Kat Tenbarge
Independent journalist covering tech, culture, and politics @spitfirenews.com. Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/kattenbarge
- A combination of capitalism, corporate media failures, and anti-journalism propaganda has convinced a lot of people that journalists exist to turn a profit. They no longer seem to realize that the purpose of journalism is for them, the people.
- Now that we’re in the era of influencer journalism, which is often pseudo-journalism, I believe people will only further associate the practice of journalism alongside building a personal brand and monetizing it. That is the logical conclusion of journalism under capitalism.
- It’s also increasingly the only way for journalists to survive and do journalism (myself included). But it’s not really tenable for the amount or depth of journalism we’re used to having. So as long as this model continues, I would expect a lot less investigative journalism, for starters.
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View full threadWe need newsrooms. We need to be able to allow groups of journalists to work together and thrive. That’s how you make sure everything is getting covered and getting covered well. But the corporate media model has been on its last legs for a while. There’s gotta be something else.
- Feds gave Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal when he was alive, let him die before facing trial, obstructed justice after his death, punished victims for demanding transparency, and are now trying to move on without addressing the vast corruption and abuse. THIS is how our “justice” system works.
- It should be clearer than ever that the “justice” system isn’t about justice for us. It’s about protecting the wealthiest white men first and foremost.
- The question then becomes what we’re going to do about it. Because it falls to all of us to change the culture around abuse and force accountability. Lots of ways to do that work. I hope more people are inspired to learn and get involved.
- There’s literally a straight line between Trump, Epstein, and the retaliatory lawsuits against women who came forward with allegations against celebrity men like Amber Heard and Blake Lively. They all even have the same PR folks. And yet people still refuse to see it
- What the public does not understand about these retaliatory cases is that what is on trial is the ability for men to abuse their power against women without consequence. When women lose defamation lawsuits for speaking up, men win the right to abuse with impunity
- Whether Blake Lively is a good or likeable person is not on trial. Whether women should be allowed to report sexual harassment in their workplaces without facing retaliation is what’s on trial
- The way the public participates in these trials is also extrajudicial deterrent from speaking up against sexual violence, which is in many ways more powerful than any court case. This is part of the potential Epstein, Bannon, and their allies saw from the online alt-right
- One of the things bothering me about how people are responding to the Epstein files is that there are tons of conspiracies being created and spread about what’s in them, rather than people just believing the victims like they could have been doing for years now
- Victim testimony is viewed as inherently less credible than people saying the word “pizza” or “steak” is code for “child sex slave” based on nothing but their desire for there to be a conspiracy
- There doesn’t have to be a conspiracy around what Epstein was saying in these emails because the reality is that sexual violence is enabled at every level of society, so he had no reason to hide what he was doing. The government, the powerful, even many in the media knew the truth
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View full threadIn fact I think a lot of these conspiracies are driven by a desire for Epstein to have done “worse” things, because sexual abuse of girls and young women is so normalized and prevalent that people don’t view it as bad or strange enough to care. So they hope it’s secretly about eating babies
- At the same time the Epstein Files are reinforcing how protected sexual abusers really are, Neil Gaiman is using the nightmarish sexual violence allegations against him to market his next book. His DARVO defense is the first selling point. Rape culture is everywhere and unavoidable.
- Also, every celebrity man accused of sexual violence has a little pseudo-journalist constructing DARVO narratives for them on social media now.
- My Popular With Friends tab has been broken all day. This is a crisis
- No one who has seen the Epstein case unfold should have any doubt left about why victims don’t report. When reporting means facing more abuse, more exploitation, and more betrayal at the institutional level, while the perpetrators are the leaders of the very systems of “justice” supposed to help you
- All the Epstein victims have suffered even more as a result of reporting, while the perpetrators avoid facing accountability at every level. What do people expect everyday victims to do? The whole system is backwards. It helps perpetrators and hurts victims.
- Worse yet, victims, survivors, and advocates have intimately known and been screaming all of this from the rooftops for decades but people look the other way. May the impact of this horrible spectacle prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were right all along.
- Saying you find the Epstein files “boring” is just a thinly veiled way to say you don’t believe the victims. I expect to see a lot more of that from certain media elites
- Even in Elon Musk’s denial of his involvement with Epstein—which directly contradicts the available evidence—the world’s richest man is still claiming he knew all about “pedo island” and didn’t do anything to stop it. Even in their fantasies of innocence they’re still directly enabling child abuse
- Most people, even if they know about terrible abuses, will face systemic barriers to achieving justice. The world’s richest man does not face such systemic barriers. He has all the power and has demonstrated only that he will use it to create more injustice
- Elon, ten hours ago: “Epstein hounded me relentlessly to go to his pedo island and I always declined.” So, Elon knew who was going and what was happening and never tried to get justice for the children he claims he knew were being trafficked on the island? But he cares so much about child safety.
- The reality is that Elon Musk has used his vast wealth and power to make the lives of countless children worse, leading to an enormous number of their deaths. The gutting of USAID, the deepfake production of Grok, and the at best concealment of Epstein’s crimes are just the surface.
- Every time I see images of tear gas filling the streets, I think about how it has been linked to spontaneous abortion. Fascists will prevent people from getting abortions while endangering wanted pregnancies. It’s reproductive control and coercion. www.scientificamerican.com/article/poli...
- I also believe this is a form of ethnic cleansing when tear gas has been deployed most heavily in predominantly Black and immigrant neighborhoods—as well as ideological-driven, since it’s used against protestors of their political cause.
