Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Daus Mendoza clothing line, Hawk Tuah x Twitch, celebrities for free speech + Tai Lopez ponzi scheme

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MINI SCROLL: Daus Mendoza clothing line, Hawk Tuah x Twitch, celebrities for free speech + Tai Lopez ponzi scheme · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like
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  today. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  You'll notice that I'm in a blazer today and we know what
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  that means. I had some type of work event.
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  Annabelle and I got to go to the Governor General's House here in
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  Sydney this morning, which was really cool.
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  It was for an event with Plan International Australia.
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  It was to celebrate International Day of the Girl
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  and highlight this year's quote critical theme, they're calling
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  it, of reducing and preventing child early and forced marriage.
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  It was a very important event. It was really cool be invited as
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  progressive media and I felt a little bit out of my depth in
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  that room. Annabelle like definitely fitted
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  more than me. But it was really awesome and
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  we're so grateful to be invited and to be included in that.
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  And it was so cool to see the Governor General and be at her
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  house. Before I get into the stories
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  for today, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  Spotify star ratings by the end of the year.
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  OK. The first story that I have for
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  you guys is that Douse Mendoza has launched a clothing line and
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  received some not so great feedback.
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  And there has been a bit of back and forth between him, his fans
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  and now some responses. So Douse Mendoza is a beauty
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  influencer who is super popular on TikTok.
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  He has over 5 million followers. And he is often described as
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  like the next Gen. James Charles.
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  He like speaks and kind of performs like him for the camera
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  and he even kind of looks like James like they he kind of does
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  his makeup like James similar hair.
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  It gives similar vibes. ANYWAYS, fans do love Douse and
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  he's been teasing that he was about to launch his own brand, a
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  clothing line called Douse Namic.
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  So the line launched and the feedback immediately was not
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  great. All items have the same design
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  and like saying on it basically. So it was a cap, a baby tee,
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  sweatpants and a sweatshirt. And they all have the same
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  design, like I said, and the same saying on it, which was
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  mean girl energy. And because of this, fans were
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  like, this is merch. Like this is not a clothing
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  line. This is like not a fashion line.
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  Like this is your merch. They also didn't like the
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  concept of mean girl energy. They thought it was kind of
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  cheesy and like not a great message.
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  They criticized the pricing. So he was initially charging
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  $120.00 for a hoodie, $80.00 for sweatpants, and $40.00 for a
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  baby tea and a cap. But I did want to point out
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  before I keep going that I thought it was really
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  interesting and show such a generational difference between
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  Gen. Z and millennials.
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  The fact that his audience really didn't like the mean girl
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  energy message. Because if an influencer
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  launched a line like this for millennials, like when we were
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  in our teens and maybe even early 20s, maybe not quite early
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  20s, but like definitely teens. Oh my God, we would have lost
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  our minds. We would have fucking loved
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  wearing something that said mean girl energy all over it.
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  It would have popped off anyway. The design had people saying
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  that it seemed like something you would find in the sail rack
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  at Forever 21. One positive thing that people
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  were saying like unanimously though, was that it did seem
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  like high quality clothing. Like it didn't appear that he
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  was trying to sell like fast fashion, like the quality.
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  The items looked really like thick or like, I don't know.
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  How do you describe clothes thick?
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  I was going to say hearty. That's definitely sounds wrong.
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  I don't know the material. It seemed really durable, I
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  guess. And yeah, maybe thick, I don't
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  know. OK, so Douse initially responded
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  to this feedback in a pretty defensive way.
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  He posted and deleted a TikTok in which he basically said that
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  she and has rotted everyone's brains.
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  Seen a lot of comments after I dropped my clothing brand.
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  Like Sheen has really fucked with a lot of you bitches
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  brains. Like it's crazy.
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  Like you guys don't even know the price of good quality
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  clothes anymore because all you know is fucking Sheen.
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  Your whole closet is fucking Sheen is actually insane and
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  your whole closet is fucking fast fashion.
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  Everybody's saying like oh the sweats are overpriced or oh the
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  sweat is overpriced. That's because it isn't fast
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  fashion. It is made to order.
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  Everything is made like with love, basically the same way my
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  FA has were made. It's the same way this is made.
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  Like I didn't fucking order a batch of clothes from China and
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  put my fucking logo on it and then I'm throwing it out.
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  No, it's here, made in the US, and it's made with like good
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  fucking quality, real material shit.
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  He deleted this so quickly and people were like, way to call
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  your followers poor. That's how a lot of people
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  interpreted that video. But now he has made two more
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  videos addressing the feedback and both were a lot more down to
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  earth and were received much better.
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  In his first response he said that he will be trying to bring
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  the prices down and he got defensive initially because he
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  found it really hard to receive negative feedback on something
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  that he'd been working so hard on.
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  And then he actually did lower the prices.
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  So he posted this on Instagram and then he made a follow up
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  video. He changed the prices from
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  $120.00 for a hoodie to $75. He brought the sweatpants down
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  to $50 and the tee and the hat down to $30.
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  In his video talking about this, he said this should have been
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  the pricing from the beginning. He wasn't allowed to price it
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  lower based on his partner. So he was kind of like, I guess
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  shifting the blame on to whoever has partnered with him on this
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  line saying like they were requiring me to charge this
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  much. But obviously after the
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  backlash, we have decided to go with this.
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  He said neither of them are making any profit from this
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  first drop. And he was like, I'm OK with
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  that. Like, I just want you guys to
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  get the clothing and to feel it and to try it and to love it.
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  I was not surprised to see a sweater from an influencer for
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  $120.00. But his response to the backlash
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  and the questions and whatever around or like, I guess just the
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  feedback in general around his line, Like if you're putting
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  something out there, unfortunately, I know you like
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  love it and you've worked so hard, but like you might not get
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  positive feedback. And I imagine it would be very
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  overwhelming, obviously, to get so much of it all at once.
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  But yes, I think that's where like he really went wrong there.
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  OK, the next story that I have for you guys is that Hawk to a
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  Girl is moving to Twitch. So Hayley Welsh, Hawk to a Girl,
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  has recently launched a show on Twitch titled Talk to a Live.
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  She shared this news in a recent interview with People magazine.
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  And as the article reads, quote, she says she hopes she and her
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  fans can get closer through the new project since they'll both
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  be there together. I've said this once, I'm going
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  to say it again. Who the fuck is a fan of Haktua?
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  Like Haktua doesn't have fans like Annabelle and I were saying
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  today, like how how has she done this?
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  I know she appealed to like the bro vibes for a long time like
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  that. I mean, maybe that is still her
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  fan base, but like she really went into almost like manosphere
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  adjacent spaces, which I think was actually a very good move in
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  terms of marketing for her. But like I don't know how she's
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  still relevant. I also saw and I didn't watch it
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  all the way through, but I don't know if you guys have seen,
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  there's a TikTok that is like gaining some traction where an
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  actress is watching a movie or a show or something that she's was
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  supposed to be in. And she realizes while she's
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  being filmed for this TikTok because I think her friends were
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  filming her like reacting to seeing her scene and hooked to a
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  girl. Hayley Welsh replaced her in the
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  scene. That's like a, that would be a
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  low for me. That would be a tough pill to
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  swallow. OK, so the show on Twitch comes
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  off the back of her previous podcast called Talk to A.
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  Haley ended up taking an extended break from the podcast
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  after she found herself at the center of controversy when she
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  launched A crypto meme coin Hawk, which many categorized as
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  a pump and dump scheme. In the interview with People,
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  she shared that the podcast had become a little too much, and
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  this is what prompted her move to Twitch quote.
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  But running the podcast got a little much, says Welsh,
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  requiring her to travel from her house in Nashville to
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  California, where she'd bring on guests.
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  It wasn't fun anymore. So we're going to try something
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  different. All right?
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  She's not going away. And you know what?
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  I'll give her that. She has some tenacity, and I
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  will give her that. OK.
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  The next story that I have for you guys is that over 500
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  celebrities, including Billie Eilish and Gracie Abrams, have
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  joined forces to relaunch the committee for the First
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  Amendment. This is a bit more mainstream,
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  but you know, it's still relevant because there are a lot
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  of, like, Gen. Z Internet celebrities here.
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  So for context, the Committee for the First Amendment was a
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  group that was originally formed in 1947 during the Red Scare in
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  the US. It was made-up largely of
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  Hollywood actors, directors and writers who opposed the House on
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  American Activities Committee HUAC hearings into alleged
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  communist influence in the film industry.
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  The group worked to defend the rights of Hollywood
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  professionals who are being targeted for alleged communist
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  ties. Obviously, we are in a different
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  era now now, but the group has essentially reformed in response
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  to the increasing influence of the state and U.S. media.
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  This is specifically off the back of everything that happened
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  with Jimmy Kimmel, where the talk show was suspended over
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  comments that Kimmel made about the murder of Charlie Kirk.
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  Many have described the suspension as a violation of
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  free speech. Reportedly, Jane Fonda is
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  leading the new committee for the 1st Amendment.
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  The group has already issued a statement and part of it reads
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  Quote. The federal government is once
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  again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in
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  the government, the media, the judiciary.
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  I'm not even going to re say that judiciary.
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  I don't know you guys. I am real.
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  I mean, if you listen to this podcast, you know, like I
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  struggle to pronounce certain words, anonymity.
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  It was like my OP for literally years when I did this podcast
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  with Jordy, I could never say that word.
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  I eventually learned and now I can say it at the drop of a hat.
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  Judiciary, academia and the entertainment industry, we
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  refuse to stand by and let that happen.
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  The ability to criticize, question, protest and even mock
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  those in power is foundational to what America has always
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  aspired to be. I mean, yeah, there's got to be
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  free speech for everyone if there's free speech for some.
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  OK. The last story that I have for
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  you guys today, four stories today is that YouTube tied Lopez
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  has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme.
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  So Tai Lopez is a well known YouTube who became super famous
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  about 10 years ago for his here in my garage style ad that was
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  all over YouTube. So I'm sure you guys would have
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  seen the first like however many seconds of this ad.
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  It would run ahead of other videos and it was like him
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  showing a Lamborghini and then like his bookshelves.
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  The video currently has over 72 million views from it being
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  literally like I said at the beginning of like every video
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  like everywhere and this particular ad slash video
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  spawned tons of parodies at the time and he went on to be a
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  financial advice YouTube OK and have a pretty successful career
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  at that. He still has almost 3,000,000
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  followers. So keep that in mind because now
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  the USSEC has charged him and his business partners with
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  quote, conducting a series of fraudulent securities offerings,
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  misusing investor funds and making Ponzi like payments to
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  investors. So himself, his Co founder and
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  their chief marketing officer, they were running a company
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  called Retail E-commerce Ventures LLC.
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  And essentially what they did was buy quote, distressed brick
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  and mortar companies to flip them, basically turn them into
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  like successful online only brands.
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  The SEC says that they took more than $112 million from hundreds
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  of investors in fraudulent ways. They moved money between
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  investors to trick them into believing that they were making
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  money on their investment, like making dividends.
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  And they misappropriated $16.1 million in investor funds for
• 12:53
  personal use, a financial advice YouTube being charged with
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  running a Ponzi scheme. All right guys, well, that's it
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  for mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. By the way, I forgot to say this
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  at the top of the episode, but Monday is a public holiday here
• 13:09
  in Australia. So I will not talk to you on
• 13:11
  Monday. I, we will be off.
• 13:13
  I'm really in desperate need of a long weekend.
• 13:15
  So I'm very excited about that. I'm newly part of a book club
• 13:18
  and we are meeting on Wednesday and I have not started the book
• 13:21
  so I'm going to spend all weekend reading.
• 13:24
  Anyways, thank you so much for listening, I love you guys.
• 13:27
  Please rate, review, subscribe. I feel like I already said this,
• 13:29
  I'm sorry. Please Spotify * Venus and I
• 13:32
  will talk to you on Tuesday. Bye.