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i feel weary this morning
Non-explicit discussion of the Epstein files below:
My podcasters and journalists have been talking about the Epstein files lately so I am thinking about them.
+ Moira Donegan now has confirmation that Epstein was the one who funded the lawsuit against her when she made that "shitty media men" google doc back during Me Too. She talks about being named (as a target) in the files here and then also talks about all the ways that men use violence towards women to bond. I truly love it to the depths of my soul when she gets her second-wave pants on.
+ Jude Doyle (whose work some of you might remember from when he was writing as Sady Doyle) makes a good and angry post about how even ostensibly leftist men are trying to make this about class and not about misogyny and the patriarchy. (Obviously class plays a role, but that is NOT what is primarily going on here.) I appreciate this coming from a man very very much.
+ And then there's my boy Ryan Broderick, whose beat is the overlap between internet/tech stuff and the global far right. He's got a newsletter and a podcast, and sometimes the things he writes or pods about are just fun--revisiting LonelyGirl15, middle school conspiracy theories, internet witches, etc.
Then there's the second-level stuff, which tends to be entertaining but also really reveal things about how the world works--like an investigation into why mobile game ads are the very worst, Slenderman as moral panic, etc.
Third level stuff is things like a cult using Minecraft to recruit children, why eating disorder content is all over the internet, the no fap movement, etc.
Fourth level would be explicitly political but form the angle of the internet--for instance, he's done a lot of reporting about how the Charlie Kirk assassination has been metabolized by the internet and inspired more schisms within the right wing movement, etc.
But probably the most important work he's been doing for a while is on the Epstein files. He's been spending hundreds of hours searching through them, trying to figure out things like the connections between Epstein and 4chan or Epstein and Palantir or Epstein and Peter Thiel. Frankly, he deserves hazard pay.
But since the last drop, he's developed a theory that I find chilling and disturbingly plausible. At first glance, it seems like a variation on QAnon, too much of a conspiracy theory to possibly be true, but...I kind of think it might be true?
His written pieces about the last drolp are useful but don't go into great detail; for that, you'd have to listen to the last patron-only episode of his podcast Panic World. He says there are some gaps in the research he needs to do, connective tissue he needs to find. If he does end up sharing something written that fleshes things out as well as the episode does, I will certainly share it with y'all.
Here's his sixty-second pitch as transcribed by me:
I'm trying to wrap my mind around it, so I'm taking the time to write it up in my own words in more detail because that's how I think best. There's a lot of disturbing stuff under the cut--no details of CSA or anything like that, just a chilling indictment of how the world works.
If this sounds far-fetched to you, I don't blame you, but I have found Broderick to be pretty well-rooted in reality over the years, and he does a good job of laying out the case so if you have $5 extra laying around and want to listen to the latest episode, I recommend it with the caveat that his way of talking can be a little jarringly flip sometimes (in a 'laughing to keep from crying' way). I'm very used to it, but if this is your first time encountering him, it may take you aback.
My podcasters and journalists have been talking about the Epstein files lately so I am thinking about them.
+ Moira Donegan now has confirmation that Epstein was the one who funded the lawsuit against her when she made that "shitty media men" google doc back during Me Too. She talks about being named (as a target) in the files here and then also talks about all the ways that men use violence towards women to bond. I truly love it to the depths of my soul when she gets her second-wave pants on.
+ Jude Doyle (whose work some of you might remember from when he was writing as Sady Doyle) makes a good and angry post about how even ostensibly leftist men are trying to make this about class and not about misogyny and the patriarchy. (Obviously class plays a role, but that is NOT what is primarily going on here.) I appreciate this coming from a man very very much.
+ And then there's my boy Ryan Broderick, whose beat is the overlap between internet/tech stuff and the global far right. He's got a newsletter and a podcast, and sometimes the things he writes or pods about are just fun--revisiting LonelyGirl15, middle school conspiracy theories, internet witches, etc.
Then there's the second-level stuff, which tends to be entertaining but also really reveal things about how the world works--like an investigation into why mobile game ads are the very worst, Slenderman as moral panic, etc.
Third level stuff is things like a cult using Minecraft to recruit children, why eating disorder content is all over the internet, the no fap movement, etc.
Fourth level would be explicitly political but form the angle of the internet--for instance, he's done a lot of reporting about how the Charlie Kirk assassination has been metabolized by the internet and inspired more schisms within the right wing movement, etc.
But probably the most important work he's been doing for a while is on the Epstein files. He's been spending hundreds of hours searching through them, trying to figure out things like the connections between Epstein and 4chan or Epstein and Palantir or Epstein and Peter Thiel. Frankly, he deserves hazard pay.
But since the last drop, he's developed a theory that I find chilling and disturbingly plausible. At first glance, it seems like a variation on QAnon, too much of a conspiracy theory to possibly be true, but...I kind of think it might be true?
His written pieces about the last drolp are useful but don't go into great detail; for that, you'd have to listen to the last patron-only episode of his podcast Panic World. He says there are some gaps in the research he needs to do, connective tissue he needs to find. If he does end up sharing something written that fleshes things out as well as the episode does, I will certainly share it with y'all.
Here's his sixty-second pitch as transcribed by me:
The grand project of the last decade of Jeffrey Epstein's life following his first arrest for soliciting child prostitution in the 2000s was manipulating what we see on the internet to hide his crimes and exploring and investing in technologies that allowed him to transfer huge sums of money without being noticed by responsible parties. And those two things dovetailed into a conspiracy with Steve Bannon to overthrow liberal democracies in as many countries as possible in quick succession to allow him to basically fund his sex-trafficking ring with cryptocurrency.
I'm trying to wrap my mind around it, so I'm taking the time to write it up in my own words in more detail because that's how I think best. There's a lot of disturbing stuff under the cut--no details of CSA or anything like that, just a chilling indictment of how the world works.
So Broderick's theory is that all of Epstein's actions spring from his desire to be able to abuse girls. Like, he's a pedophile first and foremost. He knew that the best way to do that is to become super rich and have powerful friends, so he set out to do that. He was, from all accounts, a charming man who knew how to make people feel good about themselves, and he leveraged that to make connections, which made him money, which made him more connections.
He connected with Ghislaine Maxwell right after her father died and used that opportunity to step into Robert Maxwell's place as a kind of international connector and funnel for information (we know for sure that Maxwell worked for UK intelligence, Soviet intelligence, and Israeli intelligence as a source). But where Maxwell also did some actual business-y things, Epstein's entire thing was about being like, "Oh, you want to meet X person? I can set that up!" For instance, we now have the mail where Ehud Barak contacted him and was like, "What's this Palantir thing?" and Epstein was like, "I can connect you with the people who are creating it and also get you on the board." Shit like that.
All of this, again, in service of hurting girls and setting up ways for other people to hurt girls. To do that, he needs to be able to move money without regulation, and so his goal in life becomes breaking down the kinds of regulations that govern international banking and things like that. This explains why he starts to get into right-wing politics and also why he is very interested in the tech world.
He was already interested in breaking down democratic norms that try to hold the powerful accountable and was putting money towards doing that, but he kicked it into overdrive in 2017 when MeToo picked up and Weinstein was taken down. Truly shaken for the first time in his adult life, Epstein got in touch with Steve Bannon (or maybe Bannon got in touch with him--I'm unclear on the details) and they had a discussion about how all of Epstein's goals in life will be destroyed if we live in a world wherein women and children can talk about how powerful men hurt them and actually get some form of justice. Bannon tells him that the best way to destroy the possibility of that world emerging is to start funding right wing movements around the world (as an aside: there's no evidence that Bannon is involved in the sexual abuse stuff; he was using Epstein to his own ends). They were both smart enough to know that a great way to do this is to use tech and the internet. So Epstein got a meeting with the creator of 4chan. He became tight with Thiel. And he started funding other kinds of far right online movements all around the world. All those influencers that we thought were be astroturfed by, like, the Koch brothers, were probably being astroturfed by Epstein.
Because he was threatened by women and our allies trying to make a more just world.
Now, the only reason that Epstein gets away with all of this is that the rich and powerful of the world also want to be able to move money around without it being regulated or taxed by democratic governments. Some of them were willing to go along with what he wanted because they had abused girls provided by Epstein and either wanted to continue to do that or were blackmailed by him; some of them thought this 'overthrow democracy' plan was great because they are right-wing ideologues and racists (people like Bannon and Thiel); still others didn't care about his political project but just wanted to be able to move their money around without being taxed or regulated.
It's not a conspiracy to overturn democracy in the sense that everyone who's contributing wants to overthrow democracy. It's just rich people wanting to control what we see on the internet and--more importantly--not be held to account for what they do with their money. In essence, the conspiracy is the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy.
He connected with Ghislaine Maxwell right after her father died and used that opportunity to step into Robert Maxwell's place as a kind of international connector and funnel for information (we know for sure that Maxwell worked for UK intelligence, Soviet intelligence, and Israeli intelligence as a source). But where Maxwell also did some actual business-y things, Epstein's entire thing was about being like, "Oh, you want to meet X person? I can set that up!" For instance, we now have the mail where Ehud Barak contacted him and was like, "What's this Palantir thing?" and Epstein was like, "I can connect you with the people who are creating it and also get you on the board." Shit like that.
All of this, again, in service of hurting girls and setting up ways for other people to hurt girls. To do that, he needs to be able to move money without regulation, and so his goal in life becomes breaking down the kinds of regulations that govern international banking and things like that. This explains why he starts to get into right-wing politics and also why he is very interested in the tech world.
He was already interested in breaking down democratic norms that try to hold the powerful accountable and was putting money towards doing that, but he kicked it into overdrive in 2017 when MeToo picked up and Weinstein was taken down. Truly shaken for the first time in his adult life, Epstein got in touch with Steve Bannon (or maybe Bannon got in touch with him--I'm unclear on the details) and they had a discussion about how all of Epstein's goals in life will be destroyed if we live in a world wherein women and children can talk about how powerful men hurt them and actually get some form of justice. Bannon tells him that the best way to destroy the possibility of that world emerging is to start funding right wing movements around the world (as an aside: there's no evidence that Bannon is involved in the sexual abuse stuff; he was using Epstein to his own ends). They were both smart enough to know that a great way to do this is to use tech and the internet. So Epstein got a meeting with the creator of 4chan. He became tight with Thiel. And he started funding other kinds of far right online movements all around the world. All those influencers that we thought were be astroturfed by, like, the Koch brothers, were probably being astroturfed by Epstein.
Because he was threatened by women and our allies trying to make a more just world.
Now, the only reason that Epstein gets away with all of this is that the rich and powerful of the world also want to be able to move money around without it being regulated or taxed by democratic governments. Some of them were willing to go along with what he wanted because they had abused girls provided by Epstein and either wanted to continue to do that or were blackmailed by him; some of them thought this 'overthrow democracy' plan was great because they are right-wing ideologues and racists (people like Bannon and Thiel); still others didn't care about his political project but just wanted to be able to move their money around without being taxed or regulated.
It's not a conspiracy to overturn democracy in the sense that everyone who's contributing wants to overthrow democracy. It's just rich people wanting to control what we see on the internet and--more importantly--not be held to account for what they do with their money. In essence, the conspiracy is the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy.
If this sounds far-fetched to you, I don't blame you, but I have found Broderick to be pretty well-rooted in reality over the years, and he does a good job of laying out the case so if you have $5 extra laying around and want to listen to the latest episode, I recommend it with the caveat that his way of talking can be a little jarringly flip sometimes (in a 'laughing to keep from crying' way). I'm very used to it, but if this is your first time encountering him, it may take you aback.
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I try so hard to not be a conspiracy theorist about capitalism and misogyny, but the past few weeks have really shaken my ability to do that.
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Sometimes powerful people get together to do things that benefit themselves and hurt others! That is true! But that doesn't mean that every terrible thing in the world has a logical explanation or that all of the actions that those rich and powerful people take are even conscious decisions or thought through at all!
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You know that thing about how conspiracy theories are either "things that the government admitted to doing in declassified documents/court cases" or "antisemitism"? This is the former, right? Right?
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....I actually didn't know he was Jewish. I knew the name was, but since I knew he was a teacher at Dalton, I had him vaguely tagged in my head as WASPy. Helllllllllllllllll.
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Fuck everything.
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I don't know that he was *working* for any of these groups. More like would pass information/make connections between people who can't officially talk to each other, which was what Maxwell did too.