Thread by @doctorow

"Deep Reckonings" is @stephlepp's art project: she's created three deepfake videos in which three of the current moment's most clueless powerful monsters have a moral reckoning and make a clean breast of their failings.

the.ink/p/breaking-mar…

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First is Brett Kavanaugh, relating the evolution of his understanding of what sexual abuse means and his own history of sexual abuse, apologizing to the survivors of his crimes.



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Next is Mark Zuckerberg, realizing that he's been kidding himself all along about the nature of Facebook, and the intrinsic harm that his business-model inflicts on the people he has imprisoned in his walled garden.



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Finally, there's Alex Jones, realizing that his quest to root out real conspiracies led him down a path of exploiting his audience and his victims with off-the-rails conspiracism.



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Here's Lepp's statement on her pieces:

deepreckonings.com/statement.html

"Where I see the greatest untapped potential for prosocial synthetic media is in a capacity that emerges across all three categories: to envision and elicit the change we wish to see."

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This really resonates with me, especially in light of my latest novel, ATTACK SURFACE, the tale of cybermercenary who confronts her lifelong legacy of complicity in human rights abuses and tries to find redemption:

attacksurface.com

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And in light of my next novel, THE LOST CAUSE, about truth and reconciliation with white nationalist militias after a successful GND transformation.

patreon.com/posts/new-deca…

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It is such a balm, inhabiting these fictional places in which the crises that haunt me today are being addressed -- painfully, imperfectly, but still: confronted rather than being left to fester.

eof/