Originally published at: Top Admin Officials — and Trump Himself — Are Clinging Hard To Insane Conspiracy Theories
Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender 
In some ways, we’re still living in the world that emerged in the month or so that led up to January 6. It was a period in which truly insane conspiracy theories arose from the fever swamps of internet forums to be turned over by the…
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Helllo? Is anybody here?
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Second?
A word of advice based on a review I just read, do not go see the Melania movie.
Last night, I left an empty chickpea can on my counter. When I came back 30 minutes later, small, black bugs had swarmed the tin and were crawling over my sink. I would rather relive that moment a hundred times over than have to watch another minute of the movie Melania.
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I think you’re going to struggle to beat The Guardian reviews take. “Gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest.”
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Epstein files: Allegations of rape, murder, involving Donald Trump
Musk to Epstein: ‘What Day/Night Will Be the Wildest Party on Your Island?’
Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails show | Elon Musk | The Guardian
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Planned Trip to Epstein’s Island - The New York Times
Woman Told FBI Trump Abused Her at 13, Epstein Files Reveal
Melania’s ‘Love’ Email to Ghislaine Revealed in Epstein Files
Trump Accused In Epstein Files of Forcing Underage Girl To Perform Oral Sex
Trump’s Pick for Fed Chair Pops Up in Latest Epstein Files | The New Republic
Jeffrey Epstein scouted women for New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, emails show - The Athletic
Bill Gates Accused of Twisted Plot to Drug Wife After Sex with ‘Girls’
Epstein files include “hung like a horse” message to Clinton email
Trump Is All Over the Epstein Files. Except, Well, the DOJ Says It’s “Fake.”
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So, the regime wants to sell national lands and monuments while buying industrial spaces of no historic or aesthetic merit for concentration camps.
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She glides from the fashion fitting to the table setting, and from the “candlelit dinner” to the “starlight ball”, with a face like a fist and a voice of sheet metal. “Candlelight and black tie and my creative vision,” she says, as though listing the ingredients in a cauldron. “As first lady, children will always remain my priority,” she coos, and you can almost picture her coaxing them into her little gingerbread house.
What drama there is chiefly hinges on her concern that her white blouse is too loose at the neck and needs to be cut and then tightened, much to the consternation of the fitters. Melania misses her mother, she says, but she loves Michael Jackson and Barron and possibly her husband as well
It’s dispiriting, it’s deadly and it’s spectacularly unrevealing. Ratner’s film plays like a gilded trash remake of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest in which a button-eyed Cinderella points at gold baubles and designer dresses, cunningly distracting us while her husband and his cronies prepare to dismantle the Constitution and asset-strip the federal government.
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Oh, and her husband’s concentration camps.
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From Esquire magazine…
Trump Is All Over the Epstein Files. Except, Well, the DOJ Says It’s “Fake.”
So we’re just supposed to believe that millions of newly released documents are completely false?
… … … … … …
Because trump said they were and we know how truthful he is.
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Here’s another gem from the review in The Atlantic.
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I haven’t felt as eager to write anywhere for the past month or so. I’ve found interesting articles and opinion pieces.
Is worth the effort to read. Interestingly enough the basic premise of this and its companion piece would say that taking that effort to read it is exactly why liberals have failed to dominate the Social Mediaverse. The time and effort to evaluate something short circuits the immediate emotional stimulus that these platforms are designed to exploit.
Social media appears to be the anti-enlightenment vehicle, it grows by exploiting defects in human behavior and physiology. In some respects 1984 is actually a very flawed analysis of totalitarianism works when explored from a social media perspective. You don’t win converts to the New Order by putting inconvenient things down the memory hole or suppressing them. That is very likely to generate the reverse phenomenon, you win converts by emotionally linking the behavior or thought you want to suppress to things that cause a visceral response. You use human emotional responses to override thought.
Until you can convince people to step away from image/thought that provokes the strong emotion and think about the actual issue, reasoning with someone is impossible. But there’s no emotional reward for someone to step away from that visceral override. It’s powerful, dangerous and we’re doing it to ourselves.
I’ve been trying to step back from current events. It feels as though the most direct means to combat the rising tide of fascism is to use the same tools. At that point I feel like we’ve lost, can you really use malign methodology to achieve something good. What prevents “good people” from being “bad people” once they’ve conquered?
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Insanity is all they’ve got!
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Sure if you consider litter to be earth. How much do you sweep up every day?
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While I am overjoyed that the ICE murders in Minnesota and the photo of Liam Ramos have broken through, I also scratch my head at why months and months of brutality and lack of due process towards non-white non-cute Americans did not.
I know, take the win. but still.
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