Trumpworld’s Doomed Utopia; Inside a Frat-Boy Crime Ring; the Year’s Most Controversial Film

[Counting down Vanity Fair’s biggest stories of 2023.]( [View in your browser]( | [Update your preferences](newsletter=vf)   [Vanity Fair's Cocktail Hour logo image | A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks]( Get the best of Vanity Fair. [Subscribe now and receive our NEW tote, free! ⇛]( [The Villages Is a Boomer’s Utopia—And Demographic Time Bomb]( [By PHILIP BUMP]( [Florida’s Trump-loving retirement community was meticulously created “to make boomers in particular feel comfortable and happy,” as Philip Bump writes. But behind its idyllic façade lurks a crisis that the Villages—and the rest of the country—has yet to reckon with.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [“It Was Always Going to End Badly”: The Untold Story of Tucker Carlson’s Ugly Exit From Fox News]( [By BRIAN STELTER]( [Fox never explained that abrupt firing of cable news’ biggest star, allowing conspiracy theories to fester. Now, Brian Stelter explores the myriad factors contributing to Carlson’s cancellation.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyone’s Bracing for Apocalypse]( [By JAMES POGUE]( [Preppers, techies, hippies, and yuppies are converging on the American West, the safest place to “exit” a society gone haywire.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [The Wild True Story Behind 2023’s Most Controversial Film]( [By EVE BATEY]( [While critics, interest groups, and political factions raged against Sound of Freedom, its distributor laughed all the way to the bank.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [Inside the Frat-Boy Crime Ring That Swept the South]( [By MAX MARSHALL]( [Mikey Schmidt wanted to be a Kappa Alpha at the College of Charleston. He also wanted to make millions.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]( [By JOE HAGAN]( [Vanity Fair hit the Kennedy family’s Cape Cod compound for a peek into the controversial 2024 candidate’s wet hot American summer.]( [R E A D M O R E]( [Vanity Fair Logo](www.vanityfair.com) [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe]( Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.