Title says the most important part. Last night, I had an apocalypse dream. I was walking from one place to another, and on the way I found a littler of spider puppies. They looked like eight week old golden retriever puppies with eight legs. They were so cute.
EDIT tldr: I work in digital marketing. I place ads for a living and it gives me a good understanding of how/why I see the content I do. I can tell when something is out of place. I’m getting served out of place content/ads that don’t match my metadata traits and are all just paranoia about a looming widespread power outage. That is highly implausible even with infrastructure going down the shitter. I’m not concerned that is a likelihood. So to be as clear as possible, I think there’s a conspiracy about the fear-mongering paranoia CONTENT being published, NOT about the fact that our infrastructure sucks. We all know why it sucks but I’m gonna follow sub rules ab politics and not name his name lmao
Also here is the article I got a news+ push notification for: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/magazine/national-blackout-power-electricity-outage.html
Hey everyone I’m new here but I’ve recently been seeing a lot of news stories about the power outage in Indiana, and I have also been seeing a TON of posts on social media predicting that “Indiana is just the test” and that there are going to be widespread outages in the USA soon. I even saw a headline this morning that experts are warning there could be a potential for an 18 month long power blackout period in the USA. I definitely do not doubt the reality of what’s happening in Indiana, I’m sincerely scared for them and my heart breaks to think about the life or death fear and discomfort people are living with right now.
I DO however also believe that this power grid panic is manufactured, especially considering that between Epst**n files release and then soft disclosures on UAPs, the general public is more inclined to believe in the plausibility of most conspiracy theories than they were, say, 10 years ago. That’s purely anecdotal but I still think it’s worth noting.
Now, I stopped to really think about this total power grid failure. How is that even possible? I get that data centers are attributed to utility insecurity, and I totally believe it. But, I’m sorry, how can the USA plausibly “run out of electricity”? That just doesn’t make sense unless there were some extenuating circumstance such as a massive natural disaster or widespread coordinated attack targeting infrastructure. Correct me if I’m wrong but we’re all using more high-efficiency tech / devices like A/C, light bulbs, etc. than ever before? How all of a sudden is possible that we might not be able to sustain electricity?
I have a digital marketing background and I can confidently say that this is not just an organically occurring sociological concern - this is a digital marketing campaign. Why? I had about 4 fear-mongering about widespread power grid failure tiktok videos on my FYP just today. Ya know what followed it up? THREE different ads for battery powered products like lights, A/Cs, etc.
Here’s my conspiracy theory. We all know that the Gas\fuel industry is more than willing to do basically ANYTHING to maintain their economic power, we’ve seen them go to some pretty bizarre lengths to silence or discredit any attempts to transition away from fossil fuels.
There are some factors this year like, for example, the strain of Hormuz opening and closing really inconsistently, tariffs causing gas price fluctuations, job losses/unemployment means fewer people driving to work, economic uncertainty means more penny pinching and less food delivery or ride share services for “going out” to avoid DUI. Like in general there’s more frugality in response to economic uncertainty. Plus many people are taking climate change more seriously, which there could be an argument that that’s insignificant but up to you to decide if it’s important.
I think that the gas/fuel industry, knowing that USA citizens are feeling more general unease, more uncertainty, unsafe etc. and also are enthusiastic consumers, are running a targeted campaign to instill fear and paranoia about power outages so we all buy massive amounts of battery operated plastic junk. There’s no plausible reason why we would actually have a massive power outage, and I’d bet with 95% certainty it won’t happen. But, the longer this fear campaign runs, the quicker people are going to want to trade in their e-vehicles, or not buy them at all. Gas-powered vehicles would offer reliable transportation when that looming “the power grid fails” happens. And what’s the number one objection to e-vehicles that we hear about? Their batteries. Their batteries are made with a resource that’s alleged to be more finite even than fossil fuels… if in tandem with creating electricity insecurity and fear, they also urge all of America, who are enthusiastic consumers, to buy a fck ton of doomsday prep battery powered gadgets, that raises the demand for batteries. And when the demand is higher, the price goes up, and e-vehicles’ would become more expensive.
All I know is that organically occurring grassroots widespread paranoia doesn’t immediately prompt promoted posts that offer to soothe the exact paranoia.. if widespread power grid failures were a true concern on a national level, I feel confident we wouldn’t be getting warned the way we are? And we wouldn’t be getting advertised to about it.. so whatever is going on that’s causing this sudden buzz about power grid collapse, I’m not certain that the gas/fuel industry is behind it that’s just my theory, but what I am certain about given my experience with digital marketing, is that it’s a coordinated campaign intended to scare us into doing whatever the industry/organization behind it wants us to do. I think it’s unlikely we actually have reason to be concerned about widespread blackouts, but I think the effort is very strong to scare us otherwise, and get us to spend a lot of money on “preparation”. Again, if this were something that was happening accidentally, there would NOT be paid promotion ads on media platforms targeted to everyday people. I’m not a doomsday prepped and I literally never engage with that content until I bot bombarded this morning. That does not happen by accident on the Internet.
Edited for grammar
I’m curious whether they’ll talk about Ari’s tour as a hot topic in this week’s pod? She opened her new tour this weekend and many fans (myself included) are extremely concerned for her health… I could see it going either way on whether they’ll discuss it or not, given its kind of a heavy topic. However, it’s also *really, really* scary to see how so many fans are insisting Ari’s body is clearly healthy and everyone concerned is just body shaming her. No matter the cause of her weight loss, it’s still really sad and scary to see so many young girls believe that her weight is healthy/normal and even worse, aspirational.
I’m also super curious about Oscar’s industry perspective on the actual production design of the tour and why certain choices were made for it when they clearly are a recipe for a PR nightmare. Ari is such a vocal power house that I feel she could easily carry a mic-and-stool, paired down, intimate performance style and still CRUSH it without exhausting herself. It’d also fit in with her recent aesthetic/image really well. It would be a way to generate your profits, devote all her energy to vocals, shift focus away from her health/body which she’s made clear she doesn’t want focus on, and best of all… it would make *perfect* sense in the context of her career choices over the past few years, so much so that I don’t think anyone would question or be concerned about it! But this tour is moreso a Thank U Next style of production that feels forced and doesn’t make sense on multiple levels. It’s set up for her to be running/dancing and overall just doing a lot physically in revealing/dramatic costumes and huge heavy shoes, which is creating a perfect storm type of environment for Ariana’s malnourishment** to be more evident and on display than in any other setting. I don’t get why these choices were made.
Ari’s made it clear that she felt more at home and accepted in the film industry than she did in music, and this tour is making me wonder if her health issues are the root of that sentiment. Generally speaking, the music industry seems to be more tolerant of “weight” on their stars; tours are such a massive profit driver and the pop stars who come to mind for legendary tours/physical performance all have visible muscle, strength and endurance to keep up (Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Gaga, etc.). Overall, in the realm of arena-touring pop stars, ultra-thinness is the *exception*, not the rule. In the film industry though, we all see so many actresses getting *SO* skinny and no one in that industry seems to bat an eye, they’re seemingly still very hirable. It doesn’t impact their acting abilities at all and it’s much easier to camouflage protruding bones in an edited film format with costumes/lighting than in a fan’s TikTok livestream of a pop concert. I think music labels, if they had to choose, would probably rather have their biggest super stars carry a little bit too much weight than not enough weight. Film and TV kind of seems like the opposite though. Whatever is the cause of Ariana’s weight loss, the film industry would be preferable for her because it’s far more tolerant (and rewarding) of malnourishment than the music industry is.
**I say malnourishment based off of *clinical* guidelines for visible evidence of it on someone’s body. I’m in no way saying I know what’s causing Ariana’s malnutrition, but she does have clear physical attributes that clinicians look for to diagnose malnutrition. I’m genuinely more interested in the thought process/motivation behind her career decisions than I am about what’s happening inside her doctor’s office. I don’t want to make harmful assumptions so basically my thoughts about her actual health is just that I’m concerned for her, I hope she has the support she needs and I hope she gets well very soon.