In this week’s Our Take: How to find someone that really has a hold on you, Gen Z gets Zen about cleaning, a brand fights back against right-wing dogwhistles, and a fake immigration tip line that exposes cruelty.
Dating that hits harder
Young people are swapping candlelit dinners for wrestling and calling it connection.
Rough play is on the rise as young people look for new ways to separate themselves from the everyday mundane and find fresh avenues to build relationships in a world that feels more disconnected than ever.
Why bother going on a dinner date, discussing your life story over and over again, when you can strap on some pads and spear someone into a mat to see if you truly like them? We’d imagine it would certainly speed things up!
Grownkid took that idea and ran with it, setting up speed dating events for you to come along, select someone to join you on the mat and fight it out. Those of us whose love language is physical touch may have just found the answer to our romance troubles.
Fashion is also sitting up and taking note; boxer shorts can be seen as part of everyday fits and boxing shoes are being tipped as the next Samba-like craze as the aesthetic code of combat is being softened into style.
Playfulness won’t be new to any of us, but its re-emergence in spaces you wouldn’t normally expect gives people a chance to rediscover their youthful exuberance.
Gen z bring meaning to cleaning
Is choosing bin liners that suit the vibe of your house unnecessary, or kind of a vibe? We already know Gen Z are wellness fiends; but the findings are extending and the Clorox Home Care Redefined report is saying younger consumers are treating chores as moments of ‘self-care rather than boring old begrudging tasks’ – and it’s trending.
But this is not the first time we’ve seen this, Gen Z have a pattern of finding ways to make mundane tasks into viral moments: “girl dinner,” and “emotional support water bottles” are just some of the buzzwords we’ve seen doing the rounds.
According to the report, apparently now, silly trends like ‘giving the dishes a bath’ and buying pretty binbags are very in – 21% of younger participants actually reported a preference for rubbish bags that match their home décor!
This ‘whimsy’ turned viral approach to everyday chores and regular items does pose the question, though: is there joy to be found in the most unlikely of tasks, or is it just another excuse to make a trend out of something very mediocre? We think it might be a little bit of both.
Trademark Against Hate
A German NGO has legally hijacked a far-right code and is now selling it to fund anti-Nazi work.
Laut gegen Nazis, an organisation known for strategically securing trademarks around extremist symbols, has most recently acquired the rights to “ESSESS”, a coded reference used by neo-Nazi groups. Trademark law requires active commercial use to maintain ownership, so instead of letting it sit on paper, they’ve printed it on clothing and merchandise themselves. The revenue now funds anti-extremism initiatives.
We all love to see a extremist far-right group rattled, and now they can’t even use their own logo anymore.What was once used as a calling card and income stream for hate groups is now funding the opposite message. Same letters, entirely different meaning. It is smart iconography at its best. Taking a symbol that once stood for exclusion and turning it into a statement against the very ideology it represented.
We love this. It shows that meaning is not fixed and can be flipped on its head. If you cannot beat outdated neo-Nazi nonsense with legislation alone, out-brand it. Make it ironic. Strip it of power. Then sell it back into the world, but for the right reasons.
Tip line terror
A fake immigration tip line has exposed something very real about how easily cruelty disguises itself as civic duty.
When Nashville comic Ben Palmer launched a fake immigration tip line, he expected a handful of prank calls. Instead, he uncovered something darker. Nearly 100 Americans submitted reports accusing neighbours, exes and grocery-store strangers of being undocumented. One s**thead elementary school teacher even reported the parents of her six-year-old student.
Palmer, known for deadpan absurdity, maintains the façade of bureaucracy, pretending to take notes, and reading their complaints back in a flat tone. The effect is powerful. In the most viral video – viewed more than 20 million times on TikTok – a kindergarten teacher reporting the parents of a six year old insisted she was just protecting county resources. Hearing her words repeated back to her, the teacher said, ‘you make it sound terrible.”
She’s not wrong.
The tip line is satire at its sharpest. It isn’t remotely funny. It’s horrific. But it exposes perfectly the ‘banality of evil’, showing how ordinary people justify cruelty against each other.