For the Users: A Tron Community

- I am currently typing this at a Panera Bread restaurant like it was 2009.

- I got a Nine Inch Nails ticket! I go next week! This is the first time I have seen NIN live since the disastrous show at Fair Park in 1995, when the opening act was The Melvins, and Trent Reznor almost didn't go on because some assholes in the pit were heckling and throwing things at The Melvins. (I was in the stands, I didn't do it.)

Someone posted about it on reddit here. And yeah, that's pretty much what happened.

- The last "goth show" and concert I went to previous to this one was the Sisters Of Mercy in October 2024. And goddamn it, we are getting old. It was like the Gothic Old Folks Home turned out for that one. I imagine I'll see a lot of familiar faces at the NIN show, too.

- I'm also going to see Carpenter Brut in May. Which is Gothic Synthwave.

First one:
https://www.tiktok.com/@cypher.j/video/7583448092033273118?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7606948024489133598

Second one:
https://www.tiktok.com/@cypher.j/video/7602464513488637215?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7606948024489133598

EDIT: TL;DR these releases are being done in a way so that they can say they did it, they released the files, without the system collapsing or changing at all. It's like the files themselves are being released in a way to prevent the necessary societal change which would have prevented Jeffery Epstein, or the next iteration of Jeffery Epstein, from occurring. And people are very much aware and in despair about nothing actually happening, and that's by design, too. So that we give up trying to change society.

(nyyki let me know if these crash your screen reader, and I'll link them in another format. EDIT: I had to link them in another format because the embed code from Tiktok is not working. I guess Dreamwidth is too Web 1.0. Just unmute after the video opens.)

It's like that post I made last month. All Conservatives want is power, and continuity of that power. And if the system can have this kind of revelation happen to it and not collapse, that continuity is assured. What was Pam Bondi's wibbly excuse from this week, between her arrogant, childish outbursts? That if the people in the list were prosecuted, the system would collapse.

The system needs to collapse. And for it to collapse, we have to not allow them dispersion. We have to stay mad. Otherwise, the only thing one can do with a system this fucked is leave it.

Some of my thoughts are echoed by The Liberal Redneck, here.

The whole thing about Jeffrey Epstein having an influence on 4chan and /pol/, here.

TL;DR, this shit goes way past the victimization of children into possible murder and cannibalism, and my capacity to handle those details is very limited. I'm not one of those "true crime" fans who are capable of consuming this kind stuff as "content," or even thinking of it as such. These are details which should have compelled any other society with even a semi-functioning legal apparatus to completely shut down the people committing these kinds of atrocities. The phrase "under the jail" comes to mind. But apparently, we were not even that functional of society back in 2007-2008, when Epstein got off nearly scott-free from the then-ongoing attempts to prosecute his crimes.

We might be living in a very different world today if our legal system had been able to shut him down in 2007-2008, and pull down every single billionaire or hanger-on connected with him. Trump probably wouldn't be president today, for one. And /pol/ would not have been reopened. Our society has arguably been destroyed because we couldn't manage to put one predatory creep away for good eighteen years ago. But if we weren't able to put one predatory creep away, maybe it was doomed to fail, or already failed.

There were so many slippery slope moments in the 2000s that people screamed about, and we were all told to shut up and we were overreacting. This was just one of them. The 2000s just feel like one big slippery slope. And now we've slid into fullblown authoritarian fascism. And it doesn't surprise me at all that it arrived hand-delivered by predator creeps who victimize children.

One sentiment I am seeing a lot in the yotube comments of videos talking about these crimes boils down to, "I don't understand the kind of person who sets out to do these sick, predatory things to people. All I want to do is live my dumb life and work my dumb job and enjoy my dumb little hobbies." And I think that's most of us in the 99%, frankly. Once again, I'm reminded of William Gibson's line about how the extremely wealthy have lost their humanity.