From:Secret Admirer

Caps!!! Hi again :) I was watching F1 for the first time and I had a thought. Annie ADP. The black label. Her great-grandfather FOUNDED SAMSUNG. Like not "her family has money," not "she comes from a wealthy background" — her GREAT-GRANDFATHER BUILT ONE OF THE LARGEST COMPANIES ON PLANET EARTH and her grandmother is currently running Shinsegae and she decided what she wanted to do with all of that is... to play around in a kpop co-ed group… by teddy… You know her right? Everyone should imo (not necessarily a praise). But everyone first thought on her is always “oh so she bought her way in” and I’m like– yeah??? Probably?? Most definitely maybe?? So! Lance Stroll—Son of Papi Stroll, billionaire, who then went and purchased the actual F1 team his son drives for. NOT an exaggeration nor metaphor, literally the man bought the entire multi-million dollar team. For what? Probably so Junior Stroll could race (allegedly), "he bought his seat" and yeah!! He did!! Nobody's arguing that!! God bless 2026 Aston Martin—me when winter, bouncing on it crazy style but also taking my sweet ass time to finish. Anyways. people act like that means he's a disaster out on track and it's like... he's gotten podiums though?? He's been in F1 for years, he belongs in the car, he's not being lapped by everyone, he's racing!! (sometimes). Now if i say… Annie is the Lance Stroll of Kpop. HEAR ME OUT— she's at The Black Label, trained, debuted, the group went like 10 million views in FOUR DAYS, and she fits. She has the look, the connections are real and organic, she's been in these circles genuinely, Brought her way in?? Probably. Is that the reason shes on stage? Ehhh maybe…maybe not. BUT this isn't a fish out of water situation!! Here’s why it's actually better that way! Adp bunch of misfits, Youngseo? She’s a princess out of place, Bailey? Dancer turned idol, Woochan? Idk Annie’s dog i guess? Tarzan? He's Tarzan. AND Annie Moon! The bored chaebol. Like ADP's whole thing is this elevated, luxury, we-don't-follow-trends-we-ARE-the-trend energy and Annie being a literal chaebol heiress doesn't clash with that — it FEEDS it. It's part of the brand now. Same as Lance, the nepo billionaire F1 kid narrative is just who he IS at this point, it's not a scandal anymore it's just his whole thing. Did they buy the seat? Girl. Obviously. Does it matter once they're actually IN the seat? No!! If anything it makes the story better!!

Man, unlucky for me - I don't follow ADP or F1. BUT: I do think people flatten this stuff too much. Like, “she bought her way in” and “she belongs there” can both be true. Nepotism is not a magical anti-talent field. It does not make you bad at the thing. It just means the gate was opened by a butler. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the heiress to like, one of the world's oldest billion-dollar agricorp companies that is legitimately problematic! but she's also one of the funniest comedian/actresses alive. Sofia Coppola is the daughter of the greatest filmmaker (of all time?) and created one of my favorite works of fiction, lost in translation! Sometimes the nepo baby is actually good. Annoying! Spiritually unjust! Bad for the republic! But true! So yeah, Annie being Samsung/Shinsegae bloodline royalty is objectively insane. That is not “dad is a dentist” rich. That is “your family is winning litigation in antitrust suits" rich. That is “we have reinvented feudal houses but with quarterly earnings calls” rich. And yes, that should make everyone a little insane. It is absolutely a symptom of the broader societal neo-feudal collapse. We are watching entertainment, sports, politics, fashion, tech, everything slowly turn into noble families trading seats at court. The children of empires are now doing side quests as idols, drivers, actors, founders, creative directors, whatever. The castle walls are invisible now, but oh are they there. Which is why I do think the Lance Stroll comparison kind of works. Maybe the seat was bought. Maybe the door was opened by generational wealth so extreme it starts sounding fake. But once they’re actually there, the better question is whether they’re embarrassing themselves or whether they fit the machine they were placed into. And with Annie, from what you’re describing, it sounds like she fits. ADP’s whole thing is luxury-coded, industry-adjacent, “we are not chasing the trend because we already know the trend personally” energy. A literal chaebol heiress does not clash with that. She practically completes the sentence. So yeah: did she buy the seat? Maybe! Probably! Girl, I don’t know. But I’m also not going to pretend every nepo baby is automatically talentless just because the system is obviously disgusting. My actual political position here is pretty simple: address the systems that produce these outcomes, not just the individuals who benefit from them. Screaming at one rich girl for being rich is not productive, not coalition-building, and frankly not even that satisfying after the first five minutes. Tax the rich and put that money in the ground for all i care. MAKE IT CONFISCATORY. Burn it, Use it to build one extremely beautiful public bathroom. I don’t care. The point is less “what specific line item should this fund” and more “why does one family have enough money to bend reality around their children’s hobbies.” (A yeji meep for your troubles.)