It was kind of a giveaway when they heard him screaming, "Help! Let me go! Get off of me! GAhhhhh"

Ahhh. Now I feel bad. Granted the guy was a dirtbag, but he didn't deserve to be murdered in prison. What's going on? First I'm feeling sorry for Andy Dick, now Epstein??? I've got to take my temperature. ... maybe. Maybe I'm just appalled at my own callousness.

Well, there's my stream of thought self-reflection for the morning.

 

Didn't Bill and Hillary recently decide to take a tropical vacation?





Looks like they did!

 

“That seemed legit, so I left”. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I think the media is a big part of the problem. News is covered as entertainment. We don't have a straight news channel anymore. All the cable news stations have panels full of "experts" to give their takes on events. It's all unwatchable for me now.

An increasing number of people are losing touch with reality too. Conspiracy theories are becoming more mainstream. It's almost as if conspiracies are becoming a new religion. Trump of course is notorious for this, but this week Sanders was doing the same thing. He also did in 2016, which helped depress turnout, by saying the primaries were rigged against him. And it's not just in politics because people turning against science and medicine too with the anti-vaxers etc.

Social media will spread all this misinformation but it's more of a symptom and not the cause. If people aren't susceptible to propaganda and conspiracies they won't suddenly accept it just because someone mentioned it on Twitter.

I really don't know how you reverse this trend, but it's very disturbing.

 

I agree. I also blame what I guess you could call "moral absolutism" being taught in schools. Things in general aren't black or white, people aren't all good or all bad, with people there's a mix of both. Teaching people that all the good someone has done is negated if they also did something bad makes people more reactionary. Students won't bother looking for a nuanced answer of "at the end of the day was this person a positive or negative influence on their society" if the correct answer is always "if they did something bad, they are bad".

I think people carry that in to their adult lives as well.

 

I blame regular cable television as well (not just the news stations).

You have channels like the History channel, Science channel, Discovery channel where they include shows about aliens and bigfoot, and the supposed 'experts' and 'scientists' just treat complete speculation as if it's somehow a real thing. THEY ARE JUST MAKING SHIT UP. There's zero scientific evidence for any of it. But you'd never know that from watching these shows.

I remember when my stepdad was convinced there were actual mermaids because the Discovery channel had a show about them that was totally fiction but presented as a documentary. I could not convince him it wasn't real.

When we treat fiction as if it's another valid opinion, no wonder people don't have any clue about what is real and what you just made up.

 

Hey!! Hey!! Hey!! You leave bigfoot out of it!! Those guys are this close to finding him every week. Theres squatch sign all over the place.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

There have always been conspiracy theories. The Epstein Clinton connection has been floating around for decades. trump and his cheating were reported but not really important news at the time. Cosby faced accusations, Weinstein had allegations forever but were swept under the rug. Conspiracies are sometimes cookoo but sometimes they are news that just haven’t had facts exposed yet. I think we have reached a point where facts have little to do perception. If you hate someone, you are willing to grasp at anything that might make them look bad. News has always been sensationalized. Its how we view it thats changed. Maybe when trump leaves office and we have a president who actually attempts to create an image of reality in the white house things will be different. Right now, we are in one big unreality show. Its scripted, terribly cast and poorly written but its the only channel we’ve got right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Everything on TV now is geared for ratings which translate to $$$. Discovery Channel also did a show on Shark week that was a faux-documentary about a super shark that was not only bigger, stronger and faster, but almost as smart as a human. They designed the show to look completely authentic. The excuse by producers was "We had the disclaimers saying it was fake". Who cares? It's still fake and I don't want to see phony fictional "documentaries" on a channel that should be showcasing truths about nature and science.

 

There's a growing number of people out there who've become more and more cynical toward people and it's created a culture where there is no room for sympathy, understanding, redemption, forgiveness, grace, etc.

Someone does something "wrong" and people have no problems at all with ruining their lives for the "greater good" and then they're back to spending 90% of their time interacting with their phone or tablet.

Humans have messed up, made mistakes and done stupid things that are out of character for along time. Most of these things, while wrong, should be forgivable. But now, if someone uses a racial slur or supports a position on a controversial topic, then that person not only needs to be fired from their job, but they also need to publicly apologize, get shamed, have their family harassed, their friends are lashed out at for being "complicit", etc. etc. Where does it end?

Social justice shouldn't even be a thing. The SJWs don't even care about what happens to these people AFTER they've been shamed into oblivion.

I'm not defending the use of racial slurs. That's wrong. But I also happen to think that 7 punishments for 1 bad deed is overkill.

If someone says the N-word in front of me. I tell them that the use of that word is wrong and they should have more respect, and then I let it go and leave it at that. Maybe, there's a chance that they learn something positive from me calling them out, but not completely ostracizing them. However, if that person continues with more bad behavior, then I take further steps to separate myself from them.

Depending on how things go in that situation, I've been able to stand up for what's right, while showing grace, while being able to forgive and forget. Or at the very least, I've given someone a chance to redeem themselves before they continue with more "good" or "bad" behaviors.

 

Speaking of the Epstein/Clinton connection.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...Clinton-blue-dress-red-heels-NYC-mansion.html

If the Clintons wanted to burn anything, I’m sure this would be first on the list


The truth is out there

 

And the plot thickens
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...9ac934-bdd9-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html


The truth is out there

 

I can agree with that, but with the exception that it depends on what people do. One bad act can negate a lifetime of good if it's something atrocious. But in general I think we need to look at a person's full record. At times it seems like we're in a gotcha game where we're combing through everything in a person's life to find one item to "negate" them. In the last debate Gillibrand found some article Biden wrote in the 1970s about families and women in the workforce. It fell flat for her, but it's a symptom of a bigger problem.

We're not going to find perfection in people, but we need to see if the sum total of their actions is for the good, or the bad. Bill Maher also brought up a point on his show last week that we also have to take into account about people evolving.

 

That's a good point. Initially the History Channel was excellent. The biggest complaint was they focused a bit too much on World War II, but you had real content.

 

With all the gaps in checking on him....etc, my mind keeps going to: They looked the other way while someone murdered him.

But that would also be on video surveillance soooooo.....

 

That is HILARIOUS! Why would Epstein do something so vicious to Clinton, and hang it in his house? I thought they were "friends". In any event, I would look the other way if one of Clinton's staff accidentally destroyed that picture.

 

Sounds like he got a little before he died
https://www.forbes.com/sites/richar...-time-alone-with-young-female-prison-visitor/


The truth is out there