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Right Wing Conspiracy Theory On The Epstein Files: Old Paradigm With New Enemies Using Social Media. [1]

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Date: 2025-06-06

If you are wondering why a drug addled malignant narcissitic billionaire, Musk, is hurling an accusation of pedophilia at another criminal narcissist with a record of sexual abuse, Trump, it’s because Musk knows his latest accusation against Trump plays into a common right wing conspiracy about the deceased pedophile Jeff Epstein. The right wing conspiracy theory is that Epstein kept some kind of master list of other politically powerful pedophiles who were raping underage girls at his parties, and it was those pedophiles who arranged for Epstein to be “murdered” while in custody at Ryker’s Island.

Most of those politically powerful pedophiles are Democrats and the liberal establishment, and the most prominent figure is former President Bill Clinton. And it was at Hillary Clinton’s “orders” that the hit on Epstein was carried out by some agent of the Deep State. The evidence for all of this is in the Epstein files.

By the way, Qanon folks believe that Donald Trump is the savior who was going to bring all this evil to light. Never mind that the “murder” of Epstein occured in 2019 under the watch of the Trump Administration. And please forget about all the photographs and videos of Trump at Epstein’s parties. Or the fact that Trump admits in an interview that he knew Epstein for 15 years. In fact, some of the conspiracy theorists believe Trump just attended those parties while secretly working for the FBI.

So it was with baited breath that a collection of these right wing conspiracy theorists went to a meeting at the White House for the release of the Epstein files that Trump promised.

As The New York Times observed, “it was a moment that said much about the Trump administration:” Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel “chose to prioritize a long-concluded case to assuage conservative media and the obsessive core of Trump supporters who see the case as nefarious unfinished business.” Bondi evidently decided to give a “scoop” to a group of fifteen pro-Trump social media personalities who were at the White House for briefings on Thursday. The influencers (many of whom have hyped other conspiracy theories for years, and thus have big fan bases on the right) walked out of the White House with white binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” Some of the attendees looked triumphant, as if they’d finally figured out what the government had been hiding. “But they quickly soured after opening the binders,” Julie K. Brown wrote, “realizing that they contained pages of redacted material and flight logs that were already made public in 2021.” Indeed, many volumes of evidence relating to Epstein’s crimes has been in the public domain for years, but pro-Trump media stars have insisted that there must be more, and that it was being concealed for political reasons.

The group quickly realized they got snookered by Trump, and they went on X to bitch about it too. Others though like Glenn Beck believed that someone had gotten to Trump. Yes, the savior of sexually abused kids had somehow been compromised! When this happened, Bondi put on a big show and act, and she shot off a letter to Kash Patel to look into why the New York Office of the DOJ was not releasing all the Epstein files.

And this leads us to the right wing attacks on Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino. Both of them come out and said, “Epstein committed suicide.” And the blowback against them was fierce, which is why Bongino went on Fox to bitterly complain about his awful job. Once again, forget that both Patel and Bongino RAGED for years that something stunk about the explanation of suicide. Those assholes swore they would get to the truth behind the whole Esptein debacle.

So why won’t this stupid conspiracy theory die?

Basically, it’s an old but effective conspiracy theory with some new villains spread with the advent of computers and social media.

The old conspiracy theory is that a secret group of people have controlled the world for thousands of years. This powerful secret group engages in the rape, murder, and cannibalism of children. At one time it was used against Christian during the Roman Empire. Then, it centered on Jews for over a thousand years. The Nazis in Germany used this conspiracy theory to commit genocide against the Jews.

While previously these conspiracy theories about Jews were spread by word of mouth or print (books, leaflets, newspapers), Hitler identified new ways to spread anti-semitism with radio and finally film. The conspiracy theories about Jews could now reach an even wider audience. Once Hitler took power, all forms of mass communication came under direct control of the Nazis, and when everyday you read, hear, and see images of how awful the Jews are, this anti-semitic message permeated every aspect of German life.

And according to scholars who study conspiracy theories and fascism, this has always been the goal of those who believe and promulgate these lies. In other words, behind most right wing conspiracy theories is a wanna be fascist. And Michael Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center discusses how fascists hitched the old paradigm of conspiracy theories (child abuse by a secret sect) to a real life version of child rape with Jeff Epstein.

Epstein's ties to Trump himself are generally left unspoken in extremist, fringe communities according to Michael Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center, because the goal of an Epstein reference in these circles, he says, is to discredit anyone seen as attacking Trump. When unfavorable news breaks, any reference to Epstein is a quick way for his supporters to frame a debate as a false choice between Trump's side or Epstein's. It provides validation for fellow believers, Hayden says, and serves to diminish criticism about Trump. However bad a news event may look for Trump, by citing Epstein, the other side looks worse and more depraved. "These are tools in the shed of people who are, for lack of a better word, fascist propagandists who understand how to use this friend versus enemy binary," he says.

That’s the new twist with the Epstein files conspiracy. A real life pedophile with lots of money and hangs around with the politically powerful — Bill Clinton for one — gets away with raping underage girls for years. It’s a concrete event that gives this right wing conspiracy theory an anchor. The enemy this time isn’t Jews though. It’s the Clinton’s and the whole Democratic liberal establishment.

Remember, there really was and still is an industry dedicated to destroying the Clinton’s. It’s not a left wing conspiracy theory. Right wing media took off because they had a person to attack during the 1990’s: Bill Clinton.

The 1990’s was one long decade of attacking the Clinton’s for all sorts of imagined crimes.

And as Hayden pointed out in the above article, linking Bill Clinton to Epstein is a way of taking the sting of any attacks on Trump away. Right wingers could always argue, “Well, Bill Clinton raped under aged girls! Trump never did anything that horrible!”

Never mind that Trump rapes women. Never mind that there is evidence that Trump partied with Epstein with a bunch of young women about. Nope. Nothing to see hear. Besides, it’s FAKE NEWS! Or Trump was playing Epstein! Trump was working for the FBI!

Finally, these right wing conspiracy theories about the Epstein files are kept alive not just by podcasts from the likes of Dan Bongino and Kash Patel. Nope. Social media platforms have been spreading misinformation about the Clinton’s for years. Now, it could join the long standing hate of the Clinton’s and liberals with a known pedophile. With no one to regulate social media platforms, anything that pops up on those platforms eventually becomes gospel to some, especially those on the right.

Here’s what Mike Rothschild said about the Epstein files conspiracy theories and the supposed “list of pedophiles” he kept:

Then why was there so much excitement for the list within MAGA circles online — especially when the list itself wasn’t even documentation of Epstein’s clients? I think it really ties back to this industry of conspiracy theories about the Clintons. I think they really feel like this will be the thing that brings down Bill and Hillary Clinton. They’re still obsessed with the Clintons. And so anything that can serve as the final nail in their coffin, they’re going to rally around, even if, of course, Trump and a lot of the people around Trump are also implicated in all of these documents. They don’t care about that at all. It’s about the Clintons and the rest of the liberal establishment. What is it about the Clintons that captivates far-right conspiracy theorists like this? Part of it is that it’s already been three decades of this: The Clinton conspiracy industry started in the early 90s. It started with stuff like Whitewater, Travelgate, stuff that is ancient history now. But there was a really well-funded, very organized and popular effort to bring the Clintons down. And then of course, it resulted in the impeachment, it resulted in the dump truck full of conspiracies about Hillary Clinton when she ran for president. And even though they’re not really in the public eye much anymore, it’s so prolific that conspiracy theorists have stuck with them because they know what works. They’re just like a classic rock band playing the hits. How did these people use the “Epstein list” as ammunition for their conspiracy theories, and how does the role of the internet factor into all this? Internet is a huge part of it, and social media in particular. It spreads incredibly quickly, because it sounds believable and if you share it with some documents, it doesn’t matter if they’re real or not. The people who are passing this stuff around don’t care. It’s very easy to spread these things around and very easy to ignore the parts of it that you don’t find to be palatable to your worldview, such as Donald Trump’s connections to it, and you play up the connections of people like Bill Clinton.

Now, I know I have shown that right wing conspiracy theorists have not abandoned Trump with regards to the Epstein files. But what happens when another fascist who controls a major social media platforms starts to reminds folks that Trump WAS ASSOCIATED WITH EPSTEIN? As drug addled as Elon Musk is, he still knows how to push his X followers. And he has millions of them. What happens when the world’s wealthiest man who is a right wing extremists keeps telling his followers, “Trump is a pedophile!”? Will any of that stick to Trump this time?

It just might. If nothing else, some of those idiots who don’t much attention to the news but suck up social media shit and voted for Trump might have second thoughts about Trump, besides the fact that the price of their fuckin’ eggs didn’t drop. Trump did make that promise to them. And I’m betting that some of them will start to hear all about Trump’s partying with a rich pedophile.

As for the MAGA cult, I doubt this will make any difference. Cultists have a incredible gift for ignoring painful facts about any dear leader.

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