The one influencer scandal that refuses to die

Last Friday night, I went to an internet culture-themed drag show so packed that the crowd poured out into the freezing cold street. I planned to write about the show for Spitfire. The next morning, I woke up to the news that 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, had been shot ten times point-blank by ICE agents in Minneapolis. The violence and decimation and death in the streets looms large over everything else right now.

Instead, I wrote a piece for WIRED about how different subreddits are staging a resistance to ICE, and last night, I went to Foley Square in downtown Manhattan in 15-degree weather to stand alongside hundreds of New Yorkers rallying against this administration.

For today’s newsletter, I still want to talk about that drag show and the one influencer scandal that refuses to die. But I also want to keep focusing my efforts on ICE. So I’m matching and donating all Spitfire News proceeds today to the Immigrant Legacy Advocacy Project, an advocacy organization in Portland, Maine, that provides free and low-cost immigration legal assistance. Right now, they’re responding to a targeted ICE operation in their community that is affecting hundreds of their neighbors.

You can upgrade your Spitfire News membership here to take part, and if you’re already a member (thank you!) but still want to make a donation to the ILAP, you can do so here. I’ll be attaching a receipt of the donation to my next newsletter.

Now, there’s only one viral controversy steeped in internet lore that can draw out a crowd like the one I saw this weekend. It was the last major influencer drama before Covid lockdowns, and its enduring legacy says a lot about how diluted online culture has become in the years since the pandemic started.

Subscribe to Spitfire News to read the rest.