All posts tagged: disguised

The Cage Disguised as a Crown

The Cage Disguised as a Crown

Published by Sam Flores

In March 2025, Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies — a data analytics company deeply embedded in The Pentagon and intelligence apparatus — made a remarkable statement on CNBC. His AI technology, he argued, would “disrupt humanities-trained — largely Democratic — voters, and make their economic power less,” while increasing “the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters.” The surface reading is obvious: This is misogyny. Karp is promising to strip economic power from educated women and hand it to working-class men. The political targeting is naked. He is pitching his technology to the Republican Party as a weapon in the culture war — a way to reshape the electorate by reshaping the economy. But stop. Read it again. And ask yourself: What, exactly, is being offered to those working-class men? The Bait The misogyny is the bait. It is designed to be seen. It flatters a certain kind of man — the man who has been told, rightly or wrongly, that he has been displaced, diminished, passed over. It whispers: Your …

Netflix’s Age of Attraction is an Oedipus complex disguised as a dating show

Netflix’s Age of Attraction is an Oedipus complex disguised as a dating show

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Oh, how I’d love to be a fly-on-the-wall at Netflix HQ. More specifically, I’d like to be in the room where producers think up new concepts for its maddening dating multiverse, which, in the past five years, has pumped out dozens of formulaic social experiments featuring conventionally hot people all disenchanted with the modern dating landscape. There’s been Love Is Blind — where singles date through a wall and get engaged sight unseen — its horny sibling Too Hot To Handle, Ultimatum: Marry or Move On (about couples who definitely shouldn’t be together), and the all-star series Perfect Match, a repurposing of multiverse alumni to date, again and again. “Whatever next?” I hear you ask. Well, Netflix’s latest riff on the theme is Age …

Why young girls are disguised as boys in Afghanistan : NPR

Why young girls are disguised as boys in Afghanistan : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

In this four-minute clip, a disembodied voice asks a child in a dimly lit room: “Are you a man or a woman now?” The child looks terrified – and like she’s trying to be brave. She says she’s 13 years old. But she’s dressed like an Afghan boy: loose pants, a long shirt and a beaded cap. The undated video was released to social media by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in early February. It’s one of many videos of interrogations they’ve circulated. The clips emphasize the group’s power: A Taliban agent is the voice behind the camera, demanding that their subject answer questions. But this video stood out: The agent was interrogating a girl, dressed as a boy. The clip went viral for what it spotlights about life under the Taliban. Women are banned from working in most professions. Those who do not have male relatives able, or willing, to support them are driven into hunger and poverty. The Taliban say that this video was shot four years ago — likely not long after they swept …

Gunman who disguised himself as Deliveroo rider jailed for 38 years after shooting eight-year-old girl | UK News

Gunman who disguised himself as Deliveroo rider jailed for 38 years after shooting eight-year-old girl | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A suspected hitman who disguised himself as a Deliveroo e-bike rider to shoot three people, including a girl celebrating her eighth birthday, has been jailed for 38 years. Jazz Reid, 33, fired 11 bullets, hitting the child twice and her 34-year-old father five times, as they sat with other family members in a car in Ladbroke Grove, northwest London, on 24 November 2024. Both survived the attack, which was one of three targeted shootings prosecutors said were planned and executed with “precision”. The Old Bailey heard drug dealer Reid would drive to the area in a hire car before disguising himself with a Deliveroo backpack, takeaway box and e-bike. Image: Gunman disguised himself as a Deliveroo rider. Pic: Met Police The motive behind the shootings is not not known but Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said they could have been planned “contract killings”. She told Reid: “You may have been carrying out shootings on behalf of others, perhaps relating to drug dealing or for some other form of financial gain”. In the first shooting on 9 …

The US used a disguised plane in the first drug boat strike — some experts say it’s a war crime

The US used a disguised plane in the first drug boat strike — some experts say it’s a war crime

Published by Sam Flores

The United States used a military aircraft disguised as a civilian plane in an attack on a boat last September, the first of a series of attacks on boats the Trump administration said were drug smuggling boats. This attack killed 11 people according to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump. Passing a military craft off as a civilian plane to confuse adversaries and attack is considered a war crime called “perfidy.” Legal experts and a former general have weighed in on the matter and do not believe the Pentagon was within its right to disguise the plane in this strike. According to a New York Times report on Monday, the plane was painted to look like a civilian vessel and the munitions were hidden in the main body of the plane instead of being visible on the wings, which is standard for military planes. “Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper told the New York Times. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a …