Don't Blame Me! - BAIW: Fabric Cult

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

But Am I Wrong: Melisa:  Bad Bunny Love Meghan:  Pink Washing But Are You Wrong: Lying about finishing Shopping for fabric But Are They Wrong: Melisa: Squirrel of San Rafael Meghan: Baggu Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dontblameme Buy Our Merch https://crowdmade.com/collections/sister-sign Listen to Melisa’s New Show https://apps.apple.com/in/app/pocket-fm-audio-series/id1538433480?mt=8 Call In for DBM - 310-694-0976 (3 minutes or less) Write In for DBM - [e-mail] (300 words or less) Write in for BAIW - [e-mail] DBM Submission Form BAIW Submission Form Follow Us! instagram.com/meghanandmelisa @meghanrienks instagram.com/meghanrienks https://twitter.com/meghanrienks @sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/diamondmprint.productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wayfair's Labor Day clearance is on now. Right now at Wayfair, you can get up to 70% off everything home. Shop Wayfair's Labor Day clearance now through September 7th at wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hello, welcome to a brand new episode of But Am I Wrong? Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Did you miss us last week? I hope so.

I mean, you had us for a lot of episodes, just not that one. This one. Yeah. Why didn't we do it again? Oh, the power went out. Yep. What a time. What a time.

Well, we're excited for you to be here with us today. i almost was gonna start filtering a fake graduation speech as we go i was gonna sing it too yeah we remember all the times that we had together so um yeah this is uh but am i wrong where we talk about people who are wrong is it us sure maybe sometimes never we're so good it's not me and we have multiple different segments on the show we will explain each one before we get into it not to overwhelm you and uh you know because it's you got your day you got your day maybe you're like i need to we got to ease into it sometimes i want to be the lobster in the cold water that suddenly becomes that becomes a jacuzzi i don't want to be dumped into the jacuzzi to

start you know i mean you want to die no no if i have to die and i didn't say all the time because i said sometimes because you also know in the hunger games i'm jumping off that platform immediately to get killed oh you mean actual hunger games not the book or movie series i mean that and same thing with zombie apocalypse i mean i'm not trying to survive i'm trying to get out as quickly as possible but other times you want it to be hot then i want it to be hot yeah to begin with if you want to get out as quickly as possible that's what i'm saying but sometimes why does it make such a loud noise when i plug it in not mine because i'm always on silent that is true but sometimes sometimes i just like i don't want to know i want to like slowly ease my way in

okay so that's what we do for you here three different segments we explain each of them as we go but what you need to know is we want you to vote on who you think was wrong in everything we talk about in this episode and that is over on our instagram stories we post those there we add them to a highlight and you can vote in those polls for who you think was wrong and then reply to why you voted the way you did your thoughts and your feelings and we read those results as well as your thoughts and feelings on our tuesday episode called see you next tuesday yeah for my second bullet point there's a survey up right now that you should fill out it's in the show notes please do it it helps us make our shows better thanks all right should we get into

the first one let's do it our first segment is called but am i wrong that's where megan and i pick something from our lives that we either just want to talk about a rant or we might have been wrong in our own special life and i'm up first i like this color blue on you thanks so i'm gonna to talk about a cultural emergency. I'm here to talk about a controversy so staggeringly ignorant, so laughably hysterical, and so deeply racist. It makes you wonder if some people are actively trying to prove the adage that ignorance is bliss. I'm talking about the unhinged xenophobic howl over Bad Bunny Benito headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. The outrage is not just ridiculous, it's a meticulously constructed lie and it needs to be dismantled. So let's start with the sheer

absurdity of the argument. Who are these people who are complaining that the NFL picked the wrong artist? They are the same people who, when asked about him, have to admit they've never heard of him. Never heard of him. Bad Bunny was the most streamed male artist globally on Spotify for three consecutive years. He is a multi-Grammy winning genre defining phenomenon whose recent 31 show residency in Puerto Rico single-handedly injected nearly 700 million dollars into the local economy. the NFL is a business its core demographic is aging its median viewer is 50 years old to survive the league must court younger more diverse and international audiences Bad Bunny is a golden ticket to the global youth market his selection is not a political statement

it's a brilliant a brilliant seven million a second business decision but for the critics is not about the music or the numbers. It's about a name that they can't pronounce and a language they refuse to hear. It's about a misplaced fear that a man singing in Spanish on a football field somehow threatens their entire cultural identity. And that brings us to the most frustrating and willingfully ignorant part of this entire debacle. Let me say this clearly for the people who it can't penetrate their little minds. And they're the ones that are posting the outraged comments and the politicians making threats. Benito Martinez Ocasio, a.k.a. Bad Bunny, is an American citizen. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of

the United States. Since Joan Shafroth Act of 1917, people born in Puerto Rico are natural-born citizens of the United States. The idea that he is some foreign interloper stealing a precious American ritual is patently false. It's a lie. When critics like Fox News hosts who insist that he's not an American artist say this, they are not just factually wrong. They are dismantling the citizenship and identity of over 3.2 million Americans living in the territory and millions more in the diaspora. They are using the word American to mean white English speaking and ideologically aligned with them. Bad Bunny's decision to primarily perform in Spanish is seen as a provocation. But here's the history lesson they refuse to learn. The Spanish language has

been spoken on this land in what now the southwestern United States longer than English has. Currently, more than 43 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home. We are the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. His language isn't an invasion. It's a reflection of america's reality and if he's a trump hater and a critic of the u.s policy guess what that's called free speech and it's protected by the same document that allows the nfl to exist it doesn't make him less american it makes him a participant in the american tradition of dissent the racist undertones of the bad bunny controversy become deafening when you look at the history of the super bowl halftime show suddenly singing in a foreign language is an existential threat let's

review a list of actual non-americans who have performed on the stage these are people who were born outside the u.s and are not u.s citizens and guess what there was zero ice threat zero calls for them to be deported and zero outrage from the quote-unquote patriots the weekend cold play u2 the rolling stones paul mccartney shakira j balvin was there a mass outrage that paul mccartney sir paul a knight of the british empire was polluting the sacred field with his foreign sensibilities no why is it that when white artists or white passing artists from the uk or canada sing in English, it's a global party, but when a Puerto Rican man sings in Spanish, it's a national security threat. Also, he's performed at the Super Bowl before. The answer is obvious. It's racism

and xenophobia. It's a belief that English is the only legitimate language in American public life and that the rising cultural visibility of Latino people, the nation's largest ethnic minority, is a form of cultural replacement the outrage hit its most dangerous and truly racist peak when trump advisors like cory lamandowski and christie gnome used the bad bunny announcement as an opportunity to threaten latino attendees lamandowski speaking on a podcast said there is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally we will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you. Noam immediately echoed this, promising ICE agents would be all over that place. Think about what that means. The

announcement of a musical act was used as a platform to declare that a national cultural event, the Super Bowl, would be an active site of immigration enforcement. This isn't about music. It's about chilling the presence of Latino fans at the event, creating an atmosphere of fear and explicitly linking the celebration of a Puerto Rican superstar to targeted governmental harassment. They're not saying we don't like his music. They're saying if you look like his fan, we're coming for you. This is the exact reason why Bad Bunny himself has been an outspoken critic of Trump era immigration policies and why he skipped the continental U.S. leg of his recent tour. He wasn't being political for fun. He was responding to a very real threat to his fan base. And when he stood up for his community, the opposition proved his point by threatening his community at the biggest event of his career. Bad Bunny's performance is not a degradation of American culture.

It's an affirmation of what America actually sounds like now. It sounds global. It sounds young. And yes, it sounds like Spanish. The irony is that their fit of anti-immigrant, English-only rage, the critics are attacking a man who legally, fundamentally, and constitutionally American. They are so obsessed with clinging to a monochrome, monolingual past that they are missing the vibrancy of the diverse present.

So let them watch in fear. Let them turn down the volume because come Super Bowl Sunday, Bad Bunny, the American citizen, the global superstar, the cultural icon is going to take that stage. He's going to speak his truth. he's going to sing his music and the roar of the crowd from California to Puerto Rico is going to be the sound of an American that has long since moved past the petty fears of its most insecure critics. And if they don't understand what he's saying, as Bad Bunny himself quipped with a smile, you have four months to learn. Fantastic. I applaud. The two things

that kill me is one the amount of republicans were like he's not even american i go you pay do you know how many of you are benefiting from tax loopholes and tax breaks by moving your primary residence to puerto rico like it's just like the paul logan paul did it like i'm like there's this idea that it's like that is well no that's not that's not real america i'm like that what like and seeing even when they are people are talking about it on tv and being like you genuinely did not know like you like you truly did not know or you are choosing to when it fits your political narrative decide what is and is not america insane and the only question i have for bad bunny is will he be performing his calvin klein ad on stage and i would like i found out that some people don't

like that they were like had a visceral negative reaction to it oh some people and like what do you mean no no like they they were like i love bad bunny but like that gave me the ick and like i don't know that i've ever felt more divided like i was like wow i have actually i didn't know that that was an option like i didn't know that it was an option to be like yeah that gave me the the and this is the first i'm hearing yeah like i'm like if you are i don't know to me i was like okay yeah i was not into the jeremy allen white one but i didn't i didn't think that was an unpopular opinion but like you mean to tell me that you were like i loved a jeremy allen white one but oh that bad bunny one that gave me the ick what what i i've it's i've re-watched it so

many times so many times me too oh yeah it's i don't know i he his response especially like to specifically this criticism i have found like his comedic timing in general is like so fucking he's so funny and smart yes and that's like the part to it where it's like at first i'm laughing and then i'm like oh damn like it's like there's there's so many layers to it and yeah it's this is just again i always have to ask like republicans like you won why are you so mad like they won't be mad until it's just whitening across every form of media that's all they're saying well and i think it's world like i i think it's like gonna be worldwide because i'm like yeah you're upset that well no i'm saying you're upset that puerto rico is a part of the united states but you also

don't want puerto rico to not be a part of the united states and so i'm like and then i'm like okay so at what point is it like no i just want the entire world to look like me and be like me and be america like it's just like what this control and this thing that like conquer all of this shit that i'm just like okay yeah we're just you're never gonna be happy at all ever because like you're not going based off of yeah it's all run on power and control and fear so yeah you're obviously clearly not wrong and i'm i'm excited to look forward to a super bowl performance me too i'm hopping across the stage i hope his knees okay he's like yeah i'm gonna be doing some really tough choreography i'm like obsessed obsessed all right we're gonna take a

break. When we get back, we'll get to Megan. Visit scotiabank.com slash H-I-S-A to learn more. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. we are back it is time for mine and uh before i get into it i want to say that i had a unknowing theme of my takes and the things i'm talking about on this episode so i want to give everybody just kind of an insight to this theme. It's about brands behaving badly, but how criticism and discussion of these actions can elicit meaningful change because discourse in itself is good and it makes people better. And is it related to Taylor Swift at all? No, but I do think it's a good reminder to take into for this specific circumstance because when people, specifically

black women are saying hey there are some dog whistles in a Taylor Swift lyrics unintentionally or intentionally there's also some there's phrasing that's like okay no she's just saying that you know the night is dark and bad and the daylight with her is white and bright and beautiful and good and I'm like for sure she didn't invent that idea of juxtaposition of white good black bad but that in itself is rooted in racism so it's a great time for us to unpack and discuss all of those things. And discussing that can only help her and listeners and people like me, white people in general, improve. Brands and billionaires are not a protected class that cannot be called in to improve. And we should always want we should always want our favorites

to improve. That's not canceling someone that's being like, hey, when you know better, you do better. And this is a specific example, because I think often when I talk about different hot takes or different like wrong of the weeks it's like irredeemable it's like thing people have done irredeemable things and like have doubled down on that it doesn't have to be like that so these ones have positive endings so let's get into mine my hot take is stop pink washing for anyone who does not know pink washing is i mean it's it's used in so many there's rainbow washing that's used for pride but anything where you're using a marginalized group an organization a a group of people who need resources, help or funding, whether that's for charity, whether it's for

medical things or anything like that, using that to profit as a company or a corporation on the backs of saying that you're supporting this thing that you're not really doing. You're just kind of using it to make more money for yourself. And in this case, this brand, which is an activewear brand called Set Active, was doing some massive pinkwashing and pinkwashing specifically is for breast cancer it's breast cancer awareness month and uh they released a like a set for a cure which was like a just a limited edition line of their clothes of their sweats and like leggings and loungewear stuff in pink for breast cancer awareness month and i'm not going to get into like the this brand has like other problematic like things in their

history but they also operate on a brand like or like a company format that I just don't personally like with the scarcity mindset of doing like limited edition drops pre-orders of things that take forever to arrive and you just it's like a panic buy like everything's like limited edition really quick get it get it get it and they also did that for this collection which okay sure you run something that's like pink and themed for this but I want to say that like I'm not talking about the brand as like a whole entity because like yeah they've got some other things that i'm sure they could improve on but this specifically there was actually change made so um they released everything that they were doing so excited about it and people and they were like and were donating

to you know i i don't even know if they said explicitly where they were joining to at first but it's like support breast cancer awareness month for this someone had commented and asked how much they were donating to breast cancer and where they were donating that to and the founder had replied to a comment saying that they were donating two percent of the proceeds up to uh around like or around that would equate to around ten thousand dollars and everybody was like oh first of all proceeds is what you make after you've recouped the money that you spent to make this thing and they make like these sets are expensive like they're not cheap there's like it's it's a lot so they will be profiting exponentially more and she's been

very vocal about how like oftentimes they're raking in over a million dollars a drop and so two percent you know is feeling like okay about ten thousand dollars not not great so and and that it was specifically being donated to susan g kohman which of all the places to also donate for breast cancer not not that so then the founder also confirmed on her instagram channel explaining that uh i'm really proud of that number and here's why it's two percent and not twenty percent because everybody was i guess it's now what i've learned it's kind of a standard of being like if you are going to release something that's that you want the proceeds to go it should be at least bare minimum twenty percent or just donate like a flat thing like we're donating this and we're

selling this in celebration of this cause so here's why it's two percent not twenty percent running a business costs money like labor shipping marketing keeping our team paid all of it adds up fast our margins aren't what people think they are which everyone's like okay again margins you shouldn't be profiting off of cancer like that's not what this is about she continued to say well they could have donated a bigger percentage it would have been a one-time thing but by keeping at two percent they can sustain it to help support other organizations and then someone also pointed out that um she also was hosting a giveaway so you could win the entire collection and set would make a donation on behalf of five people i mean would be on behalf of you for five people to win

and so how to enter it was you like the post you tag three friends you follow set active on Instagram and TikTok, and then also follow the founder, which feels like, you know, kind of a grab for followers again, off the back of breast cancer. And then lots of people were trying to have this discussion with her in the comments. And then I specifically saw someone who I guess had, I don't know if she had modeled for them or had like worked with them prior, but she is a breast cancer survivor. And she's like young. She's I think like maybe 30, almost 30. Like she got breast cancer in her 20s and she talks about it all the time she like talked like she's she very much is one of the forward-facing uh people of young women getting breast cancer and so she

had shared that she texted lindsey and had a discussion with her and was like happy to say that like changes were being made and uh so then afterwards they posted on their story i want to take a minute to reflect you guys about the breast cancer awareness drop today we made a poor decision with our initial two percent donation and we're committed to making it right here's the honest truth we got caught up being cautious about sustainable business operations that clouded what should have been our priority priority meaningful giving and you know as she goes on basically says i'm proud to share that since we've since increased our donation commitment to 95 000 and are expanding to metavire which is m-e-t-a-v-i-v-o-r which is an organization that

most people are saying to donate over susan g coleman and they said that was what they are doing now and they agree that the two percent was pinkwashing and they appreciate the feedback we found the balance that we should have struck from the beginning thank you to everybody who held us accountable and to those who showed up for this drop your support is what made it possible for us to step up in a bigger way so while this brand isn't like again perfect by any means this specifically was they were able to make like actual change with this and learn from this and i don't think they will do this again but i think in general if we if we shut down discourse to being like only entirely positive and like intention matters over impact and like well

that's not what they mean so that's you know they only have good intentions so like don't call it don't don't speak about this or have this discourse or have this discussion specifically people who are making money off of us there is room for improvement for that especially when you are like the consumer of that thing and i think we should always expect more of we expect a lot of people and i think we should always expect that of brands and people who themselves are brands and you know i think like this was like a really great improvement in something and something to just be cautious of uh if you are shopping for anything for breast cancer awareness month to make sure that you look at the it shouldn't even be fine print like it should be

like very easily accessible but if it is fine print about how much they're donating if it is from the proceeds or if it is a flat fee what they're donating even before if it's not proceeds if it's just like they're donating on on your purchase up to however many how much certain of those dollars and to what organizations of that because as always the best place to put your money towards that will be just donating to the organizations themselves not to specific products but i think like if you are looking for you're already buying a product and you're like oh i can buy this for and and a portion of this goes to this make sure that you're doing that research and it's you're not falling for unfortunately like marketing gimmicks and pink washing yeah

there were so many i feel like when i was in like high school college like you couldn't go anywhere without it being pink and most of the time they were not donating to anybody it was just it's breast cancer awareness month let's just take advantage of this yeah it was like valentine's day yeah and just make products pink and there would be sections in stores that would be based on it and it'd be like rep your breast cancer and i was like rep you what like it's like breast cancer month rep your pink and i'm like for what like what's the meaning behind this and i yeah i remember learning about the susan g coman fund as a kid and about how hell of a lot of their money was used to sue anybody who used a pink ribbon and it was like holy shit like that's not where

i want if i'm donating to breast cancer like sure most of theirs goes to salaries and education i want it to go to research and like that's my personal prerogative i think if someone wants it to go to education there are other places that are better for it but like i certainly don't want it to be going to someone who is like suing small businesses for using a pink ribbon yeah so you're not wrong at deja den insurance we know that when you own a nail salon everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe that's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs you put your heart into your company so we put our heart into

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How did they adapt as the world around them changed? With Ancestry, you can search select historical occupational records for free for a limited time and discover the stories behind the jobs in your family tree. You've got questions. We've got ancestors. Search free until August 31st. Visit Ancestry.ca for details. Terms apply. All right, we're back and now it's time for But Are You Wrong? That's when y'all write in and let us know the predicaments that are going on in your own life.

you can send us an email to butamirongpod at gmail.com or fill out the form that is in our show notes. Keep it to 300 words or less and make sure that you give us like a thesis statement. You know, let us know what's gonna be about and ask specifically what you're wrong about in the situation. All right, let's go.

My name is Jenna, I'm 20. I've been with my boyfriend for a little over a year now. Overall, things are really good between us. He treats me well, we have fun together, and I feel comfortable with him most of the time. But there's one thing in our sex life that I really don't know how to handle. Whenever we're having sex, he asks me in the middle of it if I've finished. And most of the time I say yes, even if I haven't. Sometimes I do, but not always.

the thing is I don't want him to feel bad or like he's not doing a good job so I just blurt out yeah even if it's not true I'm starting to wonder if I'm digging myself in a hole by lying because it's becoming a pattern the hard part is that he's asked while we're having sex it feels super awkward to say no in that exact moment like it would kill the mood but then afterwards I feel guilty because I do want to be honest with him. I also want to eventually have a sex life where we can communicate openly about what's working and what's not. But I don't know how to start without making things weird. So here's my question. Am I wrong for lying in the moment to protect his feelings? Should I be telling him the truth right then and there? Or would it be better to bring it

up at a different setting outside the bedroom when there's less pressure i don't want to hurt him but i also don't want to keep pretending what's the right move here you're wrong i you don't want him to think he's doing he's not doing a good job but he's also not doing a good job but it also might not be that he's not doing a good job you're just not where you're at yet to be at a climax like you have to let him know like keep going or go faster go harder like you have you have to communicate so he knows he's not he's never gonna know how to please you if you are lying to him no and he's communicating and like i i think like you can say you know i you don't have to say in the exact moment that you're like but like

this needs to be a conversation at this point this needs to be a conversation when you're not having sex and being like hey you know i want because like it also could be like i'm on a medication where like i can't always come or like i'm enjoying the sex but like like an orgasm isn't always the end all be all finish for me and like sometimes i get there sometimes i don't but like when you ask me if i'm there it makes me feel like you know i should be there already or i get in my own head and that like does not help with that but like are you having you a key thing is missed here are you coming at all like she did she said that sometimes she has and some but sometimes she hasn't sometimes i do but not always yeah she is coming sorry i thought it was like sometimes i do

say sorry i thought it was talking about saying if she did or not not if she actually did so you say yes always yeah but you're not actually coming always but i think like it doesn't like do you have an issue with him but you're like i want to eventually have a sex life where we communicate openly about what's working what's not so you know that things are not working this to me this sounds like this is not yeah like it's it's not you're not getting there as often and also like he's not as confident that he is getting you like to me this is just it's this feels like insecure sex on both like for him it might not be like being confident but he's just trying to communicate like making sure that you got off and like that is confident and then she's lying that's i'm saying

like he's not confident that like you have come yet and so it's like oh let me ask like let me ask you but it's like i also like are are you in is there positive reinforcement happening for things that you like that he is doing because i think that like once you get to line about that too yeah i think once you get to the point about asking if you have come yet like i think usually you've also lied about things that you're like you may have like not even necessarily like lied but like lied by omission that you've like let him it's like someone who like is like you know rubbing your thigh and you go not my clit like you've let he's been doing things that you're not actually getting sexual pleasure from and you kind of remain silent on that part of it

so it's like it's not going to get better unless there's positive reinforcement for the things you're like hey i like this or like even if it's like i want to scrap a lot of this but in general like if you really like him and you've been together for like over a year you owe this to both of you because it's you have in fact dug yourself into a hole and i think there's something i i think it's exponentially worse exponentially fucking worse when specifically a guy you have sex with doesn't even ask you if you can't like and it's like it's so crystal clear that you didn't like he clearly wants to please you and i think that your fear of potentially hurting his feelings in turn i don't mean i don't want to make you feel bad i think you've hurt your you've hurt

his feelings more by doing this because he wouldn't ask you if he didn't want you to be honest and it's probably confused too because he's like yeah i think he keeps asking you because he's like i'm really still not sure and like he might i think he's also trying to give you the opportunity to be like no i have not yet because now he's like okay well it felt like she didn't but she's saying that she did so i just want to check and then like so i should keep doing this thing like you know and it's usually if you are coming at all if you say you came when you did and you didn't they're gonna men are gonna be like that didn't feel the same that wasn't this and so you know i think your sex life will only get better and if it like hurts his feelings

that's okay and like those feelings aren't permanent and like those feel those that hurt feeling it's like well shit i wish you would have said something sooner but like those hurt feelings will be replaced by fucking i'm the best of all time once he's graded like once you're once you are being communicative with him and saying what you like and he's seeing that reward like seeing that like on the other side he clearly wants to please you finding out that he's not doing it will suck in the moment but like will just make him want to try harder and do better yeah so it starts today it's not like an eventually i want to get there start today tell him and not not in a sex moment because it could be like in the sex moment like if it isn't

like you don't always get me off this like if you wanted to do it during sex you could like really say like no but like keep doing that like i'm almost there stuff like that like i'm always there keep going like that feels good or go back to what you were doing you know but this time like before like don't switch to this thing or whatever yeah like a positive reinforcement to kind of get there but i think if you decide to like be like i'm just not gonna get there and i don't i don't want it like like i don't think you have to have a conversation whichever way you're going to do it like it just has to get done yeah so you can get done yeah all right next one hi eminem i started sewing this summer it's been super fun and i'm trying to make a ton

of oh i'm trying to hand make a ton of christmas gifts this year that being said there aren't many fabric stores in my area r.i.p joannes and i don't like ordering online because i want to see and feel the fabric up close. But there's a quilting store nearby that I went to recently, and it was super cool and had some of the best fabrics I've ever seen. But while I was there, I got a weird vibe. The workers were all women and dressed a little Amish-y. I'm in a very conservative part of my southern state for school, so I figured it was just highly religious. I also realized that the quilting store was part of a very large popular tourist attraction with restaurants, blacksmiths, and different markets. I looked up the place when I got home, and not only is it

highly religious but it is a full-on cult i saw a bunch of previous members accounts and it's a high control religious cult whose website even had a giant selection titled response to criticism where it's refuting the allegations made against them i was very taken aback and originally wanted nothing to do with them but i can't stop thinking about those fabrics would i be wrong to continue to buy fabrics from a cult it sounds it sounds insane to say but i don't have any other options that measure up i also want to note that this place is hella popular for tourists and so there's no way that they are strapped for cash even she told us the place and i'm already off put as soon as i get there i'm off put by the name yeah no you can't do this is there a way where you can

get the information like you can go get the information about the fabric leave and then order that fabric online because you touched it then yeah find the and also like find the ex-members and be like yo where do they get these fabrics and also take pictures of the fabrics reverse google image search yeah like i feel like there's a tab on the like that thing that cardboard thing that it's rolled up on like there's information about it can you just get the information unless like they're so amish that they're like sharing the sheep themselves and like, making the yarn. They're not Amish. Let's not put this on the Amish. No, no, no. But I, okay. They're so horse and buggy. Okay. They're so covered wagon. They're so churn of their own

butter that they are shearing the sheep. They are spinning their own wool and they are weaving their own fabrics. If that is the case, then I think you've got a much bigger hobby than just sewing to start like i think that you you get a sheep you get some you get some razors you start you you do this yourself i if you've never if you have never spun your own yarn from wool it is fun it's a good time so i do think that you cannot you like fundamentally cannot shop here also because like this is we're on the website this is also the location there seems to be a couple other stores that aren't i know they're not in town but they're not that far away yeah and like i just have to say this location and cults do not have a good

no history so i just might be the children of that yeah that's what i'm saying i think that this might be a we have risen from from the from the ashes we're back like this is this is like it's not the place it's not the thing to support and it's really not the thing to support in the place that's supporting it yeah yeah there's there's i'm afraid i am too but there are other they also look kind of culty too i think you just gotta write down the information in order from somewhere else they have a bookstore of course they do it's a tourist attraction like she said the course is 75 dollars um final thoughts final thoughts like i i don't care how good this fabric is like this is this is a cult and like you also like i don't even want

you on the premise of the cult because like think of the criminal minds episode when they're there during the cult you say that as if everybody has watched that show a lot of people have watched criminal i haven't so i have no clue you're talking about so i'm just saying why don't you elaborate well they're there you know checking in on the cult and uh shit goes shit goes south really fast and then they're they're trapped also to be fair pretty much pretty much any one of my um prime time crime fighting related shows does have a cult episode yeah everything i watched pretty much soaps included have had cult storylines all right we're gonna take a break when we get back we'll get into but are they wrong

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someone current events pop culture zeitgeist who he thinks who he thinks he thinks me thinks me thinks needs to be uh you know brought back down to earth or set to see all right okay When I asked you to think about the greatest formidable creatures on the planet, what comes to mind? Was it the lion, king of the jungle, the great white shark, ruler of the deep, or perhaps the mighty grizzly bear? All solid choices. But today I'm here to tell you about how you're wrong, all of you.

because the single most terrifying bloodthirsty creature walking or rather leaping among us today is the humble bushy-tailed acorn crazed squirrel i know what you're thinking a squirrel yes and i have one town to thank for this chilling realization san rafael california now we're going to get into the nuts and bolts of terror you're crazy for decades we for decades we have been lulled into a false sense of security by these fluffy-tailed bandits. We see them. We ignore them.

Maybe we toss them a peanut and feel like a Disney princess. But San Rafael... Did I say it right that time? Rafael. Rafael. But San Rafael, which Megan says

that's how people in California pronounce it. It's quite literally in Marin. Like, that is, like, that's... It's right there. The veil was lifted. The reality hit harder than a tiny, angry...

four-legged buzzsaw. Residents there reported a series of attacks. Attacks that were so vicious, so utterly unprovoked, they sounded like a scene from a low-budget horror film called Night of the Nutcracker. What's wrong with you? This is...

You went nuts. You went nuts on this. This is... this is fantastic this is the word choice is beautiful the star victim was a woman named joan hebleck she was enjoying a peaceful morning walk when and i quote the road it came out of nowhere it didn't pause for pleasantries it didn't ask for spare change it simply clamped down on her leg joan later recounted and this is the image that really keeps me up at night the tail was flying up here imagine the sheer terror a fluffy brown blur a set of tiny razor sharp claws

and a tail flying like a tiny furry helicopter of doom and joan wasn't alone another victim isabel compoy describe the encounter like squirrel went from the floor tried to jump up to my face my arm was completely overcome by squirrel completely overcome by squirrel that's not a quote you ever expect to use unless you're writing your last will and testament to this evil little furry squirrel these weren't mild scratches either both women and at least three others according to the local flyer were sent straight to the emergency room yes a creature weighing less than a can of soda sent multiple full-grown humans to the er this is the stuff of legend this is the new definition of having a bad day in san rafi what is it again

in san rafael they didn't post flyers warning about cougars or bears they posted warnings that read simply attack squirrel beware this is not a joke the entitlement epidemic now how does an animal known mostly for getting hit by cars and burying its dinner in the wrong place suddenly become a four-pound agent of chaos. The experts at Marin Humane have an explanation and it's a crucial lesson in human-wildlife relations. The likely culprit? Human feeding. It turns out that when you feed wild animals, they lose their natural fear. They start to associate people not with danger but with room service and what happens when room service is late or in this case simply absent frustration aggression entitlement we didn't just give them squirrel food we gave

them a god complex imagine the squirrel's internal monologue where's the almond i demand an almond i've been waiting for five minutes is this how you treat a valued customer you know what this is unacceptable i'm going to need to speak to the manager claws engaged we created a miniature furry demanding tyrant who decided that if you were walking in his park you owed him a snack and if you didn't pay the toll well you were going to be paying the co-pay at the hospital instead we turned a docile creature into a tiny aggressive debt collector operating on pure unadulterated food-based rage the final warning the good news for those of you who are now frantically checking the locks on your doors is that experts confirm squirrels are not vectors

for rabies they simply carry pure concentrated annoyance and unbridled fury the next time you see that innocent looking twitchy nose fluff ball on your fence remember the tale of san rafael that just rhymes better so just stick with me for sure i at that point i was i was i wasn't even gonna stop you there because i heard that i'm not i know you worked harsh remember joan heblack and isabel campoy remember the emergency room visits and remember this golden rule of wildlife interactions never feed the squirrels because if you do you're not just giving a squirrel a treat you're giving it an expectation and when you fail to meet the expectations that squirrel is coming for you it's coming for your leg it's coming for your arm and its tail will be flying

up here thank you that was beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful and um i would say that i saw this on tiktok at first and sometimes when i see things specifically like san rafael there are lots of places that are called san rafael like places that have similar things as soon as i saw jones face i said nah this is my san rafael this is about it not happening in marin and the comments people being like oh my god why is it just attacking all these white old people and i was in response who's going you guys that's that's all the squirrel had the squirrel doesn't necessarily have it maybe the squirrel migrated for a taste of that of that milky white flesh and that milky white aged flesh in particular but also ample access this is oh my god i just think it's in

general so funny because marin people are like so like one with nature so crunchy so like they have been without a motherfucking doubt feeding this goddamn fucking squirrel and this girl has snapped the flyer i know that they're these people were injured and hurt totally but why does the flyer look like that why i think you have to remember who was behind the flyer who was making the flyer it is the way that i need to like reach out to anybody like everybody who's still in marin being like have you heard about this everybody speaking of let me send you something i just saw uh you know like it is just this is just it's it's so fucking funny to me and like this is in fact breaking news in marin because like truly nothing fucking happens um and i love

it's keeping them on their toes and also marin is a really big mountain biking and just like biking community in general so like i know for a fact that this squirrel is so motherfucking fast and has great reflexes because this girl is surrounded by people who are zooming zipping and zopping zooming and zagging all the time that the ability to like fly and catch on this squirrel also has to determine is that person moving too fast for me this person moving too slow for me the attack level and the fact that like it's also so indicative of the like this squirrel does not have rabies this squirrel is just a bitch yeah and so people still have to go to the hospital you know they have to get there they have to do all these other things to it but the squirrel's

not being euthanized because they're like well no we still love animals but just like fair warning wear long sleeves maybe some bite-proof clothing and it's just so funny because i this girl's gonna keep terrorizing for however long they're on this earth and i love it i want to be like who pissed you off at first yeah like yeah the first person that was like i'm not feeding you that's who it was and also like who was the was the real first victim the one who was cited or was it someone who was deeply embarrassed that they got attacked by a squirrel and they kept it or it's one of those five people that weren't named yeah or three other people that weren't anonymous anonymous survivors of the squirrel bite i just i'm addicted and i love i love i love when

my my my small little town gets in the news because you should know it is never for quite literally anything good and it's always for something deeply entertaining like the time george w bush name checked marin county for what well he was talking about the man who was in the taliban who babysat me for a little bit for that one time um and he was like you really upset people in marin because i think he called us a bunch of like drugged hippies or something which he's not wrong the first time i smelled weed as the first time i ever like was around weed like consciously as a teenager i was like this is what my childhood smelled like this makes sense um that everybody was mad and he was like okay like sorry from like they're upset in their hot tubs smoking their

doobies like it was something wild like that and um i thought that was funny though you are not going to find george w bush wow he's so cute we love him here i need everybody online to stop this isn't the place this is not the fuck and i need you to fucking stop online doing that it's weird i didn't see it until you told me about it and then i saw epidemic and then it stopped thank god so let's move on anyways all right you're up so to continue on with my theme like i said at the start uh my nomination for my wrong of the week is bagu bagu makes things that have loud fabric they make uh it started with making um like reusable tote bags and stuff and so the big thing is like a lot of it's reusable reusable it has gotten into the

same thing with like stanley cups and like hydro flasks of like reusable things people still collecting them in mass amounts so because of that they've done like collaborations with artists they've even they had a scandal where they collaborated with an artist who i think like used ai to like render the art and the print and all of this kind of stuff so they are not again similar to set they are not immune to participating in a scandal but they are still like a brand that people similar to set like love like have this like fandom kind of behavior for and so a couple weeks ago bart no sorry a couple weeks ago bagu announced um that they were doing a like a newly opening a store on valencia street in the mission in san francisco and the artwork for it and like

for the announcement of the store and for like you know come to the store blah blah blah for limited time was them using the bart logo and if anyone doesn't know bart is the public transit in san francisco like bart is bart is our thing bart has sure bart has some haters but bart like bart has gotten me places i would have i wouldn't have ever gone before without bart like bart is crucial it is like a staple for bay area people in general kids like it is just like it is a mainstay been around forever but bart is also deeply deeply deeply broke like broke broke broke underfunded government funding like struggling and in places like you know los angeles we do not have a public transit system that functions to that level and so when you i was about to say hold up we're

getting there yes but i'm saying when you take away funding for one that is already existing and you let that fall to the wayside it's it's it's so hard to get that to build back up again versus you know it's hard enough trying to implement it in our city that doesn't have one to that level yet so um they were making water bottles hats stickers with the bart logo it is quite literally the exact logo and bart went to the like the store opening and one of the things that was like advertised with people like lining up on the street for the opening of the store was that you could get the like it was the only place they were selling this like exclusive bart merch and there's been like some discourse of people saying like oh it was only like gift with

it was like they were giving away some of this bart stuff for free for the first couple people who were there so like therefore it's not infringing on it because they didn't profit off it but then other people were like well no it was a gift with purchase so there's all these different aspects of that but at the end of the day bart went to their social i'm assuming it was their social media manager but some representative from bart went and interviewed people in line and was like hey why are you here like are you excited like what made you want to come to this and they're like i am like a san francisco native like i love bagu i love bart like bart is so underfunded like i'm so here to support bart like we all need to support things like this and like

i thought what better way to support than with like bagu merch like and i guess it's such a cool collab and then they were like what if we told you this was not a collab and we had no idea they were doing this and immediately everybody in line was like what are you kidding wait i will leave right now if you're like do you actually mean that and they're like yeah we had no clue that this was happening they are just they were like are you not making any money from this like no not at all they didn't even pay to license it like nothing and everybody was like up in arms so upset because again like you are only selling to this one location that has the thing that you are putting on your merchandise that they're like cool i want this because it's bart and i care

about Bart because I live in San Francisco and I use Bart and I want Bart to have money. And like, what do you mean you're coming in? Like you have no affiliation with it. Like that's like doing something that's like, you know, the, the Met related that you are selling outside the Met. And you're like, oh my gosh, amazing, wonderful. And it's like, yeah, no, but it's not actually, they're not going to get any, anything for this. And it's like, what, what you're specifically going to the people who would be the most, who would buy this and be the most upset that this is not actually what you're saying it is so um a worker at bagu did tell uh gave an interview saying that the customers received the bart looking branded items as a gift with purchase

and that they already sold out by saturday night so the social media team barts we are really stoked that bagu loves our awesome branding but bart is in a financial crisis right now we could have used that money from an actual partnership to help you get around saying that it was misleading and the Bart writers were saying that it was misleading at best, but also this intentionally feels shitty. So Bagu has now released a statement saying, we are amazed by the response to the free gifts, and we are now in touch with the Bart team about an official collaboration. And Bart confirmed a collaboration, but said in a statement that the agency would have liked to be contacted before they made merch with our logo. So a lot of people are saying like, you know, too little, too late.

this feels shitty but a lot of other people are saying okay you know keeping it in limbo right now but if they do come out with a collaboration with bart i'm gonna have to assume that bart is comfortable with the terms of this now and that they are paying for this and doing this so if it comes out i support it but if they're just in talks and they never actually work together yeah maybe this is the end of the support for bagu but this is why discourse is so important for us to have these discussions because a lot of time you don't know these things are other people are privy to more information that we than we are and we can make better decisions when we have more information yep agree i was unfamiliar with bagu um but i saw uh a post about this and i was like

what is i had to it took a second for me to realize what was actually going on and then i was like that's messed up why would you do that such a random thing like it's so niche to like rip off of you know like it's it's just like so odd like it's not like a i mean still it'd even be bad if you do it like i'm not a huge fan of like goodwill as like making a way more profit from their items and not you know using it to rebuild the community in the same way but like still that is like universally everybody knows like okay but like to have something that's like to intentionally screw over the only people who know who would buy this thing it's just it feels so odd and specific like you could do anything you could do other things that i'm sure like

would not be legal and like is like poor licensing issues uh of not actually licensing it with things that are like not not like government funded like in san francisco while you are opening in san francisco like i'm sure like there are certain aspects of like certain artwork of the golden gate bridge that are trademarked that like you can't necessarily use but like you could have done that and there's like you can plead the ignorance but being like you can literally name this after a public transportation system and use the public transportation logo and then thought that they weren't gonna know like i want to know what the bigger plan was because maybe they thought that since it was public transportation that it was public domain that has to be like the only

explanation but like they don't have a lawyer that's what i was so concerned i was they're way too big of a brand and i saw some people being like you guys like come on let's be like nice they're a small brand and i was like i don't know how small you could be at that at that point and like i don't know like you you have to you have to have at least a lawyer around when you're like signing a lease like you're looking at those contracts like i just you licensing is such a huge thing and this isn't like bago is not one of those sites where like you can upload your own art and it's not like red bubble or they like print it on there for you and they've done like collabs before so i'm like so you know how this works but you're right they probably just thought

government public public transit public domain free yep you're right that's the only explanation all right megan all right melissa uh we'll be back on tuesday for see you next tuesday wednesday you got a little break there wait actually there won't be a see you next Tuesday right no yeah correct I don't know there's not because we would have already

recorded it no see you next Tuesday Thursday you've got don't blame me Friday you got fisting Friday and then we'll be back with but am I wrong alright we will circle back bye

this is a sister sign production hosted by me megan rinks and me melissa d wants plus diamond imprint productions post-production by coco lorenz production assistance by melanie d watson and music by ryan hunter and giacomo picasso