Ep. 81: Too Online: Roman Empire, VivekTok, Union Solidarity Collation, Vegas Hack

[00:00] We're here. We are. Two Online. It begins. Episode three. Here it is. [00:06] Welcome to Two Online by Boys Club. Hot internet news served fresh. [00:16] Okay, so if you have not listened to this format yet, this is where we talk about three internet stories that are happening. [00:24] Oh, four. Four internet stories that are happening. [00:27] i bring to dina brings to [00:30] They're a surprise to each other and it's a lot of fun. My two stories are Roman Empire. [00:37] And Union Solidarity Coalition. [00:41] Those are mine too. What are your two? Looking forward to that. Mine are Vivek Talk. Okay. [00:48] Las Vegas hacks. Oh, OK. I'm familiar with one and not the other. OK, let's get into it. Great. Hey, Natasha, if someone wants to get into crypto or is looking for a better way to trade, where should they go? Oh, Dina, I'm so glad you asked. The place to be is Kraken. It's more than a crypto platform. Kraken is your bridge to the new world of finance, a simple, gorgeous place to trade with a redesigned trading interface that's so easy to use. [01:18] full-timer, make your trades in just a few clicks. Go to kraken.com backslash boys club, sign up in just a few minutes, and you can even get started with as little as $10. We love you, Kraken. [01:28] I'm going to start with the Roman Empire. Okay. My two stories this week were two...

[01:33] new meme formats that dropped and they completely destroyed my timeline. And it's all that I could see. So I've dug into both of these to learn. Um, [01:42] The Roman Empire, a Rolling Stones, I believe, headline that sums it up very beautifully says, Men won't stop thinking about the Roman fucking empire. TikTok determines. The new social media trend sees users ask men how often they ponder Rome, with some admitting they do so daily. [02:00] What's happening? The breakdown is essentially women are asking the men in their lives, their fathers, their partners, their husbands, their boyfriends, their lovers, how often they think about the Roman Empire. The results are surprising and often red flaggy. Some feeling that they think about the Roman Empire daily. I think what's funny about this, there's two... [02:19] interesting threads in this story. Okay. One thread is the origin story. Okay. Where it began, how it began, how it began. [02:26] I've dug into that because it's very, it's one of those things that very hard to identify how, how, [02:32] this [02:33] trend started and how this viral moment morphed into what it is today. The other aspect of it is that there are good ones and there are bad ones. And I want to break down... [02:43] why some of them are good and why some of them are not for me. And I think not very good. Okay. So first what we're going to do is... [02:51] The origin of this... We're going to talk about the origin. So I... [02:55] Went to know your meme. [02:57] dug in to Know Your Meme, which is a great website if anybody's wondering. They sort of go through what a meme is and why it has happened.

[03:08] Story of the Roman Empire meme started way back last year in September [redacted address]. And she has now posted on her Instagram. [03:22] One day ago. This is how the Roman empire trend actually started. Help me acknowledge media to credit me by sharing this post or tagging them in the comments. XO XO. So she's wanting credit. Oh man. I don't love that. I hate it. I think it's the cringiest. I don't love that. And then she comes with receipts. [03:41] And this thread goes in September 2022. The question, how often do you think about the Roman Empire went viral in Sweden and radio and TV and magazine interviews med. [03:52] Mad about it. There's some ESL stuff here. Okay. MED. Mad about it. Okay. So then she has all these pictures of Swedish people talking about the Roman Empire. [04:01] Swedish publications. Then she said, in August 2023, a Swedish guy translated my theory to English, and that's when the international media picked it up. And now my, quote, science guy is a worldwide phenomenon. [04:13] So she's saying like, okay, she did this a year ago. It's been translated. Now it's gone viral. She's salty. She's salty about it. Then she said, unfortunately, I don't get any credit for my Roman Empire theory from international media. So please help me share this post to acknowledge how the trend started. She goes on. She's got like receipts of her posting about it. And it is sort of funny. What happened was this woman had only dated women for five years and then she started to date a man.

[04:43] followers what does straight single men eat and think about again there's some me and sell stuff here but that's what she says and then the two responses so she's trying to do some like [04:54] anthropology she's trying to do some anthropology as she's starting to date okay and i respect that she said she got some funny responses and one of them was asked my boyfriend one thinks about nothing two thinks about the roman empire [05:07] So those, that's what happened after she got that DM and she posted on her stories, I'm [05:13] There were a ton of people that flooded her DMs and was like, oh my God, my partner or my boyfriend also talks about or thinks about the Roman Empire all the time. Okay. Okay. [05:22] That's the origin story. There's... [05:24] 5,600 likes on her post. I personally find this incredibly cringe that she wants credit, but here we are. [05:32] credit where credit is due. [05:34] Credit is where credit is due. And I have a hot take that this is not a funny meme format unless it's the origin of the video. Like, I don't think... [05:44] What it has grown into is very funny, even though I did tweet about it and did have my own Roman Empire tweet. Right. I was going to say, you hopped on. I did hop on. But I actually don't think that's a very – it's a very funny meme format. Yeah. I think what's funny is these genuine videos of women asking their boyfriends. Yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to watch a compilation. Okay. Okay. [06:03] So this TikTok is a compilation of the best ones. [06:07] And so I want to listen to the first one and the third one with you. Okay. So I'm pulling it up right now.

[06:14] tiktok.com here we go how often do you think about the roman empire how often do i think about it yeah oh it's technically like every day okay [06:29] *laughs* [06:30] *GASP* [06:31] I've never, I haven't watched any of these original videos. That's what I'm saying. The original videos are so funny because they're like shame ridden. Yes. And defensive, defensive, but they're like unburdening themselves from the secret that they have, that they think about the Roman empire all the time. And it's like, what the hell? Yeah. So those are hilarious. The ones that I've seen, like I was late to this meme. So the ones that I was seeing were not funny at all to me. Cause I was like, these are so forced and stupid. [07:01] the dudes were like, no, I never think about the runner. So that's what's going on. Wow. Yes. The, um, Saski court, [07:09] Credit where credit's due. Yeah. One year ago today. And good ones, bad ones. I guess I'm wondering why they're thinking about it so much. I haven't really dug into the psychology around it. No worries. People do say that it's a red flag if they think about the Roman Empire a lot. Okay. Personally, my take is... [07:25] what a cultured fella to be thinking about the Roman empire. I'm honestly, all the dudes who were saying they were thinking about a lot, very interesting to me. Let's, let's hear why some guy who's like, no, I'm like, okay. Empty brain, smooth brain. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

[07:48] I'm going to start with Vivek Talk. [07:51] Have you? No exposure. Okay. I do want to say this is an X-rated story. If there are children in the vicinity, it might be... [08:00] wise to i'm scandalized get them out of the room it's it's a little bit scandalous [08:04] I'm going to do my best to honor the story, even though it is racy. Vivek Ramaswamy, are you familiar with him? [08:11] He's running for office. He's running for president. Presidente. Presidente. El Presidente. Republican. Yes. Is he the guy who did the very cringe Eminem video? Like... [08:20] wrapped to Eminem I don't know that video exactly but checks out for what I've seen from his oh I think I do know the story but continue okay he he's like a ex-farmer bro Republican candidate and the tech guys for some reason really like him like Elon and all those guys okay really he's like pro-tech [08:39] he's, [08:40] Pro-tech and problematic. [08:41] Okay. So, you know, that attracts a certain type of dude. Okay. So he recently joined TikTok. [08:46] Okay. And... [08:48] You can imagine he has probably some... [08:51] young person on his team that's like you need to get on TikTok and then he's [08:55] recording face to camera like, oh, I'm here. [08:58] It's stiff though. It's not... He's not an internet sensation. He's not native. It's forced. But he's like, I got to do it. I got to be where the kids are. And so he's like, I want to be where the kids are. So he posts a video and then his comments... [09:11] Get... [09:12] flooded. Oh, he gets ratioed? He gets ratioed in such a major way. Oh my gosh. And the comments are taking...

[09:19] one of... [09:20] Three forms. Okay. [09:23] The first one is the most tame, which is roasting him about a comment that he had made. [09:27] about how people under the age of 25 shouldn't vote. [09:31] He made this stupid comment at some point. And so people, there's a lot of people who are like coming in. They're like, oh, you want to talk to Gen Z? Well, then like screw you because you haven't made this comment. [09:38] That's the first category. The second category. I'm so nervous. I'm so nervous. This is what's racy. And this is actually what's most prevalent is people saying, Vivek, I edge to you. So people edging, quote unquote, edging themselves. Wow. [09:53] to his videos oh my god oh my god i know no it's flooded the comments are close so [10:02] It's so much so that... [10:04] You know the little search bar at the top of a TikTok video? No, yes. Okay. Okay. [10:08] You know what that, when that's auto-populated, what that means? Uh-uh. Okay, so sometimes you go and you're watching a TikTok video and there's the little top search bar that says Justin Bieber paparazzi or something. Okay. And that basically means that... [10:23] the TikTok algorithm has categorized the content of that video to align with whatever those search terms are. [10:29] What that means is like that's where your content is being served. And the little search bar on the top says, [10:36] vivek edging oh so he's he's just getting man roasted roasted blasted with this and so much so that anyone that's going and watching his tiktoks now that's the first thing that they see oh my gosh oh my gosh so a bunch of just gotta like delete i don't know what you do at that point but like it's a bunch of comments it's like yeah viveka edged you edging to vivek from botswana a little heart like people are just like going off as you can imagine this is a veep this is a veep

[11:03] storyline. Totally. It's totally a storyline. Just the level of sort of maturity in this comment. [11:09] one of the videos he says keep your questions coming and like keep your answers coming oh no and everyone's like keep the answers what like so anyway oh my god so then the third one which is kind of a a [11:25] honestly like more more wholesome version is witch talk [11:30] okay do you know witch talk not like sort of spooky girls that do like seances and stuff like that they have taken it and have started hexing him and so witch talk is also i don't like that witch talk is in the comments [11:44] Edging themselves in the comments. And then there's also the witch talk has splintered so that some people are hexing him. And then some people, another side of witch talk is saying, you guys are hexing him wrong. [12:00] You guys are hexing him wrong in all these different ways and sort of taking issue with how he's being hexed, which is hilarious. Okay, I don't like the last one. I'm not familiar with his politics, so it's nothing to do with that. I just don't like... [12:13] Spooky spiritual stuff. Yeah. The final part of the story is that... [12:17] He was endorsed by Jake Paul. [12:22] I saw this. Here we are again. Here we are again. Again. Lociento. I don't [12:27] We're not sponsored by the Paul Brothers. No. And I got to say, it was one of the most cringe videos I've ever seen. Oh, he goes on a video on TikTok? Vivek goes on a Jake Paul video. And then they're like... No, thank you. It's terrible.

[12:44] Anyway, I think that that was actually what... [12:46] That was the catalyst to all of his TikTok fame, his, his. [12:51] TikTok roasting was his alignment with Jake Paul. Wow. Great story. [13:01] Okay. So my last story is the Union Solidarity Coalition. [13:08] Nothing. Okay. Nothing. [13:10] So, [13:11] I'm going to tell you how I got exposed to this trend because I was early. [13:15] So... [13:16] I've been rewatching Girls. [13:18] Having a wonderful time. How is it holding up? [13:21] So well like this show was incredible. It wasn't just that I was living the life that they were living in So I was so attuned to their movements, but also that it's a hilarious show. I've been really enjoying a rewatch It's so nice to be in a different face of my life watching it. Mm-hmm. So we're watching girls and I was I [13:42] wanting to check in on Lena Dunham. How's she doing these days? What's she up to? Where's she living? What's she doing? So I went to her Instagram and, [13:50] And in her stories, she linked to this TikTok. [13:54] And this TikTok is this woman explaining what is happening with the Union Solidarity Coalition. Essentially what is happening is the Union Solidarity Coalition is an organization founded by writers and directors who were moved to connect with crew affected our 2023 WGA strike.

[14:16] organization that is helping to raise funds for crew members that are out of work right now because of the writer and actor strike. [14:25] So a particular part of this is that they're running an auction to raise funds to support for healthcare specifically for the casting crews affected that are on strike. [14:36] And what this auction is, is different celebrities auctioning off [14:41] different [14:42] things that they are willing to do. And, [14:47] what's better than making fun of celebrities, nothing. And so all of these celebrities are [14:52] are on this live auction, which if I were a celebrity would never do because you're literally putting a price tag to whatever it is that you're willing to do. [15:02] on the internet or otherwise. And what's really happened about on the internet is then it got memed to shit, where everybody was like, Oh, I'm going to say what I want, basically from a celebrity or what I would pay for. And it got hilarious. But some of the ones that were... [15:18] our actual ones are Bob Odenkirk and David Cross will join you for dinner. That's going for $10,000 right now. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Adam Scott will walk your dog for one hour. LA based only $3,000. Okay. Lena Dunham will paint a mural in your home. $5,000. Wow. That. [15:37] is a meme at this point where people were [15:40] Showing what the mural would be. Showing what the mural would be. Um... [15:45] And then there's some that you

[15:48] personally could not pay me to do like go to a pottery class with busy Phillips. [15:53] You'd have to personally pay me to do that. So it's a wide range and there's a monetary value to every single one of these, which is incredible. And like number of bids and it's live. It's a live auction. There's two days left. You could go and bid. It's live now? It's live on eBay. Wow. Yes. Oh, eBay. Yes. They're doing it through eBay. I'm like the tooling. What is this? Okay. [16:13] There are some hilarious fictional ones. My personal favorite [16:18] is a picture of Florence Pugh. [16:22] You know, that iconic picture of her with Aperol Spritz in Venice in the purple. That picture of her. And it says Florence Pugh tells you what happened on the Don't Worry Darling set over boozy brunch. And it's going for over nine million dollars. Incredible. Incredible. And like what's so great about this meme format is like it's very visually distinct. Yeah. Like it's got this and you know where you're at. Also, people are doing that like don't make sense and are like super weird Internet people. It's a picture of Lea Michele. [16:49] And it says, Leah Michelle will shit in your wig. $650. Like, and the caption of it is IDK could be worth it. Just weird. Like what's going on? Yeah. So I want to end this segment with two truths and a lie. Okay. [17:04] Two of these are real. One of them is fake. Okay. [17:06] And I'm going to go in order of cost. Okay. Tracking. [17:10] Okay. Rosemary DeWitt and Ron Livingston's relationship advice squabble over Zoom. $1,136. Okay. That's what that is currently going for. The next one, sit in absolute silence with Nathan Fielder for an entire hour. $2,136.

[17:28] $624. Oh my God. I hope that one's true. I really hope that one's true. And then the last one going for a high bid here at $6,100, [17:37] Natasha Lyonne will help you solve the New York times Sunday cross. That's funny. That's funny. Um, [17:44] I don't think Nathan Fielder would do that. It's fake. Okay. That's so funny. That is a really, really good one. Yeah. So that is what's happening. It's for a good cause. Link in the show notes if you'd like to bid on anything. Union Solidarity Coalition. I'd love to see some memes that you found. [18:03] Kraken is a crypto OG. They have more than 10 million clients around the world that trust them with their crypto needs. [18:14] the industry so you can rest easy that your funds and your privacy are safe for the keeping. And if you need help along the way, as we all do sometimes, Kraken's award-winning client support team is available 24-7 every day of the year. This is a true story. I've actually hit them up a few times with very dumb questions about our account, and they were so nice and so patient. It just takes a few minutes to get started today at kraken.com backslash boys club. [18:39] Okay, we're going to do a quick shot through the Vegas hacks. Oh, I'm so excited. I love this story. Oh my gosh. I have seen... [18:47] moments of it on the internet, but I don't really know what's going on. So I'm very excited. Yeah, I have a very romantic notion around hacker culture. Yeah, I know they're really damaging and like really bad and problematic. And I probably shouldn't say that out loud. But

[19:01] you know, just the movie version of hackers. Totally. In Ocean's 11 and The Matrix. Like, I really like that version of a hacker. Yeah. In my mind, when I think about a hacker, he's like a, he's like a really sexy, bad boy. Really sexy. Brad Pitt. And he's never on his computer. Anyway, I just want to say that, like, I know that hackers are really bad and do really [19:31] Thank you. [19:31] So basically, the story goes that... [19:34] MGM... [19:35] Bellagio Casino and Hotel and Caesars [19:39] palace were both hacked. Okay. Last week. [19:42] What that means is that [19:44] slot machines... [19:45] Frozen [19:47] ATMs and elevators down, room keys. Wow. Okay. Digital terrorism. Yeah. You're fully in the – [19:55] nervous system of these big, huge hotels and casinos. And the... [20:00] infrastructure, the Wi-Fi and phone systems and stuff like that were going down. [20:04] people were having to get into their rooms [20:07] With a key. Like a room key. Oh. I didn't even know that was possible, but that was what someone reported. The, like, shows were called off. So, the reason I first encountered this story was Amy Poehler and... [20:18] I think she's on tour and she was like, yeah, I can't do my show. And so she was like hanging out in a room doing TikTok. And then she's like, I must create. I'm called to create. I saw a funny show TikTok that was the parking area. [20:30] They were free parking at MGM because the parking meter thing was down, so people were just going through. But the electricity is on. The electricity is on, yeah. The electricity is on, and I suppose it's safe in that way, but the big...

[20:43] hack was in addition to crippling the operations of this hotel and casino, it [20:49] is that they made off with... [20:53] a huge amount of data from these loyalty programs. [20:57] Which includes name, driver's license, and social security number. Oh, shit. So, major data breach. Okay. Major, major data breach. [21:05] If you're familiar with casinos, they always have those weird cards that you can sign up for that get you, like, extra perks or whatever. Yeah. [21:12] they basically were able to run through that system and pull all the down, which is a lot. [21:16] Okay. Of data. So... [21:18] That's what happened. Now, how they got there was through... [21:23] Social engineering. Okay. This is a cautionary tale... [21:27] Trust no man. Okay. The hackers identified who... [21:33] had the clearance... [21:35] That they needed to get into the system. Okay. Okay. [21:38] And found that person on LinkedIn. Oh, no. [21:42] Found who their name was, whatever. [21:44] And then they called the help desk, the front desk. Okay. [21:48] And it was basically like, hi, I'm this person. I need to reset my password. And the help desk was like, sure, totally. [21:54] No. Reset the password. [21:56] And then, [21:57] the hackers logged in and uploaded the ransomware. We don't have like two factor authentication. I don't know, but it took 10 minutes. Whoa. And then they uploaded the ransomware. [22:08] And... [22:09] that was the same format that was used at MGM and then...

[22:13] It was also used at Caesars, but it was different hacker groups. There was this hacker group called Scattered Spiders and this other hacker group called Black Cat. [22:20] So, [22:22] That's what happened. Okay, wait. I have a few questions. Yeah. Yeah. [22:27] What I had seen online was like... [22:30] or what I had thought I had seen online, was that they were holding... [22:34] There was like a ransom. I thought this was for money. It was not as for data. It was for money. Yeah. So basically that I, my understanding of this sort of scenario is that the hackers call, [22:43] Caesars and say, hey, 30 million. We call Caesar. [22:45] They call Mr. Caesar and they say, hey, 30 million bucks. This is a version of what happened. 30 million bucks. [22:51] And we'll basically back off and like won't release your data to the dark web. [22:55] And so Caesar... [22:58] Caesar did pay half [23:00] of what was requested from the hackers. So Caesars ended up paying $50 million. MJ and Bellagio said no so far. [23:09] so [23:11] that's basically what went down. But I think the concern is the systems have all been compromised. And the hackers, sure, maybe they don't release the data, but they built in all these backdoors to the system. [23:22] And it's kind of fucked anyway. Yeah. It's totally compromised. [23:26] But yeah, that's that. Hack story. This is such an interesting story because I love Las Vegas. [23:34] I have a weird... [23:36] kink for hackers. Not really. Not really. But like I'm interested in them. Yeah. And so it all comes together. It checks all the boxes. It checks all the boxes. Wow. Great. Thank you for your briefing. Yeah, there it is. Okay. Two online episode three. Two online.

[23:58] to online. Thanks for being here. Please like and subscribe to the boys club. [24:02] feed here subscribe to the newsletter send it to a friend i don't know please also send us your internet stories i actually did get sent a couple internet stories that were [24:09] so internet-y. [24:11] that I actually couldn't take them on yet, but keep sending them. You're going to build to it. Yeah. All the links are in the show notes and our Twitter handles as well. So talk to you next week. Bye.