Sometime back I discussed in this space why I think the Epstein thing landed differently with (some, not all) of Cult. The key to understanding it, I think, is that in a Cult where empathy extends solely to the Self and those perceived as extensions of the Self, who those extensions are becomes all-important.
MAGA propaganda has relentlessly taught the Cult to keep the Circle of Empathy as small as possible. Typically, the immediate family.
So “I need my arsenal of guns to protect me and my family! Anybody trying to stop maniacs from shooting up schools is part of an assault on me and my family!”
Or “Trump is protecting my family from the brown invaders and whatever he has to do protect my family and give us cheaper eggs? Well, the ends justify the means! Alligator Alcatraz is awesome!”
This strategy of keeping the Circle of Empathy limited to the immediate family has done this so well that most MAGA cultists do not even extend it to other MAGA cultists. This is why, when Trump stabs some portion of the Cult in the back, the rest of the Cult does not care.
“If you are going to live in a flood zone, you should expect flooding” says the rest of the Cult while Trump leaves MAGA victims in Texas to drown.
“You voted for MAGA and your wife got deported? Well, you should have thought of that before marrying an invader. Sucks to be you. Not my problem.”
Again and again, the Cult has been blinded to any empathic connections that might interfere with their tight personal identification with the Orange Messiah.
But in one deeply primal way, there has been an exception to this. Trump himself, in his cynical, lying propaganda, taught the Cult for years and years that the girls exploited by Epstein *were* extensions of every faithful Cult member’s ego. He taught them that they were the Heroic Defenders of childhood’s innocence lost and he was their Retribution. He taught them to hate the Democrat monsters, the Pedophiles, the Pizzagaters, the Satanic Cabal that had inflicted horrors on these little defenseless girls. These girls became, in the hearts, minds, souls, and guts of the Cult, quasi-sacred figures. Children for whom the Cult saw themselves as Saviors. Children they liked to think they would bravely die–or kill–to save. It became a deeply primal thing for the Cult.
Outside that circle of empathy, however, all other suffering is non-existent, contemptible, funny, and/or guilt manipulation.
The central way you know this is true is because all of Trump’s adult victims of rape and sexual assault remain contemptible vermin whose testimony does not matter in the slightest since it never happened and besides they had it coming. So the Cult wastes all its time trying to sniff out what a child rapist and liar like Ghislaine Maxwell says while resolutely ignoring the testimony of Trump’s victims. They are not extensions of the Self in the eyes of the Cult, so they don’t matter at all.
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It’s amusing to see Trumpers expecting some exoneration of Trump by testimony of Ghislaine Maxwell. As if she is some oracle of truth and wisdom. Why would any sane person care what she has to say?
This Epstein Files brouhaha is not going away. It could possibly fracture MAGA world if some real dirt comes out. Why is Trump trying to quash the whole thing?
When I was a kid, someone came to put shoes on my horse. They showed me this thing called a twitch. Before the horse shoe guy can get down to business they put the twitch on the horse’s upper lip to distract it. The horse is so thoroughly appalled and provoked, he focuses exclusively and obsessively on the tie on his upper lip.
Trump is our twitch.
Of course all of this speculation about just how thoroughly monstrous Trump must actually be –serves the purposes of the billionaires. They must be taking note of how bedraggled he’s been looking lately. They knew he couldn’t last too long. The question is who is awful enough to fill those big shoes and serve as the twitch?
Bingo! Trump is a distraction while the billionaires pick our pockets. The culture war is BS. People are losing their health care, children are going hungry, but what are our politicians blathering about? Nonsense like transgender sports. The billionaires bought the government. Now, the rest of us are paying.
Have you ever gone down the reddit rabbit hole? I do it from time to time. I was exhausting myself on a thread where everyone was pretty much agreeing that any amount of alcohol consumed is bad for you. (Darn!) I was feeling worse and worse about it. Right before I gave up reading I laughed because some guy wrote: “Guess what guys? Nobody gets off this ride alive.” Ha ha, -right to the point. No amount of ground flax seeds, green tea and expensive supplements are going to save my life here. The transhumanists can lie to themselves till the cows come home.
Nobody on this “ride” is going to save me or my children.The party of the people and the labor unions sold us all down the river to enrich themselves a generation ago. Republican? Democrat? Libertarian? All the same. I wonder if Nancy Pelosi’s fabulous stock portfolio gives her much comfort these days. No. It can’t. No dollar amount or measure of fame can alleviate the worm that gnaws at the soul when death is knocking. Trump blurted out his anticipated fate in a rare moment of self awareness. Trump and the Clintons and Reagan –yes–the Obamas–frankly, almost everyone in politics except for a few rare exceptions have accepted the power and the money for a few fleeting years of glory and pleasure. Places like Lolita Island weren’t even questioned much 20 years ago. Robin Leach would have given us a tour of it. People who are corrupt have always loved a good taboo. Rich, powerful men have always believed that people could be purchased. The director’s couch was always an institution. Beautiful call girls like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman inspired pretty models from Eastern Europe to dream of landing their rich John. It was all so sanitized, and Cinderella-ized for our consumption. (I was surprised when Anora won best picture in 2024. It took me two tries to get through it, but I’m glad I stuck it out, and it’s fitting that it won. It starts gross and ends gross.)
Nobody gets off this ride alive. Some of us will prove how stupendously stupid, stupid can be.