00:00:00.000today we're at the dentist i'm paying for my own teeth cleaning it's very demure very mindful i'm
00:00:05.400not like the other girls i don't expect my entire audience of blue-collar nine-to-five workers to
00:00:09.540pay for my 45 000 smile i'm very cutesy i'm very respectful i'm gonna get violent i wish you had
00:00:16.880given us a trigger warning for that yeah i'm sorry it's okay i mean one thing a racist is not gonna0.98
00:00:24.980do is tell me what to think about a damn thing. And you're not going to clock me when it comes to0.96
00:00:30.480morality or showing empathy, given your propensity for the hard R, Jeffree Star. I know all of that
00:00:38.720rejected Tim Burton character's lore. Hello, hello. I'm Matt Bernstein. And welcome back to
00:00:50.060a bit fruity. Earlier this month, a rich and famous billionaire TikToker made headlines when
00:00:56.660she took thousands of dollars from every single one of her followers, promised them a life-changing0.98
00:01:02.320meet and greet in return whenever they needed it most. And when they did come to her saying that
00:01:07.100they needed the meet and greet that they had paid for, she said, no, go fuck yourself. I don't care1.00
00:01:12.820if you live or die wait is that not what jules lebron did oh i'm sorry fuck i'm confusing things0.99
00:01:21.060again that is what american health insurance ceos do every day let me start over earlier this month0.96
00:01:28.320a tiktoker named jules lebron who most people might know as the creator of the very demure
00:01:34.280very mindful trend you see how i do my makeup for work very demure very mindful posted online that0.77
00:01:41.400she is having a medically necessary dental procedure that she can't afford on her own.0.99
00:01:46.960So she shared a GoFundMe link. My teeth are falling out of my head and I need your help.
00:01:52.300People did not like that. Jules LeBron, I have nothing against them, but asking your followers
00:01:58.000for new teeth and to fund your GoFundMe because you went viral two years ago and it didn't work
00:02:04.020out for you is crazy. Asking your 2.4 million followers to help you get new teeth is wild to me.
00:02:11.260I think I'm really starting to hate influencers, because what do you mean you have over 2 million followers and you're begging for donations to get your teeth fixed?
00:03:57.000Now, we're about to get into a lot, but I know both of you have been following this situation for the last several weeks.
00:04:04.180And I want your high-level thoughts before we get into everything.
00:04:08.020I mean, I think the most cliff notes read that I have is that a lot of the backlash against Jules has been fueled by transphobia and by jealousy.
00:04:19.120And I think there are a lot of people weighing in, not because they actually have anything
00:04:24.400worth saying, but because they're all trying to get views off of this situation and spin
00:04:29.380their own careers as content creators.
00:04:32.600But I ultimately think there's a lot that creators and aspiring creators can learn from
00:05:23.640And how the vast, vast, vast majority of people have never experienced it.
00:05:30.060And that might sound clearly, according to TikTok commentators, that sounds like an annoying thing to say that most people don't want to hear.
00:05:38.600Like, well, you don't know what it's like to become famous on the Internet.
00:05:41.160But the truth is, you don't. And it is a very weird and somewhat singular experience that I think we as a culture are like grappling with our own very limited understanding of it.
00:05:56.000But I think for that very reason, when you say that, the reason people react so negatively to it is most people on the internet want to go viral. And they believe that going viral is going to change their lives. And sometimes it does. Sometimes it does.
00:06:10.800But there are more people who go viral and it ruins their life rather than adds to it.
00:06:18.240It's almost impossible to explain that to people.
00:06:21.560There's no way to say it in a way that doesn't sound like, oh, you're an elitist and you're talking down to me.
00:06:27.880And it's like trying to describe the experience of love.
00:10:16.340And this is the first thing I'd like to pause and discuss,
00:10:19.660which is the myth that followers equals money it absolutely does not i mean just think about the
00:10:29.020fact as we are all consuming content and you are following people it doesn't mean that you are
00:10:34.600purchasing the things that they are selling that you're showing up to their events even with
00:10:39.340traditional celebrities right like you consume their content it doesn't mean that you watch
00:10:43.280their movies or listen to their albums or go to their concerts the same is true for content creation
00:10:48.420while there are a number of creators that are making money from the actual platforms themselves
00:10:53.580and from brands, it's very inconsistent. You do not have consistent source of income. You don't
00:11:00.300always know when you're being paid. Every deal is negotiated differently. Sometimes you have
00:11:05.120a net 30, meaning 30 days to payment, a net 60, a net 90. Sometimes brands fail on you. And when
00:11:12.200it comes to the platforms themselves, your account gets striked, you get hacked, you get locked out
00:11:17.960of your account, right? And then as more people swarm in that gold rush that Kat so aptly
00:11:24.740described, it changes the metrics of how everyone is getting paid. So you don't actually know how
00:11:30.780much you're making month to month. I think that's why it's attracted so many people who are looking
00:11:35.740to get rich because it feels like anybody can do it. But the reality is it's very difficult and
00:11:42.540lightning only strikes every once. We can't all be Brittany Broski. We can't all be Liza Koshy.
00:11:47.960Yeah, we've got a few of them. And then the rest of us are working content creators.
00:11:54.520100%. I also think people don't realize that the different platforms pay like dramatically
00:11:59.600different amounts of money. Like, there's been this perception for years that people who have
00:12:05.760big followings on Twitter are like somehow rich or like making a lot of money. And it's like
00:12:11.520wasn't paying until very recently. Yes, you don't make money from Twitter.
00:12:16.480yeah it's not much and i make zero on instagram most people make nothing on instagram i make zero
00:12:22.880on instagram yeah yeah and and and i also just want to add here i think this is important to say
00:12:28.140i don't feel like i'm entitled to money right there's a lot of times this happens where people
00:12:32.920say oh i don't make any money it's like well you don't deserve i have a job okay i'm very thankful
00:12:37.840when i get a check i'm very good at what i do i don't feel that i am owed anything but the the
00:12:44.080persistent belief that everyone on social media is making tons of money is just not true. And so
00:12:50.440when you hold creators to this standard of how dare you crowdfund for dental care, you have
00:12:56.4602 million followers. The reality is even with those significant brand deals, that does not mean
00:13:02.580that the people that you are watching, whether it be Jules or someone else, are making a sustainable
00:13:07.880source of income, let alone are wealthy off of their online presence. Yes. This came to mind
00:13:14.200for me last month with the Paige Lorenz, no influencers sign controversy. Cause when you
00:13:20.020look at someone like Paige Lorenz on Instagram, she has over a million followers. Her lifestyle1.00
00:13:25.160is exorbitant. It is like so glamorous. She got married in July and the wedding looked like it0.93
00:13:30.280was like a multimillion dollar wedding potentially. But something important about those influencers
00:13:34.980they had money is a lot of them they were wealthy before they were influencers they already had
00:13:40.100money she grew up going to like an alpine ski school for high school like i'm like great a lot0.73
00:13:47.300of these influencers who have these massive luxury weddings like the dance mom girls too like i'm
00:13:53.360like these people grew up exorbitantly wealthy they are not i'm sure they make money from influencing
00:13:59.500but that's not how they got that money like that's not where the majority of the income is coming
00:14:04.140And a lot of them were able to go viral in the first place because they were aspirational to
00:14:09.800begin with. Yes. Charlie D'Amelio became the face of TikTok very early on. And this is no shade to
00:14:15.400Charlie D'Amelio. But she came from a wealthy family in Connecticut with an aspiring Republican
00:14:21.260politician father. She was, yes, beautiful and a talented dancer. But she was all of those things
00:14:26.960in the context of a gorgeous white house that everyone wanted to live in. And I would argue
00:14:31.640she was also a talented dancer because her family could afford to put her in dance classes and0.99
00:14:37.620nurture her talent. Charli D'Amelio is also an interesting one because she has been very public
00:14:44.040about her contentious relationship with her family because of how they took advantage of0.94
00:14:49.200her online career and they mismanaged her money, right? And so when we talk about having the
00:14:55.940familial wealth. It's also the business acumen to say, our kid is a star. We are going to pick
00:15:01.720up and move to LA. We are going to take meetings with agents. We are going to invest her money
00:15:06.740here. We're going to do these kinds of brand deals, whether she wanted to do them or not,0.95
00:15:10.540or whether she feels happy or secure in the relationship and what choices that they made.
00:15:17.860But the reality is, especially if you are a black or a brown person or a queer person,
00:15:22.920If you go viral, chances are nobody in your family knows somebody as CAA or UTA or Gersh or can look over a contract for you when a brand deal comes in and make sure this is in perpetuity.
00:15:38.020If nobody in your circle knows, you are set up for failure from the jump because you went viral and you don't actually know how to capitalize on it because you don't have stage parents, right?
00:15:50.380And I think a lot of people forget about that a hundred percent also I did just check on instagram and my profile has received
00:15:58.08054 and a half million views in the last 30 days. Thank you everyone. I appreciate it
00:16:03.820I just want to say in my own experience because a lot of why I feel compelled to make this episode is my own experience of
00:16:11.640Being a more or less full-time content creator for the past nine years
00:16:16.100the last two of which I've had stable income for. And that is largely thanks to this podcast and
00:16:22.100things like the advertisers on this podcast and Patreon and ways that you have to get creative
00:16:27.880to create consistent income because brand deals provide that for almost nobody. And I say this
00:16:34.000also because those 54 million views on my Instagram profile, they've converted to, from the Instagram
00:16:39.500content itself, zero dollars because Instagram doesn't pay creators. And it's not that I feel
00:16:45.260entitled to money as a creator but when you consider how much ad revenue you as a creator
00:16:52.020and all creators are driving to these apps which would be nothing without creators it's like yes
00:16:57.160yeah well you should pay creators actually that's something actually youtube set a standard for and
00:17:02.360does a relatively good job of and it's something tiktok did a good job of at the very beginning of
00:17:07.120its platform when it had something called the tiktok creator fund which it still has however
00:17:13.540Nowadays creators on tiktok get paid pennies to the dollar of what they used to make because once tiktok had enough creators to sustain itself as a platform that could entertain people
00:17:23.900They stopped paying creators nearly what they were paying before
00:17:27.220Well, and i'll also remind folks that that oracle takeover was a big part of why the creator fund on tiktok is not what it is
00:17:35.500And I think that that speaks volumes about
00:17:38.520The powers that be in this country and how they value our labor
00:17:43.000The reality is they don't value our labor, whether you are doing DoorDash or you are working in a grocery store or you're doing content creation or you are a teacher who is on the front lines educating students and possibly in harm's way if there is an active shooter.
00:18:01.000they don't care. They don't care about you. They do not want you to have a living wage.
00:18:06.020And so it is really frustrating to see people parrot these conservative talking points that
00:18:11.660pit all of us against each other. Because the conversation we should be having about Jules,
00:18:16.680regardless of what you think about her content or think about her as a person, because a lot of
00:18:20.700people are turning this into, well, I don't like her. She's mean. Guess what? People I don't like1.00
00:18:25.300also deserve healthcare. People that I don't want to spend time with deserve to be paid
00:18:31.000a fair and equitable wage. And as soon as it turns into what I think about this person as a person,
00:18:37.780and if you work at McDonald's, you shouldn't be able to make a living wage. I should not have to
00:18:43.420earn a living just to be here. If my labor is profitable to someone, and I know that it is,
00:18:51.680I should be able to reap the benefits of that. And I don't think that that's unreasonable.
00:18:56.420And ultimately, there is enough to go around.1.00
00:18:59.460All of these motherfuckers have multiple houses and boats, and they don't do anything.0.98
00:19:04.260But the rest of us are sitting here squabbling over pennies, and it's not right.0.99
00:23:40.780That started coming in, I want to say like two weeks after.
00:23:43.080Now it wasn't, oh, we'll give you $2,000 for a video.
00:23:45.480It was $45,000 for a video, $85,000 for a video.
00:23:50.960Everything taken care of, everything paid.
00:23:53.100Which, as she says, was more money than either she or her family had ever seen.
00:23:58.700and I'd like to talk about financial literacy because in this story, much of the discourse
00:24:05.440playing out online has been about, well, you made $50,000 on a video and now you're asking
00:24:11.260the public for money to cover your dental procedure. We'll get into all of that. But
00:24:16.440you know, America has a very wild combination of an incredibly weak social safety net and
00:24:25.020no standardized financial literacy education my financial literacy comes from my dad who taught
00:24:32.700me how to do my taxes as a self-employed person which if you've never done it for doing a nightmare
00:24:39.540doing your taxes as an employed person is a nightmare as an employed person with an employer
00:24:45.360that takes out taxes from your bi-weekly check or whatever it may be doing it by yourself
00:24:50.360when i tell you if i did not have my dad i would be in jail like i'm not kidding yeah yeah he taught
00:24:57.960me how to budget he taught me how to compile expenses he taught me how to submit my tax
00:25:02.600estimates four times a year because my dad quarterly taxes yes i love it you have to tell
00:25:09.480them how much money you think you're gonna make and then pay taxes on that and then if you don't
00:25:13.560make that much money or you make more than that much money then you have to relitigate how much
00:25:17.440money you thought you were going to make. You're going to owe. And then let's also talk about the
00:25:20.680fact, especially as creators, we are getting paid from businesses in different states.
00:25:26.160So there are different tax rules for, and for example, I sell merch. So I have income tax,
00:25:35.020I have state tax, I have tax from all these different places. If someone purchases something
00:25:40.200overseas and then sometimes, you know, speak at a college. So you speak at a college in this state
00:25:45.780and then you do a deal with a brand in this place. All of those require different taxation
00:25:51.900amounts. If you've never done it before, it is very overwhelming. As someone that I did my own
00:25:59.060taxes for many years using an online tax thing, I always got it wrong. Every year I would get
00:26:05.540something in the mail, but it's like, actually, three years ago, you screwed up and now you owe
00:26:11.340us $4,000. And I'm like, I'm like, then do it for me. Yeah. I also last year was my first year as
00:26:18.920like a full time freelancer. And I paid someone I paid an accounting service to do my taxes for me,
00:26:25.760which was a lot of money. And they did them wrong. And you have to just trust them. Yes. Yes. And
00:26:33.380fortunately, I caught their mistake. But it's like, it is so inscrutable. The system is so
00:26:38.840difficult to work around, especially when you are self-employed freelancing and getting money
00:26:44.680from all these different sources. Yeah. And again, I'm going to be
00:26:47.800repeating myself here, but it is so frustrating to see people saying, well, you didn't know how
00:26:52.500to do your taxes. That's not your problem. Like, you know, you should be more concerned with the
00:26:56.900fact that this is a systemic issue. Jules LeBron is not the first person who has struggled with
00:27:03.640their taxes. And dare I say, a lot of the people flapping their gums, I bet a number of them owe
00:27:10.180some taxes and or have fudged some numbers here and there because it's confusing and it's
00:27:16.700deliberately confusing. Yes. And simultaneously, the federal government is making it harder to do
00:27:21.920our taxes because they took away the free filing system this past year, like making it more
00:27:27.260systemically difficult for everyone. Yes. And do you know who doesn't struggle with taxes?
00:27:32.660billionaires because they don't comply with this system they don't operate within this system
00:27:38.980because billionaires i have to like bring my temperature down it's so weird how it's like
00:27:44.860the times that i get the most worked up on this podcast is when i talk about taxes
00:27:48.940it's real because it's it's unfair because billionaires do a little thing called buy borrow
00:27:57.000die. And this prevents them from ever having to pay taxes. And I will try to explain this to you
00:28:02.980with no notes in front of me as succinctly as I can. Buy, borrow, die is a strategy wherein the
00:28:09.340richest people in America accrue assets like luxury homes, like yachts, like paintings,
00:28:17.020like enormous stock portfolios. Then with their millions and millions and millions of dollars of
00:28:23.200inventory, they take out loans from the bank for more millions and millions and millions and
00:28:30.640millions of dollars to fund their lifestyle, to buy whatever they want to buy. And what they say
00:28:37.360to the bank is, I will use my existing assets as collateral, meaning if I can't pay back this loan,
00:28:44.800then you can take my $10 million painting that's hanging inside of a home that I never go to.
00:28:51.920The reason they do this to fund their lifestyle instead of liquidating any of the money that they have in stocks is because when you sell things from your stock portfolio, you have to pay what's called capital gains on the value that's been added to that asset since you purchased it.
00:29:10.560When you take a loan from the bank, you do not have to pay taxes on that money.
00:36:47.000kim kardashian on a post advertising her shapewear brand skims wrote see the way i take my bts pictures
00:36:57.600very cutesy very mindful very demure not like the other girls duncan donuts just keeping it real
00:37:04.140simple with a a plain glazed donut just captioned very demure but oh so irresistible let our
00:37:12.420delicious glazed donuts bring a mindful moment of joy to your day here's the thing that always
00:37:19.100kills me about this i know this went through like 30 revisions
00:37:23.180asana was fired up there was a zoom call there was like so many talks about this and it's just
00:37:32.820mid it's just they didn't nail it like no there was a context to the joke that jules was making
00:37:40.440in that original video i mean this isn't like the this is kind of the point of the episode though
00:37:44.940because it gets co-opted in a way that's like completely loses its meaning you can't just post0.98
00:37:49.520a video of a plane landing and be like the plane landed demurely that's not the joke yeah idiot0.98
00:37:55.380well and and to your earlier question about who gets to profit off of culture once again we see0.98
00:38:02.880people of color we see queer people pushing culture forward and not being able to capitalize
00:38:08.260off of it i think about you know the black girl behind on fleek and i hate to say that i don't
00:38:14.340remember her name but i think that that kind of proves my point because she did not get to profit
00:38:19.180off of on fleek should i go to hello kitty hello kitty posts have a very demure week besties
00:38:26.940with a graphic that is giving like 2013 pinterest that says demure mindful cutesy in fairness i do
00:38:37.280think hello kitty is those things i'll give them i'll give them credit the luxury fashion retailer
00:38:42.240essence did an instagram carousel with uh outfits for sale see how i dress for work
00:38:49.080very cutesy very demure very mindful also i had no idea it was pronounced essence i always just
00:38:56.220read it as sense i know i also thought that i also thought that i also thought that all right
00:39:04.320next up we have anthropology it says the vibe we bring to the office very demure very mindful
00:39:11.260nars with a group of lipsticks why be demure when you can be explicit 18 shades of explicit
00:39:19.480lipstick luxury are available now at sephora like okay we have warner brothers uk so demure so
00:39:27.860demineful so so demineful i'm losing my mind very cutesy and then lastly from paramount plus
00:39:34.880dora explains demure can you say demure oh god are you mindful mindful that's actually a pretty
00:39:46.420good dora it's a little it's like a little squeaky but it's good thank you thank you i i'm represented
00:39:53.800by UTA, please retouch my agents for voiceover work. People tend to focus on how much they think
00:40:02.840Jules was paid in her capacity as an influencer for this trend. But I mean, comparatively,
00:40:09.240how much money was generated by corporations who did not collaborate with Jules?
00:40:14.260Yes. And also, it's like, even if we, you know, generously assume that Jules brought in
00:40:21.140several hundred thousand dollars during this time period that is a good amount of money within a
00:40:27.140short amount of time but that does not mean that she's going to consistently make that much money
00:40:31.980and in fact she's not like take that big lump of money and spread it out over a multiple years
00:40:39.300now all of a sudden it's much more comparable to what like someone performing who's not a viral
00:40:45.580star could be making. Now you're seeing that it actually could still be, you know, financially
00:40:51.220difficult, much more like an average person to survive. And I think that people just look at
00:40:56.440these big lump sums and they're like, you're set for life. And it's like, actually, you're not set
00:41:01.000for life. Like, actually, you are going to have to consistently work and that money will run out
00:41:05.660eventually. And Jules has been very upfront about the fact that she also takes care of her family.
00:41:12.400We see this for, you know, when people win the lotto, for example, a lot of times people make bad financial decisions. It doesn't mean that they are absolved of the consequences of their actions. But if you've never had money before, it is not unreasonable to understand that you don't know how to stretch that money, that you don't know where to invest it, that you might make some superficial purchases like a car or an apartment building or designer goods and not think about the fact that this money train
00:41:42.300likely will run out and and i think to the point that you've been making it's like it doesn't
00:41:47.500absolve anyone of like the the consequences of poor financial management which again comes back
00:41:54.120to the problem of we don't have standardized financial literacy in a country where we also
00:41:58.420don't have a strong social safety net but i think too it's like okay in place of all of these things
00:42:04.500can we not have more grace and I think the lack of that grace comes from our misunderstanding of
00:42:13.780how the internet works and the fact that going viral and making a few hundred thousand dollars
00:42:18.920over the course of a couple months or even dare I say winning the lottery we think that that puts
00:42:26.720the people that we're talking about that have earned these things into the oligarchy class
00:42:31.880when in reality, they are still very much having more in common with the rest of us
00:42:38.660than the people, than any of us have in common with the oligarchy class.
00:42:42.760And I think grace has to stem from that understanding.
00:42:57.020You are seeing that someone is more successful or perceived successful than you,
00:43:01.000and you wish that you could have a bite of that. So now you're trying to ride that person's
00:43:04.940coattails and go viral in hopes that you can have a piece of that pie. And the reality is
00:43:10.520the pie is not that big. It's also like financial literacy can only take you so far. Like there is
00:43:17.920a whole genre of content on YouTube exemplified by that evil man, Caleb, where it's like he brings
00:43:24.600in people who are financially struggling and just like- Berates them. Verbally abuses them for like
00:43:29.720an hour and a half and is like let's look at all your purchases oh my god you went to the movies
00:43:33.560once you're like you have no literacy like oh my gosh you go to the gas station and buy snacks
00:43:39.260like what's wrong with you eat canned beans for the rest of your life what went out how much went
00:43:45.540out household income that's probably what i said household income how much went out i'm telling
00:43:51.180you probably like 65 7 000 that doesn't make sense you just told me the household expenditures
00:43:55.560expenditures for $7,000. You said you went on a trip. We did, and it was great. Okay. That would
00:44:02.360probably mean the money went out is more than just your household expenses. So how much do
00:44:08.100you think went out? How much the do you think went out? Never got to grieve my divorce. Who
00:44:15.880chose to divorce? I did. You don't know how expensive kids are. I do. It is math. It is
00:44:21.520numbers i make budgets it's not math you can't just label like oh it costs 10 grand a year for
00:44:27.560each kid i don't do that i budget based on the household have you ever watched this though or0.99
00:44:31.720are you just a moron in what world did you guys think you were ready to bring in a child into0.99
00:44:35.860this world it's just like the same people who try to police who what they spend food stamps on1.00
00:44:40.780this person has food stamps and they bought lobster right oh my god someone that's poor
00:44:45.900shouldn't be able to eat food that they are excited about or that tastes good how dare they
00:44:51.020At the end of the day, like, life is very expensive, and people have different needs. And I know we're going to get into this more, but it's like, people have different medical needs. People have different needs for transportation. People have different dependents. People have unexpected things happen. People go through struggles. Like, life is very expensive, and not having enough money cannot be solved ultimately by anything other than getting more money.
00:45:15.840like the caleb whatever's of the world want to make it all out to be like a product of
00:45:20.640poor financial decision making and sometimes that is the case but more often than not it is the fact
00:45:26.020that people are not paid enough to live and that is like the root cause of financial issues in this
00:45:32.160country and beyond throughout this whole thing i thought a lot about paris is burning and ballroom
00:45:37.860paris is burning if you don't know first of all you can go watch it on youtube for free right now
00:45:44.980And if you don't, I'm going to be side-eyeing you a little bit, but it is a seminal, I believe, 1990 documentary of the Harlem ballroom scene, which is mostly populated by black and brown queer and trans people.
00:46:01.560and out of this culture came words like shade and slay and gag which are now of course ubiquitous
00:46:12.260in mainstream culture but they originated in ballroom among black and brown trans people
00:46:17.400these words fascinatingly are also now generally understood as gen z slang
00:46:25.800and the thing is like when i think of paris is burning which solidified a number of queer
00:46:34.500historical icons and they are historical icons who for the most part are not here anymore
00:46:40.900because one for example venus extravaganza who is still quoted regularly for when she said
00:46:48.920touch this skin darling touch all of this skin touch this skin honey touch all of this skin0.77
00:46:55.080okay you just can't take it she while being an icon and in the ballroom scene was also0.99
00:47:02.600doing sex work for survival as a trans woman in New York City in the 80s and between the time0.99
00:47:08.920that the documentary was filmed and when it was released she was murdered in a hotel room by a
00:47:15.400client who didn't know she was trans a number of the other people it featured heavily in the film
00:47:23.040like her house mother, Angie Extravaganza,
00:47:26.280died from AIDS in the years following the film.
00:47:30.360And I know this is like dismal to talk about and whatever,
00:47:33.740but it's like, these are the people who created the culture
00:47:37.140that has become so ubiquitous on TikTok
00:47:40.320that now most people just call it Gen Z slang.0.70
00:47:43.820It's not, it's black and brown queer slang.0.83
00:47:45.940And then use it to demonize trans people.0.87
01:01:46.620And she is kind of a prophet for doing that because just a few months later, the Internet would get very angry with her for not having as much money as they thought she did.
01:01:56.280The last like sort of lingering thought I have about this is that at this time period around Demure, when Jules is reaching this like peak of virality and visibility, another thing that comes into play here with transphobia and all of the other bigotries that Jules is targeted through.
01:02:12.980I also think people probably are just seeing like all of this brand attention and being like, oh, you're so lucky. Everybody loves you. What they're not seeing is the types of harassment that you receive as a very high profile creator that is very targeted around your appearance, your race, your ethnicity, your sexuality, your gender, your weight, like all of these different things.
01:02:36.680that's what people don't see. And it's like, that's the darker side to this level of visibility
01:02:40.780as well, that compounds these offline traumas as well. And those are the things that I think
01:02:46.160stick in someone's head and can make it very, very difficult and send them out searching for
01:02:51.380coping mechanisms. Because it's like, I'm receiving all this horrible treatment and
01:02:55.300nobody cares about the real me, but I do suddenly have this influx of cash. So I'm going to make
01:02:59.180myself feel better. And that is a very, very deeply human response. And it is something that
01:03:05.520people of all walks of life do. But again, who do we have sympathy for? Who do we have empathy for?
01:03:12.560I would like to take a quick break from the show to give a shout out to our friends at NordVPN
01:03:19.500for sponsoring this episode. I recently did something very exciting. I was in a documentary
01:03:27.620about Elon Musk for the BBC. It is called The Elon Musk Show. I believe the episode that I'm in is
01:03:35.180called The Next Chapter. Now, I was very excited to watch this, and it did just come out on the
01:03:41.480BBC. But here's the thing with the BBC. You need to be in the UK to watch BBC iPlayer. But do you
01:03:49.560really? Not if you have NordVPN. NordVPN is this amazing tool with lots of amazing features. And
01:03:56.580one of them, perhaps my favorite, is that you can access the internet as if you were from anywhere.
01:04:03.620So if there's a show you want to watch, really any content that is geo-restricted, using NordVPN will allow you to essentially identify as part of the region that has the content you're trying to access.
01:04:53.580now jules lebron did get sober in early 2026 at which point she became forthcoming about much of
01:05:02.940what we've discussed in this episode so far she's also said though that this period of addiction
01:05:09.740rotted her teeth which is something that can happen when you get addicted to drugs
01:05:16.020and about a week ago she posted the following video my teeth are falling out of my head and
01:05:22.960i need your help listen um i'm very uncomfortable making this video because this is a video i thought
01:05:29.920i'd never have to make about maybe like four or five months ago i had a deal with a dentist
01:05:36.020and he was going to completely take out all my teeth and give me brand new a brand new set of
01:05:41.940teeth because through addiction my teeth are severely destroyed and um the deal ended up
01:05:50.300falling through and for the past maybe two months you guys know I've been on my own dental health
01:05:56.560journey I've gotten you know a few cavities filled I had a root canal and every time I go to the
01:06:02.760dentist I'm it's made clear to me I'm fighting an uphill battle like it's being made clear to me
01:06:08.940that no matter how much I do here I'm gonna eventually have to take out all my teeth and
01:06:15.880i've already spent six thousand dollars on this i don't know what else to do i don't want to ask
01:06:21.720my community for help but i feel like i have no other choice at this point and i wanted to fix
01:06:27.440my teeth on my own but i can't like go on like this like every day it hurts it hurts to drink
01:06:33.020water it hurts to drink water girl like i have a hole on each side of my the upper side of my teeth
01:06:39.140and it hurts and i hate that i have to cut the internet ask for help because everyone's struggling
01:06:44.400but i like i don't know what else to do i got sober i did everything i had to do i'm trying to
01:06:50.440like be a full-time influencer still and clearly i don't think it's working out in the best manner
01:06:55.960but everyone always says reach out when you need help i need help i really need help could you guys
01:07:01.860just explain for people who are out of the loop how people reacted to this video oh it was a blood1.00
01:07:08.160bath go get a regular job there bitch nah what what you know jules has a lot of jewelry and even1.00
01:07:15.300a full pac-man game in their house you know they can sell a lot of things that they really want to1.00
01:07:18.900have this down on their teeth i can't help but think about where all the money went she bought0.99
01:07:24.440an entire like apartment style building and i also do think that her live is a form of emotional1.00
01:07:31.440manipulation what do you think should jules have a gofundme will you donate leave a comment tell1.00
01:07:36.220how you feel and don't forget to follow me for more hot takes i mean i think it was just the1.00
01:07:39.360perfect storm of jules having a massive audience a lot of people know who she is demure was this
01:07:46.440huge meme you know the fall from grace was something that unfortunately a lot of people
01:07:51.240were delightful over and suddenly every single person that's ever had drama with her or had any
01:07:57.300sort of encounter with her or you know i never liked her we're suddenly weighing in and they
01:08:03.020were seeing, oh, talking about this is getting huge views. And it was just incentivizing more
01:08:08.440people to pile on and speculate about how she spent her money and clipped together her on0.93
01:08:15.040Tamron Hall talking about how much she was getting and then clipping it with her crying about her1.00
01:08:20.720teeth. I mean, it was pretty hostile and difficult to watch in real time. Yep. I've also been seeing
01:08:27.980a lot of influencers who just literally are like conservative yes or not or not but sometimes yes
01:08:34.140sometimes people who support trump who are getting on and being like i'm so responsible with my money
01:08:39.800and i would never ask my followers for money and it's like yeah you don't have to like you're a
01:08:45.280multi-millionaire yes what else is there to say and it's fascinating to me that that attitude gets
01:08:50.880more cheers online like yay you're like a successful wealth hoarder versus like oh you're
01:08:56.640struggling let's let's all combine our forces to make it even worse for you i mean i spend very
01:09:02.460very very little time on tiktok because it stresses me the hell out for reasons that we're talking
01:09:07.120about today but even in my limited capacity as someone who spends like maybe five minutes a day
01:09:12.360on that app it was all of a sudden everywhere yeah all of these videos being like jules lebron
01:09:18.600should have done this and jules lebron is an idiot and this did like hundreds of thousands of likes
01:09:23.960millions of views on these videos you would have thought like before i actually knew what had1.00
01:09:28.960happened you would have thought she had put a gun to the head of each of her followers and said put
01:09:34.620the money in the bag right now because like my most sympathetic possible interpretation
01:09:39.720of people having a negative reaction to this video barring all of the systemic realities that
01:09:45.940could very reasonably bring someone to the point of asking for help to afford something like this
01:09:50.380is like if you find it that distasteful that someone who at one point made a lot of money
01:09:55.920is now asking for help you can just ignore it well i also thought it was ironic because
01:10:01.720just a few months ago y'all were whacking james charles whacking give people context um so you
01:10:08.760know spirit airlines filed for bankruptcy and everyone that worked there was laid off and a
01:10:15.100laid off Spirit Airlines worker, dared to send James Charles a DM asking if he could donate to
01:10:22.720her GoFundMe. And he fired off a video screaming about how dare she ask him for money. And she
01:10:30.860wasn't even following him. I mean, just the disrespect. If you're going to ask me for money,
01:10:37.740you should be putting money in my pocket first. I got a DM on here from a girl that said,0.99
01:10:42.300good morning, James. I know you'll probably never see this, but if you could just take one minute
01:10:47.440to read, it would really mean a lot to me. I'm really struggling right now because Spirit Airlines
01:10:52.660just filed for bankruptcy and I have lost my job. Here's a GoFundMe link. Any donations help.
01:11:02.620I'm sure they do, sweetheart. I'm sure they do. You know what else would help you?
01:11:06.300Getting another job. And rightfully so, a number of people, myself included, I put together
01:11:12.180a supercut contrasting how he was crying about TikTok possibly being banned versus how he was
01:11:18.880responding to someone saying, hey, I just lost my job. So when his job is in danger, he's on the
01:11:24.820verge of tears. But when someone loses their job out of the blue and is now worried about keeping
01:11:31.820a roof over their head, he is chastising them. And the whole internet jumped in to say, this is
01:11:38.400wrong you know you didn't have to donate you didn't have to even respond and now here we are
01:11:43.540a few months later and a lot of those very same people are gleefully saying how dare drools ask
01:11:51.260for support when the same applies you you could just scroll on you don't have to donate i also
01:11:58.060think tiktok for various reasons is just so excellent at staging a misogynistic smear campaign
01:12:03.940The algorithm is is incredible with that. Yes. This platform loves a mass harassment campaign
01:12:11.320of a woman for doing something that isn't even bad. Like we see it on TikTok all the time.1.00
01:12:16.500And the prevailing sentiment through all of the criticism was go get a damn job.0.98
01:12:23.960And to that, I want to raise a couple points. One, jobs in the United States are not legally0.97
01:12:30.640required to cover dental insurance two do you want to know something about dental insurance0.87
01:12:36.480it sucks it covers nothing unlike medical insurance which also sucks dental insurance
01:12:47.200has a cap on how much they will cover each year which is usually between one and two thousand0.98
01:12:54.280dollars the national average price for full mouth dental reconstruction which is what Jules needed
01:12:59.600is 30 to 60 thousand dollars but can go as high as 90 thousand dollars so in the context of that
01:13:06.240a 45 thousand dollar asking go fund me which you never were required to donate to makes a lot of
01:13:11.100sense now my question for those in the audience who say jules just get a job which by the way
01:13:16.500she started doing a job content creation is a job also have you seen the job market lately
01:13:20.380yes also bad in any other context we would all rightfully acknowledge that the job market is0.97
01:13:25.960shit, but because we want to get angry right now of this person, we can say, we'll go get a job.0.98
01:13:30.200What kind of job would alleviate the weight of a procedure this expensive?0.99
01:13:35.380And what job, if she got a job tomorrow, what job is going to, one, deposit your dental insurance
01:13:42.720immediately, and two, allow you to take off time to get this kind of extensive surgery? Because0.63
01:13:49.540you are not getting this done and going back to work the next day. To your point about the job
01:13:54.420market, I know so many people that have lengthy resumes and multiple degrees and they cannot find
01:14:02.280a job. So add on to Jules being a trans woman of color with a public profile that has not had a1.00
01:14:09.920consistent job history on paper, right? Like a resume that's going to say, I worked at this
01:14:14.440place and this place and this place that is then going to be able to walk into an office and say,1.00
01:14:20.040i need a job and get one tomorrow it's just not feasible yeah and for the type of like white like
01:14:26.900for most jobs actually the process from that first interview or filing your application to
01:14:31.720actually walking in and getting paid is like three to six months i know i know you have to
01:14:37.880work a full month they're on a net 30 you start working and you always you're always like now
01:14:43.260when do i get paid they're like oh sorry we pay every three weeks and you got here on week three
01:14:48.920so you'll get paid next month yeah and tooth pain is excruciating have some empathy people
01:14:55.560and to me what's frustrating is at least regarding all of the job stuff it's like
01:14:59.100most of the people participating in this pylon theoretically don't have jobs yeah
01:15:04.440okay well a lot of y'all don't have jobs because i and and and this is no shame that someone that
01:15:12.720has a job and will be clocking in when i go look at your pages i'm like the amount of content
01:15:18.780you post every day tells me you don't have a job and that's okay but again you have so much ire for
01:15:24.560what Jules should do when you can't do it yourself I was actually gonna that is one theory
01:15:29.300I was gonna say like just because I think the majority of like working adults in America like
01:15:36.760which I guess then we could debate whether these people are working but it's like they know that
01:15:41.200like they know these things they know how hard it is to get a job they know how hard it is to
01:15:44.440actually get paid they know how hard it is to get your insurance to cooperate they know how hard it
01:15:48.760to do all of these things and that is why it is so dispiriting to me when people behave like this
01:15:55.120online towards someone else who has so much in common with them that they refuse to acknowledge
01:16:00.000and it's like you are submitting to this right-wing american capitalist grind set that's
01:16:06.780like i will always participate in this rat race better than you can yep i mean haven't you needed
01:16:14.680help before? Don't you probably also need help affording things right now? Why are we all
01:16:20.220competing in the rat race when we could be rightfully criticizing the nature of the rat race
01:16:26.500for all of us? Yeah. I mean, not to sound like a total lefty podcaster about it.
01:16:33.860Exactly. Like, why don't we have universal health care? Don't even get me started.
01:16:37.560Yeah. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people have fooled themselves into believing that if
01:16:43.040you take somebody else down a peg that you win by default. And in reality, a lot of the attention
01:16:50.740and energy that has been expelled on bringing Jules down has not helped the people get further
01:16:57.580in their own lives. And again, I maintain a lot of people are piling on because they are aspiring
01:17:02.800creators themselves. And they are looking at how much Jules or they believe Jules has made. And
01:17:08.300they're saying, well, if I have a viral moment, maybe I can start making that kind of money.
01:17:12.840and I will be smarter than she was and I'll be able to pull myself out of the current circumstances
01:17:19.060that I'm in. It's the famous every American thinks they're a temporarily embarrassed billionaire
01:17:24.880quote. Yes. And like we see this discourse all the time in so many different ways. Like I hate
01:17:29.760when I see people make fun of minimum wage workers for tipping culture. I hate when I see people
01:17:34.740making fun of DoorDash drivers and people who work at Instacart. Like stop. Like these people are not
01:17:41.020your enemy. You have more in common with these people who you purport to despise and judge than
01:17:46.700you will ever have in common with the people who are enforcing these conditions on all of us.
01:17:51.080Jules has also explained, and this was a great point of contention, how it's hard to get a
01:17:56.780quote unquote normal job when your social media presence is as prolific as hers.
01:18:04.040And then also, have you ever been an internet celebrity and tried to get a job?
01:18:07.540a claim which many people are critical of and which some have in my opinion very bad faith
01:18:15.240interpretation to be jules thinks she's too famous to get a nine to five oh that's not it at all
01:18:22.260it's like it is so hard to get a job in general to francesca's point jules now has this like
01:18:28.180lack of on paper employment that will make it very difficult to get like a white collar position
01:18:34.440because it's always like explain this gap on your resume and I was briefly viral is not going to cut
01:18:40.920it. Also being a trans woman of color, she already faces so many barriers and biases to this type of
01:18:48.240employment. It's also like Jules has worked like part time and more closer to minimum wage jobs
01:18:54.040recently. And that being the inception of the demure video, someone being like, why are you
01:18:59.180here working at this grocery store it's just so frustrating it reminds me of how actors who worked
01:19:05.260on sitcoms like 20 years ago people will take pictures of them like bagging groceries and
01:19:10.280splash them on the internet and drive harassment toward these people there's a lot of parallels
01:19:15.600between like more mainstream entertainment work as like a side character as someone who was famous
01:19:20.780like 20 years ago and what is happening to Jules now it's also like true to like an extent about
01:19:28.300influencers in general i mean i'm sure anyone can comment well look at this influencer they have a
01:19:33.760job and look at this former actor they have a job sure i mean i know for myself i would struggle to
01:19:40.180get and you could say i'm a unique case because i am like very outspoken politically and that's
01:19:45.960my whole thing and like that would be a you know a hindrance to getting a quote-unquote normal job
01:19:51.620but my online presence would make it hard for me and you all know this i mean when you're applying
01:19:58.780for jobs one of the first things that people will give you as a piece of advice is like scrub your
01:20:03.780socials or make your socials private and so when you have been making a job for yourself of acting
01:20:11.800you know vivacious and like you know embodying your full personality on social media
01:20:16.260you're gonna scrub the whole i mean it's like what there is really truth to what she's saying
01:20:21.380Yeah. And again, this is all under the assumption that what she's already doing by making content and entertaining people online isn't a job, which it is. And like I said, getting a nine to five would make a forty five thousand dollar medically necessary dental procedure affordable in the first place.
01:20:37.940When I have interviewed people for articles at various publications, it doesn't matter how tame the topic is.
01:20:47.640Most people don't want to speak on the record with their first and last name because they are afraid of it harming their future employment prospects.
01:20:55.420And I have also known multiple people in the field, in the media industry, which could be where someone like Jules would be looking for a job,
01:21:02.540who have been declined work because they had a hashtag in their bio that said Me Too or Free
01:21:08.180Palestine. And then they are denied work opportunities because of that. And you can't
01:21:13.080scrub your social media when you've had 5000 news articles written about you. You can't take down
01:21:18.260other people's Reddit posts and reposts and all of that stuff. Like it's impossible.
01:21:23.880Because the fact of the matter is most employers don't want to deal with anything they have to
01:21:30.620provide public relations cover for yep fascinatingly on a one clip of a video where
01:21:37.060she's explaining this and she says you know it's complicated to get a job as an internet celebrity
01:21:41.980the top comment with 45 000 likes is someone who just wrote internet celebrity like clearly
01:21:49.220mocking the fact that she called herself an internet celebrity and it's like okay well
01:21:53.400so she's simultaneously too famous and rich to be in this position in the first place
01:21:59.320but then when she refers to herself as an internet celebrity you're saying no you're not a celebrity
01:22:04.780and you're not famous enough to call yourself famous so what i'm detecting here is something
01:22:11.260i have a very hard time explaining away without the use of words like transphobia and misogyny
01:22:18.660and racism like i'm just gonna say it it becomes an impossible standard because which is it is she
01:22:26.740irrelevant and not a real internet celebrity? Or is she hyper privileged and unable to ask people1.00
01:22:33.400for help and sympathy and empathy? The reality is these people just don't like her and they are
01:22:39.240grasping at straws to justify their dislike of her, which is probably in at least some of these
01:22:45.640cases rooted in bigotry. I also, I do not, this is not exclusive to TikTok, but something about
01:22:52.640tiktok culture makes people so mean like i see other platforms actually trying to replicate
01:23:00.740whatever is in the secret sauce at tiktok that makes people so mean because instagram reels have
01:23:05.780been doing this thing for a while now where they specifically take like the meanest comment and
01:23:10.260put it at the top of the comment section yes regardless of how many likes it has yes and
01:23:14.540they're trying to replicate this culture which is already very successful on tiktok where people are
01:23:20.540just like heartless and this is why i also don't like tiktok i cannot spend that much time on there
01:23:25.580i'm like there's something wrong with all of you i'm sorry well i mean i you know i do kind of get
01:23:30.840it though because it is famously one of the biggest issues with our society is that everyone's too nice
01:23:35.620it's just like yeah i don't know people are always trying to like clap back isn't even the
01:23:45.400right word. Like people are always trying to find something to pick at in these comment sections
01:23:51.100because it gives them a boost. Like it makes them get a lot of internet clout. And they like that
01:23:58.040feeling, but it is very antisocial and it is very conservative. Amidst the online pylon, people also
01:24:06.580unearthed old videos of Jules LeBron that she posted in 2022 while living in poverty when she
01:24:14.280made a GoFundMe to buy a car because she was getting, as she says, continually harassed
01:24:20.440on public transit for being a transgender woman.
01:24:24.000I'm a trans woman who takes public transportation every day.
01:24:27.340I have to work and I haven't been working for a month or so now.
01:24:30.880And because because I'm trans, because it's so hard to get a job when you're trans and
01:24:35.320I finally got a job and I have to take public transportation.0.91
01:25:08.920Also, there was all, throughout all of this,
01:25:11.080there was a lot of misgendering on all of the commentary coverage of it which lends itself to
01:25:16.540my conclusion that so much of this is her being trans but anyway why are they acting like being
01:25:23.860trans is a disability like hello oh she's done this before and perhaps my personal favorite
01:25:33.360she never once thought to sell that doll collection for money oh these posts each have0.83
01:25:41.560over 6 000 likes the one of like why are they misgendering acting like being trans as a
01:25:49.440disability are you are you alive right now like what are you talking about trans people are
01:25:56.520currently the most legislated group in the united states what are we talking about here
01:26:01.920In some states, trans people can't drive because if they're driving with a license that was legal like six months ago, they'll go to jail where they'll be forcibly detransitioned in prison.
01:26:12.660Being trans is a massive systemic barrier to overcome, much like a disability.
01:26:19.940Jules is not acting like being trans is a disability.
01:26:22.300Jules is a trans person dealing with modern genocidal life towards trans people.
01:26:28.280Yeah, I think if you are on social media hanging out and find yourself in community with someone making fun of a trans woman for wanting a car so she can avoid public harassment on the subway, you might be part of a right-wing smear campaign.0.51
01:27:40.800And then followed that up with a post that has currently over 100,000 likes on TikTok, where he says...
01:27:47.880says today we're at the dentist i'm paying for my own teeth cleaning it's very demure very mindful
01:27:53.700i'm not like the other girls i don't expect my entire audience of blue-collar nine-to-five
01:27:57.680workers to pay for my 45 000 smile i'm very cutesy i'm very respectful i really do not like
01:28:04.540that person welcome to the bit fruity podcast francesca ramsey what do you think the odds are
01:28:12.740that jeffree star scheduled a dentist appointment just so he could film this tiktok being mean to
01:28:19.020jules lebron because he knew it would do numbers quite high given how infrequently the average
01:28:23.780person goes to the dentist i think there is a very high probability of that being the case he's a
01:28:28.600professional bully god i don't even know where to start with jeffree star it's been mind-blowing to
01:28:34.020see his rebrand and it just confirms what i've said many times before that cancel culture is not0.93
01:28:39.140real because this is someone who has a long history of saying absolutely despicable, hateful,
01:28:46.800racist things. And he continues, he's like a cockroach. He just continues to proliferate1.00
01:28:52.560regardless. And the fact that he would fix his mouth to chime in on this just rings as so
01:28:59.400disingenuous, clean and take care of your own house before you speak on anybody else truthfully.0.96
01:29:06.420And it's frustrating to me how many people look at somebody who has a long history of stealing from Black women, from being a transphobe while wearing a bust-down lace front.0.96
01:29:47.380Because you're not getting ahead by slamming Jules LeBron.
01:29:52.040And it's just frustrating to me to see people who should know better kiki-ing in his comments.
01:29:58.280A hundred percent. Jeffrey Starr has like a 20-year history of bullying and being accused of sexual violence against a litany of people, including trans and gender non-conforming individuals.
01:30:13.880Since the days of MySpace, Jeffrey Starr has been bullying trans people to the point of self-harm and attempted suicide.
01:30:22.220This is just part of that history. This is what Jeffrey Starr does.
01:30:25.260Jeffrey builds his career and his following off of harassing marginalized people,
01:30:53.760Yes. And I was like, who is buying their 50th Jeffree Star hand mirror? And I would go in the replies and look at the fans who were posting pictures where they would have like 50 of these hand mirrors on their walls and like looking into their accounts a little bit.
01:31:08.720And it was almost all people from very, very low income backgrounds, people who were on disability, people who were living in mobile homes.
01:31:19.820That was Jeffree Star's and maybe still is Jeffree Star's primary audience.
01:31:24.680So when he gets on here and is like, I don't ask people from low income backgrounds for money.
01:31:32.560That is your whole life and has been for decades.
01:31:35.140Jeffrey Starr to me keeps himself relevant by making the worst type of content. He investigates
01:31:43.520who is already being hated and then always makes content adding to the pylon. He's not even
01:31:51.080creative enough to start his own misogynistic hate campaign. He always waits until he can find out
01:31:58.640where popular opinion already is and who it's popular to rag on and creates viral content
01:32:05.680based off of that momentum. And the people that he's sending hate towards are, like you said,
01:32:11.660most often women of color, trans women of color. He's been doing this for decades.
01:32:16.480And when Jeffree Star goes on TikTok every day and begs for gifts, what is that if not begging
01:32:25.780people for money. But moreover, when Jeffree Star is building a fortune, a multi-million dollar
01:32:32.620fortune, selling his followers makeup, makeup, which is famously one of the most marked up
01:32:40.100products in retail. Is that not begging your followers for money? That you're selling them
01:32:45.620a lipstick that costs X dollars to make and you're selling it for 20 times more?
01:32:50.140who's fleecing who and for how much and what's jeffrey spending his money on designer clothes
01:32:57.060six-figure hush money payouts to accusers of sexual violence like jeffrey star is one of the
01:33:02.920most despicable influencers i have ever encountered and the fact that he gets to take the moral high
01:33:10.580ground and people on tiktok like give him that ability eat it up sickening and not in the fun
01:33:17.360way. Yeah, exactly. And the last thing I cannot not say this when people like Jeffree Star and
01:33:25.100other influencers say that Jules is specifically asking an audience of minimum wage and low income
01:33:31.500and working class people in her audience. That's not the truth, Ellen. You know who else is in
01:33:37.260Jules audience? The six figure white collar advertising marketing workers who watch her0.96
01:33:45.340content to try to find new catchphrases to make millions of dollars off of. Some of the people
01:33:52.320watching these TikToks who have the opportunity to donate are the ones who capitalize on these
01:33:57.940people and don't give them a dime and enjoy life that is so much more privileged than the very
01:34:04.740people whose work they exploit. So those people are also in the audience of these TikToks.
01:34:10.220Yeah. To bring this home, it's like if you are on the side of some sort of controversial Internet issue and you find yourself next to Jeffree Star, I don't like to make blanket statements, but you're on the wrong side, my friend. You are literally a vulture.
01:34:26.360So what is the point of this all? Why are we here today? I think we fleshed out a lot of topics, but I think I just want to round it out by saying like we all need help.
01:34:36.780And I don't literally mean every single person in America, but like most people in America,
01:34:41.360most people in this country can't afford what they need or would be bankrupted if something
01:34:49.540The average ambulance ride in the U.S. costs between $1,200 and $1,400.
01:34:55.100A hospital bed for one night averages over $3,000, but can surpass $10,000 when you factor
01:35:05.240and doctors, tests and medicines. An emergency room visit averages between fifteen hundred and
01:35:11.740three thousand dollars. Can a test. Had to take my boyfriend to the emergency room very recently.
01:35:18.280A traumatic experience. Trauma compounded when they when you're literally still sitting in a
01:35:23.600stretcher and they tell you how much you owe. Yes. Yep. I have put my friend in an Uber to go to the
01:35:29.400hospital instead of an ambulance. Like these are just experiences that we share as Americans that
01:35:35.000should never happen to anyone think that jules lebron shouldn't have ever needed that 45 0000.91
01:35:42.980mouth reconstruction in the first place because it was her fault for getting addicted to drugs0.86
01:35:47.780okay the national average price of a 30-day rehab program is 12 500 we all need a better safety net
01:35:59.560We all need help. And you are submitting to an American exceptionalist right wing bootstraps capitalist bullshit mentality when you insist that someone is your foe or beneath you for asking for help, which you can simply ignore instead of acknowledging the systems, the medical, the cultural systems that led the person to request help in the first place.
01:36:27.420Mm-hmm. And that's why every single time y'all start talking about, we need to do a worker strike.0.89
01:36:32.880I'm like, y'all will snitch on your neighbor because their music was too loud. Y'all are not
01:36:38.600trying to work with anybody. Y'all will dog pile a trans woman that you don't even know because she0.97
01:36:43.580had the nerve to say she was struggling. But then suddenly when something happens in the world,
01:36:49.260people are like, why aren't Americans? Why aren't we banding together? It's because you don't know
01:36:53.880how to build community in the smallest ways. And then it magnifies, it really starts with
01:37:01.120taking care of your own community and being able to pour into each other and offer grace sometimes
01:37:06.540to someone that you don't know, or you might not like or vibe with personally, but just to recognize
01:37:11.800like, yeah, we're all in this together, high school musical six, you know, like it's not
01:37:16.080helping us to start squabbling when the powers that be are the real ones that continue to profit
01:37:21.980and hold us down. We are at a real tipping point right now. And I know it's easy to think of like
01:37:28.140all of the past several decades of American history as a big tipping point, but
01:37:32.620this is the most influential election of our lives. We're going to vote, vote, vote. Sorry,
01:37:39.200sorry. But it's like, there is an unprecedented level of momentum right now behind DSA candidates,
01:37:46.660behind progressive values, behind initiatives like universal healthcare and a universal basic
01:37:53.100income. These are ideas that are growing more and more popular by the day. How convenient that on
01:38:00.700billionaire-owned tech platforms, these movements to distract and deflect from these causes and
01:38:07.400instead focus all our rage and energy on the very marginalized folks themselves who are suffering
01:38:12.460is so popular wake up sheeple like we need to be united behind these ideals now and that
01:38:21.440is what billionaire oligarchs are terrified of that's so true0.98
01:38:25.180and fuck jeffree star and fuck jeffree star every day should we just start ending the podcast with0.99
01:38:33.460that yeah fuck jeffree star and we'll see you next time stay fruity1.00
01:38:40.260i love you i'll see you next time and fuck jeffree star1.00
01:38:45.980kat and francesca where can people find more of your work kat i know you have a big announcement0.96
01:38:57.760i do just a few days ago i launched my very own youtube channel it is at kat tembarge the first
01:39:06.480episode features matt and i talking about britney spears and i know a lot of a bit fruity listeners
01:39:12.840are already over there and thank you so much to this community it means so much to me um and you
01:39:19.000can also find me at my newsletter spitfirenews.com and at kat tembarge on most of these platforms
01:39:26.160and francesca where can people find more of what you're up to and they really should you are
01:39:32.380such a fabulous presence online. I'm Cheska Lee, C-H-E-S-C-A-L-E-I-G-H, all across social media.
01:39:38.980I also have a podcast, Let Me Fix It, right here exclusively on YouTube. And yeah, that's it. Matt,
01:39:46.000this was so cool. You are a delightful host and someone that I've enjoyed for so long online.
01:39:52.420Please don't be a stranger. I would love to come back or find another way for us to collaborate.
01:39:56.500Oh, you're the best. And thank you so much, my dear listener for tuning in today. I really
01:40:04.920appreciate it. This was growing in my body like a black hole of a bacteria, parasitic infection
01:40:14.960that I needed to talk about because I was getting so frustrated with what I was seeing online,
01:40:20.660because I think that we could all do ourselves,