£29bn of oil, £336bn of damage + Cat in the Hat stalkers
deal or no deal? I didn’t want to read about it, you don’t want to read about it, but it’s the biggest news of the week. So let’s bathe in existential dread together. Doomscrolling is all 2000-and-late, but occasionally we have to bear witness. Climate change is among the sorest of...
Current in The Common Thred
looksmaxxing wasn’t so toxic? + doing better for kid stars
When did ‘we’re gonna make it, brah’ become ‘you’re chopped’? This isn’t what Zyzz wanted for us. There are certain historical figures whose importance only becomes apparent years after their death. Van Gogh. Kafka. That bloke from the ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ video. I’m throwing Aziz Shavershian, known to everyone other than his...
social change comedown + gen z go mute
right here, right now! or whenever… I ain’t gluing myself to Oxford Street or throwing orange paint at the Lamborghini dealership. I’ve got bills to pay. Remember in the late 2010s when Gen Z was synonymous with social change, a broad catch-all term encapsulating the desire for a more equitable and...
gen z scale back socialising + ariana grande quits public life
thank u, next If your weekend plans involve anything more expensive than a stroll around a National Trust park, chances are your Gen Z chums will mentally run the numbers the second you pop up in the group chat. ‘Will I still be a reasonable level of skint come Monday?’ Given...
‘uk poo’ hits socials + earnest isn’t entertaining
the sun goes down, my zoot comes up I have frankly no cause to spend the amount of time I do on Twitter (not calling it X). It feels like overegging the pudding to call it a guilty ‘pleasure’, but it somehow remains my social app of choice. This week, however,...
odyssey’s anti-woke boycott fails + pokémon traders get strapped
nolan is too goated to ‘go broke’ This ain’t no little live-action Disney remake. It’s Christopher Nolan. In the least surprising turn of events this summer, the masses flocked to see The Odyssey on opening weekend across the globe. The movie already boasts a 95% critic score and a 97% user score on Rotten...
gen z’s luddite uprising + zero chill bison
delete the apps, rebuke the horniness, move back home The so-called ‘digital natives’ are biting the hand that fed them, because it fed them mostly FOMO, insecurity, and addiction. Chat about AI is everywhere in the mainstream, but if you broach the topic on any campus other than MIT, it’s likely you’ll be met with the blank stares of hungover folks who wish you’d shut the f*ck up. Between rinsing the market...
trump’s world cup karma + gen z hates your name
‘overturn this’ The rest of the world is on their feet for Belgium and the poetic justice they doled out last night. The Red Devils may not be a patch on their golden generation of prime Hazards, Mertens, and De Bruynes from the 2010s, but they had all the smoke for the host nation anyway. Clearly amped up by the political shenanigans leading up to the tie, they strolled to an easy...
viral Vinted allegations + Merlin the World Cup duck
I just want to buy some secondhand clothes, blud Everyone knows that Gen Z loves an upsell. Any thrifted items, secondhand seasonal wear, or funky footwear can find a good home… for the right price and on a decent platform, of course. This explains the rise (and rise) of Vinted, the Lithuanian-based peer-to-peer marketplace that allows users to buy, sell, and swap their personal belongings. Last year, the company announced it...
Gen Z rejoining the EU + TikTok nuns are blowing up
we’re going viral, sister If you’re an older Gen Zer like myself (I’m a borderline millennial, I’ll be honest), you may remember the absolute shock of the Brexit vote way back in 2016. We live in an era of constant political upset these days, what with Keir Starmer being booted from office this week, Donald Trump continuing to baffle overseas, and ex-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau constantly making tabloid headlines for...
