Latest news with #Slate
Sky News AU
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad blasted as ‘Nazi propaganda' by crazed woke mob over jeans-genes pun
Leftist TikTok is in full pitchfork-and-torch mode after a new ad for American Eagle jeans featuring actress Sydney Sweeney used a play on words, with some claiming it's full-on Nazi propaganda. The ad features Sweeney, 27, clad in a pair of the brand's jeans and a denim jacket, talking about her jeans/genes. 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,' she intones in a spot. 'My jeans are blue,' she says as she flashes her blue eyes. The clip went viral after it was posted by a Sweeney fan account — but then the account later went private following the backlash on Sunday. Another, longer ad uses the same punny tagline. 'I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans. And I definitely won't say they're the most comfortable jeans I've ever worn, or that they make your butt look amazing. Why would I need to do that?' she says in the 30-second spot. 'But if you said that you want to buy the jeans, I'm not gonna stop you. But so we're clear, this is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans,' she says as the text 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans' appears on the screen and a male voiceover reads the words. This play on the homophone of 'jeans' and 'genes' was enough to trigger the woke mob, with many on the left interpreting it as a nod to eugenics, with some going so far as to outright call it 'Nazi propaganda.' 'I thought it was gonna be, like, kinda bad, but wow. That's gonna be in history books!' one TikTok user posted. 'I will be the friend that's too woke, but those Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ads are weird. Like, fascist weird. Like Nazi propaganda weird,' another user with a septum piercing mused. 'Like, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman is talking about her good genes. That is Nazi Propaganda,' she added. Another TikTokker made a video bemoaning the ad, saying, 'If you haven't seen or comprehended how bad it is, I need you to open your f****** eyeballs and listen. This is Nazi s***. Pure Nazi s***,' she brayed. 'Saying that a blonde-hair, blue-eyed girl has 'good genes' is Nazi s***.' Journalist Robby Soave called the manufactured outrage 'quite possibly the stupidest, most-likely-to-backfire liberal overreach social media pile-on in the history of the internet.' The jeans ad isn't the first time the blonde bombshell drew fire from the left as a tool of some nefarious pro-white plot. Last year, after her cleavage-bearing appearance on 'Saturday Night Live,' outlets like Slate spilled ink decrying a small handful of right-leaning publications, cheekily declaring the publicly accepted ogling of an attractive white lady as a sign of the 'death of wokeness.' The lefty outlet wrote that the starlet's ascent 'is very good news for a certain population of people who were waiting for a movie star exactly like her — someone white, blonde and all-American who, unlike Taylor Swift, hasn't yet provided the right with a reason to see her as a threat.' American Eagle has described the Sweeney campaign as 'a return to essential denim dressing,' and are using the high-profile endeavor to benefit charity. The brand has enlisted the A-lister to launch 'The Sydney Jean' — a limited-run pair of jeans featuring a butterfly on the back pocket, representing domestic violence awareness — an issue Sweeney herself is passionate about, the company says. To benefit the cause, 100% of the purchase price of the 'Sydney Jeans' will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit offering free, 24/7 confidential mental health support. Wall Street has been enthusiastic about the flirty new ad campaign, American Eagle's stock has surged nearly 17% in the five days since its debut. Originally published as Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad blasted as 'Nazi propaganda' by crazed woke mob over jeans-genes pun
Time of India
a day ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
This Bezos-backed EV startup is betting you'll pay extra for a stereo in your petite pickup
When Will Haseltine saw images online of a small, boxy electric pickup from startup Slate Auto this past spring, he got on the waitlist right away. The sparse interior and crank windows reminded him of the no-frills pickups he grew up around in Memphis, Tennessee - but he was most enamored with the sub-$20,000 price tag. That price, though, factored in a $7,500 federal tax break, which is set to expire Sept. 30, a casualty of the budget package U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month. Now Haseltine isn't sure the truck will fit his budget when it comes out, expected late next year. "The Slate was the first time that I looked at a car, wanted it, and could also really make it happen," said Haseltine, a 39-year-old musical instrument technician. Without the tax credit, he said: "That's just plain too much." Michigan-based Slate has raised $700 million from investors, including founder Jeff Bezos, and has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its cars. But the company is launching into a tough U.S. market. A few years ago, the electric-vehicle space was awash in hopeful entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the global transition to electric cars. But U.S. EV sales growth has cooled as consumer interest has faded. The loss of federal tax breaks will further hurt demand, auto executives and analysts predict. Like other EV startups, Slate likely faces a long road to profitability. The EV business has proven to be a money loser for most industry players, partly because batteries remain relatively expensive. Even in China, where smaller, inexpensive EVs have proliferated and companies enjoy a cost advantage over Western automakers, most are unprofitable. Slate founders believe the company can overcome those obstacles by offering something that is in short supply in today's U.S. car market: affordability. The average new-vehicle selling price is above $45,000. "We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never delivered," Slate CEO Chris Barman said at a Detroit conference in July. The company has a chance to fill a void left by Tesla, which has backtracked on plans to introduce a mid-$20,000s electric vehicle. The startup has taken a bare-bones approach to its two-seat pickup, which is slightly smaller than a Honda Civic hatchback. How bare-bones? A stereo and power windows will cost extra. Slate hasn't disclosed the cost of such add-ons. 'It's a cool idea' Slate's creation started with an idea from Miles Arnone, the CEO of Re:Build Manufacturing, a Massachusetts-based startup that includes several former Amazon employees. Arnone believed workers needed better access to affordable vehicles. Arnone shared his idea with Jeff Wilke, the company's chairman and a former Amazon executive, and eventually, a small team was formed. The group hired Barman, who spent most of her career as an engineering executive at Fiat Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. Barman told Reuters recently that Slate will be able to absorb the loss of the $7,500 tax credit because the truck's price still will undercut competitors. The company plans to build the pickup at an old catalog factory in Warsaw, Indiana. Executives are taking steps to hold down costs, starting with a simplified design that uses about 500 parts in the truck's assembly, compared with a few thousand for a traditional truck. The plan to build all of its trucks in a basic package - what the company calls a "SKU of one" - allows customers to choose to add a stereo, center console, special lighting, and other features later. The pickup will be built with composite body panels in gray, with an option for a vinyl wrap. That will sidestep the need for a paint shop, which is one of the most expensive investments in a typical car factory. Slate's minimalist approach is a leap of faith that Americans will forgo creature comforts they have been increasingly willing to splurge on. Last year, U.S. buyers spent 33per cent above the base price on average, springing for higher-end trim packages and extra features, according to . That was up from 28per cent in 2014. But there is mounting evidence that new cars are becoming out of reach for many Americans. That could worsen under the effects of the Trump administration's tariffs, which threaten to increase prices on popular budget cars imported from Mexico, Korea and elsewhere. From that standpoint, Slate's price-conscious pickup might be hitting at the right time, said Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis at AutoPacific. "There's a growing appetite, especially among younger drivers, for vehicles that are more honest, more modular and less over-engineered," he said. "Slate taps right into that." Traditional automakers and startups have found mixed success rolling out larger electric pickup trucks in recent years. Now, startups like Slate and California-based Telo are focusing on smaller electric pickups. In a town hall meeting in early May, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Executive Chair Bill Ford told employees they admired the company's customer-centered ethos and focus on affordability. Tim Kuniskis, Stellantis' head of American brands, called Slate "super interesting" at a June event, while also questioning how affordable it would be for some shoppers once they added all the options they wanted. "The idea behind it, we've talked about that idea a million times," he said. "It's a cool idea."
TimesLIVE
a day ago
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Slate Auto still betting big on simplified, affordable EV pickup
When Will Haseltine saw images online of a small, boxy electric pickup from start-up Slate Auto earlier this year he immediately got onto the waiting list. The sparse interior and crank windows reminded him of the no-frills pickups he grew up with in Memphis, Tennessee — but he was most enamoured with the sub-$20,000 (R357,069) price tag. That price, though, factored in a $7,500 (R133,904) federal tax break, which is set, a casualty of the budget package US President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month. Now Haseltine isn't sure the truck will fit his budget when it comes out, expected late next year. 'The Slate was the first time I looked at a car, wanted it, and could also make it happen,' said Haseltine, a 39-year-old musical instrument technician. Without the tax credit, he said: 'That's just plain too much.' Michigan-based Slate has raised $700m (R12.49bn) from investors, including founder Jeff Bezos, and has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its cars. But the company is launching into a tough US market. A few years ago hopeful entrepreneurs were looking to cash in on the global transition to electric cars. But US electric vehicle (EV) sales growth has cooled as consumer interest has faded. The loss of federal tax breaks will further hurt demand, car executives and analysts predict. Like other EV start-ups, Slate probably faces a long road to profitability. The EV business has proven to be a money loser for most industry players, partly because batteries remain relatively expensive. Even in China, where smaller, inexpensive EVs have proliferated and companies enjoy a cost advantage over Western carmakers, most are unprofitable.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
I Finally Found My Happy Place After My Husband Left Me. There's Just One Problem.
Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here. Dear Care and Feeding, My ex-husband and I were together for decades. We have two kids, 20-year-old 'Jack' and 22-year-old 'Jill.' I thought my marriage was happy; I thought my ex and I were deeply in love. But last spring, he disappeared without a word. At first I feared he'd been hit by a car (I even called the police) but then money started being taken out of our joint account. After a month of this, he reappeared and said he was 'finding' himself and wanted a divorce. When we sold the house, I decided to buy a condo. I ended up buying a two-bedroom place—I couldn't afford a bigger one. Both Jack and Jill have apartments near their colleges and come home only for visits, but I wanted them to feel they have a home base (their father now travels continuously and doesn't keep a place of his own). I've made it a space I love, very different from our family home. It's got loud, bright paint, wood floors so I don't have to vacuum dog fur out of the carpet, stupid art by friends, and a living room dedicated to my hobbies. With the exception of the second bedroom, the entire condo is decorated in a way that Jill describes as 'violently femme-feeling.' And why shouldn't it be? I live there alone and am decorating just for me! The second bedroom is neutral: dark green walls, furniture from our old house—kind of boring. Jill visits regularly and stays in that room. She has rejected my offer to help decorate it to feel more like hers when she's there. She says it's fine. The trouble is, my son hates my condo. Jack says he feels unwelcome in the condo because of the way it's decorated. I offered to let him pick new stuff for the second bedroom and he declined. I'm wondering if his attitude/behavior isn't really about the condo, but I have no idea how to bring this up with him. He has never been a 'feelings talker.' He wasn't interested when I offered to help pay for therapy during the divorce and its aftermath, and he won't talk to me about it either. When he visits, he stays with friends or with someone in our extended family. He does want to spend time with me, and we spend a lot of time together whenever he comes home, but he refuses to set foot in the condo. What do I do? —It's Not Really About the Condo Dear Condo, Well, sure, it's not really (all) about the condo. But you yourself have made the condo a metaphor—or, to be more precise, two conflicting metaphors. It's a 'home base' for your kids (you wanted this for them, you say—by which I assume you mean you want them to feel they still have a home). But you live alone, you point out: Why should you decorate for anyone but yourself? (In this latter formulation, the condo is all about you.) I hasten to say that I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting your new home (in which, as you say, you live alone) to be all about you. But that comes with a cost, and it sends a message to your college-age children that directly contradicts what I bet you've told them (i.e., that this is their home, too). Your younger child is particularly sensitive to this message ('jk—it's not really your home') and what it implies: that he is not a priority, but something of an afterthought, and that you have moved on not only from his father, but from the family as a whole, and specifically from him. Have a conversation with your son! Actually, have a conversation with both kids. Your daughter, a little older, may be readier than he is to let go of the idea of a true home base, but that doesn't mean she is without feelings about all of these changes. Acknowledge that your divorce has been hard on them and continues to be hard on them. Acknowledge that the loss of the house that was their home may be painful for them. Encourage them to talk to you about how they feel and what this all means to them. And be honest with them about the condo, which you bought for yourself and have decorated as you see fit. I suspect the second bedroom, which you counted on their taking turns using and decorated to be'neutral' and 'boring'—rather than attempting to make it a space in which they'd both feel at home—added insult to injury. Were there no touches to its decor you could have made that would be inviting to them and demonstrate that you meant this to be their room? And no, offering to let them pick out some things themselves to make the room more appealing to them is not the equivalent to that. Finally: Don't lose sight of what matters more than the condo or either of its metaphorical meanings. Your son wants to spend time with you! When he returns from college on visits, you and he spend a lot of time together. Isn't that more important than where he sleeps? The fact is, you may have to let go of the idea of him thinking of your condo as his home (you've made it your home, and perhaps that's enough) and focus on a new sort of relationship with your son as he edges into adulthood. Dear Care and Feeding, My wife 'Carla' and I have a 3-year-old son, 'Andy.' Andy became a big brother last month when we had our daughter, 'Isabelle.' Andy had been reliably potty-trained for four months before Isabelle was born, but within days of bringing Isabelle home from the hospital, Andy began having accidents. Carla's solution has been to put him back in pull-ups. I don't think allowing him to regress like this is a wise idea. She says to let him do it for the time being if it makes him feel better. It seems to me that taking a firm approach (making him go back to using the toilet or face punishment) would be in his best interest. Who is right? —We're Not Going Backward Dear Backward, Your wife. (I was tempted to write that in all caps.)Andy is only 3, and he is having a hard time right now. Why would you make it harder on him? (And I promise he will not be in pull-ups forever. What difference does it make if potty-training takes a backseat just now to his adjustment to being a big brother?) Dear Care and Feeding, My son recently arrived stillborn at 30 weeks, and I have no living children. My colleagues at work know about this and have mostly been compassionate and mindful. My next-door office neighbor, though, is a mom with young kids and complains about her children often. This is really painful for me, but I don't know if there is any good way to ask her to tone that down around me. My son's death doesn't negate the fact that she might be having a difficult time parenting, I know, but it hurts a lot when people who have kids seem to dislike them, when I'd do anything to have a kid of my own. How do you suggest I handle this? —Bereaved Mom Dear Bereaved, I am very sorry for your loss. And I am also deeply sympathetic to the situation you find yourself in at work. I know it's little consolation, but your work-neighbor doesn't mean you any harm. Her thoughtlessness is literally thought-lessness. She is so wrapped up in her own life, she isn't thinking about how her complaints are making you feel. (She isn't thinking about you at all.) I'll tell you what I wish I'd done, over a decade ago, when my elderly father was dying and someone I'd thought was my friend talked incessantly about how her elderly father was driving her crazy. I remember how close I came, again and again, to interrupting her to say, 'For godsakes, shut up. I'd give anything to have my father around to drive me crazy.' I remember hanging up the phone after every conversation shaking with rage and grief and the effort not to snap at her. I'm not sorry I didn't snap. But I am sorry I didn't tell her that it was painful to listen to her complaints when I was struggling so. I'm sorry I didn't say, 'I know you don't mean to cause me pain, and I know you're having a rough time with your dad, but it's hard for me to hear this when my own father will soon be gone.' She might not have taken that well—I suppose, in fact, that she would not have—but I'm sorry I suffered in silence for so long. Even if our friendship had ended then and there, it would have been better for me to speak up. (And the friendship didn't last much longer, anyway.) Can you gently, thoughtfully tell your colleague that although you know she's having a hard time with her kids, and you feel for her, right at this moment it's painful to hear about it? You're grieving. It's OK to ask the people you regularly interact with not to add to your grief. (And if she doesn't like it? What's the worst that could happen? She'd stop talking to you at all?) Chances are, it has never occurred to her that what she's doing is hurtful. Give her the opportunity to do better by letting her know. You have nothing to lose. —Michelle My sister 'Jasmine' recently got married. The wedding was held in the town Jasmine and I grew up in (where my family and I live). Jasmine and her fiancé, 'Tyler,' arrived a few days beforehand. On the day before the wedding, they went with most of the family to the county fair. Tyler is hardcore MAGA and was making obnoxious comments about everything from women and LGBTQ+ people to the physical traits and appearance of random passersby. My 13-year-old daughter 'Josie' was getting increasingly uncomfortable and angry. Then Tyler spotted the old-school bumper cars ride. Solve the daily Crossword
Time Magazine
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time Magazine
'Slow Burn' Is on The 100 Best Podcasts of All Time
History The original season of Slate's excellent Slow Burn , which began airing in 2017, somehow managed to render oft-retread stories from American history surprising, thanks to an unexpected cast of characters and added context that gets lost in the process of mythologizing. Kicking off with a series about Watergate, Slow Burn closely traced when, exactly, the public was pushed over the edge by Nixon's lies—it was later than you think. The unforgettable first episode of the first season, 'Martha,' tells the horrifying and revealing story of Martha Mitchell, wife of Nixon's attorney general, who was kidnapped and locked in a hotel room in an attempt to cover up the Watergate leak. Mitchell is rightfully the center of that narrative, and the podcast continues to find the very real people often forgotten in the sweeping history-book narratives. The second season covered the Clinton Impeachment—the podcast reminds you that the coverage of Monica Lewinsky is even more sexist than you remember. And more recent seasons have traced the road to the Iraq War, the 1992 L.A. Riots, and the Rise of Fox News, all of which offer lessons for our current political moment.
