And it is exactly this type of contradictory nonsense that made me begin to question our understanding altogether. "Nothing travels faster than light" followed by 'spooky, instant action at a distance'. It's incoherent and contradictory.

Same with magnets 'emitting' particles. Yes, an infinite stream of electrons coming from a permanent magnet that will last many decades while never running out of electrons. It's so comically childish, and we know this isn't true simply by looking at a magnet under a ferrocell. All you see are lines/waves of constructive and destructive interference, because that's all it is!

Magnets do not emit anything just like electrons are not travelling down power lines. These are coherent fields with very specific recursive geometries, and power lines are more akin to electrical field conductors. Nothing is constrained to the wires - this is exactly why we can pick up a current wirelessly without touching a wire. The wires are guiding the electric field in whatever direction they are running, since they are ideal field conductors.

Once you re-introduce a medium, call it aether or whatever you like, then action as a distance is easily explained and there is no longer a dark matter/dark energy problem. The fact that even idiots like me can grasp this while "experts" in their fields cannot is a good demonstration of how far off track we have gone.