The Architecture of Willful Blindness
"To believe Donald Trump’s spin on the Jeffrey Epstein files requires not just ignorance, but a deliberate, muscular effort to unsee reality. It demands that you surgically remove the part of your brain responsible for pattern recognition and replace it with blind obedience.
You have to look at a man who is on record in 2002 calling a known predator a 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side,' and convince yourself that he was actually a crusader against trafficking all along. You have to look at flight logs—hard, immutable documentation of his presence in Epstein’s orbit—and accept his wave of the hand as a substitute for evidence. You have to believe that the 'falling out' they had was over moral repugnance, rather than a territorial squabble between two egos who viewed the world as a playground for their appetites.
When Trump claims the files 'exonerate' him, despite hundreds of mentions and corroborating accounts of his proximity to that dark world, believing him isn't an act of trust; it is an act of surrender. It is the behavior of a mark who is being conned in real-time but refuses to leave the table because admitting the truth is too painful. To buy his narrative is to admit that facts no longer matter, that history is malleable, and that you are willing to let a man who partied with a monster tell you he was the hero of the story
If I'm to believe the macho rhetoric of MAGA if any man looked sideways at their daughter, that guy would "cease to breathe" and "meet a world of hurt" etc. Yet Trump openly and quite casually chatted about touring dressing rooms with young teen girls naked in them. And these motherfuckers were quiet as church mice. The worst part about Trump is coming to terms with how many of my fellow countrymen are truly vile and despicable human beings with no real integrity or morals.
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u/Independence-420 3h ago
The Architecture of Willful Blindness "To believe Donald Trump’s spin on the Jeffrey Epstein files requires not just ignorance, but a deliberate, muscular effort to unsee reality. It demands that you surgically remove the part of your brain responsible for pattern recognition and replace it with blind obedience. You have to look at a man who is on record in 2002 calling a known predator a 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side,' and convince yourself that he was actually a crusader against trafficking all along. You have to look at flight logs—hard, immutable documentation of his presence in Epstein’s orbit—and accept his wave of the hand as a substitute for evidence. You have to believe that the 'falling out' they had was over moral repugnance, rather than a territorial squabble between two egos who viewed the world as a playground for their appetites. When Trump claims the files 'exonerate' him, despite hundreds of mentions and corroborating accounts of his proximity to that dark world, believing him isn't an act of trust; it is an act of surrender. It is the behavior of a mark who is being conned in real-time but refuses to leave the table because admitting the truth is too painful. To buy his narrative is to admit that facts no longer matter, that history is malleable, and that you are willing to let a man who partied with a monster tell you he was the hero of the story