I’ve been reading Epstein’s inbox (jmail.world) by just randomly searching words, locations and first names (sounding the depths), and the most amazing thing is the completeness of their detachment from the real world of hardship, privation, exploitation and abuse that their extremely comfortable, leisurely and self satisfied lives are built on top of. They’re jetsetting around the world to their many homes, estates and yachts, all of which run on small armies of working class and often immigrant labor, preying on, trafficking, sexually, emotionally, verbally and physically abusing poor and working class girls, and there is not a single mention of any working class person AS a person and not an exploitable commodity in there (aside from Epstein and his brother, other day 1s, exhibiting nostalgia for their Brooklyn upbringing- another strange topic for another day)- and YET, the collective ego of these people so clearly requires that they see and experience themselves as being the producers, pushers, movers, and perennial commentators of Culture, writ large. Culture, which is, ultimately, what the majority who are NOT part of this ruling class, choose to give our money, time, attention and loyalty to. The ultimate takeaway from me is that the Revolutionary imperative of the GLOBAL working class (they are a global class- but we are too)- is DIVESTMENT FROM THE EPSTEIN CLASS. By which I mean divestment of our money, but also of our time, attention, respect, engagement, emotional energy and ASPIRATIONAL LIFE FORCE. I was raised by a classic white 1st gen college grad boomer who told me I should aspire to be part of this class. Fortunately, even as a young teenager, these people viscerally repulsed me (always had a good sniffer for hypocrites and bigots of all stripes) and I chose a path of solidarity with other working class people. And thank fucking god, because now here we are, and I was right. We and our children must understand the parasitic nature of this class and radically divest from what they are and what they have been selling us. When en masse we leave their artificial fire for the raging communal bonfire of our own true cultural and intellectual life, when we stop taking on lifelong debt burdens in order to gain proximity to their synthetic hearth so we can beg them for scraps (the best of us begging the worst of us for scraps), when we stop buying what they’re selling and their markets and fortunes crater, the most incredible and amazing thing will happen. Even if they’re financially fine, and considering the dragon hoards they’re sitting on they most likely will be materially fine- They will suffer ego death, and that- THAT- even in the absence of adequate criminal penalties for their very real crimes-is a consequence they deserve, and one that, unlike short stints in cushy white collar prison facilities- they truly can not handle. Pariah status. Isolation. Irrelevance.

« What Altman is describing is a world of creativity without craft. Will Manidis, a start-up founder and investor, convincingly argued in a Substack post earlier this year that “slop emerges when we eliminate not just toil (the burdensome aspects of work) but labor itself (the meaningful human engagement with creation).” It is, in other words, the removal of all friction, all agency, and, in turn, all humanity. In the case of a social network, like these SlopTok clones, frictionlessness is highly desirable. Human posters are the node of friction in any social network—they fight, behave erratically, produce content irregularly, and, once they develop enough of an audience, expect a cut of ad revenue. People are the asset, but also the liability. »

-Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic 10/21/25

David Brooks is worried that the U.S is in the midst of an authoritarian power grab. He thinks nobody is doing anything about it and he’s very upset.

David Brooks is very upset because he likes his stable, well-off, hyper educated, well-read and well-connected life, and he has begun to suspect that this is the real deal, and knows from history and from looking around the world that authoritarianism is bad for educated well-off people and their bank accounts, not to mention their ability to travel freely and be welcomed internationally. For someone like Brooks, the prospect of being denied the cosmopolitan perks you’ve been accustomed to for your whole cushy life is radicalizing. So now he demands that the people rise up and put an end to the authoritarian takeover.

To defend his lifestyle, and his position, and his self-concept- all the comforts he takes for granted.

I have a suggestion for David Brooks. I want him to take a 5 year break from publishing articles in reputable newspapers and magazines. I want him to go hang out with normal people who work for a living and mostly live check to check and don’t have a college education.  I want him to shut the fuck up and listen to people when they try to explain to him why the country and system he is so attached to and wants them to rise up and fight for looks very different for the majority who have never had access to the perks and luxuries he takes for granted. 

Which is not to say that we want authoritarianism. In fact,  we have been the main force of opposition to it from day one,  and ultimately it will fail because of us. Brooks can not see our pushback, our strategic actions, mutual aid, and resilient ground level organizing, because sadly, he can not see us.

His article in the Atlantic 10/12/25 is several thousand words of elite navel-gazing. It is written by, for, and about a panicked elite. Ironically, it is pieces like this one that drag out the same old neoliberal establishment patronizing party tricks- brainstorming how to explain better to Americans what they should want,  so they’ll vote the « right » way- that serve as the best and most salient explanation for why Donald Trump has once again been given power, despite his obvious inability to wield it responsibly. It is not, in most cases, because people are stupid. It is not, in most cases, because people are cruel. I think more than anything else, Trump’s appeal is in his willingness to shine a light on the smarmy, self-important elitism of David Brooks and his ilk. Americans are smart enough to see that there are haves and have nots, winners and losers in our society, and that increasingly the winners have distanced themselves from the losers to the point that they can tell themselves that 80% of the country either doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter. And people are justifiably angry at being disrespected or disappeared by elites, and then aggressively gaslit when voting time rolls around.

Is Donald Trump the answer? Obviously not, but many people experience catharsis when he aims venom at comfortable cosmopolitan elites like David Brooks on their behalf.

What is the answer? The answer lies where it always lies, in America and everywhere else- with the people. We know us, we respect us, we trust us, we empower us. I think we can all agree- left, right and everything in between- that we deserve a government of, by, and for the people. The culture war has been running cover for the class war for far too long.  We need a new generation of diverse working class voices to step up and grab both the spotlight and the scepter.

Oh, and one last note for David Brooks-

The best thing America ever came up with was the public library.  We read books, too. Some of the wisest and best-read Americans- some of our greatest thinkers- are poor. Maybe you should interrogate your assumption that the poor and the working class are stupid, and instead engage in a good- faith effort to find out what our lived experiences are and what we feel and think about the current state of the nation.

Keep in mind what Mark Twain said: « I never let school get in the way of my education ».

Fascists are suspicious and fearful of art and seek to censor and suppress it because they believe it is hostile to them and their project.  They’re right. It is.

Art is and encourages free expression of the individual unhindered by Authority and prescribed orthodoxy. Exposure to art makes the individual feel encouraged, connected, uplifted, inspired and empowered.

Fascism can only succeed when the individual is uprooted, contained, isolated, discouraged, surveilled, killed- if not in body than in spirit.

It is no exaggeration to say that making art and engaging with the art others make is the surest inoculation a society of free people has against the onslaught of fascism.

Make art for yourself and your friends and family, and if you can,  figure out ways to share it, too. Leave your drawing in a public place. Make stickers and pins and put them out in the world- even if they’re not explicitly political, they are a powerful defense against fascism. Go to galleries and museums and engage with the art that others are making and putting out into the world. make art with your children. Celebrate and nurture them as artists, and you will give them free thinking and the right to  individual expression as foundational values. They will not grow up to be fascists. They will be artists and free thinkers like you.

Our creativity is our birthright. And it has always kept those who would crush us at an insurmountable disadvantage. This time is no exception.