Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see. No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:
Satanic panic is making a comeback, fueled by QAnon believers and GOP influencers (Brandy Zadrozny / NBC News)
On June 1, David Leavitt, the prosecuting attorney for Utah County, stood behind a lectern in his windowless Provo office before a gaggle of reporters. Wearing a gray suit and an exasperated look, he wanted to make something categorically clear: Neither he nor his wife were guilty of murdering or cannibalizing young children. It was, by all accounts, a strange declaration from the progressive Republican prosecutor, a Mormon and younger brother of a former Utah governor, Mike Leavitt, who had earned a name for himself by prosecuting a well-known polygamist in 2001. But David Leavitt was up for re-election, Utah County voters would start casting ballots the next week, and the allegations, ridiculous as they may have sounded, had started to spread online and throughout the community.
Read more.
Did This Trump-Loving, Leopard-Hunting Dentist Kill His Wife? (Matt Sullivan / Rolling Stone)
A four-month Rolling Stone investigation — more than 75 interviews, plus a review of thousands of pages of court documents, internal finances, and police files — reveals a portrait of the dentist as a conniving and duplicitous man of our time. Over decades, he has indulged brushes with fame, fortune — and, prosecutors now say, fraudulent behavior, culminating in the death of his wife and the rebirth of a luxurious double life with an alleged partner in crime. One of many employees he had fired over the years likens Larry to Breaking Bad’s Walter White, and one of several women who claim Larry propositioned them on the job says his smooth talk reminded her of Ted Bundy, without the serial killing. One political operative from a battalion of enemies calls Larry “a wannabe Wayne LaPierre for the clout, with the narcissism of Donald Trump.”
Read more.
RMS Titanic Survivor speaks about surviving the sinking in 1912 (Irish Daily Times)
@irishdailytimes RMS Titanic Survivor Frank Prentice, storekeeper on the liner, speaks about surviving the sinking in 1912 #fyp #titanic #titanicsurvivor #irishdailytimes #foryou ♬ Prophecies – Philip Glass
If you have any suggestions for future words to feature, contact us on our socials or at editor@globalcomment.com
Image: Jasper Garratt