CATCHING FIRE: The Odyssey scammers, Gen Z protests and Bama Bound girlies
Do keep up!
Hello again! I know I just sent you a letter but I’m bothering you again as I wanted to get the Friday dispatches back on track. Also, my home life is starting to feel a little less shambolic. I know where my bras are now which is a major win for me and anyone with eyes.
I’m hitting send today from my new dining room/office. Even though the table is far too small for a dinner party it makes for the perfect work desk…
Today we’re taking the temperature of:
The lengths some will go to to see The Odyssey as Christopher Nolan intended
Whether going no-contact has gone too far
What Gen Z are doing instead of college
What Bama Rush teens are obsessed with
A wedding dress scandal that’s got TikTokers divided
The latest Gen Alpha beauty brand that comes with a side of nepo
How Gen Z Indians are using memes to fight their government
AI doing something really scary
Paid subscribers get it all, free subscribers get a peek. Let’s jump in…
Going viral
People are faking disabilities to get sold out tickets for 70mm IMAX screenings of The Odyssey… and this guy audaciously chronicled the scam on TikTok…
Everyone’s talking about
Gen Z’s meme-fuelled revolution… Young Indians are pissed about their prospects and using a clever blend of internet humour and physical protest to demand economic change and overhaul the education system.
Young people’s complaints have been bubbling for years but they reached a head in May when the government cancelled more than two million grades from a prestigious exam, known as NEET, after the answers were found circulating online. It coincided with remarks from India’s Chief Justice, Surya Kant, who compared unemployed young people to “cockroaches”.
Furious at the name calling, and the government’s lack of empathy for the almost 40 per cent of young graduates who can’t find work, Boston University student Abhijeet Dipke launched the Cockroach Janta Party, a play on the name of the group that’s ruled India since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
With an intentionally low brow logo and the tongue-in-cheek slogan “Voice of the
lazy and unemployed,” Dipke, 30, captured the mood of India’s youth who are disaffected because of the cost of education, the lack of jobs that provide social mobility and high levels of graduate un or under employment. After setting up an Instagram account for the ‘cockroaches’ more than 22 million followed in just two weeks according to the newsletter Garbage Day.
Fast forward to this week and more than 50,000 young Indians took to the streets of New Delhi to call for the education minister to resign and for an overhaul of the broken system he oversees. After defying police orders banning a planned march the ‘cockroches’ were kettled and tear-gassed leaving dozens injured or hospitalised. The government also shut down the internet.
Undeterred many made lighthearted content about their violent experiences. One reviewed of stench of the tear gas, while another shared their ‘workout’ stats after running from riot police.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi has since promised to punish officials accused of leaking exam papers, likely fearing that one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in years could affect his hopes for re-election. It wasn’t enough for the ‘cockroaches’ though, they claimed it was “a Band-aid”.
Are therapists to blame for the rise of ‘going no-contact’?… A third of estranged parents and a growing number of researchers would say yes, according to a fascinating report in The Wall Street Journal.
Going no-contact has been on the rise for years, with TikTok full of testimonials about cutting off family members, and high profile celebrities like Brooklyn Beckham and Prince Harry acting as very public case studies. It’s estimated that between a quarter and a third of Americans have stopped talking to a relative, and the issue is so common that Oprah Winfrey dedicated an episode of her podcast to it last year.
Now some are concerned that therapists are encouraging family fissures as the definition of abuse expands. Critics argue that therapists only hear one side of a story, that they often affirm their clients’ ideas around estrangement rather than question them and many don’t consider the lasting damage that going no-contact can cause.
The wedding dress drama… TikTok has been gripped by one woman’s nightmare at the hands of a custom wedding dress designer.
