• Justice@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    12 days ago

    Indeed... if he was some sort of anarchist with long rants comparing modern health insurance CEOs to the Tzars or something and talked about tossing dynamite at them in public that immediately gives the media a "He was a nutter!" narrative

    If he was a right winger who tried to do it for, I dunno, crazy conspiratorial reasons related to covid or some shit, again the media could dismiss discussion through that route

    The more of a "normal" person he seems, the better for propaganda purposes

    I will be very curious to see how this plays out with a jury assuming it gets to that point and he doesn't just plead guilty to get like 20 years instead of potentially life no parole (no idea what a DA would offer, just out of my ass there). 100% of Americans hate rich pricks and health insurance companies. If it gets to a trial situation 12 people have the chance to do something very funny

    • Awoo [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      12 days ago

      If a jury nullifies or says not-guilty it would cause multiple copycats. It would be a complete and total disaster for the ruling class.

      My money is on this guy either not surviving to trial or getting cut a deal that nobody is allowed to talk about and media goes silent on what happened to him.

      • Dessa [she/her]
        ·
        12 days ago

        Killing him would just make him a martyr. They're stupid if they do it

        • OrionsMask [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          12 days ago

          They were stupid to kill Epstein the way they did, it was so transparent that it would be hard to find people who genuinely believe that he killed himself. People make jokes about it to this day - yet what really came of it? What changes even if they behave brazenly and people know?

          • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            12 days ago

            I subscribe to the Matt Christman thinking on this (at the time. Maybe he shifted over the years).

            Basically they killed Epstein as a "flex." A giant "Oh, you little peons, you plebs figured it out, huh? Yeah, we love pedos. Yeah, he's our guy. Guess what? We're gonna kill him. And we're gonna do it in the most obvious way possible, release a fake report saying he killed himself in an impossible way, and have the media lie and call you insane if you question our obvious bullshit. It doesn't matter what you know. It doesn't matter what you can prove. We own you and we will do anything we want."

            Something like that (from multiple years ago memory)

            • OrionsMask [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              12 days ago

              Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. What's stopping them from doing the same thing to Luigi? What's really going to be different?

              Not trying to be a doomer, I sincerely hope that these outrageous acts all push the people's revolution counter up by 1 and it'll eventually hit a breaking point.

              • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                11 days ago

                Obviously nothing stops them and in the long term getting the Epstein treatment is only going to be more common. The ghouls in charge will continue to do whatever it takes to remain in power. That's not being a doomer, it's just analyzing the past and present realities and where the US (and west broadly) is on trajectory toward. Spontaneous violence is going to continue to ramp up as people's material conditions worsen and what they "have to lose" drops closer to zero. Mix in alienation from society and labor... it's amazing it isn't already happening more. People have no outlet for their anger that responds in the necessary ways. This breeds nihilism and resentment towards those who are very clearly caused these problems and continue to enrich themselves from suffering.

                As shitty as the future is very clearly going to be (minus some sort of Biblical level miracle intervention from aliens or some shit) for a long while, what makes one not a doomer is still staying involved and aware, maintaining a revolutionary mindset, and accepting that we had a better world stolen from us. Instead of living in despair and succumbing totally to anger and nihilistic rage, you have to channel that righteous anger into something positive. Not everyone is going to be able to handle the stresses. Especially those not equipped with knowledge of the past and why this is happening.

                But yeah, long story short, accepting the realities of state power is not doomerism. That's just reaching the correct conclusion based on all available facts. But they won't always hold all the power. There is a future that is brighter. You kind of have to believe in that even if you see no path to it now because believing otherwise, that all hope is dead, that we are doomed to extinction due to the excesses of capital... well, I can't live every moment thinking that because why am I even alive then? Being a bit of a perpetual optimist while also acknowledging the repeated failures of humanity is required to maintain sanity. For me anyway.

          • Dessa [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            Epstein rented out children for sex slavery. Nobody ever considered him a hero. Just a useful asshole

            • OrionsMask [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              12 days ago

              True but Epstein represented the decades-strong conspiracy theory of the existence of a cabal of wealthy and influential pedophiles. Pedophiles alone are pretty much universally hated, let alone people using their status to prey on children. Killing Epstein as brazenly as they did was a huge fuck you to the world and they got away with it fully.

              • Dessa [she/her]
                ·
                11 days ago

                Yes, it was a huge fuck you, but he was not himself a martyr

        • Awoo [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          12 days ago

          Ok so they've already lost then? Lose lose situation and they lost the moment the bullets were fired. If that's the case then the question that matters is which way do they lose the least.

          • Dessa [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            Just keep doing what they are doing. Dig up everything they can that is weird and unendearing and peel people away. The more human and less legendary he seems,the more people will find things to hate about him.