Conspiracy or Logic: Part 2

Sorry, for some reason blogger did not want me to type anything past the MSNBC link saying that yeah, the guards were slacking off on the job.

Here's Ed's conclusion from the post:

With all that said, the idea of a high profile inmate on suicide watch committing suicide without intervention is highly suspicious. It makes perfect sense that ears would perk up and that everyone would reflexively question that version of events. I cannot imagine what kind of investigation could be done that would produce a result that would NOT be rejected by a large part of the population, but I hope a more complete version of events emerges. Whatever happened, conspiracy theories about this event will persist until long after this presidency ends.

That, I'd have to say is the point. No investigation would be credibly accepted by the public at large. Let's put up those memes again just for shits and giggles:

 This supposed coalition falls apart once any kind of circumstances arise. I am sure there is crossover between the Bernie Bros who hate Hillary Clinton and the glassy-eyed pizzagate nutjobs but even if everyone still agrees on the result, there will be a million factions form just on the direction of causation, the people protected by the guy's death, and every piece of trivia beyond.

What got me roused enough to actually write about this little, meaningless episode was Josh Marshall's podcast from yesterday, "We're living in the golden age of conspiracy theories." While there were so many subjects discussed on that episode, Epstein's suicide was one of them. I think it is David Taintor who reported that he was taken off of suicide watch at the request of his lawyers, the prison was understaffed, and his cellmate was relocated. These factors combined to produce the conspiracy theories represented in these memes. Pedophilia seems to go with arrogant and undeserved wealth like peanut butter and chocolate in the minds of people who want to sound smart. Doughfacedonny absolutely needs this to be about the Clintons because it is basically public knowledge now that he loves young girls and was probably first in line at Epstein's soirees. So, where some people see unity and bipartisanship in conspiracy theory, I see just a new skirmish in the cold civil war.

Of course it's suspicious that these factors converged and the rich guy everyone loves to hate was found dead but I have to ask; so what? Let's say he was murdered; could you have done anything about it? If it was murder, would you have any other thoughts? What does it actually do to affect our lives and our republic? Murder or suicide, he doesn't testify against his buddies. His victims do not get to confront him, the public does not get to gloat over seeing a rich, entitled asshole who did really bad things in court and suffering. If there was/is a conspiracy to kill Epstein, do you think any conspirators will face justice? If incontrovertible evidence showed up that Doughfacedonny was banging underage girls at Epstein's pleasure palace, do you think it would change anything? No, normal decent people still hate him for everything he has done and what he stands for and his reprogrammable meatbag supporters could not care less. Will it motivate people to show up and vote, donate, work on campaigns? I hope so, but for any politically-inert citizen that decides to pay attention because of it will be cancelled out by the emboldened fascist who will crawl naked over broken glass to defend their god emperor con man in chief. I know this because all the same monsters showed up to vote for Roy Moore in Alabama who commands only a fraction of trump's "charisma" and was all but convicted of being a pedophile.

So, what's the difference? Occam's Razor says that the simplest answer is often the correct one. If speculating on the depths of conspiracy is something you enjoy, go to town. But don't expect anything to come of it. And absolutely do not put any stock in this being some kind of unifying event between liberals and "conservatives" because the latter care only about smearing the former. In the vacuum of evidence that is sure to come, with the same crooks covering up the "conspiracy," republicans will simply invent facts to fit their narrative. If you think this finally wakes them up from decades of self-deception... follow Occam's Razor. Has anything ever prompted conservatives to wake up? No, they can abandon a guy like George Dubya by inventing a tale about him abandoning conservatism and temporarily shrug off the identity of "Republican" by saying they are "constitutional or independent conservatives" and put on funny hats to protest the Kenyan Usurper's socialism, but as soon as the next man on horseback shows up to champion authoritarianism and the republican brand has had a chance to shake off its toxicity they will be right back.

This is the battle, this is the one that matters. Epstein is just a sideshow, trivia, so don't invest too much time and energy on it. There are real conspiracies out there, this particular one doesn't matter.