The Problem with the Epstein Files Distraction Discourse |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
The Problem with the Epstein Files Distraction Discourse
Instagram is my social media drug of choice. I can’t say for sure that it’s happening elsewhere, like in the land of TikTok, but I imagine it is and that you, reader, may have encountered some of the same rhetoric I’ve been seeing and hearing both on- and offline.
“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”
“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”
“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”
“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”
repeats one oft-parroted sentiment across my corner of the Insta-verse, at least. “Here’s why the Epstein files are radicalizing you,” says another piece of content. Another: “You can’t bury the Epstein files under Iran’s rubble.” Yet another depicts “THE EPSTEIN FILES” in thick black lettering, partially covered by wheatpasted posters that read, “THE SUPREME COURT,” “ICE,” “BOARD OF PEACE,” “TARRIF$,” “GREENLAND,” “UFO FILES,” and “WAR WITH IRAN.”
The idea that the United States’ far-reaching geopolitical violence, its weaponization and bastardization of its own institutions, its cratering of the economy, its endeavors to strongarm the rest of what’s considered to be the “western” world into complicity with the plainly fascist agenda it shares with Israel are merely an effort to distract from the Epstein files is asinine at best. At worst, the Epstein files distraction discourse effectively aids and abets the violence it derides, undermining the many victims of Epstein and company’s hideous escapades in the process.
These crimes against humanity aren’t manufactured distractions designed to keep the Epstein files at bay. They’re simply the par-for-the-course behaviors of the old, rich, almost entirely white, and definitely entirely self-centered and competition-obsessed deranged men that have been........