Imagine for a moment that you first heard the name Larry Summers last week, when he appeared on what I called Planet Epstein. This planet is an information ecosystem in which every major world event is linked to the sex trafficking conspiracy that is supposed to rule the world. It is a metaphorical place, but not an imaginary one: you can find it on YouTube and in certain corners of TikTok and other social media platforms. As a moderately informed citizen of Planet Epstein, you recently learned that Summers set much of the economic policy for three presidents, including Bill Clinton, who you already suspected had his own list of endorsements in the Epstein files, which you eagerly, even optimistically, wait for the government to fully disclose. You also learned that Summers, who corresponded with Epstein until July 2019, was previously president of Harvard University and used his considerable influence not only to raise money for pet projects — including a poetry initiative run by his wife — but to help shape the direction of higher education in this country more generally. You learned that this lifelong liberal was looking for a romantic relationship with a mentee and was asking Jeffrey Epstein for advice on this. You learned that the woman he appeared to be pursuing is the daughter of China’s former vice minister of finance. You’ve even heard that Summers and Epstein had a code name for this Asian woman, Peril, perhaps in reference to “Yellow Peril.” (After the exchange between Summers and Epstein was made public, Summers released a statement saying he was “deeply ashamed” of his relationship with Epstein.) And what have you learned about Summers’ most recent activities? Well, until last week, he was on the board of directors of OpenAI, the company that you think will shape the entire future of America. And most importantly, you have learned that the most powerful men in this country are more pathetic, predatory and corrupt than you or any of your friends.
What conclusions do you draw from your quick introduction to Summers, which you probably assembled from YouTube Shorts, Wikipedia and ChatGPT? More to the point, if you think you’re a rational person who draws conclusions based on the evidence you have, what happens? should you think?
Over the past few months, I have tried to assess the extent to which the American public is now convinced that a cabal of pedophiles runs the world. Polls have shown that a large majority of the country believes the government hid information about Epstein’s clients and his death. But there’s a difference between suspecting a cover-up and going full-on Pizzagate conspiracy mode, drawing connections between Summers, Epstein, Trump, Bill Clinton, Mossad and the sudden rise of the AI industry, which now appears to underpin much of the global economy – and then concluding that a shadowy group of oligarchs rule us all.
There are some indicators, however, that Planet Epstein has begun to eclipse our former home. Congress, for example, voted 427-1 to require the Justice Department to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to its investigation and prosecution of Epstein. This result owes much to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who attracted national attention primarily as the butt of jokes, but who, before her surprise announcement Friday that she was resigning from office in January, had become one of the most visible — and, yes, increasingly respected — politicians in the country. And the downfall of powerful figures such as Summers, who escaped scrutiny during the early outbreaks of the Epstein story, suggests that a capitulation is occurring. Anecdotally, I don’t know a single person in my life who truly thinks this is the end of the story or that all the culprits have been revealed. More importantly, Trump, who can usually count on a third of the country to accept whatever version of the truth he offers, has found almost no audience for his claim of an “Epstein hoax” — the narrative that the continued focus on Epstein is a Democratic plot to drag his great administration into scandal and distract from the “greatness” that Republicans are accomplishing. At the very least, elected officials — including those, like Greene, who have spent the last decade serving as Trump’s loyal acolytes — have begun to fear public wrath on this issue.
I believe we are in the midst of a quietly revolutionary period in this country, which began with the pandemic and the protests following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. (I suppose this column is, more than anything, an attempt to chronicle that revolution.) The precipitating factors can be traced back as far as you like, but the change became evident during the lockdowns, with the sight of millions taking to the streets and protests of so-called capitulations of members of Congress kneeling at the Capitol and big corporations obediently posting “social justice” messages on social media — which, of course, happened alongside the Red State’s fights over quarantines and, later, vaccines. mandates. This moment did not lead to a change in the world order, but it decimated the authority that the “establishment” had left in this country. The unrest that followed took various forms, including a continued and drastic decline in trust in traditional news media and attacks on universities from both the left and the right. This was also channeled into Trump’s 2024 campaign, which was less about any particular issue than about a renewed and entirely hollow promise to drain the swamp again.
What this insurrectionary energy sought was a single theory of the world, ideally one that did not rely on partisan tendencies – or, indeed, on policy at all. Epstein provided it. Let’s not forget that Epstein died more than six years ago now, and while the story had certainly not been forgotten by the public, it had at least been put on the back burner when Greene; Thomas Massie, a U.S. Representative from Kentucky; and a handful of other politicians have started talking about the Epstein files again. The Trump administration’s heavy-handed response certainly hasn’t calmed things down. Also playing a role was the fact that a growing number of Americans, spurred by the war in Gaza and by new media commentators across the political spectrum, were beginning to question Israel’s influence over Washington, D.C., also played a role.
