Welcome to Second Thought, where we dissect the zeitgeist. Today, River Page takes us on a tour of his algorithm. He’ll explain why home-wrecking can cost you a million dollars in North Carolina, celebrate the self-plagiarism of Matthew Macfadyen, review the chart-topping AI slop song—and much, much more. Dive in.
In the age of the dating app, courtship is a meat market—an endless scroll of bodies—and it seems that women aren’t interested in prime beef.
Earlier this week, gym bros began posting before-and-after pictures of their body transformations as part of a trend on X. Post after post showed guys metamorphosing from Abercrombie & Fitch models into Incredible Hulks—the latter being the physique that’s exploded in popularity in recent years, on Instagram and in the Planet Fitnesses of suburban America, thanks to an abundance of steroids and the efforts of influencers. If you follow male fitness accounts on any platforms, you will inevitably come to the conclusion that bigger is better.
