“On a scale of one to ten, how stupid do you think I am, anyway?” –Bester to Garibaldi, Babylon 5, (Season 5 episode “Phoenix Rising,” 1997).
In the wake of billionaire and known pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s having been “suicided” in prison, and amidst the coverage of ensuing speculations over the most predicted “suicide” in recent memory, one thing should be abundantly clear to anyone with properly functioning brain cells: conspiracy theory (-ies) is now one of the most weaponized phrases on the planet.
Possibly it is the third most weaponized phrase in the corporate media’s limited vocabulary.
What are the first two? Without a doubt, white supremacist and white nationalist, now that racist has lost much of its sting from overuse.
You don’t even have to have a theory to be dismissed, a priori, as a conspiracy theorist.
To illustrate, let’s review the Epstein saga. It can be broken down into 12 easily-digested steps.
- Epstein, whose status as a known pedophile had been known for over 10 years, is arrested (July 6) and, denied bail, ends up in Metropolitan Correctional Center. Many folks predicted that he’d be “suicided” because he’d become a threat to wealthy and powerful elites, some of whom are pedophiles. He could therefore not allowed to be brought to trial.
Predictably, such folks were dismissed as “conspiracy theorists.”
A question we should be asking: was someone or some organization protecting him all this time, and did that someone or organization, for reasons unknown, withdraw their protection?
(What we know is that underage girls disappear without a trace all over the world every year.)
- Epstein’s being denied bail ensures that he will remain within easy reach.
- An incident occurs with no witnesses (July 23) and is reported by corporate media as a suicide attempt. Epstein is treated for neck wounds.
- He is then placed on suicide watch, which means 24/7 surveillance and nothing in his cell (including a bed) that could be used in a suicide attempt.
- He is, for reasons unknown, quietly taken off suicide watch (right around the start of August).
- Epstein’s cellmate is transferred.
- He is now isolated and alone on a Friday night (August 9).
- Guards are discovered to have failed to check his cell for over three hours. Turns out, they fell asleep.
While on duty watching the most publicly visible prisoner in the country.
- Surveillance cameras are suddenly either broken or turned off (it is unclear which it was).
- Epstein is found unresponsive the following morning (or so we are told). His body is spirited away as rapidly as if it had grown wings and taken flight.
- Within the hour, his death is declared a suicide.
- Autopsy reports released August 14 turn out to reveal bone fractures in his neck more consistent with strangulation than suicide.
Incidentally, not a one of the authors of these stories can avoid taking a swipe at “unfounded conspiracy theories.”
If you think that this sequence of events happening by chance is stretching the law of averages a bit, according to corporate media you are a conspiracy theorist.
Notice that nowhere above is there any theory. Although I concede that some including the President have insinuated Clinton involvement in Epstein’s death, we don’t have to name any names or cite any suspects to get a strong sense that somehow, the official narrative lacks all logic and credibility.
There is even a theory circulating that Epstein isn’t dead, that a lifeless body double was substituted while he was spirited off — possibly to enjoy himself in some hidden Deep Establishment facility filled with underaged girls. I have no evidence for this; I just cite it for completeness sake.
Leaving the Epstein case aside, let’s note: in a compelling article Ron Unz described how the CIA weaponized the term beginning in 1967. He shows how any narrative those with power want to discredit can be portrayed in dominant media as a “conspiracy theory.”
In the 1960s, the issue was clear. There was a need to discredit those questioning the Warren Commission Report’s claim that a “lone gunman” shot President Kennedy.
This was the narrative the Deep Establishment of the day wanted, and it was the narrative they got.
The phrase proved very useful. Once someone is accused of trading in “conspiracy theories,” his credibility with the mainstream is toast.
The phrase has been used for anyone questioning an official narrative, i.e., a government-approved account of some dramatic event, be it a political assassination, a terror attack, or a mass shooting. The narrative will be repeated over and over again, like a mantra. Repetition is not evidence, but as every psychologist knows, it functions like hypnosis in most people’s minds.
At the moment, government officials and corporate media are using it for all the mileage they can get from it!
No one will use it, of course, for theories those with power want the masses to believe, sometimes absent real evidence and sometimes even in the face of contrary findings of fact. The obvious examples are that Russians hacked the DNC computers (physical evidence showed that the “hack” was actually a download to a device, probably a flash drive, proving that it was done by someone on the inside, not a Russian operating from a remote location), and that the Trump campaign colluded with agents of the Russian government back in 2016 to steal the election from Her Royal Clintonness.
We recently learned that Epstein kept on display, in his $77 million 7-story palace in the Upper East Side, an oil painting of Bill Clinton in drag. Slick Willie is posing in a blue dress not unlike Monica Lewinsky’s infamous dress, and wearing red stilettos. He’s in the Oval Office and leering at the camera.
Only a painting, of course. Move on, move on….
Epstein’s residence, the largest in its area, is in fact a museum of the perverse and the bizarre, with a life-size inflatable doll greeting visitors at the entrance, a chess set with pieces modeled after staffers in provocative dress, and a hallway filled with depictions of eyeballs.
Bottom line: the weirdo had to be made to go away. He could not be allowed to come to trial. I suspect we don’t know the half of it. But as the suicide narrative continues to unravel, this case threatens to expose the sordid underbelly of Western power-elitism in the materialist / hedonist culture of the superrich. Something went terribly wrong in their corner of the universe, and now it threatens to blow up in their faces.
Hence the desperation to paint critics of the suicide narrative as “conspiracy theorists.”
Where could this go?
Possibly nowhere. At present, realistically, I don’t see anyone penetrating the cover being imposed by the weaponized language. I can envision the entire affair dropping down a deep dark memory hole as soon as the next media spectacle comes along.
I have no theories of my own. All one can do is watch and wait.
[Author’s note: as everyone knows, or should know, alternatives to Establishment corporate media are under direct attack. There is Google’s algorithmic censorship as well as the deplatforming we have seen on YouTube. Everyone is hurt by this! Those not supporting official narratives are being kicked off Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which will no longer link to sites accused of delivering — we still have no definition of the term — “hate speech.”
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© 2019 Steven Yates – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Steven Yates: freeyourmindinsc@yahoo.com
