Mobilizing after the Epstein files
How to survive and resist under sinister webs of power
In popular stories of good and evil, the villain is packaged in metaphor. Evil wears a black cloak. Evil sees from one large fiery eye. Sometimes, evil has no nose.
In light of the demons whose names have been redacted from the Epstein files, the most accurate metaphor to understand the psychopathy of evil is that evil people are not human. They only wear human skin. They abuse children and young women systematically, and they talk about unspeakable things using barely concealed language over e-mail. They are horrible, and they deserve the worst punishment we can give them.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of American empire? I would like to say yes, but I don’t see this as just an American evil. This is a global empire run by old white men, a political configuration we’ve unwillingly arrived at after centuries of colonization and decades of neoliberalization that privatized and financed and surveilled everything.
The crucial thing to understand in the release of the Epstein files is that everyone in the elite knows each other, and they control the world together.
Why have they released the files now, you might ask, if they have all the power? Because most of the names of the perpetrators have been redacted, the release of the files actually serves them through three main reasons:
By shocking the public into submission. The unthinkable acts committed by the elite are so gruesome, so heinous, that it puts citizens into a state of psychological freeze or “submission,” in which people who are overwhelmed by the horror let everything—including, crucially, political engagement—roll over them.
By distracting from a different evil, which is the genocide of Palestine and expanded Israeli-U.S. war in the Middle East. The war crimes against Palestinian people have been ongoing since 2023. Just yesterday, Israel attacked six countries, with Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon among them—this is despite the ceasefire agreement Israel made with Lebanon in November. If the world is looking at the heavily-redacted Epstein files, trying to uncover just a few of those protected elite, then they won’t be looking at Palestine or Lebanon.
By priming the American public for the next electoral candidate, who will appear to be opposed to Trump and his policies. This is the purpose of polarized political parties, after all; they give us the illusion of change. The more extreme the ideological switch between candidates, the better to cut off our political imagination. When the realm of politics is defined by them as progressive or conservative, left or right, we can only watch as the pendulum swings endlessly. The next candidate will curse Trump as a pedophile and rapist, touting themselves as a progressive “socialist” but effectively doing nothing against the policies of Trump’s administration. Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t matter because the elite only have one goal: consolidate more power.
Despite the bleakness of this analysis, what steels my courage is witnessing countless everyday citizens mobilizing, lending their expertise to bring clarity and justice to this moral crisis. Morticians are analyzing photographic evidence of Jeffrey Epstein, graphic designers are uncovering the names of redacted co-conspirators, and not to mention the decades-long legal battle victims have been waging to bring justice to abusers. Citizens—not legacy journalists, not puppet politicians—are doing the work of justice. This is something to celebrate. We the people are not helpless, and justice belongs to us.
Let’s keep up the work of healing violence and injustice. Here are three things I personally practice that might be useful for you:
Find one thing you can do for your community that you’re good at, and do it consistently. Giving food, education, art, or other skills and services on the basis of mutual exchange (i.e. trusting that you will be repaid in means that don’t have to be financial) is the most dependable way to build a strong resistance. We don’t have enough trust in people who are just like us, struggling and feeling alone in this political climate—but we need to remember we have more in common with each other than with the 1%.
Keep calling for a free Palestine, for climate justice, for the freedom of political prisoners, and more, but don’t get stuck in one form of messaging. In trying to get more people on our side to work with us, we need to meet them where they are, which involves using more approachable language, extending compassion when there are inevitable mistakes, and never holding perfection as the standard for activism. Expanding our circles of care and solidarity is meant to be uncomfortable, but it’s also meant to be exciting—we are co-creating something together. We don’t know how we’ll change in the process, but we will develop skills and values that make us better people.
Remember that the scale of Empire is not the same scale we need to operate in. The logic of Empire and its systems of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, demand full subjugation of all populations of the world. The same logic penetrates our values when we mistakenly believe our solutions must apply to the whole world, when we insist on scaling locally grown projects to the national or international level, frantic about solving everything now. Small-scale solutions are just as subversive. Creating a crack in the Empire, no matter how small, grows justice and provides a blueprint for others to emulate. Don’t mistake virality for effectiveness.
The Epstein files are truly traumatizing, especially for women and sexual abuse survivors. We need to be mindful in how we process, act, and resist in the coming months. Please take care of yourself and check in on the people you love. Take your time in processing the shock and trauma of recent events. The work is still important and necessary. We are in for a long fight, but we don’t fight alone.
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Thank you, Maria.
Very timely post <3 It's important we talk about how to actually deal and cope with everything that's coming out on this