25 of Tiger King's Characters from Best to Worst (morally)

Okay, so we are quarantined, yadda yadda yadda. Obviously, if you don't live under a rock you've heard about Tiger King. if you don't want any spoilers, don't read this. I wanted to put my thoughts on paper about just how morally suspect these characters are and I came up with this list: 

25. Saff
Saff is too good for Joe Exotic’s world. He not only cared about the animals he was entrusted with, but lost his fucking hand to save them and his boss. Throughout the series, Saff proves himself as loyal, trustworthy, and is significantly smarter than most of those around him. Nothing he says sends off an, ‘oh, this guy is also a creep’ bad signal. That’s pretty high praise.

24. Barbara Fisher
Barbara gives us the inside deets on Doc Antle’s cult, and for that she deserves praise. Those who get out and speak about what it’s like ‘inside’ are invaluable to the process of saving people from cults and people in relationships with dubious consent. Glad she’s living her best life.

23. Anne McQueen
Anne seems like a genuinely good business manager who tried to do what was in her boss’ best interest while also telling her boss’s wife she’s low-key dumb ass. I approve.

22. John Reinke
Loyalty goes a long way with me, and while I think Reinke trusts Joe a bit too much, he’s definitely loyal. I think he also really cared about the animals under his care and seems like a genuinely good person despite the fact that he befriended such a hot mess of a train wreck.

21. Joseph Fritz
Atty Joseph Fritz has a lot to say – especially about Don Lewis’ will. Nothing inherently bad about this guy except I wish he’d had the guts to say who he thought killed Don. Then again, he probably knows the law well enough not to fall on that sword.

20. Gladys Lewis Cross
Don’s ex-wife got a raw deal with Don. He, apparently, slept around and with women half his age. She seems to really have cared about him even if I do think her motivations regarding money might be suspect.

19. Sheriff Rhodes
I don’t know. He’s doing what sheriffs do? Not good or bad, I guess.

18. Joshua Dial
Libertarian campaign manager to Joe Exotics various campaigns, this guy had integrity. However, he did help run a presidential campaign or a guy he admits he knew was ‘crazy’ because of their many conversations at the Walmart ammo counter. So, while I like you, Josh…ambition got you doing some bad shit.

17. Don’s Daughters
Not unlike their mother, I think they got a raw deal. But unlike their mother, I get the vibe that all that mattered to them was the money anyway.

16. Travis Maldonado
You might wonder why Joe’s straight husbands come near the middle of the pack. None of them really did anything ‘evil’ or anything. That said, They kept a lot of Joe’s secrets and so have a bit of guilt by association. That said, Travis seems a pure spirit taken in by a guy who some weed and big cats. His story is sad.

15. John Finlay
John and Travis have a similar story, only John got his happy ending, finally marrying a fellow employee of GW Zoo. Makes me think there was some cheating happening back in the day. All speculation, of course. He did love his crocodiles, though.

14. Dillon Passage
Joe’s current husband might actually be gay? I don’t know. Time will tell. But they are still together and he stands by his man – even while Exotic waits out his sentence in prison. Dillon is neither good nor bad in that we don’t know much about him at all.

13. Erik Cowie
In some ways, Erik is a libertarian champion. When asked ‘How many wives does Doc have?’ he answers, ‘I don’t give a fuck’. But that also implies that he doesn’t care that this dude is running a cult and fishing for teenage girls with wildlife. The ultimate moral centrist, I guess.

12. Rick Kirkham
I love Rick. Rick should have a billion dollars by now. That said, he happily profited (or hoped to profit) off of animal cruelty and people who were very clearly not in a position to present their best selves by way of addiction and/or poverty. So, morally speaking Rick is getting into iffy territory.

11. Howard Baskin
I think Howard probably isn’t a bad dude – but he is married to Carole and will do all her bidding no matter that moral consequence. For that reason, he can’t be a ‘good guy’ in this story. Please, Howard, whatever you do, hide the sardine oil from Carole.

10. Lauren Lowe
Similarly to Howard, she’s just married to a real POS. What makes her slightly worse is that she helps him lure in other victims and participates in the ‘sex for tigers’ thing he’s got going on. It’s a bad look. Hope she gets out of that relationship.

9. Brittany Peet (PETA)
Did Brittany do anything immoral in the show? Not really – except pretending like Carole’s cat rescue is somehow a lot different than Joe Exotic’s. That said, she works for a company that is hypocritical and contributes to the euthanasia of animals by the truckload so I don’t think she’s a hero.

8. Don Lewis
By all accounts, Don was a piece of shit. So, we know this list is about to go downhill fast. He was a serial cheater, bred big cats in captivity, didn’t seem to care about them outside of making money – and he MIGHT have faked his own death as a parting shot to his wife. We still don’t know. And that’s why keeps him higher on the list than others.

7. Carole Baskin
Is the Big Cat Rescue a money making endeavor? Yes. Is she a hypocrite? Yes. Is she sanctimonious and obnoxious? You betcha. Did she kill her husband? Maybe. So, she’s bad. Okay. But that kernel of doubt maker her only the 7^th worst person documented in this series.

6. James Garretson
The FBI informant turned Jet Ski enthusiast likes to fancy himself the hero of this story, but he’s sad, pathetic, and worst of all a ‘yes man’. I hate an ass kisser and I get the feeling that he’s spent a long time kissing Jeff Lowe’s ass. His hands are dirty too, but he jetted off into the sunset, free as a bird, by rolling over on others. I’m not a fan.

5. Joe Exotic
Honestly, I think Joe did start his Zoo with good intentions. Make money doing something you love. But by the end, he was not only not all about the animals, but those animals were also being horribly abused and neglected. As his narcissism grew, so did his exploitation of animals and human beings – breeding cubs he couldn’t pay for, luring in straight young men with meth and weed, and eventually considering killing a person because of his obsession with her.

4. Tim Stark
Tim was a minor character, but as a ‘private zoo’ owner in Indiana, I took a bit of interest in him. Turns out the State of Indiana is going after him for many crimes against animals including abuse and neglect. He doesn’t give a shit about wildlife.

3. Jeff Lowe
This POS. He’s abusive. He’s a con artist and manipulator. There isn’t much good about him at all. And, it turns out, he might have been the one to put the murder for hire idea into Joe’s head in the first place! He only cares about #1, and he will destroy anyone to protect himself.

2. Mario Tabraue
While not a terribly interesting character in the series, he DID inspire Tony Montana in ‘Scarface’ and therefore, we cannot ignore his moral character. Honestly, as bad as cutting up a body and disposing of it is, that’s not why he ranks so low. It’s the fact that he and his father smuggled drugs into the country by way of living animals. The amount of animals he must have killed or put at risk is staggering.

1. Doc Antle
This guy is a piece of work. He’s getting away with it because he knows how to keep his mouth shut and comes off as more refined than people like Joe Exotic or Tim Stark. In reality, the man is absolutely running a wildlife cult – convincing young girls that his penis will give them enlightenment and that working 24/7 for $100/week is a ‘calling’ or ‘lifestyle’ rather than labor exploitation.  Numerous people have accused him of euthanizing his big cats when they are no longer profitable and, honestly, given how many he breeds it’s the only logical conclusion. Doc is, morally, the worst and he is the one who will likely continue to live his life freely because he has the right connections and knows exactly how to work the system.

Lack of Empathy and Compassion is America's Problem - Not Capitalism

If you've been on the internet longer than 30 minutes and are under the age of 35, you've probably heard Capitalism is baaaaaaaaad. Everything bad is 'Late Stage Capitalism' and everything good is 'despite capitalism'. It's not dissimilar to great things being attributed to God and bad things being attributed to the devil. For anyone looking at the long line of human history, this take is nothing sort of baffling and massively frustrating.

Currently, a self-identified socialist - or 'Democratic Socialist' - is leading the Democratic Primary for President and some anti-caps are pretty stoked about it. Cool. But here's the problem. The issues Bernie Sanders is bringing to the table regarding healthcare, education, social responsibility, etc aren't the logical conclusion to 'Capitalism'. In fact, all those countries he gives accolades to for providing healthcare to all their citizens are, wait for it...capitalist countries. You see, that's how you pay for things. Want everyone to be able to get a quadruple bypass without paying a bill? You need someone to be making enough money to pay for it. Which means you need money coming in.

With much talk of how glorious and wonderful the 'Scandinavian Model' is, it seems odd that these self-avowed 'Democratic Socialists' ignore that the Scandinavian Model thrives on and celebrates...Capitalism. These countries heavily invest in private industry and start-ups for their social betterment. Those companies then pay into a system that benefits everyone.

Why is America so different? We have a lot of inept and inefficient social programs for a couple of reasons. For one, our division of powers between state and federal makes implementation difficult. But even more importantly, American culture differs from European, Israeli, Canadian, Central American concepts of social responsibility and the idea of morality tied to monetary success.

Americans are ruggedly individual. In some ways, this serves us. We follow passions, we chart new courses, we try new things. The idea that we should limit ourselves is often foreign to us. But as a society, this perspective is a huge problem, and it is the root cause of our lack of action on crucial social safety nets. We bring in plenty of revenue to take on a number of these tasks but we don't. Why? Because 'government aid' is seen as an unearned handout, and poverty a moral failing - lazy.

Bezos isn't stopping single-payer healthcare - Joe Smith who doesn't want to pay for other people does. Bill Gates isn't a hindrance in 'free' college - Nancy who thinks it is bullshit that she paid $30k for college and the kids behind her will get it for free does. And that's not capitalism's fault. Plenty of capitalist countries yield populations who believe that it is a society's responsibility to take care of those who cannot care for themselves, who believe that healthcare and educations are both rights. The difference is, these countries have cultures that promote empathy and compassion in a way we do not. These societies don't look at economic success or failure as a moral issue as Americans do.

Perhaps, one reason for this - at least in Europe - is that those societies have had defined class systems for much longer. Old and New money were well defined and people rarely moved out of their class. In America, on the other hand, class is fluid, harder to pin down. Most Americans are 'new money'. And so, the idea that 'anyone' can make it if they try hard enough seems self-evidence even if the reality is that poverty and wealth are more inherited than we want to believe and privilege is real.

All of these issues are fascinating and play a role in the startling differences in social priorities between America and most of the rest of the developed world, but that's a discussion for another day. The main point is that capitalism isn't why we don't have the services that people want. Capitalism isn't making you poorer. By all measures, everyone in America is earning more now than 40 years ago. It is true, however, that the top earners are earning wealth faster than the bottom earners. That's not the same thing as the poor getting poorer.

In fact, countries that remove capitalism as a way to pay for these social safety nets fail time and time again. I know, Telesur says Venezuala was destroyed by 'THE CAPITALISTS' and Cuba would be Paradise if only America would have traded with them (despite every other major economy in the world trading with them). But let's get reasonable. The fact is, nationalizing the entire economy and drastically limiting who could make an independent living is DIRECTLY responsible for mass starvation in Venezuela. And, do I really even need to get into the Soviet Union?

What would happen if we allowed those who know how to generate wealth to continue to do it while also building social safety nets with a reorganized government that works for the people not for reelection? What would happen if we ended the war machine and, instead, allocated money to figuring out how to fix our broken education system? The problem isn't how we earn the money. The problem is how we USE the money.  And we can't fix that problem until we get Joe, Nancy, and every other person who thinks he or she is an island - in no need of social services - to embrace empathy and compassion for their fellow man.

Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, etc, none of them are going to fix the broken parts of our society until the American people stop looking at struggling people and think they are lazy, stupid, and undeserving of aid. Because, if you radically change our economic structure without changing the American blind spot for empathy and understanding, all you will get is a selfish proletariat deciding who is and isn't deserving of the state services and why. On the other hand, if you can infuse American society with a strong dose of compassion for their fellow global citizens, passing things like single-payer healthcare, subsidized education, clean needle centers, mental health facilities, etc would be a breeze.

'Late Stage Capitalism' isn't killing us. American self-centeredness is.