Gen Z, ICE, the CIA, JFK, SWAT, and other acronyms
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.t
'I Thought I Was Going to Be Someone': How Gen Z Became a Generation of Rejects
Through the 1960s, most Americans got married in their early 20s to partners they met through their social circles. Today, they spend nearly a decade longer dating; the median age for first marriage is 31.1 for men and 29.2 for women.
During that additional eon, they're also equipped with an arsenal of apps that can summon — and terminate — new prospects on a daily, if not hourly, basis. If we tallied up the literal sum of all the unreciprocated swipes, DMs, follows, or texts that create today's ambient mode of romantic rejection, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that a typical Zoomer on the apps is getting rejected by, and rejecting, more prospective partners in a week than a typical married boomer has in their entire life.
The paradox of online dating has been thoroughly documented: Despite having more access to potential partners than ever, young people have invented vocabularies to describe the endless purgatorial disappointments of "ghosting," "situationships," "breadcrumbing," and the hellscape of the apps themselves.
Last year, Hinge surveyed 15,000 people about their dating views. Ninety percent of Gen Z respondents said they wanted to find love, and 44% said they had little or no dating experience.
I’m the Canadian Who Was Detained by ICE for 2 Weeks. It Felt Like I Had Been Kidnapped
TV shows like ‘Shifting Gears’ and ‘Duck Dynasty’ resonate with ‘flyover country,’ while fewer shows take on the president.
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky.
I was told to shower, given a jail uniform, fingerprinted and interviewed. I begged for information.
“How long will I be here?”
“I don’t know your case,” the man said. “Could be days. Could be weeks. But I’m telling you right now – you need to mentally prepare yourself for months.”
Months.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
I was taken to the nurse’s office for a medical check. She asked what had happened to me. She had never seen a Canadian there before. When I told her my story, she grabbed my hand and said: “Do you believe in God?”
I told her I had only recently found God, but that I now believed in God more than anything.
“I believe God brought you here for a reason,” she said. “I know it feels like your life is in a million pieces, but you will be OK. Through this, I think you are going to find a way to help others.”
CIA Secrets and Exposed Agents: See Unredacted Details From the JFK Files
As The Washington Post continues to review the more than 60,000 pages released, nothing so far upends the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in the 1963 killing. But the newly unredacted files reveal details about CIA agents and operations that the agency kept secret for decades.
Those details previously had been kept secret by national security officials, said Larry Schnapf, an attorney who has been pushing the government to release the records since 2017. The fresh disclosures, he argued, suggest that the government habitually labels too many documents as classified.
“You can see how that term has been abused,” Schnapf said.
Here’s an early look at some of the intriguing details in the records.
‘I Just Fell to the Ground’: Some of Trump and Musk’s Most Public Supporters Targeted in a Wave of Swatting Incidents
About 7 percent of its workers have been let go, and more cuts are expected.
Larry Taunton was in bed around 1 a.m. on Sunday in his Alabama home when he noticed his dog, Ranger, getting worked up.
“His ears were up and moving like satellite dishes,” Taunton told CNN in an interview.
He noticed a flicker of light, and then the German Shepherd headed toward the front door. Taunton grabbed his gun and followed, leaving the lights off. When he got to the kitchen, all he could see in the darkness was a figure in body armor holding a semi-automatic rifle trying to open his door.
“I’m thinking, if that man comes through my door, I’m going to light him up,” Taunton said. “Because you’re just thinking, ‘Somebody’s here to murder me and my wife.’”
It turned out to be three officers, guns drawn. Police told Taunton that they received a call saying three men in hoodies were “moving throughout the house, executing everybody.”
He had been swatted.
Think Before You Ink: 20 Tips for Beautiful Tattoos You’ll Never Regret – From the Professionals
How do you choose a design you will love for life? And what can you do to cover up an old flame’s name? Top tattooists, including David Beckham’s artist, reveal all.
Rule 1: Find the right artist for you
“My customers generally come to me for my style,” says Aly Sidgwick, a tattoo artist at Take Note in Edinburgh. “I do a lot of woodland creatures, like bats, badgers and birds, and also mythical creatures.”
Trawling through designs on social media can be helpful in choosing an artist, if a little overwhelming: “Work out if you want something bold and bright or soft and subtle,” says Sidgwick, “then look online and see what kind of styles there are and who does those designs in your town.” Be prepared to travel for the right artist, Sidgwick adds.
When Controversy Kills a Movie, His Tiny Studio Buys It on the Cheap
He released a movie about Donald Trump over his objections, and the star of his latest movie was convicted of assault. ‘The creative community is supposed to be bolder than this.’
The indie film fantasy was coming true for “Magazine Dreams” in early 2023.
At Sundance, critics hailed the film and its star Jonathan Majors, playing a body builder whose life falls apart. The Yale-trained actor also had a big Marvel role on deck and was poised for Hollywood stardom. In a scrum of potential buyers, “Magazine Dreams” went to a boutique studio with dozens of Oscars to its name. Searchlight Pictures set a theatrical release for year’s end, the onset of awards season.
The day after the release date’s announcement, Majors was arrested in New York following a fight with his girlfriend. When a jury later convicted Majors of assaulting and harassing her, Marvel fired the actor, and Searchlight, also owned by Disney, dropped “Magazine Dreams.” The movie—years in the works by a promising filmmaker and more than 100 other people—vanished into limbo.
That’s where Tom Ortenberg saw opportunity.
Millennials and Gen Z Are Fighting Again. This Time About Gym Clothes.
The infamous “war” between millennials and Gen Z has found a new battleground in recent weeks, with a fight brewing on TikTok over workout clothes.
There are two camps: People who like wearing tight-on-tight outfits to the gym — think leggings and a well-fitting tank top — and people who prefer baggier ensembles. According to some users on TikTok, these preferences fall along generational lines, with millennial women favoring the tighter outfits.
As with all generational trends, these divisions are tenuous at best. However, on a platform like TikTok, where rage and arguments are often the coins of the realm, they can spread quickly and widely, even if most people do not actually feel strong allegiances to either side.
Regarding Gen Z, I feel like they (many, not all) are the first generation who didn't play outside, didn't knock on their friends' door asking if they could come out and play. They were probably late in learning to ride a bike- if at all. As a Gen Xer, we learned to navigate friendships, crushes, group dynamics and just being alone sometimes; at a much younger age. We had many years of trial & error and learning from both about successful and failed allegiances, as well as outright rejection. Those helped us hone our skills with longer term relationships and job culture later in life. Now the only interactions kids get outside of school is on their devices. It's not real. Just because social media says you have 1290 friends doesn't mean you do. Gone are the days of shared experiences, real, in-person shared experiences and problem solving. It's too bad because your Xbox is not going to teach it to you, but you still need to know how to handle it.
One more thing that I think would be an interesting thing to study. When I was growing up everyone had nicknames. We got them from our friends or family members out of something we did or that may have happened to us. Some of us got them because of things we couldn't change, like hair color, height, or our last name. I don't see a lot of young people with nicknames anymore, and I believe it's because they're not hanging out in groups and sharing experiences that might lead to someone branding you with one. They're terms of endearment or comradery, and they are imposed upon you, you cannot give yourself a nickname or it's not authentic. When the group dynamic went away, so went a lot of life lessons and some really good nicknames.
“No, it’s not your imagination. Every day gets worse. And dumber. And more dangerous. …we have to constantly remind ourselves that we are not the crazy ones.“
— Charlie Sykes
Other than a single shot .22 rifle I keep for nostalgic reasons (the one my grandfather taught me to shoot), I have not owned a firearm since 1980. Last week my pacifist, yoga instructor wife and I made the decision that we need to purchase handguns and take lessons (and engage in regular practice sessions) to become proficient in their use.
It is sad that after all these years our country has so quickly moved in a chaotic direction that we feel the need to invest money and time on something like this.