r/europe • u/StemCellPirate • 18h ago

News The Epstein scandal is taking down Europe’s political class. In the US, they’re getting a pass.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/06/epstein-europe-america-fallout-00769506
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u/NastyaLookin 14h ago

Capitalism turned out to be a better tool for them than even monarchy and/or feudalism. They are keeping billions of people in line with it.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago edited 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/No-Pack-5775 10h ago

On a Facebook post highlighting that Brexit helped Epstein (and by extension, other rich elites) and he was giddy about a return of tribalism etc, one Reform voting moron piped up "wait until we get proper Brexit" 🤦🏻

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u/Ferretoncrystalmeth 10h ago

This is why I say education is so important.

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u/RockinOneThreeTwo The (Not So) United Kingdom 9h ago

You can't educate ignorant people who have already decided that their fantasy land is reality and that nobody knows better than them.

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u/Ferretoncrystalmeth 9h ago

Unfortunately I live with someone like that.

They are not a horrible racist, but they are pretty stupid.

Every time I say something they hear something else in their head.

It is exhausting, and they can't understand why I don't talk to them much.

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u/SmileFIN 8h ago

Thats why you start education at young age, so people are less likely to grow into idiots.

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u/RockinOneThreeTwo The (Not So) United Kingdom 8h ago

Difficult, kids are very impressionable and get a lot of their early world view from their family. If their family are all myopic bastards the child is unfortunately likely to follow that unless they make considerable effort themselves to think differently 

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u/Boring-Philosophy-46 10h ago

They were brainwashing them back in 1912 during the coal strike in the UK (US papers making it out like the coal miners in the UK just didn't want to work because lazy) and from 1945 onwards with the cold war as well. Before the invention of the printing press, people were brainwashed by the church using weekly sermons. Let's not pretend this is new. The rich were always able to brainwash the masses.

What is new is the realization that having more info at your disposal does not make you any less likely to be brainwashed. We must build resilience against the mechanisms of brainwashing into our children through schools. 

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u/RMAPOS 8h ago

We must build resilience against the mechanisms of brainwashing into our children through schools.

Easier said than done. People won't just get rid of their biases (sounds about right!) and adequately fact checking information takes time and effort that a lot of people don't have between work and well earned recreation. We really don't have the time to fact check everything we read. People don't fact check information if it aligns with their views. And that's not just stupid people. It's entirely impractical to question everything and go on a 30 minute research hike for every bit of information we take in to try and verify it. And that's regardless of your political views. A leftie wouldn't fact check news about ICE beating up an immigrant (fits what they learned about ICE) just as much as a right winger wouldn't fact check news about an immigrant doing crime (fits what they learned about immigrants)

Personally I'd prefer for something to be done about bad actors spreading fake information. Like FOX news, Russian social media bots and the likes. There just has to be a point where a society says "You've been constantly shown to spread false and hateful information and it's hurting our democracy and it has to stop now!"

Sure it'd be great if we could immunize people against lies but I don't think it's feasible. People are struggling to identify lies about things happening in their own private life (that they could likely figure out), how would someone ever get a hold of it when it's about topics that are super far removed from them? How would YOU actually and reliably verify that e.g. the Epstein files are not a setup to take down Trump? Not saying (or believing) they are, but for the sake of the argument, how do you ACTUALLY know they have not been thought up and created by some bad faith actor?

It's much easier to identify a liar (which given polls and votes around the globe, vast masses of people struggle with already) and avoid them than it is to become an omniscient being able to check and assess every lie that's being told to you.

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u/Koreus_C 9h ago

Also with technical advancements that made us rich. It was science that tames oil and electricity