Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / How QAnon Pulled Public Attention Off Jeffrey Epstein and Redirected It Into Fantasy (5/8/26)

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How QAnon Pulled Public Attention Off Jeffrey Epstein and Redirected It Into Fantasy (5/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. As I'm sitting here going through the news,
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I come across this AlterNet article, and honestly, the longer
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I think about it, the more infuriating it becomes, because
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it's not lost on me, not even for a second,
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that the loudest warriors of the soul called Cabal Crusade,
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the same people who spent years beating their chests screaming
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about kids being preyed upon and claiming that they were
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the last line of defense against some shadowy global elite,
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have suddenly gone dead silent now that Jeffrey Epstein is
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back in the headlines and the truth is spilling out
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in real time, and that silence is deafening. It's cowardly,
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and it proves what I've been saying for years. A
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lot of these loudmouse never cared about survivors, never cared
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about the truth, never cared about justice. They cared about attention, clicks,
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manufactured outrage and the adrenaline Russia, pretending that they were
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a part of some heroic underground mission. Because now that
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the villains are being exposed for real, these same self
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appointed patriots are nowhere to be found. Their voices evaporated
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the second the truth stopped being a fantasy and started
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being uncomfortable reality. And the wildest part is that the
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Epstein case was the real deal all along. Not a larp,
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not a comic book, not anonymous riddles on a message
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board or some Morse code scavenger hunt. This was a
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real conspiracy, with real bodies, real victims, real institutions protecting
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a real network of powerful predators. And what did those
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truth warriors do with it? They hijacked it. They turned
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it in debate. They used Epstein like a marketing strategy
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to funnel people into their most absurd hallucination ever constructed QAnon.
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They took an actual criminal enterprise, a real cabal operating
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in plain sight, and they smothered it in fantasy and
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numerology and Bible coded TikTok nonsense until the public couldn't
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tell where reality ended and the circus began. And now
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that their receipts are finally hitting the table, now that
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the subpoenas are being dodged, now that names are being
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dragged into the light, Suddenly, all that rage, all that conviction,
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and all that fake soldier energy just disappears like smoke.
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Funny how that works, right, Because if everything they claimed
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to stand for was genuine, if they truly cared about
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abused children and exposing corruption, then this should be their
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super Bowl, This should be their Ewojima, This should be
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the moment they set themselves on fire, demanding accountability. But
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instead they're bending over backwards to defend Glayn Maxwell. They're
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calling Epstein's network a hoax. They're rewriting their own history
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like we all have amnesia. They went from where fighting
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the cabal to well, maybe the cabal is misunderstood overnight,
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and the whiplash is so violent it's practically a parody.
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All those tough guy slogans, all those locker up chants,
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all the macho freedom fighter cosplay. It melted the moment
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the truth got too close to home, because the second
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the mass slipped and the real players were revealed, they
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didn't stand and fight. They ran. They hid. They changed
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the subject and try and tell me it's an accident.
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Tell me it's just a coincidence that at the exact
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moment Epstein was arrested the second time, and the public
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was seconds away from paying attention. The whole thing was
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swallowed up by a sy op that turned the legitimate
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outrage into a cartoonish insanity. It wasn't a coincidence, it
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was a strategy. It was by design, because nothing protects
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the guilty better than chaos, and nothing creates chaos quite
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like WEAPONI stupidity. The truth got buried under a mountain
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of absurd riddles and superhero fantasies. And while everyone was
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being distracted by coded messages and red string on corkboards,
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the real criminals were shaking hands, deleting evidence, cutting deals,
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lawyer shopping, and laughing all the way to the bank.
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And now we're here watching the reveal in real time
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where a real cabal has been exposed, and instead of
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being outraged, these people are defending it. They're carrying water
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for billionaires and predators. They're sneering at survive, they're attacking
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anyone who demands transparency. They've become the exact machine they
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claim they were fighting. They were never about truth, they
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were never about the kids. They were props in somebody
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else's operation. And when the spotlight moved, so did they.
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And I don't trust a damn one of them. So
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let's make something perfectly clear. If you screamed about the
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cabal for five years, if you branded yourself a savior
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of traffic children, if you build a platform on moral outrage,
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but now you're silent or worse defending the people tied
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to Epstein, then you were not confused. You're not misguided,
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you're not misinformed. You're complicit, and we see you. This
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article was published by Alternate and the headline infamous pro
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Trump conspiracy theorists have been strangely muted on the Epstein scandal.
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This article was authored by Leslie A. Bravnel. Will Summer,
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author of Trust the Plan, The Rise of qaan On,
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and the Conspiracy that Unhinged America, writes in The New
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York Times that although the recent revelations around to seize
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Jeffrey Epstein should have been a dream for conspiracy theorists,
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their reactions have been strangely muted and dismayed. Well, yeah,
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because it blows all their bullshit out of the water,
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all their little, fake, little conspiracy theories that they were
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running around yapping about based on emails. By the way,
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is actually happening in real time when it comes to
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exposing Epstein. And where are they were all those q Anon,
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people that made a name for themselves, a life for themselves,
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a bunch of money for themselves, piggybacking off of what
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was going on with Epstein, like it was part of
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their bigger conversation, Like they really cared. While they were
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talking about Tom Hanks drinking adrenochrome on an island, we
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were busy trying to get to the bottom of what
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the fuck Jeffrey Epstein was up to. QAnon, a far
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right American political conspiracy theory and movement that claims a
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cabal in the Deep State is operating a global child
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sex trafficking ring and that President Donald Trump is secretly
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fighting them, has been placed, Summer says, in an awkward
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position by Trump's relentless resistance to releasing the Epstein files. Look,
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there is no middle ground. Trump is not some grand lord.
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He didn't get shot down from Mount Olympus, where everybody
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has to listen to everything he says. You're allowed to disagree,
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you're allowed to dissent, and if you don't, especially when
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it comes to this, I'm sorry, but you're nothing more
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than a boot liquor. You're everything that you said you hated.
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You're everything that you said you were fighting against. What
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was harder to explain for many believers was why mister
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Trump spent so long resisting the release of key evidence
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that would confirm what they suspected was happening all along.
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Summer says, well, we all know he's embarrassed by the emails.
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He's embarrassed by his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and if
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there's more in there, well I'm sure he's going to
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be embarrassed by that as well. So that's why he
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hasn't released it. He's not some grand fighter fighting against
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the cabal behind the scenes. That's so stupid. How could
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adults believe that? He says that. While they're some celebrants
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of the Epstein developments, much of QAnon's response to Washington's
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Epstein excitement has been strangely muted, even dismayed. And I
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think that's true too. A lot of these people are
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having their worldview severely challenged. You had all these people
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out here telling you that you know, there was going
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to be all these arrests, the storms coming where we
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go one wee go all Come on, man, really, none
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of that stuff is true. No one's coming to save you.
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There is nobody behind the scenes. No wizard, no white hats,
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none of the other bullshit they talked about is true.
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You know who's gonna stop these people? You that's who
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all of us together, That's the only way. And these
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disgusting fuck bags know it. That's why they keep us fighting,
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keep us arguing, and keep throwing shit like q ANN
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into the mix. And as Congress near unanimously voted to
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release the Epstein files last week, the conspiracy theorists in
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the group may have already moved on Summer notes. Well,
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I bet they did. It's not the conspiracy they were
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looking for, right. They had this idea in their brain
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and the idea has been wrong. And the truth is
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the people that have put that in their brain, or
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these influencers who became big during QAAN on you know
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the ones I'm talking about. They're all over the place
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out here spreading their bullshit like they know what they're
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talking about. It's all about engagement, it's all about clicks,
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it's all about driving rage. It's never about having legitimate
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answers or at least trying to figure things out. It's
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always about tomorrow. Tomorrow. The storm's coming tomorrow. We're going
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to out the cabal tomorrow. Remember when all they talked
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about was the World Economic Forum, that was the big
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talking point. You hardly hear any of these people talking
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about that now, right, But with the revelations about mister
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Trump's relationship to mister Epstein, mounting the default qan on
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position has become that mister Epstein just isn't that interesting anymore.
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He writes. That's partly because QA non believers no longer
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stand out so brightly in the conspiracy minded Republican mainstream. Well,
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I don't know about that. I think that when you
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started painting people with one large brush and say the
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Republican mainstream, what does that mean. I know a lot
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of people that would be considered Republicans or you know, conservatives,
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not Mago, but Republicans who never believe q A non bullshit.
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That's for people who were looking for something to fill
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the void, right, people who don't want to face the
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facts that the real evil is coming from the institutions themselves,
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so they have to find a boogeyman. But I've been
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telling you folks for a very long time that the
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real boogeyman are in the financial sector. That's where the
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real boogeymen are the people that are making our lives
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difficult on a regular basis. The people that are charging
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you thirty five percent in APR rate, the people that
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are charging you fifteen percent for your car, that kind
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of shit. Those people are the real boogeyman. There's never
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been some monster that popped up under my bed, but
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I sure the fuck have gotten a terrible loan before
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Summer explains that the truth doesn't exactly match the q
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A non grant fantasies of elite exposure that QA non
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dreamed up at its height. But for q ANN, the
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real problem with the Epstein revelations is that mister Trump
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sits uncomfortably close to the center of them. Bingo. So
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I said from the beginning not to have heroes, none
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of these politicians or heroes. You better pick your heroes wisely, folks,
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And I truly mean that, because a lot of these
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people out here that are running around with this mask on,
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acting like they're great people, acting like they care about
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all of us, they're monsters, straight up monsters, And that
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includes Drum. This is a man who has never cared
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about anybody in his life but himself. Q A non
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members took to social media after the vote to release
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the files, including John Harold, who wrote, all the awful
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things that people are saying. I hope it's not true,
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mister Harold said, I don't want to see any of it. Well,
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isn't that too bad, mister Harold. Shouldn't you be talking
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about aliens giving people butt plugs in Albuquerque or whatever
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the fuck you idiots are talking talking about now? And
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if you're not able to tell I've reached the end
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of my rope with all these people, enough is enough.
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Either get on board or get the fuck out of
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the way. I have no time for it anymore. We're
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way too busy and we have way too much going
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on for idiots like this, who claim to be down
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for the cause, who claim to be, you know, fighting
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for children, to be running interference. Given that the conspiracy
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theory doubles as a cult of personality built around mister Trump,
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this sort of reaction isn't particularly surprising, but the new
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emails do suggest the conspiracy theorists we're right about mister
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Epstein's significance, albeit not in the ways that they thought.
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Summer says, well, I've been warning you for all these years,
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not to follow the most salacious bullshit. I've told you
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that from the jump. For me, it's always the things
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that I want to believe the most that i'm the
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most critical of. That's how my process works. So say
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I want to believe that somebody is involved with Epstein
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because I hate them, Well, I'm going to be critical
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of that because I want to make sure that we
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have the facts right as close to the facts as
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we can get. I feel like you deserve that, and frankly,
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I don't have time to fuck around, and I know
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you don't either. Enough is enough already. While mister Epstein
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was mentioned relatively rarely in qaann before his twenty nineteen indictment,
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his mysterious death propelled QA non recruitment and provided endless
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allys for its amateur Internet sleuths to explore summer ads.
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And there's no doubt about it. There was a whole
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lot of noise from the very beginning. And I've been
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saying the same thing basically from the very beginning. These
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people are running interference, whether they know it or not,
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and it's causing a lot of regular folks to tune
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out of what was going on with Epstein because they
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lumped it all together. They were like, Oh, that's just
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crazy people talking about that. There's no cabal, there's no rich,
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powerful people hanging out and doing dastardly things. Well breaking news.
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That part was true, and that's why the people that
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were engaged in that launched the QA andn ssyop. Thanks
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for coming to my ted talk. Trump's long proven friendship
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with Epstein, however, has always been difficult for QA and
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on to explain Summer's notes. The traditional qann explanation for
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the Paris closeness has been that mister Trump was getting
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close to mister Epstein just to bring more publicity to
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his crimes. He writes, Imagine believing that as an adult,
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Imagine thinking that that shit's true. Oh yeah, Trump was
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working as the serpuco of mar A Lago to bring
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down Jeffrey Epstein. Really, that's what you're pitching me. That's
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the kind of bullshit you think. I'm gonna believe. Here's
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an idea. Miss me with all of it, because it's
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all bullshit. But this explanation has begun to look shakier
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has more emails about Trump and Epstein have emerged. Qann's
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retreat from the Epstein story is striking because there remains
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real questions about mister Epstein that can make for a
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rich vein of new theorizing. Summer writes, Look, there's no
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doubt I don't have all the answers, but I knew
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from the jump that these cabal people that were talking
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about wild, weird shit were there to throw me off
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the scent. And that's why I never bit on it right.
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That's why I never got engaged in that. I wasn't
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falling for that bs. I knew that if we ever
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had any chance whatsoever of getting to the bottom of
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what Epstein was up to, we had to stay laser focused,
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because in all the confusion, that's how these people get
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away with it. For most QA non believers, the priority
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is protecting mister Trump at all costs, even if it
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means no longer asking questions, even if it means letting
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the moment they finally got something right pass them by,
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even if it means continuing to thirst for a storm
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that will never come. He explains. And while one time
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QA non believer representative Marjorie Taylor Green has moved away
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from Trump duing part to the Epstein scandal, Summer says
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that while miss Green claimed she was no longer a
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victim of mediaize that letter to QA and No, she
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still seems motivated by the hunt for information about sex
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trafficking that QA non claim to pursue QA and Non,
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Summer says, offered people and understanding of the world in
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which mister Trump wasn't letting his voters down. He was
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just fighting forces far more powerful and evil than they
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could imagine. But things have changed, he writes. Now mister
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Trump is once again bogged down in the first year
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of a presidential term, this time by the Epstein investigation.
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Prices arising, Trump supporters are growing restless, Summer says, do
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you think Q has one more clue left in them? Oh,
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there's no doubt. We haven't seen the last to Q.
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But I'm here to tell you that those people that
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were out there are pumping that shit and trying to
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wrap it all together, they caused a lot of harm.
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They slowed things down to a point where a lot
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of people were able to get away with their bullshit.
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And you know what, I'm done pretending that any of
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this is complicated. It's not. It's actually insultingly simple. The
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people who yelled the loudest about saving kids, about fighting evil,
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about exposing the cabal. They folded. The minute the cabal
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stopped being a fairy tale and turned into something real,
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they vanished, They shut their mouths. They decided their team
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and their politics mattered more than protecting kids. Nothing heroic
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about that, nothing patriotic, nothing noble. And that's what makes
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me sick. Not so much the elites. We already knew
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who they were, We already knew what they were capable of. Predators, pray,
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power corrupts. Nothing surprising there. What shocks me is how
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many regular people chose the predators over the victims the
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moment it got hard, the second the villains had familiar faces,
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familiar jerseys, familiar party affiliations. Suddenly save the children became
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shut up and move on. Suddenly justice was optional, Suddenly
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the truth was inconvenient. And that's the stain that sticks
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watching people who claim to care show their true colors
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the minute the fog cleared. Turns out a lot of
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these loudmouthed patriots weren't warriors. They were taurus. They liked
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the costume, they liked the rush, they liked LARPing as
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revolutionaries until there was actual work to do. Then they ran,
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and honestly, good stay gone. We don't need costplay soldiers.
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We don't need people who fold when pressure shows up.
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We don't need cowards with slogans, because the fight is
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still here whether they showed up or not, The truth
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is still coming, whether they cheer for it or not,
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and the reckoning is still happening whether they believe it
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or not. They can lie, they can gaslight, they can
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pretend that this isn't real, they can cry syop all day.
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None of it changes what's coming and when it finally
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blows open, and it will, not a single one of
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those frauds gets to stand next to us and pretend
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that they were here. They don't get to slap a
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hashtag on it later and act like they fought, they forfeited,
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that they chose silence, they chose comfort, they chose cowardice.
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All of the information that goes with this episode can
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be found in the description box