Post AwraeIulsgrmjNj1XM by kims@mas.to
(DIR) More posts by kims@mas.to
(DIR) Post #Awra8rGecdiO0Yxxuy by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T15:09:14Z
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Everyone has been galvanized, in condemning Epstein. It's been comforting to assume this means there is wider recognition that sexual exploitation through money and power of young vulnerable people is seen as criminal. A violation of self-determination and of bodily autonomy. I think part of why I keep following this story so closely is the creeping sense that maybe we aren't all talking about the same thing.
(DIR) Post #AwraQjpj0A7eABtcPY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T15:12:26Z
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The hint that this could all unravel comes from the relative indifference of large segments of the public to the obvious womanizing, sexism, and public lechery of the president. Could there be people who don't see any connection between these things? Or is it that it only matters if you don't like the person doing it?
(DIR) Post #AwraeIulsgrmjNj1XM by kims@mas.to
2025-08-05T15:14:53Z
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@futurebird We most definitely are not all talking about the same thingI sadly do not agree with your assumption. Like #metoo, I believe this will be swept away. I think there is some frustration with everyone's non-favorite elites being able to act with impunity, but they still want to excuse their favesAnd I think those of us who actually give a shit about the victims is a vanishingly small percentage
(DIR) Post #AwrapzlysLcKq4BjzU by Kierkegaanks@beige.party
2025-08-05T15:17:00Z
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@futurebird collectively we never are about anything, it seems
(DIR) Post #Awraypp7EjjkaTryxU by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-08-05T15:18:36Z
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@futurebird One can hope that child rape and sex slavery are still something we can all condemn together.What I fear is that Democrats won't pound this in the way it needs to be pounded in:If Trump is in the files, they need to call him an "alleged pedophile" at every opportunity available. When MAGAs get angry, Dems/Libs need to smirk and say "I didn't realize you supported pedophilia, Speaker Johnson"Every issue needs to be Epstein.
(DIR) Post #AwraznlIO4KeU0XmKm by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-08-05T15:18:42Z
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@futurebird The galvanization, for many people, extends only as far as they can assume liberals will (obviously) be the only ones named. As soon as Republicans (and Trump himself) are named, they will do whatever they can to assuage their cognitive dissonance. For most it will be one of “both sides are bad” or “it’s a hoax” or “why are we still talking about this” but…for a significant portion, they will fervently defend these crimes.
(DIR) Post #AwrcApJt2ErkSEXpFw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T15:31:55Z
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@CordiallyChloe It's very similar. And maybe even some of the same people doing it.
(DIR) Post #AwrcGeBtKDyDfya2Pg by liferstate@mas.to
2025-08-05T15:33:02Z
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@futurebird We absolutely are not. People like you and me are talking about the widespread sexual exploitation of women and girls, and how fucked up it is that this is embedded in our culture, and how Epstein is an exemplar of but ultimately just another symptom of that. MAGA world is talking about Pizzagate. QAnon shit. It never went away, they just got better at sounding normal when talking about it.
(DIR) Post #AwrcwQxcu95Qo2pjOq by kiwi2002@mstdn.social
2025-08-05T15:40:34Z
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@futurebird I remember some comments I heard during his first presidency (where he wasn't a nice guy to begin with) from voters with a Christian Nationalist leaning to the tune of: "He may not represent our Christian values, but he will get us what we want."Well, he did and he will certainly try and continue to do so if he keeps his free reign.The rules of the "political game" have changed massively.
(DIR) Post #Awre5bk4HzMunvQiRc by Moss@beige.party
2025-08-05T15:53:26Z
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@futurebird The Catholic Church in the US called Trump in his first term “an imperfect vessel”, explaining that it was necessary to overlook his individual sins in order to gain the greater glory of dominion on earth. They have already, in wholesale and at the highest ranks, excused him from child rape. Once they made that step, everything else is just about keeping the naysayers busy until the kingdom is theirs.
(DIR) Post #AwrnCrnhsg00DwfTii by Sharksonaplane@mastodon.sandwich.net
2025-08-05T17:35:32Z
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@futurebird conservatives, specifically, have long made it clear (by how they react to e.g. church leaders who abuse children, abusive parents, the number of states that still allow child marriage, etc) that it is absolutely just a sides-taking game for them, they don't actually care. whether liberals actually care either remains to be seen, because they're often also complicit just not as visibly.
(DIR) Post #AwrnupKYQUQBIvzgkC by liferstate@mas.to
2025-08-05T16:44:32Z
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@CptSuperlative I don't think MAGA would have quite the same frothing desire to see the Epstein files if they were, say, the Emerson files. When you lowkey believe a lot of antisemitic tropes (eg Jewish men are innately lascivious and prey on gentile women) it is ~very convenient~ to find a Jew (Epstein, Weinstein) who really is like that. It reifies one's entire worldview.@futurebird @mls14
(DIR) Post #AwrnuqXhv4XL419hsu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T17:43:30Z
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@liferstate @CptSuperlative @mls14 Yeah. This has made me less interested in talking about it in the past. Same with those "intelligence connection" theories which I've never seen anything to support really. But that doesn't mean I'm not horrified about powerful people doing this BS. Let me at those files. Out every single one.
(DIR) Post #Awro1aTa3LbVGGRJU8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T17:44:39Z
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@sklrmths That's what I'm starting to think. Like if it's not bizarre and mostly about people they don't like it's not really important. Which sucks for teen girls.
(DIR) Post #AwroICNqsh1tSlgHYW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-05T17:47:48Z
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@johnzajac "One can hope that child rape and sex slavery are still something we can all condemn together."IDK if the perp is someone "respected" if the victim is "troubled" if this if that suddenly a lot of people don't care. And don't even care that such crimes dismissed and ignored open the doors to the few they can be bothered to care about too.
(DIR) Post #AwroSbbzwEaobQGBea by nazokiyoubinbou@mastodon.social
2025-08-05T17:49:38Z
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@futurebird @sklrmths I think it's pretty clear that Republicans couldn't care less about women *or* girls. They just wanted their conspiracy. It was a narrative to try to throw at Democrats over and over by ignoring that they knew probably 3/4th of the people on that list are probably Republican or directly connected to Republicans, but as long as no one could see it, it was fine. They thought.But now they've shot themselves in the foot.
(DIR) Post #AwrpVdrK8ib0OYRMK8 by phaedral@mastodon.social
2025-08-05T18:01:22Z
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@futurebird #Epstein tein
(DIR) Post #AwrpgA51CKxPDprVBo by faraiwe@mstdn.social
2025-08-05T18:03:18Z
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@futurebird spoiler: MAGA capacity for infinite rationalization, like any death cult, will make this another thing they can normalize among themselves.Very skeptical of any long range, societal/systemic changes from this, or even short-range regime-changing consequences.it's been a rough decade.
(DIR) Post #AwrpgzvERy1i0XgQ9g by phaedral@mastodon.social
2025-08-05T18:03:24Z
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@futurebird That they care about #Epstein suggests the deplorables who bumped Trump's primary numbers in 2016 after the pussy grabbing comment are not in fact irredeemable.
(DIR) Post #Awrqr8QNnE81EAeRZw by Phosphenes@mastodon.social
2025-08-05T18:16:30Z
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@futurebird The Epstein-Trump connection was never news to anyone except the MAGA faithful. It kind of took us by surprise that they cared all of a sudden.So MAGA not caring is just return to the mean. It's what I would have expected in the first place. Not that they embrace pedophilia, they just do the gymnastics to disbelieve it ever happened.
(DIR) Post #AwrtIvs6G39QJOzxr6 by SkylarkDuquesne@mas.to
2025-08-05T18:43:56Z
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@futurebird I was a reporter in the late 90s and covered the Clinton impeachment and it was so wrong. He was guilty and should have been removed, but, it was the wrong charge. He was illegally harassing his employees. But to charge him with that would have exposed the rest of Congress to the same standard. So they had to keep it narrowly on “he cheated on his wife.”
(DIR) Post #AwsXps9V6TtMV1OoiW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-06T02:18:04Z
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@JonChevreau They seem content as long as the courts keep eating our rights.
(DIR) Post #AwsXtqMRhmPq6PLd32 by tantramar@mastodon.social
2025-08-06T02:18:48Z
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@futurebird Tribalism trumps all.
(DIR) Post #AwsYS3A2cbkpe8rAgK by geonz@mathstodon.xyz
2025-08-06T02:24:56Z
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@futurebird @JonChevreau I'm afraid so, & they're fine with "child brides."
(DIR) Post #AwsYVugE5yVcVAkkWu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-06T02:25:41Z
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@apophis @johnzajac I hate this, but you may be correct.