#gen-z

Obviously there's a cult of personality thing happening right now but anytime the cult leader gives up the ghost, there's gonna be a power vacuum that doesn't get filled the same way. And then the country changes, be it broken up or stops existing.

Right now, this world would be completely unrecognizable to my baba and jeda (my jeda died I believe in 2001, and my baba 3 years prior) if they just came back to life right now. But with how tumultuous this is becoming, be prepared for things to be unrecognizable 10 years from now maximum.

When the gross bag of cheetohs finally expires, a power vacuum will occur, and nobody within his merry band of dipshits is gonna be able to adequately fill it. Whatever happens, their reign also won't last as long. But things are going to keep radically changing. Nothing will ever go back to any normal we've ever known; not 80s normal, not 90s normal, not the 00s or the 10s. There will be no going back as by this point, everybody on all sides will have already shown their true colors---who they really are.

This is not limited to just citizens. I'm talking people in any position of significant power that directly affects this country. And that's the thing here: there won't be a United States of America anymore. Once the cheetoh expires, there is going to be a countdown clock that nobody can read the numbers on. I've got this feeling like if the US is gonna stay in existence, it won't be all 50 states.

I don't know how this will all go down, I don't know if a new country or several develops, I don't know if some states will want to join other countries, I don't even know how this is going to look be it voluntary, civil war, or some sort of foreign invasion. But what I can tell you is to prepare... almost like it could be the end of the world, simply because we don't know how this country dissolving is going to even look like. (I'm not saying there's going to be an apocalypse. I'm saying look at how other countries used to exist, like Yugoslavia, and just prepare for maybe something like that.)

My big concern is climate change. We're already woefully far more unprepared than we were before this regime came to be. This country dissolving could also dissolve organizations or make funding unavailable for organizations that do things like keeping you up to date on the weather and sending out severe weather alerts. Infrastructure could even be jeopardized. Who knows what the mailing system might look like. Shit like that.

While it's a good idea to come up with an escape plan, it's also just as important to come up with a lockdown plan (I don't know what other term to use as I type this, sorry). I mean don't just prepare to escape. Prepare to also stay. Where you may escape to might not be the best option shortly after. This is going to completely depend on your situation.

I also have to emphasize this right now: START LEARNING ABOUT RADIOS. Granted, it costs a lot of money to have the equipment to become a ham radio operator, but at least get your hands on a decent shortwave radio and learn how to use it! Get CB radio! Learn all you can about radio! Aside from needing to power it (through electricity or batteries), it doesn't require any infrastructure! Radio tech doesn't give a fuck about country borders. AND GET YOURSELF A WEATHER RADIO RIGHT NOW because cell phone alerts aren't always reliable if you lack signal/service and/or internet! Midland is a reliable brand, and I have one that helped me big time when the derecho hit us back in May. (They send out a tornado warning, because derechos are about as powerful as an EF2 or EF3 tornado.)

Oh, and whatever you use your phone for that you can use the real version of (such as a flashlight), start getting into the habit of that. If something happens to your phone, there goes your flashlight, your period tracker, your cash, your photos, an address book, a radio, a map (or several), reference guides to plants and wildlife, etc. You all ought to start acting like cellphones won't or never existed because all of our modern tech from the big brands are designed to malfunction at a certain point so you have to buy the newest and latest one. Plus cell towers might malfunction or something (or even be sabotaged if this country splits into more than one), so it's best to have a backup.

Yes, I'm essentially telling you to get into some prepper stuff. But you can do it without seeming like some tinfoil hat wearing r*ght-w*nger. Each time you think shit can't get any worse or crazier, it does.

This feeling that the US won't be the US anymore on a map soon will not leave me alone. I hope that whoever reads this takes my words seriously just in case it does. The requests I'm making for people to do aren't too unrealistic for most. Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha likely know some Millennials, Xennials, and Gen-X'ers that could help them out with the old tech/no tech concept. Embrace analog tech! It could be very useful soon!

''They're both so baby girl,’ the caption on a TikTok video of Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott nearing 200,000 likes reads.

The 23-second clip features both men on the All Of Us Strangers press tour, wherein they dissect the modern cultural lexicon of Generation Z, such as ‘girl dinner,’ and ‘Roman Empire’.

"Paul Mescal is my Roman Empire," Scott says as his co-star laughs coyly. From six seconds in, the conversation pivots to ‘baby girl,’ a term of endearment popularised by TikTok culture, defined by Rolling Stone as: "A man who is very cutesy in a slightly submissive way"...

Both men laugh at the concept, before Mescal, in a cropped cardigan, relays to Scott that it means 'cute'. Scott replies: "Do you think I’m mommy in real life?"

The term’s usage, and indeed both Mescal and Scott’s gentle appreciation of same, are indicative of the pivot Irish men in the public arena have taken towards the hottest trend of the 21st century––femininity. Some would argue that this is nothing new.

From Bowie to Beckham to Rodman to Cobain, men in the public eye have regularly resisted the trappings of toxic masculinity, opting instead to openly play with gender by way of frothy hemlines or pastel linens. But never before has this sartorial and cultural androgyny felt accessible to Irish men, a breed whose actors were generally relegated to rugged, insensitive, and often boorish roles.

Now that they are––or at least now that Irish men have modern effeminate men to model themselves on––it begs the question for us all: have Irish men embraced femininity? And if so, why has it taken so long?

Irish actors have long made significant contributions to Hollywood, from Maureen O’Hara to Brendan Gleeson to Saoirse Ronan to Cillian Murphy. However, for the longest time, male Irish actors were largely cast in rugged, Martin McDonagh-adjacent roles...

Today, it seems another shift is afoot: that Irish men––with the bashful modesty we're unused to with movie stars, and their tendency towards the mysterious (neither Scott, Mescal nor Murphy have public social media accounts)––are approachable, desirable and sensitive enough to be considered leading men...

...Generation Z have made efforts to disassemble toxic masculinity. By celebrating men who lean into qualities typically associated with women––sensitivity, empathy, care, kindness––those presently younger than 30 years of age caused the hypermasculinity wave that reigned in the early 2020s to fall flat...

With hypermasculinity no longer being presented as a plus, the desire to be around a man whose greatest strength is his personality grew in popularity...

While this still can't be said for every Irish man, the fact that some of our most popular stars have stepped away from traditional masculine marketing is a comforting, hopeful sign. As such, a welcome positive masculinity is born. (Indeed, as I type this in a Dublin café, two teenage boys with grey tracksuits and pearl necklaces just stepped into frame.)

Enter, Hollywood. A bonafide dream factory intent on giving the people what they want. Which, if any magazine photoshoot with Irish actors of late will tell you, it’s Paul Mescal in thigh-high boots, Barry Keoghan in woman’s tailoring, Cillian Murphy in silk neckties, or indeed any well-known Irish man in the trappings of a 19th-century dandy...

The good thing is, however, that walls have been broken with this new movement, and Irish men––or indeed, any man––can finally feel free enough to explore themselves through art, fashion or laughter-filled conversation about TikTok terminology.

Anyways it was on the detriments of social media and how it effects the media teenagers consume (ironic ik).

But in doing this I quoted Olivia Rodrigo, Elon Musk, & I talked at nauseam about Taylor Swift and the Olivia Rodrigo/Sabrina Carpenter incident.

And IN FRONT OF LIKE 20 FULLY GROWN ADULTS I babbled for like 7-10 minutes on this topic, having not wrote my essay that was due like that week. And when I went to present the essay THE FIRST TIME, I downloaded the wrong PowerPoint.