Last week, I argued that public frustration was giving way to something more durable: sorting.

Voters weren’t just venting. They were deciding which institutions felt illegitimate, which explanations no longer deserved patience, and which tradeoffs they were no longer willing to tolerate.

This week, that sorting moved from abstract judgment to concrete evidence.

What changed wasn’t intensity. It was specificity.

Across online conversations, voters stopped speaking in generalities and began pointing to names, documents, and decisions: the Epstein files, the Minnesota-Somalia fraud case, H-1B visa rulings, Gaza and Ukraine ceasefire failures, and the U.S. escalation against Venezuela.

When sentiment moves from feeling to citation, it stops being temporary. That’s when opinions begin to lock.

The Stories That Drove the Week

Several identifiable stories dominated conversation and reinforced one another.

First, the release of additional Epstein-related documents.

The reaction was telling. There was little surprise and almost no shock. The dominant sentiment was confirmation: delayed transparency, selective redactions, and the absence of elite consequences were treated as proof that accountability still stops short.

Second, the Minnesota–Somalia fraud scandal.

This story traveled nationally not because of geography, but because of symbolism. Billions in public funds, NGOs insulated from scrutiny, and ignored warnings fit seamlessly into an existing belief that........

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