Not a regular guy by any stretch.

Jane Lauder, Kevin Warsh’s wife, is the granddaughter of global cosmetics industry legend Estée Lauder. She is the daughter of billionaire Ronald Lauder, who is the sole heir to the The Estée Lauder Companies. According to Forbes, Jane Lauder has a net worth of $2.7 billion, making her among the world’s wealthy individuals.

Jane Lauder’s father Ronald Lauder is incidentally the same person who has actively been encouraging Donald Trump to acquire Greenland!

Ronald Lauder, has shared a long personal history with Donald Trump, dating back to their days as students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The relationship forged during their undergraduate years has endured, with Trump and Lauder remaining close associates and trusted advisers over time.

Ronald Lauder is widely seen as the person who first encouraged Trump to consider the idea of acquiring Greenland in 2020 and has continued to counsel him on the matter since then.

Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that Lauder has built commercial interests in Greenland. Read more at: http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/127806205.cms

This is really great (and by great I mean terrifying to see it all laid out plainly). The only nitpick is the idea that the model “is coming to europe next” … as if this whole thing wasn’t kicked off by Brexit and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Europe was the testing bed for this a decade or more ago.

Excellent, insightful comment and I very much appreciate and resonate with this response.

I do think the protest serves to raise awareness, even if it’s a bit extreme. The desired effect is not really to encourage the complete rejection of tech, but bring attention to the issues and get the average person to think a little more about their usage of it. I’m actually kind of proud of these young folks for being able to snap themselves out of the social media-induced hypnotic state their generation seems to be stuck in.

This is definitely worth a read and I very much hope the author’s predictions come true, but I think it misses the mark in two big areas.

1. This article presumes these platforms will remain the same. In reality these companies will pull out all the stops to incentivize users to stay, and if that doesn’t work they will just buy up and acquire the competition, wherever the users are. Look at what’s happening with tiktok.

2. Some users - believe it or not - want a way to keep up with IRL friends and acquaintances. Instagram and Facebook provided a great way to do this (however less “great” nowadays). Still, I don’t want to email or text every single person I know just to share a photo or a recent event. And honestly I also don’t want every acquaintance I have sharing every detail of their lives over text or email or phone. Even with an alternative, we’d have to find and rebuild our personal networks all over again.

If you like these titles check out The Algorithm: https://open.spotify.com/artist/14u4KXVp0iXQil79EpxXGc?si=4Y5HRpbOTaa58Qo5-EpGHQ