What Whitney Wants To Say No.27

We’re halfway through the year and what can I say. It’s been the best of times and the worst of times. The world ends a little more each day but I’m still outside. I also live alone now so I am forced to confront myself everyday. A lot of “big question” asking which has been painfully annoying. I also went to an open mic to scope out the scene and determine if I can return to comedy or not. The answer is yes but it’ll take work. Like I’m gonna have to write jokes down. Also painfully annoying.

There are so many creators that I like. For many of the ones I don’t like, I at least respect them. Creating, whether it be on TikTok, Youtube, or even Substack, is difficult. It takes a lot dedication and talent to do it consistently on any level. So, it isn’t hard for me to offer that respect to my brothers and sisters in stress. That being said, when it comes to listening to the takes people have on Love Island, I find that I cannot be consistent in my worldview. I cannot respect you all. In fact for a few of my favorite YouTubers in particular, the more I listen to y’all speak about Love Island the more I want to unsubscribe and delete my whole account.

So I’m bowing out. Thankfully, I’m not as invested as I could be and I realized, I’d rather not lose some of my favorite background noise over a bunch of 20 somethings making out in front of neon signs. I’m overly good on that. Plus you can never get me to whack a 23-year-old black girl no matter what she does so I cannot be objective about any of this and that worries me. I’ll be okay though. We’re halfway through this season of The Vampire Lestat and that’s enough relationship mess for me.

It’s not enough for people to be broke. They have to be actively bankrupted with no way out. That is what Kalshi and all of these cryptocasinos promise: unescapable, suffocating debt. And to top it all off, no celebrity or icon is above taking their blood money to push it on us. I literally just saw a Kalshi ad featuring legendary footballer Luka Modrić. Now he knows damn well he doesn’t need the money and yet, here we are. How are you selling out as a multi-millionaire? I can’t even begin to describe my disgust. Sports-betting was illegal in this country for a reason. Gambling is among the worst addictions you can have because of just how rapidly and total the damage is. We also have the evidence to back this up. In the years since it was legalized in the United States, bankruptcies are up 25-30% in the United States, with more people taking out debt consolidation loans and defaulting on others (https://aibm.org/research/how-sports-betting-can-harm-young-men/). This especially harms the young men i.e. the targets of all of the majority of these ads. Y’all, please don’t sports-bet. Delete those apps. It isn’t worth it. There are so many other ways this country separates you from your money. Don’t add another one.

I’m watching the world cup obsessively. I want everyone African to win. FIFA doesn’t. Some of these “calls” are evidence of that. Normally I don’t even watch the leagues. I find the European racism particular smarmy and it ruins the experience for me. I’d rather stick to the rivers and lakes that I’m used to. But I’m rooting for the continental teams. Normally I’d just root for everyone black but I can’t support every single team now can I? Also I’m always tickled when I remember how sorry these European teams would be without the Black players they hurl abuse at after losses. It’s really quite funny. Anyway I’ve been thinking about racism a lot. But not in a systemic way and not from a particular analytical standpoint. No, I’ve been thinking of how racism impacts my everyday. The small interactions I force myself not to read into. That invisible wall I bump into that separates me from the experiences I know I deserve. Who knew the world cup would bring this out of me?

Is it really a heatwave if this is our baseline? Think back, it’s just barely July. Do you remember any 100+ degree WEEKS from your childhood? And multiple before the 4th? Because I sure don’t. We are seeing the effects of our blatant disregard for our planet play out in real time. I knew this was coming but a lot of my schooling led me to believe this was still a ways off (for reference I has a B.S. in Environmental Science). Like 2040s at the soonest. We are so unprepared. It’s going to be 104 degrees on Friday but feel like 114. What do you even do with that?

DRC should be incredibly proud of how they played. Next time I hope they slide FIFA some money so that they can go through like they deserve. Anyway check out some of my other work below:

The Best Show on TV

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Jun 15

I realized that when it comes to TV, I have an internal rubric I judge every show based on. This rubric has nothing to do with the acting or the plot or even the music. No, it is entirely based on how cunty the cuntiest man on the show is. If a show has none, I can almost promise you that I will drop it at some point.