A Child Culture Guide for Disconnected Adults: Who Is Lil Tai?

Summer is in full swing and nothing is going according to plan, whether it’s a false announcement about the death of an influencer, a NYC riot sparked by a Twitch streamer, or the greatest fight video to ever go viral on the Internet.

Is Lil Tai really dead?

This week, teen rapper and online stock creator Lil Tay and her brother were dead for a day, but then they came back to life. The announcement of Lil Tay’s untimely death came via her long dormant Instagram , which posted on Wednesday: “It is with heavy hearts that we share the devastating news of the sudden and tragic death of our beloved Claire” and noted that the deaths were under investigation.

The news instantly spread across the Internet, but the story was quickly revealed – Tay did not live even 24 hours dead. Media sources contacted her father and former manager, who initially refused to confirm or deny her death. (Her management later confirmed her death to Variety , though the story has since been updated.) Authorities in Los Angeles and Vancouver, two places where Tay is known to have lived, said there was no investigation. Fraud suspicions were confirmed on Thursday morning when TMZ reported that Lil Tay was alive. She sent them an email that read: “My Instagram account has been compromised by a third party and has been used to spread misinformation and rumors about me.”

The question of whether her account was actually hacked remains open. It took Tay 24 hours to publicly say “I’m actually alive,” which seems fishy, ​​and the young online star’s life has been tumultuous and confusing since she first started flexing in 2018 when she was nine years old. Her boastful raps about her lavish lifestyle and her “I’m So Rich” videos have garnered her millions of followers who either enjoy these things or are horrified by them. Then her parents divorced and a bitter custody battle ensued. In 2018, her Instagram was deleted and replaced with a message saying “Help me”. Reports were released accusing her father of abuse, allegations that her father denied. Everything is disorderly. The announcement of her death could have been a publicity stunt, or it could have something to do with a custody battle, or it could have been a hacker. I feel like we’ll find out soon.

The Kai Senate almost caused a riot in New York

Speaking of young internet celebrities that you probably never heard of unless something went wrong, 21-year-old Kai Senat, the most followed streamer on Twitch, rioted in New York this week. Thousands of his fans flocked to Union Square after the Senate announced it would give fans PlayStation 5 consoles and other gifts. Turnout appears to have been much larger than expected. The crowd quickly became uncontrollable. Fans threw rocks and bottles, vandalized cars, and otherwise misbehaved, leading the NYPD to arrest 65 people, 30 of whom were minors. The Senate was among those arrested. He was charged with the felony of riot in the first degree causing public harm and damage and two misdemeanors of incitement to disorder and unlawful assembly. After the incident, the Senate said that he interrupted the broadcast for a while to prepare for his court cases and said that he was “more than disappointed in those who became destructive that day”, while repeating that his intentions were good, but he underestimated the impact he had on his fans. The Senate has amassed over 6.5 million followers on Twitch, 6 million on Instagram, and 4 million on YouTube through its harmless comedies, pranks and gaming videos.

What is lookmaxxing?

After years of captivity in the most depressing corners of the internet, the concept of “looksmaxxxing” has recently become mainstream. A term coined by incels, lookmaxxing means something along the lines of “maximizing one’s appearance”, usually with the aim of improving one’s status and/or attracting women. At the softest level, lookmaxxing comes down to “do your hair and go to the gym,” but we’re talking about insels, so it gets a lot darker. Some lookmaxxers take steroids, inject Botox, or bleach their skin. Some have had expensive plastic surgery. In addition, there is the practice of “meowing”, touching the roof of the mouth with the tongue to improve the jaw line, and the much more extreme “bone breaking” – literally crushing the cheekbones or jaw with a hammer to stimulate bone growth. It’s all depressing and horrifying, like everything in Inchel culture. I think “being-a-semi-worthy-person-whom-fun-hang-out-with-maxing” would be a lot better for attracting women, but I didn’t try to hit myself in the face with a hammer, so I can’t say for sure.

Viral Video of the Week: Battle for Alabama

This week, a group of white men got into a fight with a black ship captain on a pier in Montgomery, Alabama, when he asked them to move the boat. Footage of the resulting brawl, in which the aggressors are handed their collective asses, became a viral video of the week, year, and possibly decade.

It’s not just about the richness of detail and drama, how each subsequent viewing reveals an amazing new thing that you didn’t notice – hat toss! Swimmer! The joyful “oh, now it’s coming” jumping of the captain’s defenders! Folding chair! It’s not just that two minutes of camera shake footage dwarfed any action scene Hollywood has ever filmed in terms of pacing and excitement. It’s really fair – the “these people definitely wanted it” vibe. I usually don’t enjoy violence, but like most people, I make an exception.

I’m sure you’ve already seen this – if you’re like me, you’ve been poring over it like a Zapruder movie – but if you missed it, check out Montgomery Drac. There are many other angles and edits, but this one is good.

A video as powerful as this should have permeated the culture in the form of replies and memes. Tribute songs have been written . Commentary videos have been posted . Someone pointed out that a Negro invented the folding chair . The chair itself became a celebrity and a future museum piece . Of all the reactions I’ve seen, this dramatization is my favorite, perhaps because everyone had to be friends to create it.