To Not Catch a Predator
Morality is for suckers.
“Why don’t you have a seat.”
In 2004, the news program “To Catch a Predator” debuted in the United States. It ran for only three years. The reality television series featured hidden camera investigations by the television news magazine program Dateline NBC. The television network partnered with law enforcementIt who impersonated underage people (generally ages 12 - 15) and detained men who contacted them over the Internet for sexual liaisons. People were lured to meet with a decoy under the pretense of sexual contact and then confronted. Show host Chris Hansen became a bit of a star, and the show enjoyed high ratings. People loved to see justice delivered to men who preyed on innocent children. In most societies the harm of children, sexually or otherwise, is seen as an unforgivable crime.
Well, it was.
Fast forward to today.
As of now the Epstein files, which are being dribbled out with heavy redactions by the Trump administration are showing that there was a large international sex trafficking network of the world’s elites, often involving the sex trafficking of children.
Exposure in the Epstein files is taking down many in the European political class, but here in America, not so much.
Not much is happening to the elites of America. Sure, Bill Gates is embarrassed. Elon Musk he was never there, then was caught begging to go to Epstein’s Island in recently released files. US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, had claimed in a previous interview that Epstein’s behavior sickened him, but was then shown in the Epstein files inviting himself to Epstein’s island.
Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files more than Jesus is in the Bible.
If you are mentioned that many times - the story is about you. But he continues to say nothing happened, and that he didn’t know Epstein that he wasn’t friends with Epstein anymore at that time. These denials that contradict the evidence and shrugs from American elites are not believed by most people, but that likely won’t matter.
Elites in America know what those poor shlubs cornered by Chris Hansen about 20 years ago on “To Catch a Predator” never could imagine. In America, even if you are guilty of crimes your society finds abominable - you can get out of it if you are elite. Just deny everything, even after all the evidence points against you.
When a society believes in nothing, they tend to lose everything.
It’s not good for your society if an elite group of people get away with anything - even the worst possible crimes. You can call Trump and the people in his orbit crooks, grifters, charlatans and anything else you want. The problem isn’t their behavior, it is that such behavior is accepted, expected and even rewarded
We are slipping into, and some argue that we have already slipped into a “post truth society”. Anyone can find an audience to agree with them and support them, no matter what they believe in. More and more people in our society care less about what is right and wrong, and more about if they or their team is winning. I grew up in a world in which raping a child was seen as undeniably evil. My children do not. In such an environment, morality collapses, and a decent society isn’t decent anymore.
Decency is for suckers.
Republicans in the United States won’t be in power forever (and if they try to be we will likely see a violent collapse), but what Democrats are probably learning is that rules are for losers. When they come into power, they can just stack the Department of Justice and all branches of government with sycophants and yes-men. To do anything less is to not take advantage of the moment.
But when morals collapse, when truth is no more, the culture and the society behind it will collapse. Do the institutions and the businesses that are putting their heads in the sand not see this? Do they not care? A breakdown of shared societal values weakens the foundations of communities. Without a common ethical foundation, social cohesion deteriorates. There is more conflict, more instability, and eventually the collapse of society itself.
Ask Rome, ask pre-revolutionary France, ask yourself what you see out your window.
People are murdered in the street on video, and those that did it say it didn’t happen the way you saw it from multiple angles on video.
Children are raped, and those that did it and are named thousands of times in the Epstein files tell you it doesn’t matter.
In this space, I often talk about environmental collapse, but the moral collapse we are witnessing is just as destructive. It is destroying our society. Maybe both collapses will lead to new leaders coming forward to forge a new path. That is the case if we are at the beginning of the end.
But if we are just at the end of the beginning, this has just started.
Now is the time to stand up and speak out for what we value. No more standing on the sidelines waiting for others to act. It’s on each and every one of us to resist this depravity.