Notes from the edge of civilization: June 8, 2025
SCOTUS scorecard (liberty - 1, free speech - 0); WiFi wins out over wind in your hair; what pizza sales can tell us about the economy and geopolitics.
The Supreme Court giveth and the Supreme Court taketh away.
This week, the Justices delivered a unanimous ruling that briefly made us believe "liberty and justice for all" wasn't just something we mumbled in elementary school homeroom.
A straight white woman in Ohio tried to sue for discrimination after she was first passed up for promotion and then demoted and forced to take a pay cut in favor of LGBTQ hires. Lower courts refused to let her make her case, saying she needed to provide additional evidence of discrimination. ‘Sorry,’ they shrugged, ‘you’re not a protected class, so suck it up.’
The Supreme Court corrected the record and overturned the lower courts. Even Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — who was explicitly chosen by President Biden because of her race and gender — agreed: discrimination is discrimination, whether you’re a ‘minority’ or not.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch went further in a concurring opinion, torching the entire premise of ‘protected groups’ and calling the identity politics game exactly what it is — incoherent, divisive, and deeply un-American.
Just as we were chalking up a win for the Constitution, SCOTUS went and pulled the rug out. The Justices refused to hear a critical First Amendment case — letting stand a lower court ruling that prevented a Massachusetts student from wearing a shirt saying “There are only two genders.” Liam Morrison was banned from class for wearing the shirt and banned again when he taped “CENSORED” over the original message.
SCOTUS essentially gave the lower courts the green light to let offense outweigh free speech. Translation: You’re free to express your opinion as long as it’s state-approved.
To recap, you’re allowed to sue for being punished for your identity but not for being punished for expressing your beliefs.
We’ve been watching the slow-motion pileup of the car industry for a while now, and this week brought more wreckage.
A new S&P Global Mobility report out this week shows “a troubling decline in new vehicle purchases among the highly sought-after 18–34 age demographic.” New vehicle registrations in that age group have crashed, down from 12% in Q1 2021 to less than 10% today.
Cost is a major barrier, with one in five new vehicles carrying monthly payments of over $1,000. But money isn’t the whole story. Even multi-millionaires like Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi are having a hard time convincing their teenagers to get a driver’s license. The irony of the guy who runs the rideshare empire lamenting that young people no longer want to drive is almost painful.
The driver’s license — once a sacred rite of passage to independence — is turning into a museum artifact. Why bother learning to parallel park when, with the touch of a button, you can summon a stranger with a Prius and a USB port and be left to stare at your phone in peace?
Freedom used to mean horsepower under the hood and the call of the open road. Now, forget V8… it’s all about 5G.
So, Gen Z is skipping driver’s licenses, car ownership, and now… pizza? Dang, that American dream is crumbling like day-old crust.
In Q1 2025, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Domino’s all reported declining sales. Pizza — a historic safe haven for the broke and hungry — is now becoming out of reach for the average Joe. Bloomberg’s Deena Shanker points out what should be obvious: when frozen pizza is priced higher than minimum wage, something's off.
Takeout is one thing, but even supermarket pizza is struggling. Nestlé admitted their frozen pizza game flopped due to “overly aggressive pricing.” Apparently no one’s paying $9.99 for do-it-yourself pie when the rent’s due. The company has now backtracked to a $4 to $6 range for most pies.
On the flip side, wealthy diners are happily forking over $2,000 for gold-flaked, caviar-drenched pizzas at Industry Kitchen in lower Manhattan. All this while Trump’s tariffs and a weakened dollar are making imported Italian flour and cheese even more expensive. Yep, your pizza now comes with a side of geopolitics.
Shanker’s right: the pizza economy is a Rorschach test for broader economic collapse. In 2025, the 1% eat foie gras and French truffle pies, while the rest of us decide between debt and DiGiorno.
Gen Z is such a anomaly. Maybe I'm just too out of touch, too old and set in my ways, but I'm stunned when I hear what they value, what they believe, and their goals. Adept at phone and computer manipulation, but seemingly unable to deal with the reality of encroaching loss of freedoms and a bleak future.
I may be over generalizing but I'd say they seem to be lost souls, shaped by their peers' expectations, social media, slick marketing, and the corrupt world all around them. They grew up with smartphones, DEI, trans ideology, covid lockdowns, and surveillance, so it's no wonder they are the way they are I suppose.
I don't think that many have managed to become critical thinkers or reformers. They've been played; and have become "a commodity" by the corporate agendas that don't care where this is going for our collective future.
I fear that many more will fall prey to globalist agendas, digital ID, AI control and manipulation as it is rolled out. They don't, they won't, see it coming.
They are so woefully unprepared and vulnerable to manipulation.
It can also be that the youth are catching onto the scam that is the US auto market.
There are just a limited number of people who are stupid enough to sign their life away for 72-84 months of payments for a $50K-$100K car at ridiculous interest rates and end up with an asset that is worth nothing by the time they pay it off, assuming that they had the income to qualify for the loan in the first place.
I occasionally think about upgrading from my 20 year old car but then realize that it would be cheaper to buy a vacation home somewhere interesting. The only thing that stops me is the fact that I am retired and don't feel that much need for a vacation.
A young kid can get by with an e-bike or electric scooter and the occasional uber for cheaper than just the insurance payment for a car. Going out for a date can be replaced with Netflix and a Doordash delivery, If they have not opted out of the insanity of the current dating market altogether.
If I went out into the garage and my car was gone, I honestly can't say whether or not I would even replace it. Just getting everything delivered would be cheaper than the tags and insurance on my car. Most times I just get around on my bicycle anyway.