CW: This piece includes passing references to the concept of child rape along with other disturbing topics found in the Epstein files.
I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, and have written about the ontology of conspiracies before. At their core, they reflect an utter disillusionment with society’s institutions, and what better example than this? Q-anon and Pizza Gate walked so the actual Epstein files could run.
So as my algorithm led me down increasingly conspiratorial rabbit holes, all of this had me wondering: What are we as leftists to make of the way the files have been released? What about their sudden virality and the inundation of commentary on platforms known for their censorship in line with the ruling class?
The release of the Epstein files
In case you missed it, on 30 January, the US Dept of Justice released 3.5 million files related to the investigation of convicted pedophile and child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. Many are heavily redacted, and reports abound of them suspiciously disappearing from the database. They contain details of heinous acts of the rich and powerful—from princes to politicians to academics and all sorts of other public figures. The acts, which legal experts say constitute crimes against humanity, are ineffably horrifying, including rape, torture, and child slavery. Yet, with each new suspected scandal and act of depravity revealed in the files, we start to become desensitized to the point that pedophilia and sex trafficking are no longer enough to shock or inspire outrage.
Notably, my feed has also been flooded with online pontificators basically just free-associating that every unsolved mystery and crisis of the 21st century—from 9/11 to the 2008 recession—was singlehandedly caused by Epstein himself. We each get caught in our own siloed rabbit holes dissecting the files, while nothing is being done and no one is being punished. It can even leave you with a sense that those featured in the files don’t care—or are even proud of their heinous crimes. In emails riddled with typos, they glibly quip about pizza and grape soda (many speculate to be code for child rape), and videos have been circulating of Bill Clinton laughing during a deposition hearing as he looks through incriminating photos of him and his buddies in the Epstein files as if he’s flipping through a scrapbook.
The anatomy of a psyop
The combined proliferation of horrifying content in the files and lack of public action are worth noting. This is particularly so when we examine some of the hallmarks of psychological influence operations, as disseminated on the internet and social media. (Read more about recent examples like the propagation of online culture wars in the US and Pentagon-backed influence operations).
There is no single definition of such operations, but they are generally implemented with the objective of shaping the attitudes, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors of a target population. You can find some of their core characteristics as follows:
- Emotional flooding: Content that elicits disgust, rage, or fear instantly when you see it.
- Narrative compression: Simplifying the narrative so that it fits neatly into an easily-digestible story format.
- Authority fog: Lack of informational transparency and a proliferation of theories that are difficult to trace.
- Time pressure: A sense that one must act now, as access to information might be revoked.
- Isolation language: Cultivating a sense that those engaging in the conspiracy theory are ‘awake’ while everyone else remains ‘asleep’.
Taking these features into account, now let’s connect them to the release of the Epstein files.
The public is flooded with millions of documents containing extremely distressing content. The fact that many keep getting removed from the database produces a sense of urgency to inundate oneself with disturbing emails, videos, and images before they are gone. We reach a point where nothing surprises us anymore, and it’s easier to become conditioned to any number of outlandish conspiracies as a way of making sense of things. (Was Michael Jackson really a noble defender of children, and the Epstein crew conspired to kill him? Is the Jim Carrey we see now actually a clone because Epstein had him killed for speaking out? Who can say for sure!) Well-meaning people who have immersed themselves in trying to analyze the files slowly become isolated and detached from reality. What’s more, all of this produces a sense that every crisis and unsolved mystery can be traced back to a handful of particularly bad guys.
Class analysis of the file release
The ruling class has pretty well-developed techniques for propagandizing and narrative control through mass media. As Gramsci puts it,
…crisis creates situations which are dangerous in the short run, since the various strata of the population are not all capable of orienting themselves equally swiftly, or of reorganizing with the same rhythm. The traditional ruling class, which has numerous trained cadres, changes men and programmes and, with greater speed than is achieved by the subordinate classes, reabsorbs the control that was slipping from its grasp.
In other words, if the ruling classes can no longer contain scandals that might produce catastrophic levels public outcry, they can weaponize them to keep us down instead by making us feel desensitized, distracted, and powerless to change anything. On behalf of Trump and his cronies, it appears that the Department of Justice has repeatedly violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The DOJ has continuously kept victims’ names unredacted while simultaneously covering up key information that would incriminate powerful people.
Thus, we must take a critical view of how the files have been released, as conspiracies serve the function of diverting people from reaching class consciousness. They take those who are so close to the point—to being radicalized—and divert their focus to specific, moloch-worshipping cannibals, rather than a ruling class upheld through the specific material relations of capitalism. It’s easier to imagine a few wicked ghouls are behind everything than to question the system that allowed them to accumulate the power to act with impunity. In truth, reality is even scarier than conspiracy.
In addition to being brazen forms of patriarchal violence, these crimes are acts of class warfare through the rape and torture of poor and working class children on a mass scale. In fact, participating in such acts seems to be the price of entry to the inner circles of the elites: enacting the most depraved crimes against our own—the most innocent and vulnerable among us at that. As if these horrific acts are ways of asserting they don’t abide by the most basic norms of decency practiced by us lowly plebians, and that they are powerful enough to get away with anything. Along with live-streamed genocide and ever-expanding levels of authoritarian repression, this is what the ruling class has decided will be normal.
In short, we don’t need conspiracies to explain away the horrors perpetrated by the elites because they are baked into the system that enables them. To return to Gramsci, now is the time of monsters: the barbarous excesses of capitalism itself.
