Americans Search for Wizards, Cupcakes, and Sex Toys More Often Than “Financial Crisis”

membership ticker

Right now is no time to come up short.

It's time to fight like hell for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme and cruel agenda, where the Big Lie is called a Big Lie, where facts matter, and where accountability at the polls and in the press has a fighting chance. We have our work cut out for us, and we urgently need to raise about 400,000 by Thursday, June 30, to finish our fiscal year on track and give it everything we possibly can. Please help us get there with a donation if you can right now.

$1,150,000

$1,350,000

Right now is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme and cruel agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability at the polls and in the press has a fighting chance. We have our work cut out for us, and we still need to raise upwards of 400,000 by June 30 to give it everything we can. Please help:

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

This is a fun game you can play at home. Go to Google Trends and see what Americans are searching for online more frequently than the term “financial crisis.” I have an example below, in which I set the time period to September 2008. Turns out “wizards,” “cupcakes,” and “sex toys” retain their popularity in times of national emergency.

Several search terms dwarfed “financial crisis” so thoroughly that they made the chart unusable. They included:

“Bristol Palin”: searched for 17.5 times more often than “financial crisis” in September
“Puppies”: 24.4 times
“Vacation”: 28.6 times
“Fashion”: 44 times
“Fantasy Football”: 44 times
“Baseball”: 50.5 times
“Sex”: 292 times