We’re living in a global kleptocracy
Two scandals have dominated the American culture wars of recent years, usually assigned to opposite teams. There was the liberal obsession with Russiagate — the idea that Donald Trump was a foreign asset and the Republic was under external attack from Russian agents and bots. Meanwhile, the Right fixated upon the Jeffrey Epstein scandal as proof that a paedophilic cabal ran the world and global elites were predatory monsters. Each side tended to treat the other’s scandal as a distraction or hoax.
The 3.5 million pages released last week by the Department of Justice confirm that these are, in fact, the same story. Treating Russiagate as a case of isolated foreign interference or the Epstein revelations as a story of individual depravity are limiting and, strange as it sounds, comforting frames because they give each side a convenient villain.
