I had a long week to think about what to write today. I’m still not sure.

How could I ignore the fact that SOMEONE TRIED TO ASSASSINATE DONALD TRUMP?!?!

Well, what’s left to be said?

Do we need to “cool the rhetoric?” Obviously. Don’t hold your breath. Is there ample culpability to go around? Absolutely. Good luck getting anyone to own it.

Besides, it already feels like a million news cycles ago. The way everyone casually moved beyond the shock of last Saturday suggests people weren’t all that shocked in the first place. The J.D. Vance pick raised eyebrows for a minute. Then again, of course that’s what happened.

By next week, there’s a decent chance Joe Biden will drop out. The only person who didn’t see that coming from a mile away was Joe Biden.

Apparently, nothing about our politics surprises us anymore. Why should it?

We all know what got us here: Generations of negligent policymaking, meddling foreign adversaries, and technologists who enabled our enemies with large-scale platforms and predatory algorithms, the consequences of which were unforeseeable, but not really.

Before our very eyes, the weaponization of clickbait, misinformation, and manufactured discord spiraled into a populous-wide free-for-all of distrust, moral equivalency, and “they started it!” Fact became indiscernible from fiction.

The media, desperate as their business models crumbled, had to play along. Measured headlines or balanced narratives risked losing eyeballs to more sensationalized outlets or those that leaned unyieldingly into the biases of their tribal audience. The choice seemed binary: Payroll or martyrdom?

Politicos fell into – or benefitted from – the same quagmire. Appealing to voters by inciting fears of “the others” (elites, deplorables, etc.) was the surest path to engagement, donations, and votes. As tribes close ranks, fealty is non-negotiable.

Yes, we should expect more from our political, media, and business leaders. It’s not easy. The short-term consequences of taking the high road are stifling. See: Cheney, Liz.

What’s the answer? I don’t know. But I know what it isn’t.

Screaming that one side is a relatively worse transgressor than the other – even if you’re correct – accomplishes nothing. America is encased in a coast-to-coast subdivision of glass houses. And you can’t convince someone who’s been brainwashed that they’ve been brainwashed.

Plus, I sincerely believe nearly everyone has good intentions, even if they’re paving the road to hell. Neither party aspires for America to be weak. They merely have different views on what will make us strong.

If you want, you could support efforts to break the cycle, like NewsNation, which is trying valiantly to stake out a middle ground (you should watch it). Their climb is steep.

Otherwise, all you can do is vote your conscience. Treat your neighbors and strangers with empathy and grace. We all want the same things – peace, dignity, and health. It’s not zero-sum.

There are no shortcuts, no surprises. Sickness like this takes time to run its course. But it will.

Have faith.

Here’s what we’re seeing:

Consumer confidence dipped for the first time in a couple of months. After four consecutive modestly improved readings, our Economic Sentiment Index slid backward in the latest release. Confidence in the job market and the 6-month outlook for the U.S. economy suffered the most. Notably, Americans continue to be resiliently positive about their personal finances. If you’re wondering how the events of last weekend impacted consumer confidence, it may have—temporarily. Our 3-day average dipped on Sunday and Monday before rebounding.  

Prime Day was massive, but economic forces permeated the underlying data. If you missed our “Prime in Real-Time” webinar on Thursday, shame on you. And if you were among the hundreds of our friends who joined, thanks. In five years of studying the event, it was some of the most interesting data we’ve seen. How people shopped (more planned buying, less impulse), what they bought (more essentials, less big-ticket items), and who they were (older, higher income) all represented big shifts from Prime Days past. Tighter budgets were a through-line across the board. Anyway, if you weren’t able to make it, you can register to hear my dulcet tones in the recording here.

The women’s basketball juggernaut keeps surging. In our 3 Things to Know this week, we looked at the continued growth of WNBA fan interest, no doubt attributable to the star power of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and other young guns. As many as 1 in 5 adults could watch the WNBA All-Star game (tonight), which we’re guessing is a record, even though we never asked about it before (which, in and of itself, illustrates how rapidly the league is emerging). We also looked at how mobile phone shopping is now firmly established as the primary way people buy online, except for Boomers. Lastly, we examined which Olympic sports people are most excited to watch this summer, by age group.

If your industry is getting hurt by Ozempic, be glad it’s so expensive. In the tiny little fraction of our GLP-1 tracker we shared this week, we confirmed what you already know – the only reason way more people aren’t taking the drugs is their cost. Side effects come in second, particularly fatigue and digestive issues. Meanwhile, alcohol usage among GLP-1 users hit another all-time monthly low. With now over 100,000 active GLP-1 users in our database, we’re tracking their behavior and attitudes across every dimension you can think of. Maybe you still think it’s a fad. Good luck with that. Otherwise, you need to see the stuff we don’t give away.   

Walmart has to win shoppers over on their move to digital price tags. Your favorite retailer in Bentonville recently announced plans to replace all physical price tags in their stores with “digital shelf labels” by 2026. The idea – which is very smart on paper (haha) – is to save store workers from the tedious and time-consuming task of putting physical tags on everything. In theory, however, consumers don’t love the idea. By nearly 3-to-1, U.S. adults believe digital price tags will have a negative impact on their shopping experience. Thirty percent of Walmart shoppers, specifically, say they would be less likely to shop at a store that made the digital switch. But, if the cost-savings enable the stores to have more open checkout lanes, that’s a different story.

More awesomeness from the InsightStore™:

  • We did a study on the most popular movie franchises (and their fans), and the results made me yell at my computer. Jurassic Park?!?!?
  • Here’s how Burt’s Bees can steal customers from The Honest Company, and vice versa;
  • Red light therapy is a hot trend;
  • Academy Sports is killing it with Hispanic consumers.

The most popular questions this week:

Do you approve or disapprove of parents running social media accounts for their children?

Have you ever had something statistically improbable happen to you?

What was the best decade for rock music? 

What was the best decade for rap / hip-hop music? 

Do you usually stick to wearing one type of sunglasses?

Answer Key: It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of; Every day; I’m so torn but I have to say ‘90s out of loyalty; 1995-2005; For 20 consecutive years.