They keep claiming that and then proceeding anyways with maybe a short period of backtracking. I’ll believe them when they’ve actually stayed backed off until the end of the ai bs. That said I’m never going back. I switched to Linux over 2 years ago in part because of the initial recall scandal.
That’s the thing, some conspiracy theories are going to be true, most aren’t, and some will bear a passing resemblance to the truth.
The main tool at our disposal here is skepticism. Are the claims being made plausible? Are the motivations realistic? Is there evidence from reputable sources? Am I approaching this with a critical mindset? Am I focused on the explicit claims, or am I allowing people to “yes and” this? Am I letting my emotions or preconceived biases and prejudices cloud my judgment?
Exactly, also people tend to tolerate what their peers consider normal. We’re basically always checking reality off of how those in our circle react to things. This means that if your circle assumes old men always want to sleep with 18-20 year old women, and they do so regularly, then if suddenly a 17 year old girl shows up in the mix and nobody reacts it can be easily rationalized. And from there you can slip to a lot of 16 year olds. And while new people may not be comfortable with it, they likely have financial incentives not to walk away or cause a scene, because he wasn’t just a pimp, he was also a matchmaker, then in that case the rationalization engine that is the human brain can go to town.
Qanon was correct in the same way your conspiracy theorist uncle was right about MKULTRA. There’s a quick summary that can give a pretty big overlap of them and reality, but that’s not why these people believe this, and the more details, context, or scope you add the less they align.
Qanon is an intellectual descendant of the satanic panic, and the framing it uses is very much in that line of thinking. It’s framing it as political enemies raping young children as part of a dark ritual that involves blood libel.
The Epstein situation in contrast is that the rich, powerful, and influential run in overlapping social circles and within them there are people whose role is to facilitate connections (Peter Thiel actually facilitates a similar role). These people may also facilitate other connections like drugs (there’s so much drugs in the Epstein stories) and pimping. The pimping for the elite, at least by one of these people, also seemed to disproportionately traffic adolescents and many of the rich, powerful, and influential clients, friends, and connections of this man seemed to either partake in his underage victims or knowingly look the other way in order to maintain these beneficial connections.
Both of these are very bad things involving the rich and powerful engaging in pedophilia, but the former is utterly fantastical and originates in a panic with no evidence and itself lacks evidence, while the latter is a realistic situation that has a lot of evidence for it
I’m gonna need you to take about 20% off there squirrely dan
Idk how she manages the time and energy for the number of partners she already has
I rate art on artistic merit. Movies are able to be either, much in the same way airport fiction is going to struggle when judged as literature and a lot of literature is going to struggle when judged by those who like dumb fun books. I generally dislike pulp fantasy, meanwhile it took me so long to get through the lord of the rings in high school, but it still lives rent free in my head in my 30s.
And I think it’s worth comparing it to another movie recently shown to me by the same friend: Tokyo Godfathers. It’s a fun and artistically valuable movie, and while it’s often uncomfortable, it has points to its discomfort whether in the form of social commentary or to enable the characters to grow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better depiction of the type of homeless people who are neither transiently homeless nor severely mentally ill. It’s also an interesting insight into Christianity and Christian symbolism in Japanese culture. It’s ultimately about how even fuck ups who’ve crashed out of society have goodness in them. And it manages to be fun and exciting the entire time. I highly recommend it
I recently watched a movie that was absolutely excellent, a masterclass in telling a story without having an overt plot and use of symbolism and behavioral patterns and changes to depict a deeply human situation. Did I have fun? No, it was uncomfortable as hell as it’s the story of a relationship in which both parties are bad for each other with one pushing for more and more and the other increasingly pulling back and not into it. It reminded me of many of my worst insecurities and my worst relationships, especially those with people with bpd that wasn’t under control.
Movie is the Duke of Burgundy if anyone is interested, cw bugs and bdsm.
You’re a sad confused little man aren’t you
Early Carmen episodes were amazing especially for how they still hold up
Wait, half have 4k‽
Your old school was lame then
Even the cultural milieu of that combined with having a reason to hide gave me damage because I was on edge that my privacy might be being invaded without my knowledge
In America you get canceled for even implying that
Don’t you know that arresting officer is a tipped position in America‽
Do not bring your ID
Also, I love that they’re just acknowledging peaceful protests involve getting pepper sprayed nowadays
I’m American ex catholic and yeah that was my childhood church. That said we also have a lot of people who convert to catholicism for the aesthetics and to crusade larp, and one of them insisted on arguing with the previous pope about basic doctrine as the old man was dying…
So yeah, you’re supposed to listen to the pope but nobody does.
Or you learn to smell it and feel it. But it’s not good for distant weather and the earlier you feel it the worse it’ll be. It’s a common skill in places with stupid amounts of weather like the American Midwest.