Content warning: mentions of sexual violence.
Last Friday, I received a notification from BBC News — three million new files were to be released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) from their investigation into the disgraced pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.
I should have been more shocked than I was. Even the figure of three million — a number so extortionate it can barely be properly registered in this context — was no longer unbelievable.
Later, after opening Instagram for some mindless distraction, I was instead met with 20 slides of screenshots from the newly-released files. I steeled myself for the worst, and yet, on looking through the post, instead found several conversations about literature between Epstein and various correspondents, including the influential academic Noam Chomsky. Almost immediately following, Instagram suggested another series of screenshots focusing on Epstein’s apparent inability to spell basic words. Shortly after this, a selection to prove that he was a ‘loser’ begging people to meet him.
Not one of these posts referenced the scale of his crimes perpetrated against young girls.
I have to question, therefore, how we have reached a point where the odd details of Epstein’s life and character have been disentangled from his atrocities to the extent that they can legitimately take time out of the push for justice. Has the slow, drawn-out release process desensitised us, refocusing the conversation on their reveal as the final object of our questions, as opposed to their true nature as a gateway to prosecution and justice?
Given that each tranche of documents has produced almost no movement among those damningly implicated — Trump, Musk, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to name a few — I find myself doubting the value of the process by which this information comes to light. I cannot shake the sense, despite my unequivocal belief in the public’s right to scrutinise corrupt governments, that perhaps those same governments are benefitting from a public desensitised by both the relentless release cycles and sheer volume of information available to them.
So far, the only individual arrested and charged for their involvement with Epstein is Ghislaine Maxwell. As positive as this result obviously is, it still strikes me that this was primarily a web of abuse perpetrated by wealthy men, for other wealthy men, and covered up by other wealthy men. Why, then, do we truly need to see three million pages of evidence detailing the most heinous violence against young girls to believe that something of this proportion took place? Moreover, in this release alone, the DoJ accidentally revealed the identities of nearly 100 survivors. Without concrete legal action, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — about the release of the Epstein files that will prevent the system of exploitation the survivors suffered in from continuing to exist.
Ultimately, we cannot afford to become desensitised. No matter how relentless the onslaught of horrific information, public pressure must remain focused on using these files as a gateway to winning justice for survivors, without being distracted by minutiae. Nothing about this is normal, and I hope I am never so unsurprised that I am not deeply, uncomfortably angry.
“U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, August 12, 2006” is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The Epstein Files: We Cannot Become Desensitised
Content warning: mentions of sexual violence.
Last Friday, I received a notification from BBC News — three million new files were to be released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) from their investigation into the disgraced pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.
I should have been more shocked than I was. Even the figure of three million — a number so extortionate it can barely be properly registered in this context — was no longer unbelievable.
Later, after opening Instagram for some mindless distraction, I was instead met with 20 slides of screenshots from the newly-released files. I steeled myself for the worst, and yet, on looking through the post, instead found several conversations about literature between Epstein and various correspondents, including the influential academic Noam Chomsky. Almost immediately following, Instagram suggested another series of screenshots focusing on Epstein’s apparent inability to spell basic words. Shortly after this, a selection to prove that he was a ‘loser’ begging people to meet him.
Not one of these posts referenced the scale of his crimes perpetrated against young girls.
I have to question, therefore, how we have reached a point where the odd details of Epstein’s life and character have been disentangled from his atrocities to the extent that they can legitimately take time out of the push for justice. Has the slow, drawn-out release process desensitised us, refocusing the conversation on their reveal as the final object of our questions, as opposed to their true nature as a gateway to prosecution and justice?
Given that each tranche of documents has produced almost no movement among those damningly implicated — Trump, Musk, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to name a few — I find myself doubting the value of the process by which this information comes to light. I cannot shake the sense, despite my unequivocal belief in the public’s right to scrutinise corrupt governments, that perhaps those same governments are benefitting from a public desensitised by both the relentless release cycles and sheer volume of information available to them.
So far, the only individual arrested and charged for their involvement with Epstein is Ghislaine Maxwell. As positive as this result obviously is, it still strikes me that this was primarily a web of abuse perpetrated by wealthy men, for other wealthy men, and covered up by other wealthy men. Why, then, do we truly need to see three million pages of evidence detailing the most heinous violence against young girls to believe that something of this proportion took place? Moreover, in this release alone, the DoJ accidentally revealed the identities of nearly 100 survivors. Without concrete legal action, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — about the release of the Epstein files that will prevent the system of exploitation the survivors suffered in from continuing to exist.
Ultimately, we cannot afford to become desensitised. No matter how relentless the onslaught of horrific information, public pressure must remain focused on using these files as a gateway to winning justice for survivors, without being distracted by minutiae. Nothing about this is normal, and I hope I am never so unsurprised that I am not deeply, uncomfortably angry.
“U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, August 12, 2006” is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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