Matthew Schmitz at First Things:
The Epstein myth updates these lies for the age of Jewish statehood. It presents Epstein as blackmailing American leaders—not on behalf of a shadowy world Jewry, but on behalf of the Jewish state. And it recasts Jewish ritual sacrifice in terms of child sexual abuse. The anti-Semitic implications of the Epstein myth may not be widely acknowledged, but they are understood by many of the myth’s most important promoters.
Take Maria Farmer, an Epstein accuser who has been interviewed by MSNBC and respectfully profiled by the New York Times. She remarked in a recent interview, “All the Jewish people I met just happen to be pedophiles who run the world economy.” She is an adherent of David Icke, the UFOlogist who has promoted the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] and suggested that the world is controlled by shape-shifting alien “reptilians” that merely appear to be human, including the members of the Rothschild family.
Similar claims are made by another Epstein accuser, Juliette Bryant. Maurene Comey, the prosecutor of Ghislaine Maxwell, submitted a victim impact statement from Bryant at Maxwell’s sentencing hearing. Apparently, the government regards Bryant’s words on Epstein as credible. This is a remarkable judgment. Earlier this year, Bryant declared on social media that she had “witnessed Epstein turn into an alien reptilian creature.”
Certain facts about Epstein are well established and incontestable: He committed sexual crimes against minors. He deserved to be punished, and more severely than he was. What goes beyond the facts is the Epstein myth. This myth is a synthesis of conspiracy theories: satanic panic, blood libel, the Protocols, UFOs. It generally presents its assertions in a respectable guise, but as its most enthusiastic adherents reveal, it tends toward the demonization of Jews.
I would say that the constellation of accusations floating around Epstein island lends itself to the demonization of all sorts of things, which makes it irresistible to many malcontents. For example, various female reporters seem interested becasue the story demonizes male sexuality. Populists see the global elite partying together on a secret island, the perfect metaphor for their view of the political world. Anti-semites see secret Jewish influence. Socialists see billionaires flaunting their immunity from the law. Nervous Christians see Satanic power; nervous crazy people see reptilian aliens.
Epstein was a sleazeball, a convicted sex offender who got rich helping billionaires avoid taxes. As the list of visitors to his island shows, there are a lot of sleazy men in the world, including two American presidents and a British prince.
But it turns my stomach that media outlets that ought to know better keep printing allegations from Epstein "survivors", even when these women have had to recant their charges under oath. These professional accusers, all of whom were adults when they went to the island, got paid to party with rich men. Nobody forced them to sign up as island escorts. Now they play the victim for cash and attention. Maybe somebody was coerced into going to the island; maybe some of them were effectively raped once they got there. I have seen no evidence of this, but let's allow it is possible. The women in the news as accusers were not coerced and were not raped. They are just displaying the same kind of unstable mania for attention they showed when they went to the island in the first place. Reporters who quote them are indulging in outrage for its own sake.
Given all the important things that are happening in the world, can we please talk about something else?
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