Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Alex Reads Tarot impersonator, Alex Cooper x Alix Earle update + Chappell Roan on parenthood

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Alex Reads Tarot impersonator, Alex Cooper x Alix Earle update + Chappell Roan on parenthood · 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 through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:20
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
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  OK, first of all, we got a filter for the mic, so hopefully
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  that will help with some of the mouth sounds if you guys hear
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  those and don't like those. And this is the extent that we
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  can go to for now. So we can't afford to change our
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  studio location, the configuration of it.
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  We can't afford to get anyone in to help with like the sound
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  quality. I know we've had some
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  recommendations of getting like sound engineers and like we just
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  can't afford that. So this is what we can't afford,
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  a pop filter. I hope it helps.
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  The next thing I wanted to say is we had our podcast network
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  launch event party thing on Thursday and it went so well.
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  Thank you guys so much for the well wishes.
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  You guys can see photos of that on Instagram, on my Instagram
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  and on our community tab on YouTube.
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  Obviously, I knew it would all come together.
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  I know that's how it works. I know everything is really
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  stressful until like the minute that it starts and it all comes
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  together. But for real, it was so
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  stressful. Like I can't even tell you.
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  yet. The girls are amazing and there
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  will be 10 more weeks of high stakes episodes every Thursday
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  for you guys, so go subscribe. All right, let's get into the
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  stories for today. The first story that I have for
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  you guys. This is kind of niche, but I
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  feel there's like a lesson here for us.
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  So tarot creator Alex Reid's Tarot has been threatened with a
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  lawsuit over an online impersonator.
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  So Alex Reads Tarot is a very popular spiritual creator with
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  nearly 900,000 followers. She's based in Scotland I
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  believe, or at least somewhere in the UK, and she basically
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  does like daily tarot card readings and readings based on
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  Zodiac signs and things like that.
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  OK so a few days ago Alex came online crying saying that she
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  was being threatened with legal action over something she didn't
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  do. A man was threatening to sue her
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  or to take legal action something because his wife was
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  scammed by someone impersonating Alex.
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  And even though it was made clear to him that it was not
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  Alex who had scammed his wife, he was basically saying Alex was
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  at fault because she was being impersonated.
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  And he also said he was going to take this to like the US
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  Constitution, which it doesn't make any sense.
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  It was very clear that this man was like, unhinged, had not
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  sought any legal counsel yet and was just taking out, you know,
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  his frustrations on Alex, Alex's video, which has since been
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  taken down. It was so sad.
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  Like she was crying. She was like, I'm only 22.
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  And obviously she was worried that this was going to
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  basically, like, ruin her whole life.
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  I can't even tell you guys. Like, nothing is worse than
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  legal troubles. Like, it is soul crushing.
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  Anyway, so it's been a few days since then and it seems that she
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  has some legal advice and she's no longer kind of panicked about
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  all of this. Basically, she said she's
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  putting more stuff in place behind the scenes to prevent
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  scammers. But at the end of the day, she
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  was saying that there has to be some onus on the general public
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  or like users in general to do their due diligence before
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  sending people money online. For example, she did a video
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  where you could tell her she was like teaching us how to be able
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  to tell when it's a scammer account versus her account.
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  And like the scammer accounts, you can tell the videos have
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  been downloaded because they have the watermark on them.
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  They're poor quality. They don't have the right e-mail
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  address in the name, like compared to her e-mail address,
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  there are a lot of signs that it's not, you know, actually
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  her. So this is a really common
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  problem in spiritual talk slash like tarot talk and that whole
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  side of the Internet. I'm not kidding.
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  If you follow or engage with one of these accounts and some of
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  their videos, you will all of a sudden be followed by and
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  messaged by their scammer accounts.
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  And they will be like, you know, do you want a private reading or
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  like the cards told me to reach out to you.
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  Spirit guide told me to reach out to you.
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  They have a message for you and basically convince you to pay
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  the money to do like a quote UN quote private reading.
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  And that's why when you are on that side of TikTok, so many
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  those big creators will say, like, I will never reach out to
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  you. This is my only account.
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  You can only find me here. Like message me or like e-mail
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  me here. You know, I don't have any other
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  emails or any other accounts, whatever.
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  It's kind of like the TikTok version of those chainmail
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  emails that we would get where it's like, I'm a Nigerian Prince
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  and I need $10,000. Like stuff like that.
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  It's it's like similar to that. But I think with spiritual talk,
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  I imagine it could be even more predatory because the content
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  already kind of preys on people's vulnerabilities.
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  And like, I know a lot of creators on that side of the
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  Internet aren't doing it with malice.
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  Like, I understand that not everyone who is like reading
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  Tarot on TikTok is trying to be like predatory in their content,
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  but I think people seek out this type of content and engage with
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  this type of content when they are in a vulnerable or bad place
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  because it gives them some hope or guidance, right?
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  And so the scammers who are impersonating these creators and
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  reaching out to these followers, offering private readings or
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  whatever, it's a more vulnerable group of people than the
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  followings of like other types of creators if they were trying
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  to scam, I don't know, like the followers of like acquired style
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  or something. It's just like a different
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  demographic. But that's obviously why these
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  scams are so prevalent on spiritual talk because scammers
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  know that they can actually get something from the followers of
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  these accounts because those people, like I said, are kind of
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  in a vulnerable place sometimes. I do think we will unfortunately
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  start to see this more and more. And I'm interested to hear what
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  you guys think in terms of, like, where the onus lies,
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  because I agree with Alex to an extent that we need to have some
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  more literacy and ownership of like, what we are consuming
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  online and what we're believing and whatever.
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  And like, these creators can't necessarily be held responsible
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  for people impersonating them. But there's also, in my opinion,
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  a bit of onus on the fact that these creators are building
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  massive followings of essentially very vulnerable
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  people. So that inherently might pose
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  some problems for them, regardless if it was like
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  scamming or whatever. I think they're kind of playing
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  with fire like to begin with. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys, some more news about Alex's.
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  Alex Cooper has personally addressed Alex Earl and the
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  podcast drama and the Unwell Network and all of that for the
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  first time, the saga that truly never ends.
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  So off the back of one of the high stakes episodes actually
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  that was launched last week on the Alex Cooper Alex Earl Sophia
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  Franklin feuds, there is a new development in Alex Earl leaving
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  the Unwell Network. So last week, Alex Earl posted a
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  TikTok in which she revealed she would be taking a break from her
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  podcast. I have to put a pause on podcast
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  team right now for the foreseeable future.
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  Don't really want to get into the details of it all, and I
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  kind of can't get into the details of it all right now, but
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  I've loved it so, so much and I'm really proud of what I built
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  with the podcast and those of you who come back every week and
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  listen and watch. I love you so much and I don't
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  want to just like leave you astray and not leave you with
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  anything. And I also think I would lose my
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  mind. This LED fans to jump to
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  conclusions that Alex Cooper didn't let Alex Earl walk away
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  with her IP. So the IP for a podcast is
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  basically like your feed, like your RSS feed.
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  I mean, it can include other things too, but you know, the
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  most valuable would be like your back catalog and the actual feed
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  itself so that people don't have to go subscribe somewhere else
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  to hear your podcast. So it would be like the name Hot
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  Mess, like all the back catalog existing episodes, cover arts,
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  like all of that stuff. So Unwell may have owned the IP,
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  the rights to the IP of Hot Mess.
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  So when Alex Earl left Unwell, she may not have been allowed to
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  take the podcast with her basically, and she would have
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  had to start from scratch. That's what people assumed Alex
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  meant. People had a big issue with this
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  because as we know, Alex Cooper's whole thing in the Call
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  Her Daddy saga was that it was so important for her to keep the
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  IP. And that's actually what like
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  essentially broke her and Sophia up is that she highly
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  prioritized the ability to walk away with the IP, whereas Sophia
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  was highly prioritizing a paycheck in the now.
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  But now after being inundated with comments I imagine about
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  the hypocrisy of this all, Alex Cooper made a statement on her
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  Instagram story. Alex said hi I see your
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  comments. Alex not being able to podcast
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  has nothing to do with Unwell. I don't know why she can't slash
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  what's going on. Unwell gave her everything back.
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  She owns her IP, learned from the best and then she tagged
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  Dave Portnoy. As we know Dave Portnoy gave
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  Alex Cooper the IP to call her daddy after fulfilling her
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  contract. So now Alex Earl is doing vlogs.
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  I think that makes more sense for her.
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  Anyways, I have no idea what could be going on with with her
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  podcast, but I think the vlog route makes more sense for her
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  anyway. She's a much better storyteller
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  I think in my opinion in like a visual format.
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  So I wanted to talk about how Chapel Roan said all of her
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  friends who have kids are in hell.
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  So Chapel went on Call Her Daddy last week, and during one
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  question she had quite the controversial take when she
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  spoke about her stance on parenthood.
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  All of my friends who have kids are in hell.
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  I don't know anyone. I actually don't know anyone
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  who's like happy and has children.
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  At this age, OK, so I could come up this from so many angles, but
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  I was really thinking about like this episode would turn into
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  actually 3 hours long if I was to cover everything that I
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  wanted to say. So I'm going to cover it
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  exclusively from like Chapel saying her friends are in hell
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  and like the context of that. So for your information, I am
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  married, I'm 33, I have a dog, I own an apartment.
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  Like I am the target person to be having a child like I am like
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  in theory, like the person who should be having a child like
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  tomorrow. And because of that, I guess so
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  much content related to motherhood and I also get tons
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  of content related to child free women.
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  So Chapel's comments have really turned into this argument online
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  between parents, mostly mothers and child free people, mostly
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  child free women. And already there is so much
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  direction there between those two groups online, like
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  constantly. So now there's this trend where
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  women who are mothers are posting clips with, you know,
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  their kids or whatever, having the best time ever.
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  And they're putting chapels audio over top of it.
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  Or they're doing like a slideshow of photos of them like
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  child free, looking like sad, disheveled, whatever, and then
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  happy when they have their kids. And then the child free people,
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  especially those who make content about this are like, why
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  can't you just admit that being a parent is really hard?
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  Like there's so much negativity around there.
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  Like, you know, we're choosing not to have kids for a reason
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  because we see how hard it is. Whatever.
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  OK, So it's become like this whole thing, but something that
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  I think is missing from actually all of this like chapels take
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  the women who are like motherhood is magical and the
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  child free women who are like, I make this content to show women
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  that they have a choice and they don't need to become mothers and
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  they can have a fulfilling full life without that is the fact
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  that so many women do not have the privilege of realistically
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  not becoming a mother or like not prioritizing getting married
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  and having children. And I don't even mean from like
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  a reproductive rights perspective, but that's
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  obviously also included in this and like a whole other separate
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  conversation. But I just mean like, OK, if I'm
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  going to think about my experience, for example, I
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  actually don't have that many friends that have kids despite
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  being 33 years old. And a huge part of that is
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  because I grew up in a really affluent area.
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  And the women that I know growing up like my friends and
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  also the women like our our mothers and stuff like there was
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  not a priority or a focus on getting married and having
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  children. That was obviously like they're
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  still societal pressure from that.
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  But like in the context of our community, that was actually not
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  really prioritized. Like I was raised and my friends
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  were all raised around women who prioritized education,
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  prioritized, you know, building a career, financial
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  independence, traveling the world, experiencing things,
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  dating lots of people, figuring yourself out and having the
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  privilege to choose if you want to get married, when you want to
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  get married, if you want to have children and who you have those
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  children with, you have the privilege of choosing because
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  you have access to money and resources and education
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  yourself. You have the privilege of
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  choosing a partner who can be 5050 because you have time, you
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  have resources, you have money. So that's something that I think
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  is often missing from this is that for like my friends, I do
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  have children or even for like the mothers that I saw growing
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  up, my own mom, my friends mom's like they were not in hell.
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  But that's because they had access to things that gave them
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  privileges where they had the options to choose, like they
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  could choose how they had children when they had children,
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  what that looked like for them. And so same with my friends that
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  have kids now. Like, I'm sure they're in hell
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  sometimes. I'm sure it is hell.
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  I truly believe that having a child is the hardest thing that
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  anyone can do. Like, I really do believe that
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  to my core. And I believe that they are in
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  hell sometimes. But as a general kind of, you
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  know, blanket statement, no, I do not see a lot of women in my
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  life in hell all the time. Being a mother, I see much more
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  commonly depictions of what I'm seeing on TikTok of these moms
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  like loving their babies and having a great time and having
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  like equal partnership and education and access to
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  resources and help and money and family and like whatever.
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  And that's because of like the socio economic circumstances
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  that we all grew up in and therefore have kind of moved
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  through the world with. Because I think for a lot of
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  women in the world who don't have access to those things and
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  choices like that, you know, motherhood probably is hell.
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  But just because it's hell also doesn't mean that they wouldn't
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  do it again. And I do feel like this is an
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  insane comparison, but I'm going to compare having the business
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  to having a child. OK, Don't come for me, parents.
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  But you know, I look at like entrepreneurship and it is like
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  actually hell. Like, it is like the worst thing
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  I've ever done, but it's also like the best thing I've ever
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  done. And you know, if you asked me
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  about like, if I would ever do it again, even though I have had
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  the lowest moments of my entire life doing it, I would say 100%
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  yes every single time. And if you asked me, should I
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  start my own business, I would kind of be like, Oh, my God.
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  But like, maybe not. But I would also think about all
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  the amazing things that have come from this.
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  And I would be like, yeah, like if you have an itch, scratch it,
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  like chase it because it's going to be worth it.
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  Even if you crash and burn, what happens along the way eventually
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  will be worth it. So there is also complexity.
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  Like, sometimes I find these like, child free accounts or
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  just like women who are child free online talk about like, you
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  know, it's so one-dimensional the way that they look at
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  motherhood. And they say, like, you know,
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  all we hear is negative stories about motherhood.
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  Like, it sounds horrific. And yeah, we do hear a lot of
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  negative stories about motherhood.
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  But at the same time, like, can we not appreciate that it's a
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  much more nuanced, like complex experience than just, you know,
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  this one moment in time? I'm filming a video talking
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  about how being a mother is so hard, but there's so much more
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  underneath the surface that happens.
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  It's probably impossible to describe.
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  Like genuinely, it's probably it's, I find that with the
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  business, I can't even imagine what it's like to have a child.
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  Like, you know, to describe the experience of being an
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  entrepreneur, to describe the experience of parenthood and how
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  complex that is. So I also think it is productive
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  of some of the mothers that are showing off like the most
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  amazing parts of parenthood, motherhood and in this trend or
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  whatever and saying it's like amazing, it's like the best
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  thing I've ever done. But then of course, like I said,
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  I think everybody could use a little bit of like thinking a
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  little bit deeper about this, some critical thinking around
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  the comments that Chapel made based on like where she's from,
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  where her friends that she's like referring to are probably
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  still living. You know, she's quite young
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  still to have children or like for her friends to be having
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  children. So, you know, I think all of
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  that, like cultural context as well is really important when
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  you're thinking about comments that people are making about
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  having children and how hard it is.
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  I've also seen some insane comparisons about people being
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  like, oh, you know, when you say like your job, like being a
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  neurosurgeon was so hard, like I could never do it or whatever,
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  Like really whatever is like a really hard job, I could never
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  do it. And then, you know, you never
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  hear people who are in that job get offended by that.
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  And I understand why people are like comparing those things.
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  It's like, you know, when you say like motherhood seems so
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  hard, like I could never. And then moms get upset and
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  they, you know, start making videos like this and stuff.
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  But like a child is not like a job.
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  Like it's not something you're clocking into.
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  It's not a career. It is, it can be like, of
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  course, being a mother is a job and it is a career, but it's
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  also, you know, nurturing, taking care of teaching, growing
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  like just everything around like a human being.
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  Like it is so much more complex than just comparing it to
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  another job. So it's not a one to one again.
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  And I think it's OK for us to do hard things and complain about
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  doing those hard things and not tell people like, well, this was
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  your choice. Like you did this to yourself.
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  Because like when I think about how sorry now I'm just like on a
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  tangent, you guys, I'm sorry. I didn't want to like tell you
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  all of my thoughts, but if I think about the business,
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  anytime I talk about how difficult it is to my friends,
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  family, whoever, even you guys, all the comments, everything
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  that everyone ever says is like, keep going.
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  You're doing such an amazing job.
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  I know it's hard, but like it's going to pay off whatever.
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  But when moms talk about how difficult it is, a choice they
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  made, just like me, I chose to start this business, a choice
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  they made, they get shit on and told like, well, this is what
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  you signed up for. This is what you chose.
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  Not me out here. Like defending all of the moms
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  right now. I don't even know where I'm
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  going with this. Like my thoughts are so
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  scattered because I'm very impassioned clearly.
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  And yes, I do not think it's helpful when child free people,
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  including myself, talk about how, you know, they're trying to
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  show what life could be like for women if they choose not to have
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  children. Because that is such a small
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  subset of the population of women around the world who
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  realistically have the privilege to make that choice, who are
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  educated enough, affluent enough, you know, don't exist in
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  certain cultures where it's like completely like they'd be
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  completely shunned if they didn't get married and have
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  children, like whatever it is. And so sometimes I also feel
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  like that's really reductive. OK, I need to stop.
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  I need to stop. I don't really have one final
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  point there. Like, I don't know how to tie
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  this all up. I just think.
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  The fighting between these groups of people is so
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  frustrating. I am.
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  So I'm constantly on this side of the Internet because of
• 20:11
  obviously like my demographic and stuff.
• 20:14
  And I just think it's exhausting.
• 20:16
  And also people don't really talk like this in real life, so
• 20:19
  I think we need to remember that.
• 20:21
  But yes, OK, anyways guys, that's it for today.
• 20:24
  I'm sorry for all of this. I love you guys.
• 20:27
  Please rate, review and subscribe.
• 20:28
  Please subscribe to High Stakes. I love you and I will talk to
• 20:32
  you tomorrow. Bye.