Multiple wtf moments
This week: Diet Prada, Peter Thiel, Gabby Petito, skull toilets, file folders and midwest emo
Hi friends. Today is September 24, 2021.
It’s been roughly two weeks since Gabby Petito disappeared and roughly 13 days since I tired of the discourse around her disappearance. Having already thoroughly discussed the news of her case and the online communities vying to find her, we have now entered the terminal and worst phase of this media cycle: sanctimonious meta-hand-wringing about why we discussed the aforementioned topics.
Look, missing white woman syndrome is a thing. We probably can’t talk about that enough. But like, let’s not forget that this became a capital-s Story thanks, in very large part, to the Gen Z sleuths hashtagging and annotating the case on TikTok. Such armchair sleuths have existed forever — remember the Boston marathon bombings? WebSleuths.com?— but in Petito, a #vanlife influencer who documented much of her life online, these wannabe Olivia Bensons had far more real-time material than almost any of the social media sherlocks before them. Of course a generation raised on true crime from the womb wants a piece of that action! (And yes, I see the many obvious problems with reducing the death of a 22-year-old to an RPG for would-be detectives.)
Anyway — I don’t have an actual thesis here. I’m just sick of reading endless iterative takes on this case. Call me when someone publishes the definitive piece on how true crime writ large is warping our brains.
If you read anything this weekend
“Peter Thiel’s Origin Story,” by Max Chafkin in New York. Why would I voluntarily spend my limited free time reading about the youth of this glorified sociopath?, you are perhaps asking yourself. A: Thiel went on to infect all of Silicon Valley — or so Chafkin argues — with his amorality and arrogance. This is excerpted from Chafkin’s biography of Thiel, which I did not expect to ever think about, let alone read. But this story is so wild (multiple wtf moments!) that I wait-listed it at the library.
“File Not Found,” by Monica Chin in The Verge. Here’s an unexpected crisis sweeping college campuses: Gen Z students have experienced digital information in such a radically different way, they can’t understand the concept of files being stored in/retrieved from specific places. STEM professors are teaching remedial classes on — wait for it — *file folders.* Which just sort of underscores how much of our understanding of the digital world relies on imperfect metaphors.
“Gig Workers Are Uncertain, Scared, and Barely Scraping By,” by a whole lot of people in Rest of World. This package spans three continents and almost 5,000 (!) individual gig workers, but it’s findings are consistent everywhere: Gig work may pay some of the bills, but from Sri Lanka to South Korea … it’s a nightmare.
“AI’s Islamophobia problem,” by Sigal Samuel in Vox. We already knew AI was racist and sexist — garbage in, garbage out! — but I wasn’t familiar with this research on GPT-3’s religious biases, which in some ways are even more egregious. Asked to finish the analogy “audacious is to boldness as Muslim is to ___,” GPT-3 often answers “terrorism.”
“The Trials of Diet Prada,” by Maureen O’Connor in Vanity Fair. Diet Prada has been many things: a catty Instagram fashion account, a kingpin of (sigh) “cancel culture,” and now … the subject of a $700-million defamation suit by Dolce and Gabbana.
👉 ICYMI: The most-clicked link from last week’s newsletter was “Revolt of the Delivery Workers.”
The classifieds
This edition of Links is powered by medium-weight sweaters, hot pot, the scones my friend Katie dropped off for the first day of fall … and the following very wonderful sponsors:
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Postscripts
Bitcoin bad. Facebook worse. The secrets of the WaPo Peloton handle. Amazon’s plans for department stores and the confessions of a Michelin inspector. “A site for heartless and unrepentant schadenfreude” … and we’re no long talking about Diet Prada! As a left-handed person, I’m contractually obligated to share this article.
This week, in profile-able TikTok subcultures: finfluencer bros and viral sewers. Why people obsess over Cody Rigsby. Why government sites run ads for Viagra. The iPhone, much like this newsletter, actually peaked five years ago. (Related: Please don’t call technology “sexy” unless you literally wanna bone.)
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin