2019-07-16

Negative Social Mood Everywhere You Look

Notable is that the article dates the trend towards ugly in the mid-1990s, right before the social mood peak in 2000. That's also when the Scream franchise heralded the coming horror wave of the 2000s and 2010s.
CNBC: Ugly is in: How Crocs have taken over teen footwear, and sent the stock soaring
Crocs is the 13th most popular footwear brand among average-income female teenagers, according to Piper Jaffray’s spring survey. It grew from 30th in 2017, although last year it was ranked 12th.

...Teenagers agree that the shoe’s popularity shows no sign of stopping. But that doesn’t mean its reputation of being ugly has faded.

...Julianna, a 17-year-old from Teaneck, New Jersey who requested only her first name to be used, said that many of her friends are wearing Crocs precisely because they’re seen as ugly.

“People want to wear it ’cause it’s gross. It’s like rebelling against whatever society thinks is wrong,” she said. “I always thought they were ugly, but then everyone started wearing them and it just became a trend. Everyone I know has at least one pair.”
Orthodox socionomic theory says the stock market is the best reflector of mood that we've got. My thesis is central banks broke the market signal. (It could also be that stock markets are no longer central enough to serve as an indicator, in which case they might be an accurate signal of what is now a subculture of stock investors.) The past 20 years look like the 1970s and 1930s on steroids. The 70s saw a rise in androgyny, more widespread and flamboyant than the 1930s thanks to the sexual revolution. To find a similar wave of transgenderism though, one must look to Weimar Germany, a society in collapse. Other disturbingly similar trends are the rise of prostitution then, and the rise of young women selling themselves online to "sugar daddies" today. (See: "Sugar Daddy" Business Thrives As More Co-Eds Sign Up To Pay Off Student Debt). I believe the financial markets will eventually catch down to social mood, rather than vice versa.

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