Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff

My Dinner With Jeffrey: What the Epstein Files Reveal About Us All

22 snips
Feb 26, 2026
A personal story about being swept into elite circles and the chilling social norms he witnessed. A mid-90s dinner reveals how powerful men treated women as commodities. An argument that certain scientific ideas helped normalize dehumanizing behavior. A critique of the permission structures that allow exploitation to flourish.
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ANECDOTE

Dinner With Dawkins Where Memes Met Humanism

  • Douglas Rushkoff recounts his first elite New York scientist dinner where Richard Dawkins introduced the meme concept by folding an origami fortune teller.
  • Naomi Wolf challenged the reductionist view and Douglas felt the tension between scientism and humanist meaning firsthand.
ANECDOTE

Told To Bring Eye Candy Not Intellectual Plus One

  • Douglas Rushkoff describes being grabbed at an exclusive dinner and scolded for bringing a lesbian plus-one instead of 'eye candy' to 'raise the quotient.'
  • The exchange crystallized for him how social elites commodify women and assess human value like market goods.
INSIGHT

Scientism Creates Permission For Commodification

  • Rushkoff links scientism's reduction of humans to vehicles for genes with the social acceptability of commodifying and abusing people.
  • He points out Epstein funded scientists whose materialist rhetoric provided ideological cover for domination and control.
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