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The corruption of our pop culture is linked to the corruption of our politics, which is leading us into tyranny.

Last week, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, the rapper and music producer, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; racketeering conspiracy; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

As many have pointed out since his homes were raided back in March, the allegations against Combs echo the disturbing pattern of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities. The individuals connected to Combs and Epstein are influential figures in government, media, and entertainment. They shape our culture, and their moral corruption matters because it seeps into the very fabric of our society.

Combs allegedly orchestrated what he called “freak offs” — drug-fueled orgies where he coerced participants through threats of violence and reportedly filmed these encounters to blackmail his victims into silence. The allegations — trafficking, abuse, coercion, drugging, and non-consensual filming — are eerily similar to the Epstein case.

Moreover, like Epstein, It took years of abuse and a mountain of accusations before law enforcement finally stepped in. Combs, who is now on “suicide watch,” is being charged in the notoriously corrupt Southern District of New York, the same jurisdiction that prosecuted Epstein’s case.

Unlike Epstein, Combs is not being charged with child sexual abuse, although he has been accused of raping a minor. However, like with Epstein, Combs is the only person who has been charged so far. But other than his staff who helped facilitate the “freak offs,” it’s highly unlikely Combs is the sole prominent figure involved.

What other celebrities and music executives were in on it? Certainly, many of them must have known what was happening. Beyonce, Jay Z, Jennifer Lopez (Combs’ ex-girlfriend), Leonardo DiCaprio, LeBron James, and the Kardashians, among many others have all attended his parties. Some may have been victims, others complicit. Combs’ close friend Usher suspiciously deleted all his tweets after the indictment was unsealed (although he has since claimed he was “hacked.”) Why?

Connections between these elites run deep. Not just in entertainment but politics as well. Combs’ former bodyguard Gene Deal reportedly said that Combs kept tapes of politicians taking part in his infamous “freak off” sessions. Deal also claimed Combs’ arrest is tied to the alleged corruption scandal currently gripping New York City politics. Over the last few weeks, a slew of New York City officials, including the NYC police department commissioner and the chief legal counsel to the city, have resigned in the midst of a secretive federal investigation.

Combs certainly had cozy relationships with numerous politicians, such as Barack Obama. Chrissy Teigen’s resurfaced interview, where she admits to public sex with her husband, John Legend, at “the Obama thing,” has only added to the suspicions about these celebrity-political networks.

For decades, sex trafficking among our cultural and political elite has been dismissed as a “conspiracy theory,” and victims have been gaslit, ridiculed, and silenced for speaking out. Those who dares discuss it are smeared as chronically online paranoid freaks. Yet so many of these allegations end up being true.

The corruption of our cultural elite isn’t just a problem for our popular culture, it represents a profound political crisis. The Founding Fathers understood that the health of a republic depends on the moral fiber of its citizens. As John Adams famously wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Our Founders knew that in order to have liberty, we had to have virtue, both individually and as a society.

Yet today, there is a troubling conflation of liberty with decadence, a message that’s relentlessly pushed on us by our morally depraved elites. These powerful individuals manipulate our culture and politics, leading the masses into a state of moral disarray. The result is a populace with diminished standards, unable to govern themselves and therefore unable to hold its leaders accountable. 

Think about it: If we accept decadence and degradation in our culture, how can we expect to demand integrity and accountability from those who govern us? In other words, the decline in artistic and ethical standards creates an environment ripe for tyranny, where the very elites perpetuating this rot are the ones who stand to gain the most from a disempowered and morally compromised citizenry.

The evidence of this is obvious. Every God-given constitutional right we have is under attack. The federal government is actively directing speech censorship, spying on citizens, and leaving our southern border wide open to an invasion from the Third World. 

This erosion of our freedoms parallels the erosion of our culture. When art is reduced to a tool for promoting moral depravity — as Combs’ music career and lurid manipulation tactics pointedly illustrate, it entrenches the control of those who thrive on chaos and unrestrained appetites, at the expense of a spiritually weakened populace.

Instead of a culture that promotes and transmits virtue, we end up with a culture that celebrates and enshrines vice. Our Founders knew that such a culture could never produce free citizens capable of self-government, but only slaves ripe for tyranny.

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This article was published by The Federalist and is reproduced with permission.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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