There is one belief that currently unifies everyone from Bill Maher, to Joe Rogan, to AOC, to Elon Musk, to CNN, to Candace Owens, to the Democratic Party, to Netflix, to TMZ, to the British Parliament, to the United Nations, to the Iranian government, to the right-wing podcast circuit, to the left-wing podcast circuit, to the apolitical entertainment-oriented podcast circuit — and is currently the consensus view across all major social media platforms: X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Rumble, etc.
The apparent fact that so many consumers of online media currently seem to be fascinated, obsessed, in a moral panic or otherwise consumed by all things Epstein is a far more significant indicator of societal disintegration than anything Epstein may have done in real life.
The dreaded "P" word is a clinical term originating from psychiatry, still used today to designate a person who has a predominant sexual attraction to people before puberty. "Puberty" is defined by the American Psychological Association as roughly under the age of 13, since scholars recognize that puberty varies from person to person and has varied across time and place (i.e. depending on nutrition, etc.)
Americans in particular, and now the wider world that their media permeates out into, have massively expanded and altered the meaning of the once clearly defined P word to an absurd degree.
Now, online at least, the P word gets used to mean anyone who shows the slightest hint of possible erotic interest or fascination in a person (or even cartoon character), who is or could appear to be under the age of 18. Depending on how you parse it, that could mean everyone. Everyone who fancies Belle Delphine and women who look young - "PEDO." Anyone who's okay with flat chested women - "PEDO." Anyone who's tall and has a short gf - "PEDO". And the list can go on and on...
It's all very strange, unproductive, and certainly not based in anything approaching "facts and logic" that don't care about your feelings... In fact, a whole host of academics, from Allyn Walker and Stephen Kershnar to Jacob Breslow (to name a few), have been "cancelled" for coming to unpopular / challenging conclusions on these issues, or for simply having used language and word's that other's didn't like or found upsetting...
Instead of thinking "hmm, these are experts who've spent literally years in their field; it makes sense they'd come to conclusions that are different to the masses who aren't specialists on these subjects. Maybe we should listen to them, read their books and articles and come to our own conclusions, maybe even 'debunk' them if they're so obviously and provably wrong despite their years of research..."
Instead of that, all we get are keyboard warriors screeching "PEDO" - some of whom would've been the same people complaining about "SJWs" and "cancel culture" before going on to do the exact same thing in a different context!! 🤦♂️🤷♂️
It's a weird situation and there are scholarly explanations for the rise in discourses of "abuse," "trauma," "victims" and "survivors" - and even scholarly histories of how the figure of the "child molester" or "monstrous ped*phile" have changed across time, from historians such as Phillip Jenkins and Steven Angelides. But, broadly speaking, scholarship isn't widely read by the general public and has a negligible impact...
That's why it's so good that you, Michael, and Richard Hanania and other journalists and public figures, are bringing forth a critical discourse that is so sorely needed. Nowadays, academic jobs are so precarious, the online bullying of the past so severe, that scholars and researchers who could provide food for thought have either left Twitter or social media altogether, or never bothered to begin with...
Thanks Michael, for what you do. You give me hope that there are journalists out there with integrity. 🙂
Ohh don't be too worried about experts/ accademia there's heaps of then acting as moral entrepreneurs, riding the trafficking wave( pumping out pretty reviewed papers, advising everyone on how to cope etc). My feminist professor & cronies, recently used the intro to state... " some scholars argued that concern about CSA is moral panic, we see no evidence of that". Nothing future just we see no evidence! Are you lot fucking blind? Lol. The paper went on talk talk about female dissociative disorder & how it was sometimes a cause of women neglecting their kids, sympathetic lens. Betcha if these females SA a kid, they'd be no such mercy. JANUS FACED. Kids DIE of neglect. My sister & are a caring for a 13 year old, she arrived on our doorstep, no shoes, no food for days. Locked in a shed. But hey who gaf
It's actually not new at all. Rumors of elites buggering children in demonic practices have been around for ages. As far as in the US, the rumors of "Poppy Socks" GHW Bush, the old man, son of Prescott, existed before there was even an internet. I remember those rumors swirling about in the 1990s. People swore that they were true.
They also mind control children from a young age by traumatising them through barbaric acts - see operation Monarch. Furthermore, they terrify children then kill them to extract Adrenochrome. They also eat people, mostly babies.
Well, you are male to start with. And that decreases your potential exposure by ALOT. And yes, I have to agree it is amazing you’ve never known a pedophile in your life - maybe it’s more likely that you haven’t recognized the pedophiles you’ve known?
Clearly you're not hanging with Royals, the Ruling Class, Heads of state etc. Everyone wants their pedos ultra rich as opposed to plain old morally bankrupt
Who’s running the new network? It’s been a more than a decade since Epstein was uncovered. Undoubtedly there are new groups, with vastly more sophisticated methods. Hell conspiracy podcasts have acted as a think tank for horrible ideas, meaning if the CIA and other ops haven’t used these tactics they’ve sure gotten a lot of good ideas from the conspiracy crowd.
Global conspiracy? That seems a reach. How about the all too human lust for and exercise of power? The pedophilic aspect is only one of many manifestations of this base sin. In the absence of consequences or perceived consequences, what's to inhibit these desires? The elite, convinced of their own godhood are just better at it than most.
You know, there's all kinds of Epstein-unrelated sex trafficking going on right now that no one cares the least about. That's pretty perverse if you ask me.
My worrisome thought is having to relive my time in the GWOT and see more American soldiers die for a story the admin can't get straight. You are going to tell current service members and veterans of that region that more soldiers are just going to have to die and that is the way it is and expect us to just go along with this? I really don’t care what rhetoric the opposition for these policies use when antagonists can’t get their story straight.
“The Epstein class” is a coinage I never heard until very recently, but I think it’s gaining currency
Ain't it grand people are still as nutsy as they were at the time of the Pharaohs?
You forgot Putin
The apparent fact that so many consumers of online media currently seem to be fascinated, obsessed, in a moral panic or otherwise consumed by all things Epstein is a far more significant indicator of societal disintegration than anything Epstein may have done in real life.
Yeah it's all completely insane.
The dreaded "P" word is a clinical term originating from psychiatry, still used today to designate a person who has a predominant sexual attraction to people before puberty. "Puberty" is defined by the American Psychological Association as roughly under the age of 13, since scholars recognize that puberty varies from person to person and has varied across time and place (i.e. depending on nutrition, etc.)
Americans in particular, and now the wider world that their media permeates out into, have massively expanded and altered the meaning of the once clearly defined P word to an absurd degree.
Now, online at least, the P word gets used to mean anyone who shows the slightest hint of possible erotic interest or fascination in a person (or even cartoon character), who is or could appear to be under the age of 18. Depending on how you parse it, that could mean everyone. Everyone who fancies Belle Delphine and women who look young - "PEDO." Anyone who's okay with flat chested women - "PEDO." Anyone who's tall and has a short gf - "PEDO". And the list can go on and on...
It's all very strange, unproductive, and certainly not based in anything approaching "facts and logic" that don't care about your feelings... In fact, a whole host of academics, from Allyn Walker and Stephen Kershnar to Jacob Breslow (to name a few), have been "cancelled" for coming to unpopular / challenging conclusions on these issues, or for simply having used language and word's that other's didn't like or found upsetting...
Instead of thinking "hmm, these are experts who've spent literally years in their field; it makes sense they'd come to conclusions that are different to the masses who aren't specialists on these subjects. Maybe we should listen to them, read their books and articles and come to our own conclusions, maybe even 'debunk' them if they're so obviously and provably wrong despite their years of research..."
Instead of that, all we get are keyboard warriors screeching "PEDO" - some of whom would've been the same people complaining about "SJWs" and "cancel culture" before going on to do the exact same thing in a different context!! 🤦♂️🤷♂️
It's a weird situation and there are scholarly explanations for the rise in discourses of "abuse," "trauma," "victims" and "survivors" - and even scholarly histories of how the figure of the "child molester" or "monstrous ped*phile" have changed across time, from historians such as Phillip Jenkins and Steven Angelides. But, broadly speaking, scholarship isn't widely read by the general public and has a negligible impact...
That's why it's so good that you, Michael, and Richard Hanania and other journalists and public figures, are bringing forth a critical discourse that is so sorely needed. Nowadays, academic jobs are so precarious, the online bullying of the past so severe, that scholars and researchers who could provide food for thought have either left Twitter or social media altogether, or never bothered to begin with...
Thanks Michael, for what you do. You give me hope that there are journalists out there with integrity. 🙂
Also Tq for the names of those scholars.
The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm, Ending State Violence" by Judith Levine and Erica R. Meiners (2020)
Ohh don't be too worried about experts/ accademia there's heaps of then acting as moral entrepreneurs, riding the trafficking wave( pumping out pretty reviewed papers, advising everyone on how to cope etc). My feminist professor & cronies, recently used the intro to state... " some scholars argued that concern about CSA is moral panic, we see no evidence of that". Nothing future just we see no evidence! Are you lot fucking blind? Lol. The paper went on talk talk about female dissociative disorder & how it was sometimes a cause of women neglecting their kids, sympathetic lens. Betcha if these females SA a kid, they'd be no such mercy. JANUS FACED. Kids DIE of neglect. My sister & are a caring for a 13 year old, she arrived on our doorstep, no shoes, no food for days. Locked in a shed. But hey who gaf
The obsession over blackmail making politicians do bad things covers up for the real reason why they do it.
The system is designed for power to manipulate it since day one.
This applies to economics, war, healthcare, science and other institutional forces.
It's actually not new at all. Rumors of elites buggering children in demonic practices have been around for ages. As far as in the US, the rumors of "Poppy Socks" GHW Bush, the old man, son of Prescott, existed before there was even an internet. I remember those rumors swirling about in the 1990s. People swore that they were true.
There's also the now widely acknowledged "Satanic Panic" from the 1980s.
They also mind control children from a young age by traumatising them through barbaric acts - see operation Monarch. Furthermore, they terrify children then kill them to extract Adrenochrome. They also eat people, mostly babies.
It's amazing that I've never known a pedophile in my entire life!
Well, you are male to start with. And that decreases your potential exposure by ALOT. And yes, I have to agree it is amazing you’ve never known a pedophile in your life - maybe it’s more likely that you haven’t recognized the pedophiles you’ve known?
Clearly you're not hanging with Royals, the Ruling Class, Heads of state etc. Everyone wants their pedos ultra rich as opposed to plain old morally bankrupt
Who’s running the new network? It’s been a more than a decade since Epstein was uncovered. Undoubtedly there are new groups, with vastly more sophisticated methods. Hell conspiracy podcasts have acted as a think tank for horrible ideas, meaning if the CIA and other ops haven’t used these tactics they’ve sure gotten a lot of good ideas from the conspiracy crowd.
We have no standing to ever again criticize the progenitors of witch trials
Global conspiracy? That seems a reach. How about the all too human lust for and exercise of power? The pedophilic aspect is only one of many manifestations of this base sin. In the absence of consequences or perceived consequences, what's to inhibit these desires? The elite, convinced of their own godhood are just better at it than most.
You are isolating yourself, Tracey. If that is your intention, keep it up.
You know, there's all kinds of Epstein-unrelated sex trafficking going on right now that no one cares the least about. That's pretty perverse if you ask me.
If it leads to people realizing that psychopaths rule the world, I'll take it as a win.
My worrisome thought is having to relive my time in the GWOT and see more American soldiers die for a story the admin can't get straight. You are going to tell current service members and veterans of that region that more soldiers are just going to have to die and that is the way it is and expect us to just go along with this? I really don’t care what rhetoric the opposition for these policies use when antagonists can’t get their story straight.