Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: TikTok reacts to Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, Billie Eilish addresses Taylor Swift "shade" & Halley Kate puncher is arrested

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: TikTok reacts to Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, Billie Eilish addresses Taylor Swift "shade" & Halley Kate puncher is arrested · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday to Thursday. 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 to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  Oh my God, this has felt like a seriously long time coming.
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  I am so excited to be bringing you guys my daily podcast.
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  I've been thinking about doing a daily podcast now for quite a
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  while. For honestly a couple of years
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  some of my favorite podcasts have been daily podcasts.
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  Sorry I just ran up my stairs 'cause I'm like running late to
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  get this going and now I'm like, so out of breath.
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  But yes, I have been thinking about doing a daily podcast for
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  a long time. It just never really made sense.
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  And then now with the opportunity to be kind of doing
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  things on my own, in my own schedule, on my own program, I
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  just thought, why not? Why not bring you guys the news
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  every single day for Internet culture?
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  So the way that this will work is Monday to Thursday, with the
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  exception obviously of this week because it was Easter.
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  But Monday to Thursday I will bring you between one and three
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  stories. So these will be stories that
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  are on the Internet, on TikTok, on YouTube and the creator
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  economy, social media, whatever it is today.
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  I do have three stories for you guys because it's a long weekend
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  and it's the first episode. I wanted to like kick it off
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  with a bang. But yes, that will be the
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  schedule every single day. It will be like the top story or
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  two or three that you need to know from the day before.
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  As you guys know, if you've listened to our podcast for a
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  long time, like sometimes there's so much news happening
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  and sometimes there's not a lot. So that's kind of what the
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  general plan will be. And the episodes will be between
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  10 and 15 minutes and they will be much chattier, much more off
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  the cuff than Infinite Scroll. If you listen to Infinite
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  Scroll, then you'll have already heard all of this over the last
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  couple of weeks with me teasing Mini Scroll.
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  But yes, that is the plan. So I am so, so, so excited to be
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  doing this. Please, if you like this
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  episode, if you like the idea of mini Scroll, a daily podcast, it
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  will mean so much to me. If you could rate, review and
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  subscribe, it will help my podcast grow, the YouTube
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  channel grow. I'm going to be posting all of
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  these episodes as well on Tiktok on our infinite scroll podcast
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  Tiktok. So that will be like 10 minutes
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  from the episode. Ideally these episodes will be
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  10 minutes long, but sometimes I'm sure they'll be over,
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  especially if I end up talking about like content that I
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  watched or whatever. But anyways, they'll like bulk
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  of the episode. They'll like a meat of the
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  episode will be on Tiktok every single day as well.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys today is that
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  Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is causing a divide on TikTok.
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  So on March 29th, Beyoncé released her 8th studio album
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  Cowboy Carter, the 2nd installment in her trilogy of
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  albums. Interesting tidbit here.
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  Beyoncé said she originally planned to release Cowboy Carter
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  ahead of Renaissance in 2022, but the quote heaviness of the
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  pandemic LED her to change the order of albums.
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  In a statement on Instagram, Beyoncé said that Cowboy Carter
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  took her five years to create and that the album was quote
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  born out of an experience that I had years ago when I did not
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  feel welcomed and it was very clear that I wasn't.
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  Though she didn't say exactly what this experience was, it's
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  likely she's referring to her 2016 appearance at the CMA
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  Awards where she performed daddy lessons off her album Lemonade
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  alongside the Dixie Chicks, who are now known as the Chicks.
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  Beyoncé received racist backlash for this performance, and these
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  racists also called to boycott the CMA S after her performance.
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  The CMA S wiped all mention of Beyoncé from their website.
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  Though Beyoncé finished her Instagram post by saying, quote,
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  this ain't a country album, this is a Beyoncé album.
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  Many fans see this album as a response to that racist
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  experience. Despite sharing this experience
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  with us, Tik Tokers are at it with the rage baits.
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  Now, I don't want to go too much into what people are
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  specifically saying about the album because that's like really
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  not the point. But for the context of this
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  story, what you need to know is that there has been a lot of
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  comparison between Cowboy Carter and Tortured Poets Department,
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  which is Taylor Swift's new album that is not even out yet.
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  OK, so creator Hope Sloop discussed this on TikTok.
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  I don't want to take credit for this opinion, but comparing
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  Beyoncé's album to Taylor Swift's, which we haven't even
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  heard yet, is so dismissive of what Beyoncé literally just told
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  us on her Instagram post. She told us that the album was
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  born out of feeling ostracized and not welcomed in a certain
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  space, and that space presumably being the whitewashed world of
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  country music. So comparing her and her album
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  to Taylor, who is a white girl with country music origins after
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  she just released this incredibly vulnerable body of
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  work and opened up about the experience that inspired that
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  body of work. Like we're literally proving her
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  point here. So you are the reason that she
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  made this album. Stop it.
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  Stop comparing Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
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  It feels so off. It's so icky and is so
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  inappropriate, especially in the context of what Beyoncé has told
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  us about this album and comparing it to an album that
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  doesn't even fucking exist yet. The next story is that Billie
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  Eilish is facing backlash for comments she made in a new
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  Billboard article. I have a really hard time saying
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  Billboard billboard. I'm actually working on my
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  pronunciation and how I speak on the podcast because it's so
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  freaking annoying. Anyways, Billy Eilish and her
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  mother were profiled by Billboard about their
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  sustainability initiatives. The piece was definitely press
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  for her joint project with Reverb, which is called the
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  Music Decarbonization Project, which quote, aims to ultimately
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  eliminate carbon emissions created by the music industry.
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  The profile was published over the weekend and the singer
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  immediately faced backlash for allegedly throwing shade at
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  Taylor Swift. Again, why do all roads lately
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  lead back to Taylor Swift? So she said in this article,
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  quote we live in this day and age where for some reason it's
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  very important to some artists to make all sorts of vinyl and
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  packaging, which UPS the sales and UPS the numbers and gets
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  them more money and gets them more.
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  I can't even express to you how wasteful it is.
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  It is right in front of our faces and people are just
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  getting away with it left and right.
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  And I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out
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  of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try
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  to involve everybody in my team and being sustainable.
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  And then it's some of the biggest artists in the world
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  making fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have a
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  different unique thing just to keep you buying more.
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  It's so wasteful and it's irritating to me that we're
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  still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and
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  you care that much about money making and it's all your
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  favorite artists doing that shit.
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  She kind of popped off there. Like it's literally so true.
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  That was a criticism when Taylor first announced her new album
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  and then she started immediately releasing these new additions.
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  I think she has four or five now that she's released.
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  And you know, her comments, honestly, Like her comments have
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  been turned off on Taylor Swift, like the official Taylor Swift
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  Instagram. But Taylor Nation have the
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  comments turned on and people are just flooding those
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  comments. Just saying, like, this is so
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  wasteful. Like even fans being like, I'm a
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  huge swifty, but this just feels like a cash grab.
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  I'm just going to wait for the deluxe edition.
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  I'm just going to wait for the stream on Spotify.
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  Like, this is so unnecessary. So this is definitely part of a
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  bigger conversation that people have been having not just about
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  Taylor Swift, but, you know, celebrities in general.
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  But this is definitely like, there's a big spotlight on
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  Taylor Swift right now with her private jet stuff.
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  And now all of, like, her different album releases.
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  So this quote by Billy got the Swifties up in arms, thinking
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  Billy was going after Taylor, given, like I said that so many
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  of her albums have numerous additions with different vinyls,
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  packaging, and merch associated. And then yesterday Billy took to
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  Instagram to address the backlash.
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  She wrote an Instagram Stories quote.
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  OK, so it would be awesome if people would stop putting words
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  into my mouth and actually read what I said in that Billboard
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  article. I wasn't singling anyone out.
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  These are industry wide systemic issues and when it comes to
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  variants, so many artists release them, including me,
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  which I clearly state in the article The climate crisis is
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  now and it's about all of us being part of the problem and
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  trying to do better. Sheesh.
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  I mean, yeah, I think that's fair.
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  I think it's actually pretty great that somebody who is as
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  successful as Billy in the music industry is having these
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  conversations, whether it's kind of like PRE or not, whatever.
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  I think drawing attention to them and making fans consider
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  what their faves are kind of doing and the impact that the
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  music industry has on the environment, which is massive.
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  We actually talked a little bit about that on our Taylor Swift
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  episode a few weeks ago with Crystal.
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  But yes, like, I think it's actually quite impactful for it
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  to come from somebody like Billy because she is so popular, she's
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  so successful, she's top of her game, and she's very culty.
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  Like, she has, like that Gen. Z fan base that every artist is
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  constantly trying to get. OK?
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  And the last story that I have for you guys is the man who
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  allegedly punched women in the face in New York City has been
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  arrested after a viral TikTok video.
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  So last week, TikTok influencer Hallie Kate posted a series of
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  videos sharing that she had been punched in the face while
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  walking on the sidewalk in Chelsea in New York City.
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  Hallie said she was looking at her phone when the attack
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  happened. Quote you guys, I was literally
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  just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face, she
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  said while showing like a big goose egg on her forehead.
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  She said, Oh my God, it hurts so bad I can't even talk.
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  Literally I fell to the ground and now this giant goose egg is
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  forming. She also said when she fell to
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  the ground that she blacked out for a second and the man was
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  like standing over her screaming at her and it seemed to be that
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  he was very irritated that she was on her phone.
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  Halley's video has shed light on at least twelve other posts by
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  women over the past month on TikTok, claiming that the same
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  thing happened to them while walking in New York City.
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  One day after Halley's video went viral, the NYPD announced
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  that they had arrested a man in connection with her assault, 40
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  year old Skiboki Stora, who has also built himself a TikTok
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  presence primarily through videos where he intentionally
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  harasses and follows women seemingly in an effort to scare
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  them. So it does seem in this case
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  with all the women coming forward that there is more than
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  one puncher, like quote UN quote, but I think he is a
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  frequent perpetrator and obviously the content that he
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  posts publicly for people to see is already super scary, super
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  problematic. However, I wanted to touch
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  really quickly on the reception that Hallie received for posting
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  this because basically she posted like a few different
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  videos talking about the experience and then sharing like
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  the follow up of you know, her going to the police station, her
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  going to urgent care, all this stuff.
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  And then I think it was either the same day or was the next
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  day. She posted a video kind of
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  making light of the situation, like she was on the street
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  pretending to walk basically, like, without using her phone.
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  And I I don't have the exact video here, but I think the
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  caption said something like me, you know, walking undistracted,
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  aware of my surroundings or whatever, 'cause that was like,
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  the issue that this man had is that she was on her phone,
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  apparently. Or that's the issue that he's at
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  least claiming that he has. It's obviously just like an
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  excuse to, you know, commit violence against women, but
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  whatever. So people have been really
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  unsupportive or like they don't really like the fact that she's
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  been making fun of it. And it was so quick.
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  And I saw like her, her comments just blew up with people being
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  like, this is way too soon, Is this even real if you're already
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  making fun of it and all this stuff.
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  And to that, I just feel like it's obviously real, like this
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  man, like they took, they found security footage of him, that's
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  how they arrested him. So it obviously did happen.
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  I think it's really fucked up to like question if we think that
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  happened to her or not. But I think we can't really
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  police how people deal with situations like this.
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  Like if you were randomly attacked like that, so violently
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  in the street as a woman, I think it would take a really
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  long time to actually process what had happened to you.
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  And I think it's OK to make jokes about things like that
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  when it's at your own expense and it's like it's something
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  that happened to you. I think it's part of her, like
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  coping, it's part of her processing.
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  Obviously she took to TikTok to share the whole thing.
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  Anyways, we feel like we can police how we expect people to
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  react to things that happened to them.
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  And if they react in a way that we feel uncomfortable with, or
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  we feel like we wouldn't do it that way, then automatically,
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  oh, they're a liar. This doesn't add up to me.
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  This must not be true. This was all just for clout and
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  attention. And I think the naysayers, they
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  have put been put to bed, like put to rest, put to bed,
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  whatever that saying is because obviously he has been arrested.
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  And I don't think there's any questions anymore if this
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  actually happened or not. But the initial reaction to
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  Hallie, like making light of this just rubbed me the wrong
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  way. So I think that's something to
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  think about, like when there's these kind of conspiracies going
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  on, on TikTok about, you know, is this really true or not?
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  Like, it's it's valid to question if what we see online
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  is real or not, if it's just rage bait, if it's click bait,
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  whatever. But I think there needs to be an
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  element of empathy there as well.
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  And we need to consider like, yes, just because she might not
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  be reacting the way that we would react in that situation
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  doesn't mean that it's not true. OK, OK, Well, that is it for the
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  first episode of Mini Scroll. Thank you guys so much for
• 13:43
  listening. Please remember to rate, review
• 13:45
  and subscribe. It helps me so much.
• 13:48
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
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  Bye.