There Are No Girls on the Internet, as a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridgett and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. I'm here with my producer, Mike. Mike, I am so excited to run down the news with you because we have so many good updates in this episode.
Yeah, it's been a busy week, so let's get into a bridget.
And here's what you might have missed this week on the Internet.
But first, if.
You feel like our audio is a little bit off, it is not because one of us has made an error that we will bring up until the day we die. It's because I'm traveling and I am not recording in my normal studio, So hopefully it's not too bad. So back in June, when the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action, we told you about the conservative activist named Edward Blum and the group group might be a little bit of
a misnomer because it's literally just him. It is a group of one called the Erican Alliance for Equal Rights, which really curtails progress in the United States by filing lawsuits. Dude is not even a lawyer. I think I described him as a professional hater in the last episode that
we did about affirmative action. So Blum was behind the legal challenge to affirmative action, both the one led by that white woman who did not get into the University of Texas and the most recent challenge on behalf of both white and Asian students that led to the consideration of race in college admissions being struck down as unconstitutional. His legal challenges also led to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Well high on those big wins, my
man Edward Blum is back after gutting affirmative action. His next move is suing a black venture capital firm called Fearless Fund, because he alleges the Fearless Fund is practicing unlawful racial discrimination. His claim states at the firm is violating Section nineteen eighty one of the Civil Rights Acts of eighteen sixty six, a US law barring racial bias in private contracts, by making only black women eligible in a grant competition. So basically, Fearless Fund was launched in
twenty nineteen by three prominent black women, actress Keisha Knight Pullman. Yes, that Keisha Knight Pullman, who you might recall as Rudy Huxtable from The Cosby Show, entrepreneur arian Simone, and corporate executive Aana Parsons. Now Fearless Fund has a pretty impressive list of investors like Bank of America, Costco, General Mills, MasterCard, JP,
Morgan Chase, and more. The lawsuit centers on Fearless Funds Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards Black women who own small businesses twenty thousand dollars in grants, digital tools to help them grow their businesses and mentorship opportunities provided in
conjunction with MasterCard. Now Blum hater that he is says that because this is a program that is specifically designed to uplift black women business owners, that that means that it is discriminatory against white people and Asian Americans because they're not eligible to be part of this grant program. Now, I have to say, it is so clear to me
what Blum is doing. I think that he is high off of the success that he had in gutting our Voting Rights Act and also gutting affirmative action and really shaping the considerations around race that colleges are giving to people trying to apply. It's not as if black women
business owners are out here being overrepresented. As a black women business owner myself, I can certainly tell you that black entrepreneurs typically receive less than two percent of all VC dollars each year, while companies led by black women receive even less than that. They received even less than one percent, according to data from Crunchbase. So that means that Edward Blum basically saw that ninety nine percent of
VC funding and support is going to white people, white men. Really, I was like, you know what, I'm coming for that last one percent too, that should be ours two.
What a jerk, you know, Like, why why? Why is he doing this?
I just think there are people out there who really have it in their head that they that we need to go back to the way quote the way things were, make America great again. It's a great example of what I mean. And I think it's not just in sort of like these bigger ideas around political issues, but also in just in like who gets support around owning a business,
who gets support in terms of venture capital. I think that that people like Blum have been watching the progress that we have made, progress that I would actually argue has not been particularly fast, Like I would say like incremental slow progress that marginalized people have made in this country, and they're like, no, we need to go back to a time when this was not happening. And the way
that they are doing it is through the courts. It is horrifying to me to hear people talk about this and legitimize this as if it is an illegal challenge genuinely based in you know, just leveling the racial playing field, because it's not. It's obviously not.
Yeah, it's like an argument happening in a vacuum that is separate from the America that we all live in, where racism and sexism and a history of both of those things very much influence what's happening today, and like
who has what resources? The idea that any attempt to balance the playing field is itself racist is get It is just maddening, you know, like the like words fail, it's just maddening and like incorrect and and it'sself racist, right, Like these are these are racist things that he is doing.
Absolutely, And I think using the Affirmative Action and the Voting Rights Act as templates, I think I really see the kind of path that he's trying to argue against, which is that you know, any kind of process or
program that is not race neutral is inherently racist. But what that does, like you, if you look at affirmative action, affirmative action, that case did not strike down legacy admissions to colleges, although there are colleges who are now looking at that thankfully and asking whether or not that is something they want to keep on the books. But you know, programs that have either explicitly or implicitly given a leg up to non black people and people who are not
people of color are marginalized. Those have existed, those continue to exist. And I think that the very clear through line that I see him making is this idea that if anything is for black women specifically, inherently it is racist. And it really argued, it really uses this incorrect attitude that we are all on an equal play in field now, which all you have to do is look at the numbers around who is getting funding in the BC space to see that that's not true.
Right exactly. It's a complete fiction. It's based the whole enterprises based on the fiction that race doesn't matter, and the only way that race matters in America today is affirmative action. Programs that somehow bias things towards black people, which is just so separate from reality. Like you said, you just look at those numbers, look at any any numbers related to median income or mortality, or who starts
businesses or who owns stock like anything. You can see this is not a level playing field.
And I think that we're in this place right now where what you just said just basic reality. We are all supposed to go back to a time where we don't talk about it, where the basic inequities that are built into the experience of being a person of color or a marginalized person in the United States, we are supposed to act like we're all on an equal playing field, that things like racism, sexism, transphobia, all of that as the thing of the past. We're all equal today, even
though it's clearly not true. And so I'm I'm just so tired of this guy. And honestly, if this challenge had come a couple of years earlier, I would be like, oh,
that's gonna get lapped out at the court. But truly, I don't know, right like, he has had some wins at successfully single handedly rolling back progress in our country, and so I do worry because, like, I don't see this specific story getting the kind of attention that I might expect coming after his big win with gutting affirmative Action. And I think that's because even though affirmative action was kind of branded as only helping black people, it actually
statistically helped white people as well white women. And I'm worried that because this move has Blum actually going after something that specifically helps black women, this mentorship and financial grant for black women entrepreneurs, it's not going to get as much attention. And you know, this little thing that we have to support us as black women entrepreneurs is
going to be quietly swept away without much fanfare. As a black woman business owner, a black woman entrepreneur, I can tell you there is not much out there for us. We'll have our little programs. I'm not going to say that I'm not like thankful for what it's out there, because I've definitely been part of entrepreneurship programs and I'm
thankful for those opportunities. I don't want to make it seem like I'm not thankful for them, but there's just not a lot out there for us, and that's why you have to have these kinds of programs, and so yeah, I wish I could say that, oh, this is going to be laughed out of court, but we'll keep an eye on that. We'll keep updating you with how this goes. And yeah, Edward Blum not a good guy. Not not what's what's the opposite of a friend of the show? Enemy of the show?
Yeah, he is not a good guy. And you know, Bridge, I feel like you're selling it a little short, even in that like damning condemnation. But like, you know, having worked with you for a few years now, I've seen you talking with people about deals, you know, getting and just getting what often seems like a more raw deal then someone else might get in that position. You know, like there's there is real discrimination out there in the world of business, and anybody who says otherwise is like
has their head in the sand at best. And yeah, this guy two to try to pretend like, you know, he doesn't see color. It doesn't exist, race doesn't exist. It's it is so tiresome and it is also scary, especially because, like you said, it seems to be working enemy of the show.
Yeah, I think that you're so. First of all, thank you for that it's I could talk all day, it would not be a very interesting podcast. But any business owner entrepreneur out there knows how hard it is. And you go to these meetings and like you you sometimes you're very aware that you're being treated differently and you just have to smile through it. It's like there's no there's no alternative other than just smile through it, keep going. It's not my favorite thing.
Yeah, And one more thing I want to say for our listeners that you won't say, Bridget, but I want to say it. You and I have talked about how one of your superpowers is smiling through it and like being willing to just like take it and keep going. Which yeah, I it is maddening.
I mean, this is like the kind of stuff that nobody likes to listen to on a podcast. But it's it's you're not wrong, and it's just one of those things that like, if you want to build something, like if you want to like really build a legacy and really start a thing, ask anybody who has done it. You have to really eat shit, like I like, you really have to like learn to eat shit, like learn to take stuff on the chin that doesn't feel very good.
I have a whole support system, Mike. You are a part of that support system where when things when I feel like I'm experiencing these kinds of setbacks, where I know how to pump myself back up and like get myself emotionally and mentally where I need to be to keep going. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's easy and to have people like Blum that the small amount of things that we do
have that are meant to support us. And I could talk all day about entrepreneurship programs, half of them are like like the fact that this one has real money, a twenty thousand dollars financial grant involved. Oftentimes it is like, oh, what do you get for this? Just mentorship? You don't get any money, And I'm like, oh, well, that's great. But sometimes what marginalized entrepreneurs need is like a check.
Sometimes sometimes like we're good on mentorship. We have our circle, we have our people, like I have the people that I consider my mentors. I have my circle. Sometimes what we need is money. So the fact that he's going after a program that gives actual money when there are so many more that don't give money just mentorship is really upsetting to me. And I think that, like what he is actually saying is these things should be race neutral.
Things that we know aren't race neutral. Like it's really like playing in our face about something that we all know. We all know that race and gender and identity all of that plays so much into who gets opportunities and who gets to succeed and who gets ahead. And he's playing in our face and saying, no, let's not consider that at all. And what that is actually saying is, let's ensure that it is only white men who get
to get ahead. Let's make sure that when colleges are doing admissions, it is not race they're getting consideration to. It is gender, it is legacy, It is whether or not your father donated a gymnasium, right, And so it is just so clear to me what he is saying.
And yeah, it's just it's it's not like we're it's not like we have so much Like I feel like people like Blum would probably see the progress that movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too have made in the last five or ten years and said, oh, when, like I mean, I do I have to say, like I do think there is a certain popular segment of the population who believes that like, marginalize people get everything in this country, and that like we get into college
for free, we don't we just getting lots of government programs, we get free houses. That is a common that is a common misconception, and I think that what he is doing is playing to that idea that for too long it has been marginalized people who are the powerholders in this country because of the very small gains that we have made in this country. And so yeah, it just it is upsetting. If I sound like I'm taking this a little bit personally, it's because I am. This feels
very personal to me. And yeah, Blum, you are not, I think, first ever explicitly named enemy of the show.
Yeah, let's start keeping a list. You know, he can be at the top.
Yeah, Crooked Media has friends of the Pod. We're gonna be the first, the first podcast out there that has enemies of the Pod a whole written out list. Number one, Edward Blum.
Yeah, I can keep going. But like, maybe we just jumped into this episode. Maybe there's something a little lighter we could talk about, maybe like pornography.
I mean, I guess it depends on the kind of pornography that you watch.
But sure, let's take a quick break at our back.
So we do have an update for all you online porn enthusiasts out there. We told you about the age verification laws rolling out in states like Virginia, Louisiana, Utah, and Arkansas, and here's an update. In Utah, the new law requiring adult websites to verify the age of their users will remain in effect after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from digital privacy advocates and the Free Speech Coalition,
who were trying to challenge the law's constitutionality. Importantly, the judge, Judge Ted Stewart, did not address the group's argument that the law unfairly discriminates against certain kinds of speech, violates the First Amendment rights of porn providers, and intrudes on the privacy of individuals who want to view sexually explicit materials. But he did say that these digital rights groups could not sue Utah officials because of how the law is written.
The law specifically does not direct the state to pursue or prosecute adult websites. Instead, the law gives Utah residents the power to sue adult websites and collect damages if those websites do not take precautions to verify users ages. So basically it's the difference between oh, porn websites get this kind of punishment. What the law actually says is that if porn websites do not actually take steps to verify users' ages, people can sue them and that's how
they'll get damages. So the last time that we talked about this, we also told you about sites like mind geek, but is the parent company of very popular pornography tube sites like red tube and porn Hub. I don't have any day on where most Americans are getting their pornography, but I would be willing to bet that mine geek represents a very big lie in share of where people
who are viewing online pornography are doing the viewing. So mine geek is pulling their sites from states enforcing age verification laws altogether rather than actually trying to go through the process of enforcing these age verifications. They actually did try to start enforcing age verification in Louisiana earlier this year, but the company said that traffic dropped by eighty percent,
So instead of rolling out age verification systems. Mine Geek says they're going to be blocking access entirely to their websites like Pornhub and red Tube, calling on users to contact their state representatives to oppose these laws, and that actually happened in Arkansas this week. Pornhubs operator mind geek has blocked all Arkansas users from the site and also red Tube after the state's new age verification law went
into effect this Tuesday. All of that is to say, if you're planning on looking at pornography online in Arkansas, you might need to make other plans.
Yeah, I mean, it seems like if that's what you're planning to do, it would be smart to make other plans because the site is blocked. But also if your big plan for the weekend is to go to Arkansas and look at pornography, maybe you should think about making some other plans, just like anyway, I don't.
Know, that doesn't sound so bad, Like somebody out there has probably had a big weekend of like watching online pornography in Arkansas. I don't I don't know. There are worse plans, I.
Guess, so, yeah, yeah, it's fair, you know, if that's what people want to do, they should have the right to do that. And I guess that's really the core of this issue, right, Like maybe I have my opinions about the merits of traveling to Arkansas to want to look at porn, but like people should have the right to do it if that's what they want, and some people live there.
Oh, if you saw a lineup for my weekend plans, you would not be judging it is. It is nothing quite as glamorous as watching online porn in Arkansas, I can tell you that. Okay, So, speaking of things being blocked online, we have another update for you, and that is that Meta has officially began blocking news content from
its platforms in Canada. Y'all might remember that we talked about this a few newscasts Togo also major shout outs to listener Sarah Jay from Canada, who I've kind of been calling my Canadian correspondent because she's been really helping me understand this story and all stories happening in Canada. Basically, this block is in response to a new Canadian law called the Online News Act that requires tech platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate with and pay news organizations
to distribute their content. A few months ago, Facebook was going on and on and back and forth kind of threatening to pull news content in Canada if the Online News Act was passed. Y'all might recall they did the same thing in Australia and news content was actually temporary blocked in Australia. And Facebook is actually threatening to do the very same thing here in the United States because of a California bill that would require tech companies to
pay media outlets for posting news content. But that California bill has been put on hold until next year. But back in Canada, Facebook really did make good on their threats and start blocking news content. They wrote in a blog post this week, in order to comply with the Online News Act, we have begun the process of ending news availability in Canada. These changes start today and will be implemented for all people accessing Facebook and Instagram and
Canada over the next few weeks. So what does this actually mean. Well, Facebook said that it means that news links and content posted by news publishers and broadcasters in Canada will no longer be viewable by users in Canada, and this also might be the case for news content
on Google in Canada as well. Because Google is also threatening to pull out up news content altogether in the country if this was past and Mike, what I thought was really wild was this was happening at a time where there was actually a ton of big news in Canada.
Right as is all was happening, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a major overhaul to his cabinet and replaced seven ministers ahead of the country's next election, and also announced a separation of his longtime wife, Sophie after eighteen years of marriage. So that means that as all this news was happening, you had to be like finding other ways other than Facebook or Instagram to get this news.
It actually sounds a little bit silly, but it was a very accurate tweet that I saw from user elmin eighty eight, who really summed it up. When Popcrave, a Twitter account is really known more for tweeting about like Taylor Swift and Doja cat Drama, tweeted about Trudeau's separation, l Main eighty eight tweeted, imagine hearing about this from popcrave first, because Canadian news sites can't be displayed on Instagram, and that user is one hundred percent right. That is
exactly what's going on. I saw people in Canada replying to that tweet being like, yeah, wow, this pop crave tweet is the first I've heard of Trudeau's separation.
Yes, this is a weird sitch.
Yeah, we talked quite a bit about this in the last episode that we did about when when Facebook was first threatening to pull this news content. I don't know, Like, I this is like a little like above my pay grade. I don't like the vibe where Facebook and big tech companies. But really, Facebook get to have this level of control over entire industries. I worked in news media and we really did like when Facebook said it's video, we pivoted to video. When Facebook said, oh, it's links that keep
you on Facebook, we pivoted to that. And so I don't like this idea that Facebook or any big tech company has such a hold over an entire industry and can play such a big part over, you know, shaping that industry.
Yeah, I remember news aggregator sites were like a big concern a while ago, right, Like, what.
Happened with that?
Do they just go away?
Did they?
Did Facebook just become like the news aggregator site?
Yeah, that's a good question. But I think it speaks to how the our news landscape just changes so quickly, and it's like it's like, wait, whatever happened to this or that? And something that my Canadian correspondent in My Head points out is that one of her personal fears is that the Canadian media landscape is right now so overrun with American media that it can be perhaps confusing for Canadians who who do need access to like thoughtful, accurate,
nuanced news sources based in Canada. And I can only imagine that this move from Facebook it's going to make the Canadian media landscape that much more complicated.
It both feels like a pretty huge thing and also it's like hard to know what to say on it, because you know, on one hand, people not being able to get their news from Facebook, part of that actually sounds kind of appealing, like people looking elsewhere for their news, But also it does seem dangerous because people are gonna
be that much less informed. Like a lot of people do get their news from Facebook, and if they stop getting it there there, I guess there's gonna be that much less informed or that space in their cognitive attention that would have been taken up by reading news about what's going on with government or climate or whatever. News is instead going to be taken up by reading things on Facebook that are not news, right, And I guess that kind of makes me hear like, what what isn't
news on Facebook? Is it just Aunt Mary's posts about what's going on in her garden, which, like I am interested in what's going on in her gardens, but like, uh, like what isn't news? You know, how do they how do how do they decide what is news and what isn't.
Well, we do have a little bit of a template for how this might look and how this might go
down with what happened in Australia. We did a whole episode with my friend Tabitha who works with human and digital rights activists in Australia, and when Facebook temporarily blocked news content they're one of the biggest concerns was how marginalized people, how it was going to impact their organizing efforts, and so she saw right away a pretty big impact in how campaigns like human rights campaigners and organizers were or were not able to get their messages out to
spread their causes when this was blocked. We'll throw the episode in the show notes, but it could provide a template for what it might look like now. But as always with these big shifts, my my thinking always goes to marginalize people, like, how will this impact people who have been using online platforms like Instagram and Facebook to create change for their communities.
Yes, that's a great point. Well's yeah, let's stay checked in with that. What else have you got for us? Bridget So let's move.
On to a story that I am really excited about. I have been like reading about it all week. Basically, if you've read the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax, who probably know where I'm going because more than seventy years ago, doctors at John Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lex's cervical cells without her knowledge or consent before she died of cervical cancer. Those cells became the first human cells
to continuously grow and reproduce in lab dishes. Hala cells, as they were called, went on to be a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping, and even the COVID nineteen vaccines that many of us got just recently, but because Henrietta A. Lax is a black woman, she nor her family or her her descendants were ever compensated.
That is until now. That is because a lawyer for her family said that they have finally reached a settlement with the biotechnology company that they say reaped billions of dollars in profit from the racist medical system that essentially
stole Henrietta Laxi's cells without her consent. Henrietta cells were harvested back in nineteen fifty one, and sadly, it was not illegal to take someone's sells without their permission or consent, but lawyers for her family say that the biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific Ink of Waltham, Massachusetts, still continued to commercialize these results long after the origins of her cell line became well known. So basically, they discontinued to profit
off of Henrietta LAX's cells while giving her family nothing. Now, John Hopkins says that they have never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them and made lots and lots of money from it. Now, while her family was not financially compensated until week, they did reach an agreement with the National Institutes of Health back in twenty thirteen that gave them some control of how the DNA code from those cells
were used. Something that really just feels palpably emotional, I guess I'll say, is that all of this happened on what would have been Henrietta Laxe's one hundred and third birthday, and her only surviving child, Lawrence Lack Senior, at age eighty six, finally got to see justice done and finally got to see his family get some compensation for the immeasurable debt that the medical industry owes him and his family.
There couldn't have been a more fitting day for her to have justice, for her family to have relief.
He said.
It was a long fight over seventy years, and Henrietta Lax gets her day. This is sort of a bitter sweet thing for me because I obviously this family deserves some kind of compensation of justice. It doesn't say how much money they got, but I hope it was a lot, because they deserve it. But it's one of those things that the impact of the of the of the money made off of this unethical harvesting of their ancestors cells without her consent or knowledge. It's there's no amount of
money that could that could make that right. There's no amount of money. There's no dollar amount that could write that deep and immeasurable wound that I think this family suffered. You know, if you read the book, you know that while biotechnology companies were making billions of dollars, the Lacks family sometimes went without health care or health insurance because they didn't have money. And all of this time, people
were making so much money off of these cells. I would argue unethically and inappropriately while their family just got nothing. I think this case really highlights the reality of medical racism in the United States.
Yeah, you know, I would like to hear Edward Blooms take on this, you know, like.
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure it's very nuanced. I'm sure it really deals with grapples with our country's complex legacy with race.
Yeah, the story like the stories like this where you know, this woman's cells were harvested without her consent. They were just like taken and used by the medical industry for decades. Uh, that doesn't happen to white people, right, Like racism is real, It's like a real thing. This story is a great reminder to the people who apparently need to be reminded.
I could probably think of somebody who might need a little reminder, and that's Elon Musk.
Really, what's Elon done now?
Well, that's a little a little what's Elon done now? Quickie? Twitter? By the way, I'm refusing to call it X, you'll probably I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Stop trying to make that happen. It's not gonna take with me. I don't think it's taking with people. I saw an Elon Musk tweet that he was like, one day you'll be saying to your friends like, oh, I already paid you the money I loaned you on X or oh I talked to my girlfriend on X and I was like, like, hell,
we will. That's not gonna happen. I'm not doing it. I don't think anybody should do it anyway. I'm not calling it X. But here's what's happening over at Twitter. Twitter just rolled out a pretty telling new feature, and that is allowing Twitter Blue subscribers to manually hide their blue check marks. Gee, I can't imagine why I thought that Twitter Blue. Is this like really cool thing? That
everybody was gonna be really excited to have. Why would you need to have the option to hide the blue check mark that at one point was this like I was told, was this like big online status symbol? Why would you want to be able to hide the check mark? Could it be that maybe paying eight dollars to Elon Musk is so uncool that Twitter has decided that the only way to make it possibly something that somebody would want to opt into is the option to hide it.
They've come so far, so fast.
So that's what Elon Musk is doing now.
More.
After a quick.
Break, let's get right back into it. Okay, Mike, I have a question for you. Okay, sometimes when we're talking, I will make a reference or like use that phrase and you will say, I don't know, I don't know what you're saying, Like what are you saying? This is
the this is the it happens frequently. It is it is the It's what happens when you make a tech podcast where one person is chronically online and the other is chronically offline, but like a deep tech person where I'm like, oh, you know, blah blah blah, and You're like, I don't know what these words are. What are you saying? Have you heard the phrase milkshake duck? Does this mean anything to you? Milkshake duck.
I wish I could say I have, but I have to admit that the word, the phrase milkshake duck, means nothing to me. But I am intrigued. I want to know.
So a milkshake duck, I think it comes from a comic. Milkshake duck is when somebody, somebody or something is like a positive phenomenon in the news and then everybody's like, oh, we love this. So the comic is like a duck that drinks milkshakes and everybody's like, Oh, that's so cute. This duck drinks milkshakes, and then screen flips and it's
I regret to report milkshake duck is racist. It's basically this idea that when people get popular in culture and everybody's like, oh, that's delightful, usually it's not too long until like something unseemly comes out and you're like, oh, that's less delightful. I wish I didn't know that, so new milkshake duck just dropped. I take no pleasure in reporting this, and really it's just kind of a PSA
for all my TikTok earlies out there. So if you spend any time scrolling TikTok, you've probably seen the attention Pickpocket Lady. She's this woman in Italy who goes to like crowded tourists outdoor locations and vocally warns people about pickpocket. She says at big pocket, thief, thief. She kind of became an icon. I like definitely saw those videos and was like, oh, look at this haha. The New York Times today they're glowing profile of this woman. Her name
is Monica Poli. She's fifty seven. I read the New York Times profile because I did, like, I saw the pickpocket chant on TikTok at that time. Do you remember that time where the where my cat was trying to eat food off of my plate when we were eating dinner, and I was like a thief, thief, pickpocket, Like it became a thing in my life.
Yeah, you were really into this lady. I remember that, and I watched the videos she Yeah, I was into her. You know, everybody hates a thief. I hate a thief, You hate a thief, and yeah, she was really taking a stand against them.
Well, I am so sorry to report that the New York Times profile of this woman that was very glowing failed to point out her affiliation with the far right group, the Lega Party of Venice. This is from Eurews quote. The Lega Party, formerly known as the Lega Nord Northern League, is one of Italy's most far right political parties. The foundation of the party is largely based on policies that
are anti immigrant, anti Southern Italian, and anti LGBTQ. One of the most outspoken Lega politicians was Jean Carlo Gentalini, the two time mayor of Trevisio in the northern Vinto region. Gentlini was famous for saying that he wanted to perpetrate a quote ethnic cleansing of butt lovers referring to gay people, as well as advocating to dress up migrants as rabbits
in order to hunt them down and shoot them. And honestly, this is like a weird situation where like with this new clarity, I look back on those videos and I'm like, oh, of course they were racists, Like you know what I mean, Like, you know, her loud accusations of people being pickpockets just comes into such Sharper Focus. In the New York Times profile, she says that she like they ask her like, how do you tell who's a pickpocket? And she's like, oh, I can just tell. I have a sixth sense with
these people. And as Twitter user Civo Mengro put it, just so we're all clear, this has always always been a campaign of racist harassment against Roma. Her I just know, is just racism. You have to understand that pickpocket is the number one stereotype of Roma in Europe, and this is about removing Roma from public spaces. And honestly, like, looking back at this, I'm like, oh my god, how
did I not see this? And it really makes you see how social media makes this kind of thing like digestible or even charming, because when you go back and look at her videos, you see actual pickpockets, right, Like you don't see actual evidence of people you're like, oh
that's a pickpocket. You just see her. You just hear her screaming and see people running away, right, And so it is really wild how this behavior when you look at it with fresh eyes, you're like, oh wait, obviously this was always about you know, harassing and targeting minoritize people.
Is such an interesting story because exactly like you said, in hindsight, obviously it's racist, but we all wanted to believe it was true, and so we did.
Yeah. I when I saw this, I was like, damn, we can't have anything. We can't have nothing like this gave me a tiny bit of joy. And now I'm like, oh, now I feel complicit in this woman. This like far right. This far right woman's active racism. Cool.
Yeah, that's like the new the new thing for spotting disinformation. Right used to be like if it makes you feel like a really strong, visceral emotional reaction, uh, just stop before you share it because maybe it's disinformation. But like now it's just like if you feel anything.
I've been waiting to feel something for years, Mike. No, I know. And something that you said I think really is important to highlight is that everybody hates a thief. I have been pickpocket I have been near pickpocketed in Europe. I was able to stop the pickpocketing in progress, and like that's a whole other story, but nobody likes a thief, and I think.
No, no, no, we need to tell that story. We need Okay, Bridget, how did you stop the pickpocket who attempted to pickpocket you in Europe, the real pickpocket.
So first of all, I was like pretty drunk, so I was already made. I was already making some like Paris mistakes. I was drunk. I had my phone just in my back pocket as opposed to like someplace where someone can't easily take it, and a group of very young people surrounded me, and one of them just like I obviously just like felt I'm taking out of my pocket and what I did. I don't recommend this, like
this just happened to work out for me. I am not suggesting this is what somebody should do, but like, I'm not gonna let somebody take my fucking phone. So I just grabbed the smallest one, who was like a child right like he was like very small. I just grabbed the smallest one and just started screaming at him. I was like, if I can just like make it clear that I am a huge nuisance, I'm not going away.
I'm not going to like cry or like like I'm I'm going to like make this a big annoying pain, and I'm not gonna let go of your tiniest member here. I just grabbed him just started screaming and eventually they literally just like were like here, fine, okay, and like gave me the phone and could not get away from me fast enough. Like they were like sorry that They were like we we we regret this transaction. Let's leave.
They tried to steal the phone from the wrong drunk girl.
Honestly, this is something I mean, again, I'm not saying that, like I'm not endorsing this as a as a strategy, but something that my mom always told me about saying say is like make yourself seem not worth the trouble, Like, oh, this person is really loud and behaving really crazy, and you know what, I would actually like to get away from her. Now that was in my drunk mind. That was what I did, and it actually worked out, worked
out effectively. But that's the thing though, It's like we've all probably had instances where we've been scammed or pickpocketed or stolen from and nobody likes that, and so I think it's such an It really highlights what an effective strategy this is. Tapping into that collective disdain being stolen from and using that totally understandable emotional like trigger to connect to demonizing and harassing a minoritize people in Europe right like that. It's it's so it's so insidious but
also so effective. Because I'm somebody who works on this kind of stuff for a living, I like make a habit of trying to train myself to, you know, watching out for these tensions and these triggers. But this one got me, right. It's it's just such a relatable sentiment of like, yeah, I don't like thieves. But what she's what it actually sounds like she's saying, is like I don't like roma people. I'm going to scream at them
and harass them. And also I'm going to be part of this far right party that makes the lives of marginalized people in Europe.
Hell, yeah, that's the story here. The story isn't her. The story is us that we were all so ready and willing to you just take her at face value, that she was calling out pickpockets, that she had some sort of like magical ability to identify them and was just gonna like yell about them and blow up their spot so that they couldn't pick the pockets. Yeah, it's on us.
I mean even the New York Times, like the New York Times profile notably did not mention her affiliation with this group, right, and so like pretty glaring omission to be like, oh, what a what a charming profile of this like folk hero. Like I think I used the phrase when I was telling you about her. I think
I used the phrase Italian folk hero. And it's like, yeah, this is actually like relevant information to this folk hero, just like you know person we're all elevating is that she's associated with this like far right hate campaign.
You know, I think she had things going in her favor, that she's she's like an older woman kind of seems like a grandma, but still like full of energy.
Uh.
And being Italian for at least for us here in America, you know, it's a little bit exotic, and so there's like some otherness there, and so maybe we were just like not as on guard as we might be for like a white lady who was screaming at like the Giant downtown here in BC. Uh and Giant being a mid Atlantic grocery store, not like a literal giant.
Fer you might know it as if depending on where you're listening, you might know it as Martin they're listening down south.
Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, another sad story and this news round up.
I know, I mean I I I wanted to include this. I mean, it's a little bit of a different story for us. I wanted to include it because, Yeah, I just think like it was a reminder to me to stay vigilant that we often talk about intense negative emotions being that the trigger point or the emotional flashpoint that gets us to share racialized disinformation or content that is that is really rooted in ugly stereotypes about marginalized people.
But I think like this is really tapping into something else, like it's it's it's it's like comedy and Catharsis, you know, mixed it's. It's really like a really interesting case study in what moves people. Because these videos went super viral and got millions of eyeballs, And I wonder if all those millions of eyeballs, how many of them knew they were engaging with content from a far right, anti immigrant, anti lgbtqu person. I didn't, so it's got to be
got to be more people out there that didn't. So that's why I wanted to include it. Okay, I have one more story, just really quickly, so I just found this really funny, not like in a haha way so much as in like a like wow, wealthy CEOs just have no idea way. So we all know that ride shares like Uber and Live have gotten ridiculously expensive, Like gone are the days where you can get from point A to point B for like five dollars. Those were the heydays. Those days are over. So if you are
somebody who takes ride shares, you probably know this. Wired's editor at large, Stephen Levy, was doing an in person interview with the CEO of Uber, Dara Kushrashi, and Stephen Levy took a two point nine to five mile Uber ride from downtown New York City to the West Side
to meet him. So honestly, it sounds like Steven Levy must have been salty about the price of that ride, like it must have chopped his ass, because in the interview he asked Uber CEO kush Rashi to guess how much it costs, and the Uber CEO was like, oh, I don't know, like twenty dollars, classic like arrested development, Like it's one Uber ride, Michael, how much could it cost? Twenty dollars? So Stephen Levy was like, no, it was actually fifty one dollars and sixty nine cents including a
tip for the driver. So uber ceo his response is like says, oh my god, wow, but it gets worse. It's that's not the worst of it. Levy says that at first he tried to book an Uber to get to the interview and the price was twenty dollars higher. Kosh Rashi tried to say that it was like surge pricing, like maybe something else was going on, but Levy just
like straight up was not having it. He was not letting him get away with this, which I love because he said it's ten am on a sunny weekday and it's not like the presidents in town, which I love that response, like this cost this must have chopped his ass how much this ride costs? So if you use ride share, you know the prices have been outrageous lately. Uber has promised that by September their prices are going to go back down. I don't know. Uber says a
lot of things. Tech companies say a lot of things. We'll let you know. Recouton Intelligence, which is part of Nielsen, found that the cost of ride shares actually increased by ninety two percent from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one.
Uber CEO then tried to say, like, oh, well, it's just inflation and that most of the money that you're charged actually goes to the driver, which would be great if that were actually true, because the UCLA Labor Center found that from February twenty nineteen to April twenty twenty two, the median passenger fare for Uber and Lyft in New York City increased by fifty percent, while median driver pay increased by only thirty one percent. So likely story Uber,
I don't know. I love this story because one I think that Stephen Levy was pissed about how expensive that ride was, and I can definitely relate. I don't take Uber and Lyft. I try not to take Uber and Lyft too much unless I have to. But we've all had that experience where you're like, oh, I'll just take an Uber and then you look and you're like, well, I'm already late and I need to get in this. I need to get where I'm going, so like, I guess I'll spend fifty dollars. I have had that experience.
It sounds like Steven was not happy about that experience, And despite being like a pretty small story, I think it's worth paying attention to because I I just think that CEOs just have no idea what life is like for the rest of us. I think that like people who are wealthy billionaires, people who make a ton of money, people who own these companies that we all use that impact our lives so much, I just think they have
no idea. I don't think that he had any sense of how much it would cost to just go less than three miles. I was watching this really interesting episode of the Betches podcast with Alana Glazer from broad City, and they were talking about the SAG and WGA strikes.
These billionaires do not move their bodies among people. They do not travel next to people, they do not sweat near other people. They literally don't understand what's happening. And I'm pissed, I'm angry, but I'm like, actually, they're they're weak minded. They truly thought that they could write off actors. You thought you could write off Meryl Street, bitch. You thought you could write off Jason Bourne. He left his press dog. And these billionaires want to go to space.
Go Yeah, And I think that the CEO of Uber really having no idea how much it costs to drive three miles on the platform that he is the CEO of is a really good example of exactly what she's talking about.
Yeah, I just googled his salary. Why don't you take a guess what it is?
Oh my god, his yearly salary. Yeah, I couldn't even guess. Wait, let me let me let me think about this.
Okay, you can think about it. We'll just keep the listeners on the line while you think about it.
I feel like I'm going to say something that is so like. That's the thing. The reason why it's hard is because like I can't even conceptualize it. Like I feel like I'm going to say something that is like so wrong.
Yeah.
Five, Well, it's just five billion dollars a year.
To empathize a little bit. That's exactly the process that he's going through. And he tries to think what the price of like a three mile ride across Manhattan is going to be.
It's one ceo salary, Michael, what can it cost ten million dollars? Is it ten million dollars a year? That's my guess.
Twenty four million dollars are you kidding.
I mean, doesn't that really? Doesn't that really say at all? Me trying to guess his salary is the same as him trying to guess how much it costs to drive less than three miles in New York City. What else is there to say?
Neither do you have any idea?
That's what I guess.
That's what I'm saying. Is that like him trying to hit at the head of Uber or Netflix or Disney, trying to get into the head and really imagine what it will be like for the rest of us to live, and what the rest of US's priorities are, and what the rest of our lives look like. It's it's it's just impossible. And I guess I guess it goes the other way too. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have that salary, but a fraction of that salary I couldn't imagine.
Yeah, I guess it's uh, you know, it's pretty equal. You're both confused.
I feel like this episode has been a lot of me complaining about money, which I hope is not I mean, it is what it is. I don't really have a lot.
Of you know, it's not like Edward Bloom was suing uh because he felt like he wasn't receiving the mentorship that he was owed yet, right, Like money's the thing.
Yeah, I like he should sue the programs that only offer mentorship with no financial compensation. I would actually be fine with that. Go ahead and sue them.
Yeah, Like he demands equal access to show up to a couple of Zoom meetings and like write some essays and receive mentorship.
If he can, go ahead and have it. Mike, thank you so much for running down these stories with me.
As always, thanks for having me here. It was a fun one, even though kind of a downer. I hope people stuck with us because it got kind of funny towards the end.
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