Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Unf*ck America Tour scandal, Madeleine White bachelorette backlash + Catherine Paiz book
Transcript
- 0:00Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
- 0:04culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
- 0:07media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
- 0:11through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
- 0:14the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
- 0:18Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
- 0:20OK, fun little update for you guys.
- 0:22I was just on the Weirder Together podcast with Ben Lee
- 0:25and Ione Sky. So that's going to be coming out
- 0:28tomorrow, Tuesday, quick turn around, which I appreciate.
- 0:32You know, we are quick turn around girlies here at
- 0:34Centennial World. So we talked all about like
- 0:37Centennials journey, Internet culture.
- 0:39It was really, really fun. It was such like a vibe and
- 0:42their studio was so cool. So that will be up tomorrow and
- 0:45go give them a listen. All right, I don't have any
- 0:49other updates. I feel like that's the first in
- 0:52a very long time. Annabelle is leaving tomorrow,
- 0:55so she's not at work today. She's going on five weeks.
- 0:58You guys, I was a bit confused when I gave you guys the
- 1:02schedule last week. OK, so I have three more weeks
- 1:05of the pod and then I am doing 2 weeks off the first two weeks of
- 1:09June and then Annabelle is back on the 16th and we are getting
- 1:12right back into regular programming.
- 1:15All right, let's just get into the stories for today.
- 1:17So the first story that I have for you guys is I'm going to be
- 1:20covering at a fairly high level because otherwise this episode
- 1:25would be like 3 hours long. The UN Fuck America tour and
- 1:29everything that's happened there.
- 1:31So it's been going on for the last few weeks.
- 1:34But over the weekend there was a major development that kind of
- 1:37like blew this open and exposed a lot of creators and their
- 1:41hypocrisy or alleged hypocrisy. So let's just get into it.
- 1:44Multiple big leftist TikTok stars have been embroiled in
- 1:48controversy this week related to the Unfuck America tour.
- 1:51So Unfuck America is a tour organized by a woman named Z
- 1:55Cohen Sanchez and the intention is to challenge and oppose
- 1:59Charlie Kirk and Turning Point US as tour where they advocate
- 2:03for conservative politics across American high schools, college
- 2:07and university campuses. The two big banner creators who
- 2:11were like on all of the promo who were going to go on this
- 2:14tour were Dean Withers and Parker Get a Job, both notably
- 2:19white Gen. Z men.
- 2:21The tour raised a lot of money. It cost a lot of money I guess
- 2:24to do tours like this. They raised around $100,000 to
- 2:27facilitate everything. Anyways, this is basically
- 2:30imploded. So amid organizing and like
- 2:33getting started with this, some creators, mostly black women,
- 2:37went on a live to discuss the tour and raise some questions
- 2:40about where the money was going. They questioned the tour's
- 2:44efficacy. They questioned if the money was
- 2:46being used effectively and they also questioned the tours lack
- 2:50of diversity with the creators being asked to be part of it.
- 2:54And I guess that was a sticking point.
- 2:56Prior to this Tick Tock Live even people were already kind of
- 2:59criticizing Z about that, especially since the two
- 3:02headliners are white men. So Z jumped into this live and
- 3:07allegedly according to a Substack post that I found
- 3:10written by CFH Unfiltered, Z was advised by the black creators
- 3:16who are a part of the Unfuck America tour not to jump in this
- 3:20live. So basically the creators who
- 3:22were involved in Unfuck America had a big chat, like a group
- 3:25chat. And when this live started
- 3:28happening and popping off, I guess they were like talking in
- 3:31this group chat about the live. And presumably according to the
- 3:34Substack, I'm going to like assume that based on this, the
- 3:37information from the sub stack. And what ended up happening was
- 3:40that Z was talking to people in this chat like, you know, I'm
- 3:43going to jump in. And then some of the creators,
- 3:45particularly black women, were like, don't jump in like this is
- 3:48not your place. But I guess she did jump in.
- 3:51During this discussion on live, Z made several comments that
- 3:54people deemed racist or micro aggressive.
- 3:57And there are also allegations floating around at the same time
- 4:00that Z didn't pay the creators who were on this tour,
- 4:03particularly the creator, who were not white, because of the
- 4:07comments she made on this live and also because of the
- 4:11allegations that she was not paying people.
- 4:13There was this public pressure from other creators
- 4:16participating in the Unfuck America tour to address this,
- 4:19especially because a lot of them were asking their followers to
- 4:23donate to like, that is I guess where a lot of the $100,000 came
- 4:28from was like donations from followers.
- 4:30So a few of the creators made videos condemning her comments
- 4:33and claiming that they had called out directly in this big
- 4:37group chat when that happened. And Andra, whose username is
- 4:40hope you find your dad. I am sure you guys know her
- 4:42because she is like a pop culture commentary mixed with
- 4:45like political commentary creator.
- 4:47She's quite big, but she was one of them.
- 4:49Others made videos explaining their involvement or like lack
- 4:53thereof, trying to distance themselves from Z because Z was
- 4:58not, I mean, not she was not apologizing.
- 5:01She was not really taking the feedback or the criticism about
- 5:04how she acted on the live well. So this really blew up this
- 5:08weekend when creator Peyton Vanessa, who was part of this
- 5:11tour, made a lengthy expose video sharing receipts that show
- 5:16many of the creators and how they claimed to have called out
- 5:20Z. He brought receipts that showed
- 5:23they were allegedly lying about that.
- 5:25For example, Andra said in a video that she had cut Z off and
- 5:28she was getting in fights in the group chat about this whole
- 5:31situation, basically saying like, I was defending what was
- 5:34right. I was calling her out for her
- 5:35racism, but in Peyton's screenshots they show that Andra
- 5:40was in the group chat allegedly saying she was going to get on
- 5:44her spam account and troll the live of the black women who were
- 5:49speaking out against Z. Peyton also brought receipts
- 5:52that showed Dean Withers allegedly knew that Z doesn't
- 5:55pay creators that do work for her organization, but failed to
- 5:59disclose this to others. And, you know, still asked his
- 6:02followers to donate to the tour knowing this information.
- 6:06And then there were questions about where the $100,000 went.
- 6:12And Peyton addressed this in his video, too, claiming that the
- 6:15tour paid a company called Seoul Strategies $95,000 for voter
- 6:20registration efforts. He then went on to say that the
- 6:23founder and owner of Seoul Strategies is Z.
- 6:27So he's essentially saying that she paid herself $95,000 out of
- 6:32the $100,000 that was raised for this tour.
- 6:35Peyton also claims that Z is withholding creator payment from
- 6:38someone until they sign an NDA and among other things, there
- 6:42were other creators that he criticized.
- 6:44It was a very long video. So Z has responded to the
- 6:47accusations that she took $95,000.
- 6:51I've decided today that I'm actually going to respond
- 6:53because Peyton has decided to get on this app and accuse me of
- 6:56money laundering, which is a crime.
- 6:59First, I want to address the $95,000 because clearly it's
- 7:02really cute that you don't know how business isn't tax work, but
- 7:05that is actually a very typical practice that businesses process
- 7:08reimbursements because it's a lot easier to do it through
- 7:10business than through a pack. The $95,000 specifically was for
- 7:14our deep canvassing program and our voter registration program
- 7:17where we hired over 30 canvassers that worked for over
- 7:208 weeks. Plus also we had a phone banking
- 7:23program as well, which was very successful.
- 7:25And if you want to see the receipts from that too, I'm
- 7:27happy to share those. So let's take a look at all of
- 7:31the receipts, every single transaction that was done for
- 7:35the Unfuck America tour, which by the way will be available on
- 7:38the FCC website this time next week as we are completing our
- 7:41filings. However, since you guys are so
- 7:43concerned about that, wanted to show it to you.
- 7:45Here's what we made at my business, Sole Strategies.
- 7:47In the year 2024, we made $1.7 million in sales, which is very
- 7:51impressive considering that's an off year election and really
- 7:54shows our teams hustle. However, we spent almost the
- 7:58entire thing as you can see in this line, which is kind of
- 8:01ironic because you claim that I don't pay employees and
- 8:04contractors. Right.
- 8:05So that's where we're at now. Essentially.
- 8:08This whole thing kind of made people feel a bit like
- 8:11questionable about the Unfuck America situation, definitely
- 8:14questionable about Z. And then now the way that the
- 8:17creators have responded and been seemingly hypocritical with
- 8:21Peyton's video kind of exposing their hypocrisy, people are
- 8:24like, what the fuck? And like, where do we go from
- 8:27here basically? So a lot of people are just like
- 8:30Z, like, why did you not just take the feedback on board, like
- 8:36put your ego aside, listen to the feedback about how you were
- 8:40acting on the live and just like apologize.
- 8:43And if that happened, like this would have not blown up to the
- 8:47level that it has. But of course, if this didn't
- 8:49happen, then we might not kind of be questioning the motives of
- 8:54Dean and Andra and some of these other creators that have been
- 8:57called out. So like, that is possibly the
- 8:59silver lining is if the receipts that Peyton brought are true,
- 9:03then it's good for us to know who these people are.
- 9:06But I do think when it comes to just like the accountability
- 9:10piece, like literally this has exploded and caused like
- 9:13multiple quote UN quote cancellations because Z could
- 9:17not take accountability. She could not like put her ego
- 9:19aside. I think it's so delusional as a
- 9:22white person to think that you're ever above or like beyond
- 9:27racist programming. Like, oh, I've done all the
- 9:29unlearned running I need to. I'm in my mid 20s.
- 9:31Like that is not how this works. I think to my fellow white
- 9:36people who are in left of spaces, like care about this
- 9:39stuff and care about like being a good person and learning,
- 9:42we're going to fuck up. Like we're going to say things
- 9:45that are microaggressive, inappropriate, out of line
- 9:50probably many times in life, despite wanting to do better and
- 9:54to be better. But you can only do better and
- 9:58be better when you're willing to put your ego aside and actually
- 10:02face feedback and criticism head on and with an open mind, even
- 10:06when it feels like hate. We talk about this with creators
- 10:09all the time is like they do get so much feedback all the time.
- 10:12So sometimes it can feel confusing to like, sift through
- 10:15what's valid criticism and like what's not.
- 10:18But this was like targeted like she was on a live with a handful
- 10:22of women. Like, this was not, you know,
- 10:25some vibe viral video where you just can't keep up with the
- 10:28comments section. This is like a handful of women.
- 10:30The thing is, like, we're not special.
- 10:33You know, like, nobody's trying to catch us out.
- 10:36Like, people are not intentionally twisting your
- 10:39words or like, maybe, you know, 1% at the most of people might
- 10:44be trying to do that. People are not out to get you.
- 10:46They are not intentionally twisting your words.
- 10:49From somebody who has a podcast five days a week where sometimes
- 10:53I am talking about really sensitive topics, I'm putting
- 10:57myself out there and putting my opinions out there.
- 11:00I can tell you I don't have the biggest audience, but I, you
- 11:02know, we are growing a lot. And I can tell you like, people
- 11:06are not the feedback that we get.
- 11:08Like people are not intentionally trying to like
- 11:10call you out. They're not trying to twist your
- 11:12words. They want you to succeed.
- 11:15They want to lift you up, and people also want to forgive you.
- 11:19Like, I don't know, just put your ego aside.
- 11:22I don't understand because it's not even like, oh, just say
- 11:25sorry because you shouldn't say sorry if you are not sorry.
- 11:28Like you shouldn't say sorry if you are just saying it in a
- 11:30performative way. So I'm not sitting here saying
- 11:32she should have just said sorry. I'm sitting here thinking like,
- 11:35put your ego aside so you can own that mistake.
- 11:38Do you know how fucking annoying it is to be friends with
- 11:40somebody who can never be wrong? Like we all know that feeling
- 11:44you are being, that you're not above learning, you're not above
- 11:49any of this. I come at this from a place of
- 11:52being like, why would you not listen to the group that you are
- 11:55like allegedly trying to lift up and allegedly trying to fight
- 12:01for in this cause? Like one of the groups?
- 12:03Like I, if you are concerned about marginalized people in the
- 12:07US and you're concerned about what their reality is going to
- 12:11look like if things become more and more right wing, like why
- 12:15would you not be so open to listening to them and their
- 12:19experiences? I don't know what the fuck
- 12:22anyways guys, that's a high level version of everything that
- 12:26happened. Go watch Peyton's video.
- 12:27There's honestly if you just search it in tech talk you'll
- 12:29find tons of information. But that is like a starter pack
- 12:32for you guys. OK, the next story that I have
- 12:34for you guys, this is lighthearted.
- 12:36We need something lighthearted after that story.
- 12:38Madeline White tick tocker. Madeline White has documented
- 12:42losing her passport before her Bachelorette trip and she is
- 12:45taking people on that journey. So Madeline White is a huge
- 12:49fashion tick tocker. She got quite famous last year
- 12:52when she was embroiled in controversy around her PJ brand.
- 12:55See you tomorrow. In a nutshell, Madeline, she was
- 12:59under fire for first selling pyjamas at a high price that
- 13:02were kind of like made, I guess, of not great material.
- 13:05So I think she was charging $145.00 for 100% polyester PJ's
- 13:10and people were disappointed in her.
- 13:12She took that feedback on board. She took it on board, OK.
- 13:16She actually I think closed her business or like temporarily
- 13:20went offline and seven months later returned with a relaunch
- 13:24of much better products and was like, you guys were right Like
- 13:27that was just not the vibe. I was wrong about that first
- 13:30launch. Like she took it OK.
- 13:32However, this launch didn't go well and this is what really
- 13:35like catapulted her to a temporary moment of viral fame.
- 13:39A creator purchased her items and noticed that there was
- 13:42deceptive labeling. So on Madeline's online store,
- 13:45it said that the item that the creator bought was 92% silk and
- 13:508% spandex. But when she received the item
- 13:53on and the label itself, it said 95% viscose and 5% elastane.
- 13:59It didn't really go beyond that. And she hasn't really seemed to
- 14:01take a hit to her reputation or anything too much.
- 14:04And now people are like really into following like her wedding
- 14:08journey because she's getting married to DJ Andrew Fettick,
- 14:12who is 1/2 of loud luxury Shout out Canada.
- 14:15She's just a fashion girlie. So people are really excited
- 14:17about this. So a few days ago Madeline
- 14:20posted a video saying she was supposed to leave for her
- 14:22Bachelorette trip in Cabo in nine hours and she was
- 14:26desperately searching for her passport.
- 14:28And unfortunately a day later she posted an update crying
- 14:31saying her passport was nowhere to be found and she must have
- 14:34misplaced it coming back from a recent trip to Miami.
- 14:38The comments were shitfire If you can imagine people being
- 14:42like you're rich you don't deserve to cry.
- 14:45Like what do you have to cry about?
- 14:46People saying you know you shouldn't be expecting your
- 14:49friends and family to pay for a trip that expensive to a
- 14:51different country for a Bachelorette trip.
- 14:54Other people basically saying she deserves it because she
- 14:57expected that of people. A lot of comments but how you
- 15:00can enter and re enter Cabo without a passport I guess
- 15:05through the US border but she's British so she can't.
- 15:09Like I think she lives in LA but regardless if she doesn't have
- 15:13AUS like citizenship I guess she can't.
- 15:15Anyways a dumpster fire. So she was responding to some of
- 15:18these comments and the main thing she was responding was to
- 15:21people being like you deserve this because you tried to get
- 15:24your friends to go to a different country for your
- 15:26Bachelorette trip. And she was like I actually paid
- 15:29for the whole thing. She's going in defending
- 15:31herself, responding to so many comments.
- 15:34She's like, well, actually I pay for the whole thing, including
- 15:37flights. But thanks for your concern.
- 15:39I like that she's defending herself.
- 15:41I think there is just, there's so many assumptions online Like
- 15:45that is one of the biggest issues that we have with
- 15:47communication online on social platforms like this, especially
- 15:51TikTok in the comments sections. It's just like the amount of
- 15:54assumptions that people throw out about you when they actually
- 15:58have no idea. And I get it.
- 15:59Like, I've never been on a Bachelorette trip that was like
- 16:01paid for by the bride. So I understand that's like a
- 16:03very unique situation. But I like that she was
- 16:06defending herself. I like that she was paying for
- 16:07her friends. But yes.
- 16:09So don't worry. Though she was able to go on her
- 16:13trip, her fiance sent Madeline and her friends to Vegas to say
- 16:18sorry that you didn't get to go to Cabo, you're going to go to
- 16:21Vegas instead. And they sent her, he sent her
- 16:24on a private jet. Goals bad for the environment,
- 16:28good for the content. Anyways, the next story that I
- 16:30have for you guys, this is a bit of speculation kind of it's
- 16:34really interesting actually. And I literally just said on the
- 16:38Weirder Together podcast that I don't cover speculation, but I
- 16:43guess I'm also hypocritical. OK, so Catherine Paez has
- 16:48seemingly opened up about Austin Mcbroom's cheating on her in her
- 16:52new book and the reason this is speculative.
- 16:54So she has confirmed in the past that he cheated on her, but the
- 16:58confirmation and like her talking about it in this book is
- 17:01speculative and I'll talk about why.
- 17:02So Catherine is from the Ace family.
- 17:04Obviously Austin is from the Ace family.
- 17:06They were married for years, had children, had this huge YouTube
- 17:09channel, and then that all kind of blew up maybe like a year and
- 17:13a half ago. And Austin has been like going
- 17:16off the deep end on Nachat. We've talked about that a little
- 17:18bit. And Catherine has also been
- 17:21going on her own journey. I'm going to say like a bit of
- 17:24like a pipeline she's headed down.
- 17:27But yes, they have been divorced or separated for a while and she
- 17:31has a book coming out called Dolores My Journey Home Finding
- 17:34Myself beyond the Ace family. It's coming out on July 1st.
- 17:38I actually really want to read this.
- 17:40The Internet is basically saying that the first 3 chapters were
- 17:43released online already, like to Reddit and to like Apple books
- 17:47and stuff. And then it seems like maybe the
- 17:49publisher decided to pull that back.
- 17:51If anyone works in book publishing, let me know what the
- 17:55T is there. Like, is that common?
- 17:57Why would they release so many chapters and then take it
- 18:00offline? I'm not really sure, but that's
- 18:04the speculative part of this. OK, but the pages that were
- 18:07allegedly released in it, she seems to talk about how she
- 18:12found out that Austin was cheating on her and that
- 18:14experience. So she said she found out that
- 18:16Austin was cheating on her when she was pregnant with her third
- 18:19baby and that she had a really hard time admitting it to her
- 18:22mom and family. And now, of course, like because
- 18:24of this and people finding out the timeline, the alleged
- 18:27timeline, because again, these pages might not be true, people
- 18:31are going back and watching their old vlogs and they're
- 18:33like, Oh my God, when Catherine gave birth in that birth vlog,
- 18:36like she didn't even look at Austin because she obviously
- 18:38just found out that he was cheating, eating.
- 18:40People are like putting the pieces together as they say.
- 18:43The proof is always in the content.
- 18:47Okay, They said that about Vanderpump Rules scant of all.
- 18:51And it's so true. I just rewatched the entirety of
- 18:54Vanderpump Rules with my brother and his girlfriend.
- 18:58It took us so long, like months and months and months because as
- 19:00you guys know, my brother's been living with me doing his working
- 19:03holiday visa. And yeah, it like the proof is
- 19:06there. I'm convinced now that Tom and
- 19:09Raquel were maybe or Rachel or maybe having an affair like
- 19:12season 8. I don't know, like, I'm not even
- 19:15kidding. The proof is in the content.
- 19:16OK. Another really interesting thing
- 19:18that came out of this is that she also talks about their big
- 19:20basketball charity event that they did.
- 19:22You know how they always did those like charity events?
- 19:24They did a big, like, basketball game or whatever celebrity
- 19:28basketball game. And she says that during that,
- 19:31Austin invited another girl. So there was another girl there.
- 19:35Like watching, she said, like engaging with them.
- 19:38She was like, she kind of seemed out of place, but also like, not
- 19:41really. I'm actually really interested
- 19:43in reading this book. I hope she dives more into like
- 19:47being such a famous vlogger and the pressures of that, of
- 19:51keeping that up. They would vlog their lives
- 19:5324/7, like literally 24/7. And I'm interested to see as
- 19:57well if she has anything on vlogging her children and having
- 20:01her children so, so online and monetizing her kids and all of
- 20:04their moments and how she feels about that.
- 20:07So I actually will probably, well, I will read that book and
- 20:11I will, I mean, I know it's far away, but I will let you guys
- 20:14know how it is when I read it. Anyways guys.
- 20:18This is a bit of a random episode, but thank you so much
- 20:20for listening. I love you guys.
- 20:22Please rate, review and subscribe.
- 20:23Please subscribe to us on YouTube.
- 20:25We are close. We are close to 10,000
- 20:27subscribers. I love you guys and I will talk
- 20:29to you tomorrow. Bye.