Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
P. Diddy Illustrates a Central Aspect of Human Nature
When people can’t afford the things they want, they desire more money. When people acquire limitless money, they desire the things that money can’t buy.
If you can acquire things that money can’t buy, that gives you enormous power. When people acquire power, they want more of it. And more and more. And more and more and more. And more is never enough. Jefferey Epstein understood human nature. He was in the business of buying and selling things that money can’t buy. Until it can. Which creates wealth. Until it can’t.
Human nature is not exactly good or bad. Although its insatiable appetites can lead to very bad behavior at times (as it can also sometimes lead to great achievements). The behavior of our elites seems absurd, at times. We all think to ourselves, “I would never do that.” And you wouldn’t, of course. Unless you acquired limitless money. Which you probably won’t.
But if you did, perhaps you’d understand.
But if you’re lucky, you’ll never understand. Do you really want to understand people the way Mr. Epstein did?
There is a reason that government has so rarely worked. As Mr. Tolkien reminded us, “The most improper job of any man is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.“
Those who have an insatiable appetite for power are poorly suited to leadership positions. And that’s nearly all of us.
Our Founding Fathers understood human nature, in much the same was as Mr. Epstein did. There’s a reason they designed our Constitution the way they did. They understood that human nature is not exactly good or bad. It’s just insatiable.
It’s difficult to understand why those with limitless money, like P. Diddy Combs, or Henry VIII, or Jefferey Epstein, or John F. Kennedy, or many others do the things they do, in pursuit of that which their limitless money can’t buy. They have everything that money can buy. Why is that not enough? It makes no sense.
But really, it’s just human nature. It’s insatiable. And that’s it.
Lord help all of us.
Published in General
You take this topic, and if you get into the weeds about what is happening to Trump, I have a very, very dim view of the justice system. My current worry is how much misguided power the Bar Associations have. It’s like zero accountability government, i.e. New York.
Here’s another one: supposedly the highest rated podcast on Apple right now is Andrew Weissman the prick from MSNBC, talking about how they are getting Trump with law fare.` People on the left are out of their minds.
I want Trump to give all of this the worst colonoscopy it has ever had.
Democrats are out of their minds if they aren’t criminals.
This is why I always say stick to actual “public goods”. Some economists say that the government is literally 80% non-public goods. If we got rid of all of the non-public goods, except Medicare and Social Security, nobody would miss them, except the people that use government to steal from everybody else.
Part of Parkinson’s Law. His example is the Senate voting through a Billion-dollar nuclear submarine, but debating a bike shed for hours. Every Senator thinks they know something about bike sheds.
Not a competition. Quality, not quantity, etc.
But I really, really like children. And the world needs more of me.
Sounds about right, but I haven’t kept up on all the details. What I know for sure is that he’s always really been Sean Combs.
You may have nailed it. See this article.
Biden is making me recall the list of dead or disappeared people during the Clintons’ White House stint. I saw a list of thirty people or more one day–someone gave it to me. I laughed. Just more political nonsense–that is, until I saw the source: the Wall Street Journal.
It’s funny, I keep reading the comments and smiling at all of you who haven’t heard all of his various names – Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Sean Combs, P Puffy, D Diddly, the P-meister. He seems to be a good looking black man with a nice suit.
But then I laugh at myself, because it occurs to me that I don’t actually know what it is that he does. I assume rap star, but that might just be, I don’t know, whatever that might be. Is he an actor? Is he married to somebody famous, J-Lo maybe?
Well, I know he’s done some acting too. And he has – or at least had – a clothing line, Sean John. Although I read now that the clothing line might be on the way out – at least for Macy’s – due to various accusations.
Human trafficking is not that uncommon among the rich and powerful in the United States. (A friend works in an anti-trafficking group. ) Slavery has always been and remains a way to exert and to display power. The will to power, as you say, is near the foundation of human nature – ultimately a challenge to God. Original sin – the desire to supplant God in the role of ultimate power.
As to the specific case:
As I understand, rap “music” is largely built on trafficking and enslaving women as expressed in the lyrics, so it doesn’t surprise me that a rap “artist” might be involved in human trafficking for sex.
But why him in particular? Why now?
As noted in a comment above, the U.S. government has become a primary facilitator of slave and sex trafficking through its border policies, so the U.S. government clearly has no principled objections to human trafficking.
In the specific case, something else is going on.
Diddy has been getting hit with a lot of lawsuits lately.
Maybe someone dropped a dime on him for something more substantial.
You know this article is from 2015. But yes, apparently he was supporting Trump again for 2024.
I did notice that date. :)
“It’s like the more money we come across, the more problems we see.” (some rapper)
Federal agents mad ‘cause he’s flagrant.
Where is he now?
I just want to throw this out here as something to think about. After watching what state and federal agencies have done to Trump’s friends, supporters, employees, and family members and to Trump himself over the past three years, these raids on Diddy’s homes mean nothing to me as to whether or not he committed a crime. Nothing at all.
Given his support for Donald Trump in 2016, given the erosion in black voting support for Biden that is happening on the left right now, it’s entirely possible this was a preemptive strike against someone with influence among conservative-leaning blacks.
I have no concrete evidence to suggest that, but it is a strong possibility to me. I’ve not been able to find anything to say whether he is supporting Biden or Trump this year. I may be completely wrong and he’s a faithful Biden supporter.
However, if my suspicion turns out to have some merit, the raid would make sense. It is so Obama-Clinton in its intent: Silence the opposition. Don’t argue the issue. And of course, even if it is political, we’ll never be able to prove it.
It’s third-world politics.
But if “Diddy” actually was involved with human trafficking, why would be think supporting Trump would be smart? It would make more sense for such a person to support Biden who is doing so much more of it. Although in that case Biden might not want the competition…
I’m not buying the trafficking thing at this moment. It may be true, but what I’m trying to say is that an accusation by itself doesn’t make it true.
I feel very strongly about people being innocent until there is real evidence of a real crime.
That’s all I’m trying to say.
Actually I should have worded it better. More like, Why would “they” think it’s credible to accuse a (purported) Trump supporter of being involved with something that Trump would be more against than Biden apparently is?
If that makes it easier to follow…
It’s like them saying that obviously Putin wanted Trump to win because Trump would increase our domestic oil production which would REDUCE income for Putin, and would more likely stop Putin from invading Ukraine, and…. uhh, sorry left, HOW does that work?
I suppose that it is possible that the news crews “just happened” to be over at Diddy’s house for the raid. You know, like when they hit Mar-a-Lago.
Maybe he was just hiring good-time girls. And some of hem happened to be specially introduced and supported political refugees.
A near-perfect description of every academic conference I attended.
The same as “preliminary design reviews,” except “unconnected random thoughts” could be labelled “comments from management.”
The good people at Fox News apparently have also been wondering if Diddy was a supporter of Trump, and they have concluded that he has been a pretty faithful Democrat at least since 2020. There’s no indication in this article about whether Diddy had plans to endorse Donald Trump this time around, but for now, it does not appear to be a political prosecution. :)
The left might still have been concerned, and figured it would be wise to take him down pre-emptively.
I do still think that’s a possibility, but, judging from the story, no one at Fox seems able to find out where Diddy stands in the coming election. They are going back to the 2020 election to label him a faithful Democrat. I’ve read that Democrats are losing some of the black votes they usually get.
Of course, their apparent eagerness to label him a Democrat despite not knowing where he stands presently could be because they are buying into the idea that he is guilty as charged. So they would like him to be a Democrat.
I don’t know. It’s an interesting political situation. This election is going to be very close, I think. The Democrats are looking everywhere–college campuses, for example–for votes.
If Diddy’s supporters think this is an unfair prosecution, they might sit home for 2024.
The shifting sands of politics. :) :)
Would be smarter if they actually voted for Trump.
Some of them have figured that out in response to the treatment of Trump himself.