From Carney to Epstein: Orderers vs Disorderers in our Age of Upheaval
For Jason Pack, presenter of the Disorder podcast, the person of the year for 2025 was the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. But for 2026, Pack predicts, the person of the year will be a resurrected Jeffrey Epstein (or, at least, the Epstein scandal). Orderers vs Disorderers: the dialectic driving our age of upheaval. The Canadian Prime Minister, for Pack, is a hero. "Carney stood up to Trump and said, Great, you want to punish us? Punish us," Pack says. Whereas the conspiracy theorists stoking the Epstein paranoia are the bad guys. "The more that we in the mainstream attempt to say it was just a sex scandal, the more that people on the extreme left and right are gonna gain in power," Pack warns. So it's Carney vs Epstein. The hard center vs the extreme left and right. Order vs disorder. If only the future was that dialectically simple.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Can Billionaire Backlash Save Democracy? Pepper Culpepper on our Age of Corporate Scandal
Yes, It's Fascism: Jon Rauch on Trump and the F Word
Californian True Crime: A Killing in Cannabis
Rage in the American Republic
Documenting America: How to See Beyond the Algorithm
Whoosh! That Really Was a Week in Tech: Winner-Take-All AI and the $1 Trillion Selloff
Catching More Than Passes From Bobby: Stephen Schlesinger on what RFK Can Still Teach America
Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Andrew Guthrie Ferguson on Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance
To Catch a Fascist: The Ethics of Unmasking the Radical Right
How Meat Can Save the Planet: The Vegan Case
It's Always Exploding Somewhere: Why No Weapon Is Ever Perfect
Where's the Countercultural Outrage to Trump?
AI's Adolescent Crisis: And It's Still Just a Toddler