7:31:24

Ripley, 2024

I wrote a post last month (but never published it) about how the new Ripley series on Netflix explores the art of the counterfeit and how much harder it used to be to pull a counterfeit (life) off. And not just because it was pre-internet, though that’s part of it. The entire focus of the 2024 series is Ripley’s inability to successfully fake things. Ripley rubs everyone the wrong way. I believe this is because people were not yet used to and completely immersed in fraudulence and trash culture. Ripley is the forgery at a time when people could still spot a fake. Would he have this jarring effect on people today or would he fit right in in our world of fakers and psychopaths? A world that has normalized and banalized narcissism, disordered behavior, lying, and fraudulence. The series is a strange mix of the the time-consuming procedural work of forgery and fraud (I wouldn’t say this Ripley version is about “talent,” as in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tellingly, it even dropped the description from its title), which was both easier and harder to do in the 1960s, and Ripley’s inability to successfully fake the life he covets. Every time he thinks he’s gotten away with something, there is more work to be done in order to get away with it—a flaw in Ripley’s Sisyphean plan. There is also a strange fatalism and divine judgment/justice that follows Ripley everywhere, embedded in the stone angels/mythological gods of Rome. He is never off the hook. No matter how hard he tries to get away with his crimes and forgeries, he fails. And has to start again, relocating, pivoting. According to the series, all Ripley really wants is to live an “authentic” life in peace. He wants a real experience of the real thing; he adores real things, he hates fakes, even though he himself is a fake. Ripley’s forgeries are in pursuit of the real.

But what does it mean to highlight and question one man’s inauthentic authenticity and motives in a 2024 counterfeit world of complete lies and fakes?

These are just a few of my general observations. There’s a lot more to say and unpack about the series.

Here are some more examples of the age of the counterfeit and the things that are staged and forged on a daily basis.

Link to 2021 article, “Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army.” A very important read.

News Treason Media: “There is a legitimate, widespread discussion taking place about masks and doubles on social media right now and for the first time in years, it’s NOT the Anons pushing this ‘conspiracy.’ It’s the normies!”

Mask-tech and disguise-tech. Actors and the CIA.

“The CIA has had this technology for over 40 years.”

Deep state is synonymous with deep-fake.

“It was all just. a piece of theater.” (The Interpreter)

Ephron famously said he fell and hit his jaw, which apparently resulted in a completely new face. Though he denies he looks any different, these two people look nothing alike. It could be steroid use as well.

The bizarre and hideous mask-faces of Nicole Kidman and Zac Ephron in A Family Affair (2024). This film was almost impossible to watch. Also, these two clones (I mean that literally) have zero screen chemistry. Wooden and soulless as fuck. Kidman’s head does not even look like it’s attached to her neck and her bad wigs are increasingly obvious.

Rumble comment, July 24, 2024

Adrienne Elise, 7/30/24. “It’s not robots taking over, it’s us being made into robots.”