What Fandoms and Internet Communities Can Tell Us About 2025

Inevitably, more of these situations will crop up under the Trump administration, and I’m curious to see if any of Musk’s supporters end up jumping ship.

Drop-shippers

The act of drop-shipping—third-party sellers filling sales orders—exploded in popularity in the late 2010s, becoming an essential part of online hustle culture. With the introduction of the TikTok Shopdrop-shipping has entered a renaissance of sorts, with more and more people using the app to do it quick cash that can scale.

Imposing tough tariffs on Chinese imports has been one of Trump’s biggest economic promises this election cycle. If TikTok is not banned come next month, the Chinese tariffs could ruin the profitability of shipping the app, since most of the manufacturing of the product is done abroad. What happens to drop-shippers? Where do they go next?

The Drone Hunters of New Jersey

Without much guidance or information from the government, conspiracy theories surrounding the mysterious drones presumably up the east coast they went out of control. Just this week, Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel posted a Instagram video series claiming to have a secret Pentagon source who told him the drones were looking for nuclear material.

Now, I don’t claim to know the truth about drones, but I can see what it does to people online. For the past few weeks, I’ve been monitoring one of the largest Facebook pages dedicated to solving the mystery, and what started as a place for people to share their strange sightings has turned into hysteria. Members accuse the mods of working for the Feds to hide the “truth” (whatever that is) and encourage others to invest in iodine tablets, gas masks, and, of course, toilet paper.

It’s too early to say, but I bet that these groups have introduced people already emotional and agitated to theories that otherwise they would not have believed. Maybe! However, don’t expect the faithful to believe anything the government says unless someone puts a foreign corpse in front of the photographers.

The Chatroom

For the podcast last week, we made a few predictions for what the new year will bring. What do you think will happen next year in terms of technology and its influence on politics? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

WIRED Read

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What Else Are We Reading?

🔗 FTC Issues Rules Requiring Hotels, Ticket Sellers to Disclose ‘Junk Fees’: : There is at least one political victory we can all celebrate this holiday season. This week, the Federal Trade Commission released new rules that prohibit hotels and ticketing services from hiding extra charges, or “junk fees.” (The Washington Post)

🔗 ‘It’s Gonna Be Brutal’: Inside Trump’s Planned War on Leakers and the Press: : The Trump administration is reportedly making new plans to go after the media, including more lawsuits and subpoena threats. (Rolling Stone)

🔗 Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules: : The US government is investigating whether Elon Musk and SpaceX have repeatedly ignored disclosure protocols that protect state secrets, such as withholding information related to meetings with foreign leaders. (The New York Times)

The download

When the newsletter went out last week, the last episode of the WIRED Policy Laboratory the podcast was not uploaded. If you didn’t catch the conversation I had with Tim Marchman and David Gilbert, I recommend you listen here.

Coming out of the election, I’m rethinking how the newsletter can best serve you all. If you have any ideas or requests, let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to spend the holidays completely plugged in, so you won’t see me hitting your inboxes again until January 9th.

I hope you find time to rest, read and spend time with your loved ones. See you in the new year. 💞

That’s it for today – thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, Xand Signal to makenakelly.32.