No time to die

 

Conspiracy theories never die

Well this doesn’t seem to be going away. 

“Trump urged supporters to see conspiracies everywhere. With Epstein, that's coming back to haunt him,” write Ali Swenson and Nicholas Riccardi of The Associated Press. As much as he tries to downplay it, Trump’s “nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.”

As CNN’s Brian Stelter puts it, “MAGA media’s conspiracy theories put Trump in power — and now they’re coming back to bite him.” 

“Right-wing TV networks and social media platforms have long rewarded hyperbolic rhetoric and reckless speculation,” Stelter points out. “Algorithms don’t necessarily want answers; they want engagement, and asking questions about an alleged government coverup definitely stokes engagement.”

Not everyone’s an “Epstein dead-ender,” though. Here’s Will Sommer at The Bulwark with what Bill Kristol describes as a “Terrific taxonomy of MAGA lunacy,” aka “The Five MAGA Factions Waging an Epstein Civil War.”

So, what’s next? For his Garbage Day newsletter, Ryan Broderick dissects the Epstein list meltdown and explains why “MAGA needs a new conspiracy theory.” 

As Broderick writes, “Modern fascism needs the biggest conspiracy you can come up with to fuel it. Something so all-encompassing and existentially terrifying that it can fill up every feed, warp every meme, dominate every conversation. . .