets knowing that a large portion of those reservations were likely trolling. As has been said a bunch on Twitter about this: the kids are alright.
Supposedly, POTUS is “’furious' about 'underwhelming' crowd at Tulsa rally”, so it would be a shame if you watched and shared the fabulously bitchy Lincoln Project attack ad they created within half a day after the rally. Such a shame if you shared it.
And while we’re all laughing at the idea that a campaign that prides itself on being masters of data and social media got rickrolled by teenagers, let’s remember that during that rally, the President of the United States claimed he pushed to slow down novel coronavirus testing to deflate the infection numbers. Public health officials are claiming that this is what they’ve feared from the start.
PSA: before you decide to download the Trump app (which I’m sure you were just racing to have on your home screen,) MIT Technology Review wants you to know that, in installing the app, you are agreeing to give the Trump campaign access to your phone’s “access to location data, phone identity, and control over the handset’s Bluetooth function.” As they (rightly) point out, the Biden app is also gathering data on its users, but faaaaaaaaaar less of it.
Today, in unsurprising news: on more than one level, the CrossFit founder and CEO is (allegedly) a pretty terrible dude. According to former employees interviewed by the Times, he “verbally demeaned women, pulled at their clothes to try to peek at their cleavage and aimed his phone’s camera to snap photos of their breasts while they traveled with him for work (sometimes pressuring them to consider sharing hotel rooms or borrowed houses with him).” Ooof.
And finally, Patagonia believes that “Workers shouldn’t have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting” and has organized 383 companies who committed to providing ample time for their workers to get to the polls in November. A good move - now it’s time for all of us to take our new expectations of corporate activism and ask what our companies and favorite brands are doing to encourage voting in 2020. (H/t Mum of the Missive)
Be kind to each other, and wash your hands!
xoxo Amy