The Way We Live Now: Unregulated. No man, god, country or law shall hold us back from our vast material ambitions! What matters is not that no one has any money; what matters is that our malevolent…
Tag Archives: trendwatch
The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations Makes Life so Much Easier [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: Up to expectations. We see the expectations, and we fulfill them, “being all that we can be,” we tell ourselves, while in fact wallowing in the sordid, muddy, lowness. Of…
Survival Is the American Dream [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: coming to terms with hopelessness. No use being hoity-toity any more! Our neighborhoods are slums, we live off food stamps, and we work in restaurants. We must accept that we are…
A Cheapskate’s Valentine [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: doing anything for love. By “anything,” we mean “anything worth less than $50,” and by “$50,” we mean “assuming we can steal that much from our fellow poor suckers for…
American Optimagicians Will Triumph [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: Optimagically. We choose to believe that good times are ahead despite plain evidence to the contrary. As long as someone somewhere can bail someone else out, it’s luxury condos…
How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Fake Trend Story [Trendwatch]
We all know that New York Times fake trend stories are annoying because they are 1) fake, and 2) trend stories. But do not neglect their third worst quality: many are terribly written. Allow us to…
The Perils of Technology, Vol. 187 [Wtf]
Murdering someone and then using her phone to send text messages to her family saying she is tied up in a basement somewhere in an attempt to throw investigators off track: something that we…
Don’t Blame the Rich, or Golfers, or Rich Golfers [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: Blaming the victim. People, stop! It’s crazy! We know you’re angry about your unemployment and poverty and endless coupon-clipping. But golf-happy bankers are not the…
College: Now Free With Purchase of High School [Trendwatch]
Disturbing trend: Non-rich kids are being allowed to get college credit while still in high school—an activity previously reserved for hoity-toits in AP classes. Wealthies, if it’s any…
Nuts [Recessionomics]
The Way We Live Now: Unfulfilled. We can’t enjoy our bonus check. We can’t scam others. We’re finally building casinos when nobody has the money to gamble. Worst of all, we may never know the taste…