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Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
From Denim to Der Führer: The internet cancels Sydney Sweeney's genes - and takes Godwin's Law offline
Godwin's Law states that any internet discussion, if it goes on long enough, will eventually involve a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. That used to be a punchline—a cautionary meme from the early days of forums and comment sections, a wink at how all roads lead to Auschwitz if you argue long enough about anything online. But in 2025, Godwin's Law isn't just a terminal condition. It's the operating system. It's what turned a denim ad into a digital Nuremberg trial. A cheeky American Eagle campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney in jeans—yes, jeans—has somehow sparked accusations of Nazi propaganda, eugenics glorification, and white supremacist signalling. Because of a pun. Because the ad said she had 'great genes.' And in our current epistemic climate, that's apparently a dog whistle for 'racial hygiene.' Welcome to the United States of Interpretation, where puns are violence and billboards are Mein Kampf in Helvetica Bold. From great jeans to great panic Let's be clear: the ad in question was banal. Sydney Sweeney stands in denim, smiling vaguely. The copy says, 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes,' with the word 'genes' crossed out and 'jeans' scrawled over it in red. There's a voiceover that jokes about inherited traits like 'blue eyes' and 'good taste in jeans.' In the Before Times, this would've been seen as textbook American kitsch—a play on words that marries fashion and genetics with all the depth of a fortune cookie. But today? Today it's fascism. Or so claims the outrage chorus. Within hours of the campaign launch, social media users accused it of promoting eugenics, celebrating genetic purity, and normalising white beauty standards. The words 'Nazi,' 'fascist,' and 'propaganda' trended alongside 'Sweeney.' Posts dissected the lighting, the framing, the use of blue-eyed blondes as a symbol of Aryan ideals. One user called it 'visual white supremacy.' Another said, 'How did this pass a single brand meeting?' As if a cabal of fashion executives gathered to revive the Third Reich through retail. Godwin's Law wasn't a slow burn this time—it was instant combustion. Irony is dead. Long live moral panic. We're in an era where every symbol must be decoded, and where even accidental visual rhymes with history's darkest moments are taken as proof of malice. There's no room for irony, no patience for ambiguity, and no mercy for cheekiness. A pun is no longer a joke—it's a Rorschach test for fascism. To be clear, this isn't about defending ads or brands or even Sweeney herself, who has a history of being caught in the culture war crossfire. This is about what we're doing to ourselves when every piece of culture is run through the Nazi detector. When we react to a denim campaign as if it's Triumph of the Will with better lighting, we don't just lose the plot—we burn the script. This wasn't a manifesto. It was a mall ad. But nuance has left the chat. Eugenics of exaggeration It's telling that the phrase 'great genes' could be reframed as a slur. We are so high-strung, so conditioned to see ideology in everything, that genetic wordplay becomes synonymous with racial violence. Never mind that the ad didn't say anything about race. Never mind that 'great genes' has been used to describe Olympic athletes, star kids, and Bollywood dynasties for decades. The sin was symbolic. And in 2025, symbols are everything. In a world where identity is currency and interpretation is warfare, the only safe branding is no branding at all. Because even the safest visual—say, a woman in jeans—can be reimagined as a fascist dog whistle if it lands on the wrong feed. That's what Godwin's Law now represents: not the end of argument, but the beginning of every single one. What this really says about us The Sydney Sweeney backlash isn't about her. Or American Eagle. Or even the unfortunate genetics pun. It's about a culture trapped in its own hall of mirrors, where outrage is the default setting and every utterance is mined for historical trauma. The great irony, of course, is that this behaviour mirrors the exact thing it claims to resist: totalitarian thinking. The reduction of art, language, and marketing to rigid ideological binaries. You're either fighting fascism or enabling it. There's no room for fashion faux pas or dumb wordplay. We've taken Godwin's Law and made it a religion. And like all fundamentalist faiths, it leaves no room for comedy, curiosity, or context. Only guilt by pun. So yes, Sydney Sweeney has great genes. And a billboard that proves we've lost the ability to tell a joke from genocide.
Business Insider
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
I spent a night at the 5-star Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver and regretted not booking a longer stay
I spent one night at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, a five-star hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. I slept in a Fairmont Gold room that costs about $725 per night. I left the luxury hotel wishing I'd booked a longer stay. When I think of the Fairmont hotel brand, two words come to mind: historic luxury. From Quebec City's Fairmont Le Château Frontenac to the iconic Plaza Hotel towering over Central Park in Manhattan, every Fairmont hotel I'd stayed in or gawked at from across the street had been reminiscent of a renaissance castle — until I spent one night at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, British Columbia, in May. "We're a lot more contemporary with a different demographic," a representative of the Fairmont Pacific Rim told Business Insider. While Fairmont's heritage hotels give guests a peek into the past, the Fairmont Pacific Rim embraces modern luxury. The five-star hotel has won numerous awards since it opened in 2010, including being named the No. 1 hotel in Western Canada in the Condé Nast Traveler 2024 Readers' Choice Awards. One lavish night in a $725 room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim swept me off my feet. In fact, I left wishing I'd booked it for a longer stay. The Fairmont Pacific Rim is in downtown Vancouver's Coal Harbour neighborhood. The Fairmont Pacific Rim was one of many glass skyscrapers lining the Coal Harbour waterfront in downtown Vancouver. But it was the only one with strips of text lining several stories of the 22-floor facade. In 2-foot-tall, spaceless, lowercase Helvetica Bold lettering, each line read, "lying on top of a building…the clouds looked no nearer than when I was lying on the street." The installation by UK artist Liam Gillick was the first of many indicators that the Fairmont Pacific Rim celebrates art and design. The second was the vibrant BMW coupe in front of the entrance, which looked like a page from a comic book. According to the hotel's Instagram page, pop artist Jeff Koons hand-painted the fancy car. Inside, the lobby is known as "Vancouver's living room." From fashion and music to sculptures and paintings, the Lobby Lounge showcased all types of art. High-end fashion was displayed on mannequins in glass boxes and hanging bird cages. Nestled in a corner was a stage with a piano and drum kit, played by a range of musicians on the rise. Spinning figures of children stood over 6 feet tall on top of a marble fireplace. The Lobby Lounge also has a raw bar serving sushi and cocktails. "It's commonly known as Vancouver's living room because it's so popular for locals," the hotel representative told BI. I wish I'd had more time to hang out in the lobby and listen to live music while munching on sushi. Since I was in a Fairmont Gold room, I checked in on the 20th floor. You can think of Fairmont Gold as a first-class experience. It's an elevated section of the hotel on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd floors with premium rooms and its own mini lobby lounge with complimentary snacks throughout the day. "Essentially, the Fairmont Gold product is like a club floor," the hotel rep told BI. "It is a brand-new product for us, which we're super excited about." Fairmont Pacific Rim's Gold experience launched in March 2025. The rep said the design of the lounge and rooms was inspired by Vancouver's natural beauty. Floor-to-ceiling windows surrounded the lounge, offering views of the harbor, skyline, and mountains. The Fairmont Gold Lounge had complimentary breakfast, afternoon snacks, and evening appetizers exclusively for Gold guests. I was surprised to learn that breakfast was made to order rather than served buffet-style. I ordered scrambled eggs and chicken sausage and paired them with toast, fruit, and fresh orange juice. The eggs were soft and fluffy, just like I like them. All the ingredients tasted fresh and filled me up without spending a dime. If I had stayed longer, I would have liked to try more of the complimentary breakfast dishes, like the brioche French toast or the avocado toast. I stayed in a 400-square-foot Gold Harbour Mountain View room on the 20th floor. The hotel has 367 guest rooms and 60 Fairmont Gold rooms. I stayed in a Gold Harbour Mountain View room that sleeps up to four people. The hotel rep said that the best available rate for this room is 984 Canadian dollars, or about $725, though BI received a media rate for the one-night stay. My room had a king-sized bed, a bathroom, a sitting area, and a balcony accessible via floor-to-ceiling windows. I thought the room was stunning. With custom furniture and unique decor, this was one of the most beautiful hotel rooms I'd ever stayed in. I was immediately taken by the handblown glass Bocci chandelier, which had air plants peeking out from the bulbs. I sank into the custom velvet couch in front of the windows, and warm accent lighting made the space feel even more luxurious. Out on the balcony, I marveled at the grand views of the harbor, spotting seaplanes, yachts, and skyscrapers sitting beneath mountains. Upscale amenities enhanced the luxury feel. My bedside table had an oil diffuser, a smart tablet with room controls, spa booking capabilities, and in-room dining services. The framed TV across from the bed was a whopping 75 inches with a Bose sound bar. I appreciated the small details, too, like the leather box that held the TV remote and lifestyle magazines with elegant spreads highlighting architecture, photography, design, travel, and more. In the evening, an attendant came by for turndown service, where I selected premium pillows and oil scents from a menu. The spacious bathroom felt like a spa. Each Fairmont Gold room has an oversize bathroom coated in black marble, with two sinks, a lit mirror, a glass shower with two showerheads, and a deep bathtub topped with a resin tray. A separate toilet room with a sliding door was at the back of the bathroom. The toilet was luxurious, with a light beaming inside the bowl and an upscale bidet with options to heat the seat, change the water temperature, and a dryer mode. The bathroom had luxury amenities from Le Labo toiletries to a Dyson hair dryer that I fell in love with. After five minutes of use, my damp hair, which drapes past my waistline, looked like it had just gotten a blowout. But the real spa was down on the fifth floor. The five-star Fairmont Spa set a calming mood upon entering. Warm lighting beamed through thin wood panels with a soothing water feature against a wall. In addition to massage, facial, and meditation treatments, the spa has several amenities, including a mineral bath, fitness center, Jacuzzi, and infrared sauna, among others. There's also an outdoor relaxation lounge with gravity chairs and views of the surrounding city. During my stay, I didn't have time to book a spa treatment, but I'll be sure to do so next time. The pool is outdoors on the sixth floor. From November through April, a portion of the pool deck transforms into the Nordic Spa, which moves guests through a range of temperatures with a cedar plank sauna and cold plunge pools. On the second floor, I found the hotel's restaurant, Botanist. Botanist looked like a restaurant inside a greenhouse. Dining tables were surrounded by living plants, lit by floor-to-ceiling windows. "The menu is inspired by the Pacific Northwest, so everything is hyper-local," the hotel rep told BI. The restaurant serves brunch, lunch, and dinner. The menu features sustainably sourced proteins like wagyu beef, grilled octopus, and black pepper-crusted salmon. It also includes hand-cut pasta, locally sourced produce, and lobster Benedict. Also on the second floor, there was a rotating art gallery. "This hotel is a platform for creativity," the hotel rep told BI. "We blend influences of art, music, and fashion." The art in the Pacific Gallery rotates every three months. During my visit, the exhibit was Angela Teng's Colourwork, a series where crocheted acrylic paint acts as yarn. The vibrant art popped in an otherwise white room. I think art enthusiasts would be inspired by a stay at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. But don't book just one night like I did.
