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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   30807 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 21, 2025

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The Virginia Giuffre suicide brought to mind an idea I've been thinking about for a while: populism works best without the people. Rob Henderson and many others have talked about how certain ideas promoted by the upper class disproportionately harm the lower class. In his book Troubled, he wrote:

Many of my peers at Yale and Stanford would work ceaselessly. But when I'd ask them about the plans they'd implemented to get into college, or start a company, or land their dream job, they'd often suggest they just got lucky rather than attribute their success to their efforts. Interestingly, it seems like many people who earn status by working hard are able to boost their status among their peers even more by saying they just got lucky. This isn't just limited to my own observations, either. A 2019 study found that people with high income and social status are the most likely to attribute success to mere luck rather than hard work.

Both luck and hard work play a role in the direction of our lives, but stressing the former at the expense of the latter doesn't help those at or near the bottom of society. If disadvantaged people come to believe that luck is the key factor that determines success, then they will be less likely to strive to improve their lives. One study tracked more than six thousand young adults in the US at the beginning of their careers over the course of two decades, and found that those who believed that life's outcomes are due to their own efforts as opposed to external factors became more successful in their careers and went on to attain higher earnings.

The problem is that people who entertain populist ideas like the above wind up shoved into the same part of the political spectrum as all these people who rave about "pedophile rings." Along with the internet personalities who won't endorse QAnon outright but pander to their QAnoner supporters with equivocating crap like "why can't they release the Epstein documents? I'm not saying there's a conspiracy, I just want TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT. Just asking qwestchins!" The populist movement winds up embracing the same mentality of helplessness Henderson is criticizing. Many of the Epstein victims admit they did it voluntarily for money, but you can't say that because it gets in the way of the narrative of helpless proles victimized by evil sex-trafficking finance guys.*

You can only really stand up for the people by keeping them at arm's length.

*The QAnoners are convinced that happens ALL THE TIME but Epstein is the only example they can point to, which is why we're still hearing about it five years after Epstein's death and will probably keep hearing about it for decades more.

Many of the Epstein victims admit they did it voluntarily for money

Examples?

I mean, they were hookers. Definitionally they did it for money.

That doesn't mean it's OK to convince 15 year old girls to enter prostitution(which is what Epstein did- there's no evidence or allegations that he made any threats or kidnapped anyone or whatever).

I seem to remember that Epstein and/or Maxwell were also accused of taking away at least one girl's passport to trap her. Which is more than just prostitution.

Some victims said Maxwell would make threats like that on the island or at one of their ranches, but compared to the tactics used by even run of the mill pimps they were rudimentary and limited at best.

That doesn't mean it's OK to convince 15 year old girls to enter prostitution(which is what Epstein did

That's trafficking. They were minors.

There's also very clear evidence of favorable government treatment (i.e. his case in Florida).

That's a lot different than him throwing a party with adult prostitutes.

Why the equivocation?

Yes I just said that. Epstein was bad. But there’s no evidence of him being bad in a specific way that it’s often framed as.

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