The whole Epstein “client list” is turning into a conspiracy theory cult. Almost a McCarty-like religious mania.
Without such a list, the worldview of MAGA would crumble. Therefore, surely, the answer must rely on yet another cover up ... or so the logic goes, and hence, the DoJ and FBI are said to be lying.
If you consider for a moment; why in the world would the President have ever mentioned them in public if he was in the files. After all, he knows who he gave his money to, or with whom he did business. He simply mentioned the “files” to whip his base into a frenzy.
We already know that they broke-off relations in 2003/4 following some sordid affair by Epstein at one of Trump’s resorts. We already know that they were friends and met at parties and events. It seems everyone (even Steven Pinker) met Jeffery Epstein. He was everywhere, and he was able to get close to so many famous and well-connected people. Trouble is that we already knew all of this information. But the hunt persists for hidden secret “lists”! Our next course is to unseal court transcripts. Maybe it’s under his bed?
What is stunning is how this cult now seems to populate among the higher echelons our government and the media. Are we really going to grab Ms Ghislaine Maxwell to testify publicly in some prison-like conference before the media? It needs to stop.
We all know that the so-called Epstein files would have already been released by the Biden administration for being too juicy a story long ago. Either way, a secret as big as the alleged “Epstein files” or “client list” would be truly impossible to keep to a small number of people. Ergo, it’s classic wishful thinking. Unfortunately, the longer this conspiracy goes on, the greater our collective slide into a post-truth world.
Brendan O’Neill writing in “At last, the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theory is falling apart” (Spiked) talks about its threat to democracy and why people indulge it:
The bigger question, though, is why so many people just can’t let go of the Epstein tale. No amount of the sunlight of disinfectant, no amount of hyper-clarified jail footage, can wake them from their Paedo Island stupor. And it’s because this conspiracy theory makes them feel good. It gives their lives meaning. It lets them circumvent the tough task of thinking seriously about power and democracy in the 21st century, and instead just say: ‘Everything is beyond our control.’ Like all conspiracy theorists – from 9/11 truthers to ‘anti-Zionist’ fruitcakes – they find strange comfort in the powerlessness bestowed on them by their own theories. Their frenzied belief in distant cabals absolves them of the far harder democratic duties of thought and discussion and change.
The lunacy is bipartisan now. Witness how well the Epstein tale lends itself to both right and left. For years it was held up by right-wing cranks as proof of the depravity of Clintonites and their Hollywood luvvies; now it is wielded to the end of damning Trumpists and ‘populists’ and what they have to hide. I don’t give a damn about Jeffrey Epstein. I don’t much care for the powerful people he mingled with either, though of course I think all are owed the presumption of innocence. I do care about democracy, though. And right now, there are few threats to democracy as insidious and toxic as the tragically fashionable belief that we are ruled by devils and there is nothing we can do about it.
There aren’t any new or meaningful files. There is no “list”. The wider conspiracy theories (incl. Epstein’s death) just aren’t true.
MAGA may have gone nuts, but the rest of us don’t have to.
Are you extending the same credulity to poor old Prince Andrew? For gawd's sake, wise up.
ReplyDeleteMy point is really about the idea of client list Debra.
DeletePeople who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you so focused on J.Epstein ? He was a horrible rapist of minor girls and his sex parties were well known and attended by many high society people. Did they only ate, drink ,dance and crowded in the swimmingpool ? Men hardly control their sex impulses .Well he was a Jew ,so when critisising we are antisemits? The USA with Trump are anyway a conspiracy nation.
ReplyDeleteSandra
Hi Sandra
DeleteI don't think I've ever really talked about Epstein except now as it's everywhere in the news.
The Justice Department estimates the total number of girls sexually abused at Epstein's parties to be over a thousand. Obviously he and Maxwell didn't personally assault that many all by themselves. It's not seriously disputed that many rich and powerful men attended these parties and sexually abused girls while they were there. The burning question that remains is the identity of all of those "clients".
ReplyDeleteThere probably isn't a "list" in the sense of a physical piece of paper with the names of all the clients written on it, but there is a vast amount of video and photographic evidence seized from Epstein's mansion when he was arrested. That material certainly could identify hundreds of these men.
The clients almost certainly include some of the most prominent and powerful figures in both political parties. It would be astonishing if that were not the case -- pedophilia has nothing to do with political orientation. That's why neither party has wanted the evidence made public when they held power.
These men are guilty of monstrous, disgusting, evil acts. Each and every one of them must be brought to justice and spend the rest of his life rotting in prison, no matter what effect it has on the political world. No decent person, of whatever political views, can tolerate shielding child sex abusers from justice.
Hello infidel
DeleteThanks for the comment.
To me, for all of the faults of the Biden admin, I find it almost inconceivable that, if a client list existed, there was no mention of it or prosecution of the so-called clients and zero explanation of why the Biden administration would stay quiet. It strikes me as slightly ridiculous to suggest that the Biden White House would order a cover-up of this merely to protect this or that Democrat grandee.
I also think it's doubtful whether the Epstein co-conspiracy was as extensive as people seem to imagine. I do appreciate that child sex trafficking is no joke and it is shockingly prevalent, as you say. Even if Ghislaine Maxwell talks and produces some list of names of his friends and associates; surely some of them were involved with his evil, but not all of them, and there may be no evidence whatsoever that any of them were. After all, JE is now dead. Moreover, there's just nothing there that we don't already know, except maybe a few more names from the cohort of international politicians Epstein was busy cozying up to.
People seem to projecting a worldwide & paronarmic conspiracy involving everyone. Like McCarthy's endless and hysterical denunciations of hidden communists. This time it's secret pedophiles. The problem is that if there's no list, then there's no list. We can't produce something that isn't there. For the conspiratorial, that mere fact alone would further confirm its secret existence. I think even if they released all of his video collection, people would still think there's a cover up.
I propose that the far more likely scenario is that the Trump administration lied and fueled the conspiracy theories about how the Biden administration had a list but wasn’t prosecuting to protect their own power. It was the grift of blurring the lines of guests on private jet manifests, guests on his island, visitors to his NY home. Those grifters are now caught in their own political minefield. Kash Patel specifically made this his bread-and-butter which is why Trump promoted him.
Thus, years of fevered conspiracy theory and blind speculation finally amount to nothing. We are back to the official narrative which is what the evidence probably actually shows. Namely, lots of people connect to him, but the vast majority didn't have any connection to the abuse of the underaged girls and even if they did, there's no evidence to convict or get through a grand jury.
Again, thanks for commenting. Always like seeing what you write.
There are too many influential people who have something to hide. That is why there are such strenuous efforts to conceal the facts and make the problem go away.Truth will out. As someone pointed out recently, the only person currently imprisoned for sex trafficking in the Epstein affair is a woman. Ironic, really
ReplyDelete