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OHC KIDS TRY AMERICAN PRODUCTS

Views: 47.2 million | ◈ 0 (free/open access)

[Five kids, ages 10-14, seated at table. Products in front of them, smuggled in for the video. They’ve never seen most of these brands.]


HOST: “This is a Coca-Cola. It was the most popular drink in the world for almost a hundred years.”

GIRL, 12: (sips) “It’s… really sweet? Like, why is it so sweet?”

BOY, 14: “My abuela talks about these. She says everyone drank them before the Transition.”

GIRL, 11: “It doesn’t do anything though? It’s just sugar and water? My Yerba Smart adjusts to—”

HOST: “Right, but this was made before AI drinks.”

BOY, 10: “Before AI? Like… all the same drink for everybody? That’s kind of sad.”


HOST: “This is an iPhone. From Apple.”

BOY, 14: (turns it over) “It doesn’t open.”

GIRL, 12: “What do you mean?”

BOY, 14: “You can’t open it. You can’t fix it, you can’t change parts, you can’t see inside. It’s sealed.”

GIRL, 11: “On PURPOSE?”

"On PURPOSE?" — An eleven-year-old discovers the concept of planned obsolescence.

BOY, 14: “On purpose. And you can’t put your own software on it either.”

BOY, 10: “So it’s like… a toy? That you can’t play with?”

HOST: “It cost $1,299.”

[ALL FIVE KIDS LAUGH]

GIRL, 12: “My OHC tablet cost ◈ 12, my papa and I built it together, and I’ve upgraded it three times.”


HOST: “These are Nike shoes. They were like… the Uyuni Cooperativa of America.”

BOY, 14: (holds up shoe, examines sole) “The geometry is flat. There’s no biomechanical mapping.”

GIRL, 11: “And it comes in one shape? For everybody’s feet?”

HOST: “Well, there were different sizes—”

GIRL, 11: “Sizes, sure. But everyone with size 7 got the exact same shoe? Even if their arches are different? Even if they pronate?”

BOY, 10: “That would hurt.”

GIRL, 12: “I think it did hurt. I think that’s why they had so many knee injuries.”

HOST: “They also cost $349.”

[SILENCE]

BOY, 14: “Three hundred and — for ONE pair? Of shoes that don’t even fit right?”

"Were Americans okay?" is not a punchline. It's a real question from a generation that only knows America as a cautionary tale.

GIRL, 12: (quietly) “Were Americans okay?”


[END OF VIDEO]

TOP COMMENT (◈ 24,891 likes): “Were Americans okay?” is the question that will define this century.

World's thread

← Earlier The Burn South 40,000 Americans walk into Baja. They call it a festival. DHS calls it mass defection. For the ones who can't leave, it's the worst weekend of their lives. Continue → Split Screen: How America Watched 40,000 People Leave Three networks, three stories. Fox sees traitors. AP sees refugees. Reuters sees an economy in free fall. All of them are right.

In this moment

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Connections

  • the iPhone Liberty
  • the Nike Patriot Max
  • the Interbrand report

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