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The Technofascist Urge To Never Turn Down a Brand Deal

matt bernstein

462,369 views

Kylie Jenner is selling Meta Glasses that record people without their knowledge. Timothée Chalamet is selling Kalshi gambling addictions to teenage boys. Do a billion-dollar beauty mogul and the most bankable movie star of a generation really have to debase themselves like this? This week, Kat Tenbarge, Ed Ongweso Jr. and I waltz through the recent business exploits of Hollywood’s busiest couple. Therein lies stories of mass surveillance, legally dubious and politically corrupt virtual casinos, and good ole American greed.

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CHAPTERS
0:00 The Anti-Surveillance Surveillance Wedding
5:47 Did you not make enough money on Wonka.
24:47 Sponsor shoutout (not Kalshi yay)
29:02 That 2023 SHEIN Trip
39:17 Meta Glasses: FILM EVERYTHING. NOW.
55:56 The Original Surveillance Goggles
1:06:54 The Women Who Suffer
1:25:17 Meta Glasses’ Exploited Underbelly
1:40:39 Time to get your hammers, girls

20 Comments

@Ivana-kw2nf 2 months ago

I went on a date with a guy at the beginning of the year who showed up wearing meta glasses - at this point in time I had never seen them in person before and assumed they were normal glasses. He actually ended up proudly revealing what they were later in the evening and showed me photos he had taken of me throughout the night!! Genuinely terrifying

@MarquisOfHartington 2 months ago

I guess gambling with dad is the male equivalent of going on a diet with mom...you know, for family bonding.💀

@gothgirrrrrrrrl 2 months ago

They’re obviously using a women to promote the creeper glasses due to the pushback received because of countless men using them to creep on women.

@chunky-pika 2 months ago

matt: MSG
me: monosodium glutamate
matt: madison square garden
me: you know what that does make sense

@weeesssa 2 months ago

"Celebrities are assholes until proven otherwise" is a belief that has never yet failed me.

@jpegimage-x2h 2 months ago

A coworker of mine was venting about how much he hates hearing them called "pervert glasses", and five minutes later, while I was discussing plans for an anime convention trip with another coworker, he cut in to brag about all the candids he would snap of girls with his pervert glasses if he went to an anime convention. He still doesn't get why we all call them his $800 pervert glasses.

@OOOOOOOOOO-o8y 2 months ago

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an EXPLOITED PROLETARIAT but as TEMPORARILY EMBARRASSED MILLIONAIRES."- John Steinbeck - During the Great Depression

@Gorbgorbenson 2 months ago

Another benefit of gambling being restricted to physical spaces is that it allows people to walk away. Casinos are generally sparse enough in quantity that you kind of have to go out of your way to be present there. So if you walk away and go home, you arent under the temptation of gambling again. (This isn't saying casinos are good, but objectively they are better in this way).

With Kalshi, Polymarket and sports betting apps, you are effectively always at the casino, and one that can manipulate you into coming back in with big flashing signs. Those being the pressence among your other apps and notifications to come back. Sure those can be hidden and turned off, but there's always the back alley a short walk away leading onto the show floor.

@eldritchyarnbeing3295 2 months ago

all i can think of is this one post from r/amioverreacting about how this woman said she got a brazilian wax and didnt see until they were done that the wax tech was wearing meta glasses and she had a (completely justified) meltdown. meta glasses genuinely need to just disappear forever

@phoenix3992 2 months ago

"In the realm of new tech launches, nothing feels exciting anymore. I almost exclusively feel dread."
Me too brother. Me too.

@dabi332 2 months ago

So I work at an amusement park and I am constantly being filmed by people wearing the meta glasses. There have been multiple times that I have found videos of myself and my coworkers that we didn't even know were being taken.

@arisaema4444 2 months ago

These celebrities who are doing meta glasses advertisements wouldn't be caught dead spending time with people wearing them because they value their own privacy so much

@rrkaminski9 2 months ago

Once again: Timothée has always been that sort of guy. People just thought he was super artsy because his name is spelled that way

@rumis.dollsss.15 2 months ago (edited)

Let us be reminded that Japan makes all their phones have an audibly shutter sound that you cannot opt out to protect people from upskirting and being photographed against their will.

If they wanted to, they would.

Edit: People in the comments brought up how my original wording made it seem like people are disproportionately creepy in Japan. That was not my intention but I see how my wording passed along that message. I apologise. I moreso meant to say that if the government gave a fuck, they would do something about it.

@graup1309 2 months ago

The quote of the episode is: "They should have given Miyazaki a gun"

@thylacoleonkennedy7 2 months ago

I don't even want to think about the intersection between 'glasses that let you film people without their knowledge' and 'AI that lets you make explicit images based on photos of people'.

@leftielori1312 2 months ago

Women are lonely too, they just don't take it out on innocent people like men seem to.

@UnabashedDeerKing 2 months ago

I'm so tired. idk why but I'm thinking specifically about that person who filmed two young men ostensibly on a date, one was white and one was black, and insinuated that the white man looked like jeffrey dahmer because that god awful dahmer show had just come out. I remember seeing that and feeling so sick and confused about when the world got so comfortable filming strangers in public

@FranticCashew 2 months ago

Every single time I see "JUST&T" I think that this wedding was sponsored AT&T

@ninaa6307 2 months ago

And you know, if a Woman wears Meta glasses for protection or gathering evidence for sexual harassment, stalking , etc., or even when it just happens on the street (as it happens everywhere all the time), this type of evidence will probably be dismissed. Or the woman is charged, bc she recorded without consent (the irony). And that’s just the kind of society we live in.