Jeffrey Epstein and the normalization of conspiracies

They always get away with it.

I had a busy weekend in which I could barely pay attention to the news. But I did read of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. The response was near-universal skepticism that Epstein committed suicide as reported.

It seems like we are under a form of mind control, as if this was the reaction the Ruling Powers actually want from us. We could at least make jokes about it, because Epstein himself was not a sympathetic figure. He was a convicted criminal, acknowledged to be a statutory rapist, a trafficker of minor teenage girls, and allegedly a serial rapist or sexual assaulter. Few would mourn the death of such a person.

Of course, we are also angry. This reeks of a cover-up. What secrets go with Epstein to his grave? Who among his rich, famous, and powerful associates have now gotten away with similar crimes?

Then again, how long will we be angry? How long before we shrug our shoulders and move on?

I was thinking about this as I watched Citizen Four, the Oscar-winning 2014 documentary about Edward Snowden and the revelation of the NSA’s warrantless collection of our personal data. Snowden initially made a splash, but on the whole it seemed like most people weren’t bothered by the NSA’s crimes.

It’s like they believed the old trope that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide. But the NSA actually had the power to blackmail us, or to take…