To go from insisting on total control of your image and basically succeeding because of how big you are to Lolcow of the Year is a massive shift.
It was a massive shift, but Nick had plenty of time to course-correct (Null didn't tell Nick to pull up until January 2023) and it wasn't as though there wasn't foreshadowing to winning
Lolcow of the Year for 2023. The writing was on the wall when
Nick won Best Internet Famous Lolcow in 2022. Nick also had months before that to do damage control on what could have been either addressed more honestly or antagonizing anyone who didn't agree with him and telling longtime fans to leave.
Nick's tendency of making bad decisions and his poor problem-solving skills are the root. Nick chose to set Juju on a pedestal from the get-to. Nick decided to make drinking and cuck-related discussion a big part of his brand and persona. His intoxicated rants, open grifting, general belligerence, and awkward comedy were on display. There was only a thin veneer of Christian morality and the fact that he has a wife and kids to endear him to anyone outside of the sektur. When incompatible ideals clashed regarding Nick's actual personality (the very telling Drexel and Kayla streams), the audience either tuned out, forgot about it, or made excuses on their own while trying to focus on Nick's actual content over the man himself.
When Nick
(the awkward hypocritical alcoholic hedonistic liar/lolyer) became the content, his audience got the wakeup call and slowly/reluctantly responded. Nick didn't appreciate their response and did what he was always going to do: continue to drink, lie, coom, and cope his way through whatever trials Nick brought on himself (Monty lawsuit, losing fans and general support, etc.).
Nick's poor problem solving skills are tellingly informed by his (in)ability to recognize problems. Drinking and drugs aren't problems to Nick. They are solutions for other problems. Going to swinger locales since at least 2022 (and gay bars since college) with Kayla and cramming her full of toys from their "feild kit" to satisfy her on their travels isn't a problem to Nick. It is a solution for marriage problems, which he has also prescribed to others as "silly/fun monogamous adventures" with his wife.
As long as Nick interprets his drinking, cooming, etc. as solutions and not indicators of problem behavior/warning signs, Nick will continue down this path and interpret any instruction to do otherwise as counter-productive because his values are inverted. This is largely why Nick is so deep in denial about falling apart and might actually believe he is healthy and smart.
Then there's Kayla. The material I have reviewed (and longer posts I have made) concerning Kayla makes greed her biggest issue. Simply put,
Kayla is a woman who wants it all. Kayla wants to be a naughty sexy bitch who frequents hookup locales and a devoted Christian mother and wife in addition to being a respected member of the community/church who is also okay with her husband ogling e-thots. Kayla wants to post provocative pictures of her body for strangers online, feed her husband pictures of other women, flirt with other men, and be respected for it by people who like it and wants to be ignored by people who don't because she doesn't handle criticism well. There's more to go into, but I digress.
Then,
when Kayla can't have it all, she retreats into herself in a fit of insecurity (and likely medication) over being unable to achieve so many incompatible things at once. This is not to be mistaken for Kayla having a sincere conscience about her behavior as it is most likely frustration over things not going her way as well as a bid for pity.
Until Kayla refrains from creating her own problems through her...
- inability to prioritize her values and distinguish between healthy and unhealthy goals
- weakness to her own incompatible passions
- marriage to a hedonistic enabler and manipulator
...Kayla will not improve, and even if she did prioritize herself as a wife/slut/whatever she wants to be, Kayla will never be a
perfect one and that is what will always nag at her and drive her back to activities that will meet a short-sighted need to feel good/validated. Kayla is trapped by her own greed. She wants it all and will ruin herself trying to live it. There is a way out, but she would have to undergo a fundamental change as a person and reprioritize in a more functional way. This will not happen with Nick as is.
As it stands, Nick and Kayla have put themselves in a situation where they have sacrificed whatever marriage they had to keep whatever their relationship is. In this way, they only have a marriage in a legal sense.
Okay, rant over.
