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In reply to the discussion: Do people actually believe the Epstein files matter? [View all]
jfz9580m
(16,116 posts)Of my thoughts on Epstein.
[It is also how I feel about many other stories that get way more attention the stories that matter:
https://www.truthdig.com/author/christopher_ketcham/
I recently discovered Chris Ketcham’s work and he is pretty much the best environmental journalist I have come across so far, which makes him pretty much my favorite journalist.
Ditto with the horror that is modern animal agriculture which the awesome Maria Bolotnikova covers:
https://marinabolotnikova.com/writing#
I wish Ketcham, Bolotnikova etc got a fraction of the attention salacious drivel and faux stories do. Or other stuff like this should:
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/11/demand-critical-metals-e-waste-recycling-clean-energy-climate-vince-beiser-book-power-metal/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/09/us-waste-billions-unproven-climate-solutions-carbon-capture-storage-subsidies/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5
https://www.science.org/content/article/human-stuff-now-outweighs-all-life-earth
https://www.inkl.com/news/a-new-report-says-50-billion-years-of-evolution-is-being-threatened-by-stupid-humans
https://scitechdaily.com/humans-have-erased-3-billion-years-of-evolution-and-its-getting-worse/
]
https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/epstein-and-the-original-satanic
I imagine quite a few Americans look at this situation and think, “What the hell is going on, man? Why are our elites so horrible? Why are they constantly lying to us? Why are they exploiting us? Why are they fucking us so hard? We live in the greatest country on earth! The freest, the most democratic. We are a light unto the nations! So why are the people who end up rising to the top of this amazing and free system such scoundrels? Why are they such evil shits?”
You’d think some would then realize that, well, hey, maybe the system is built wrong? Maybe a system that puts private enrichment — no matter how ruthless and destructive to the public and the planet, as the highest moral value — produces an elite that reflects this debased morality? Maybe the conman ethos that’s celebrated in America as man’s highest calling translates into a less than ideal ruling class? Maybe there’s something going on here?
I would argue even more broadly than Levine that it is not restricted to America or even capitalism. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way human societies concentrate power and veer between mob herding and Machiavellian plotting (by an increasingly dim-witted pseudo-elite), while the actual intellectual elites-honest scientists or doctors like Fauci have less and less power and are slandered/attacked. Our societies keep people focused on the dumbest things imaginable. Its effects can most clearly be seen in our treatment of non-human life:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-coming-revolution-for-animal-rights
(Btw as a serious supporter of animal rights, I thought that whitecoatwaste/beaglegate stuff was the most cynical perversion of concern over animal rights I ever saw. It misdirected attention from serious animal rights issues at scale like factory farming/ventilation shutdown to attacks on Dr.Fauci/medical research. I am vegan, but even I think where absolutely necessary (e.g.: for say cancer research), animal models are a necessary evil till organoids or similar can replace them. Obviously ethical guidelines must followed.)
Anyway, Levine’s series on The Spectacle pretty much nails it imo. I use DU and follow a few sites like Current Affairs, but that aside I largely think the net is (like most media) a waste of time. I personally don’t think a small amount of technology itself is the issue. I am a solitary human, so in a certain way, I like anything that lets me lead a reclusive life while still participating as I choose to in society. But this specific version that these crass giants sell is garbage. That these morons are now engaged in a futile effort to bleed into a real life gives me hope that they went too far and it will be their end.
https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/the-epstein-and-the-spectacle
https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/influencerism-is-the-highest-form
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