We See What We Want
Impressions-Reflections on a Life, Community, and Culture of Deception
“She has no self-hood…due to her degree of self-deception.”
The first utterance I heard from a woman in the row behind me as I stood to exit the theatre…and if you’re short on time…it’s the main point of this post. Sorta happy her summing it up for me…during the still plastic, malleable moments of the credits roll…still impressionable regarding the meaning of all I just absorbed throughout the course of 174 tedious minutes.
The 2026 film documentary You Can See Everything is a well developed curiosity about what the truth is.
Specifically, the truth concerning one of the most high profile biz-tech scandals of this century, thus far: Elizabeth Holmes Founder/CEO of Theranos…an American privately held corporation touted as a breakthrough health-tech company.
Produced by an equally curious duo:
Nathan Fielder = 43, satirical Canadian, comedian, director, writer…famous for creating hyper-awkward, deadpan social experiments and elaborate simulations that test the limits of human behavior.
Lance Oppenheim = 30, American filmmaker specializing in highly stylized documentaries about eccentric subcultures and people living inside surreal American environments.
As a protracted, dramatic exercise of inquiry and observation, Fielder/Oppenheim disarm us at the level of phatic intimacy, but relinquish their full legitimacy at the grand deliberation scale, which would seem at odds with their intent...or maybe not. Even so, its extremely watchable weavings do much to satisfy voyeuristic cravings.
Without legal or psychological credentials…I offer the following as a carefully considered general public opinion…that of an educated, middle age, upper-middle class woman, peer, potential juror...and with tremendous curiosity about what others think. The palette of turnings the filmmakers present does succeed in making the desire for gossipy exchange a savory, titillating yearning.
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Primal Instinct > Embodiment of Physical Deception
-the Forced and Frozen Face…
is not only memorably iconic, it's symbolic. A unified stiff overly-exaggerated smile with unwavering eye contact…this is a physically-reflexive tell-tale…there's no way for an observer not to sense her desperate level insincerity…insecurity. In the beginning it psychically registers as a stamp…a monolith…vs how the act of full truth affords freedom of movement…a flow of subtle dimensionality…ntm some life in the eyes.
Her singular-static Face pose projects spooky clown terror as much as the innocent absolution she's going for…eyes fixed in a resolutely empty gaze. Blank-still-absence just doesn't resonate with authentic-integrity-resolve.
Performative Instinct > Theatre of Emotional Deception
-the fact that in such a high stakes self-reckoning her Emotional Range Stagnates between only denial-incredulity or sorrowful-anguish...no fire…ever…not once does she ever raise her voice, flash anger-resentment, yell-curse, allude to anything she might have done wrong or could have done better…consider how any particular action resulted in such a dire-punitive circumstance…is also a showcase of limitation-override that aligns with the forced face.
Like if she manages to enact incredulity and victimhood for all to absorb, for 3 straight hrs, she'll successfully retool our belief in her. This is a grave mistake, because a jury doesn't usually believe an incomplete story arc…an ego without shadow. You must hit bottom to go back up.
Intrinsic Character > a Potential Watershed Circumstance…Character Crux left Unprobed
-the rape…
that the film only allows her rape, at 19yo, to be barely mentioned by her father…an identity input left to languish…is a red flag. Obviously, this is a major contextual tidbit unexplored…most certainly a highly relevant factor regarding her psyche and worldview that the audience is left to guess about…as well as wonder, what else have they left out?
Overall, her being raped could have fostered a 'compartmentalized' personality response or any host of other maladapted coping mechanisms relevant to the doc's proclaimed purpose of: seeing everything.
Environment > Absorption of the *Scenius
-E. Holmes is a product of her environment…the Silicon Valley petri-dish. Period.
She is no different than ringmasters S. Jobs, E. Musk, P. Thiel, S. Altman, B. Johnson, M. Andreeson. SV is totally unique to America and is to the 21st century what the circus was to the 18th and 19th.
Ultimately, it’s a completely insular, ruthlessly competitive, exclusively male-fabricated, echo-chamber normalizing a reckless-domination ethos, at all costs, that views tech as a new God and therefore themselves with a God complex.
What the movie drove home for me the most is this…kooks are attracted to, and elevated by, this space.
If your pedigree is accepted enough, your will and daring steely enough, you will have that which you desire there. It's this that possesses the highest relief, not so much anything particular about her, specifically, because so many out there are kookoo in same way she presents…we're just now seeing a woman in this role for first time. But we've been watching invisibly, highly disturbed people swing on the trapeze rungs, swallow swords, and tame tigers since 1971. And because they dazzle us to new heights we don't dwell on their instability until they fall, slit throats, or become devoured.
Deceit All Around
Although seemingly, this portrayal purports a 'no holds barred' in terms of inner sanctum access, the doc is actually incredibly superficial upon reflection. The protagonist is on trial for deception…15 years of it…so why would 34 additional days produce something different…duh! This is what she does best. Nathan Fielder even confides his paranoia regarding the potential of this exact outcome…he's clearly concerned about getting duped…and allowing her to getaway twice.
In addition, there's at least 3 times in the movie where it actually seems to be 'getting real' and she/Billy derail coverage:
1 already mentioned when the Dad reveals her rape…Billy forces them to stop talking,
2 when they're watching the The Dropout movie and it's maybe the first time we see a variable emotional response from her…one of agony-humiliation…she/Billy ask to cut cams,
3 when Nathan is questioning their appointed Theranos 2.0 tech consultant who begins to unpack the granular Theranos 1.0 missteps…the real, basic facts of employing specific technologies over others…and again Billy cuts the shoot. Had the camera kept rolling in all these instances, the audience's assessment would have been significantly impacted.
Lastly, Billy is a roiling deceit ball on his on…so no mystery as to why he's attracted to one…especially such a famous, high profile one. Obviously, he’s opportunistic-narcissistic-nepo-baby…typical to the SV scene-genre.
Finally, E Holmes owes $450 million dollars to her defrauded investors. Hmmm…what would be her motive to extricate herself from an equally psychotic partner who interprets her mind as one that just simply sees the world differently, that she's started a family with…and that's worth multi-millions? One deceit ball owns the other…happily ever after.
Conclusion
Musk witholds Starlink services on a whim in the mortal stakes of a brutal 4 year on-going war, ntm DOGE or his $446 million total in manipulating elections to date, Thiel is possessed with anti-christ ruminations and fine with humanity’s extinction, Zuckerberg has repeatedly and purposely misled Congress and deceived consumers, Bankman-Fried siphoned $8 billion in customer deposits for his ponzi scheme, Altman believes ‘society should accept some bad things happening in exchange for the broader benefits,’ and Andreeson practices ‘zero introspection,’ claiming that self-examination and modern therapy concepts are at odds with efficient empire building.
Leaving Bankman-Fried out, this group's combined corporate value would rank as the third-largest economy in the world, sitting right behind China (~$21.55 trillion) and the United States (~$32.64 trillion), and way ahead of Germany (~$5.47 trillion)
Ntm, they're all really fucked up people…as much so as Elizabeth and Billy.
However, they, unlike Elizabeth, were all very rich and very connected…enough to have never been indicted, plus smart enough never to have invited alternative-documentarians into their homes.
Do I ask 'if she were a man, would the sentencing have been that harsh?' ‘Does this feel a little Martha Stewart?’ Well…a little.
I would say the main thing for me in all of this is so much more about the Scenius, than the She.
Just as the Witch-Burning was so much more about the banning of decoupling from
I would just want to make certain we don’t miss the forest for the trees…
And that as long
whether one is Truth has vitality-vibrancy-mobility
AI Notes
-she fundraised from 2003-18 accumulating over $700 million from investors by the time the SEC charged the company with massive fraud in March 2018.
-she has a net worth of -$450 million…that amount is what she owes those she defrauded…meaning she will spend the rest of her life in extreme debt, and any money she makes in the future will be legally taken to pay back the people she defrauded.
-Billy Evans is the grandson of the founders of Evans Hotels in San Diego…an enterprise generates between $166.5 - $314.7 million in annual revenue. An MIT economics graduate, his personal net worth is estimated to be between $10 -$15 million, largely attributed to his tech career, inheritance positioning, and his biotech startup, Haemanthus.
*Scenius is a word popularized by Brian Eno in the late 90s, means a communal form of intelligence, intuition, and creativity that emerges from a whole cultural scene, rather than a single lone genius…formed when a group of diverse talents, artists, thinkers, curators, and entrepreneurs live or work in close proximity —or connect virtually—feeding off each other's ideas.