All right

Let's light this candle.

NightCafe. They’re annoying me, so I’m probably going to be using another generator.

The Epstein Files have been released to a tremendous amount of outrage, and I find myself conflicted. There are definitely victims of that virulent parasite, but I worry they’re about to be overlooked.

I’m afraid that this whole mess is starting to remind me a great deal of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s - 1990s.

For those who may be a little too young to remember that little blot on the Copybook of History, it started with a “psychiatrist”¹ who had a fondness for the woo-woo — and incredibly debunked — practice of “Recovered Memory Therapy”², and was spark-plugged by well-meaning³, yet clueless, people who used suggestive questions and leading questions when interviewing children … and wound up with about 12,000 reports of ritual abuse of children — including, but not limited to: child sexual abuse, ritual sacrifice of children, cannibalism of children, child pornography, child prostitution, murder of children, torture of children, and incestuous orgies.

A large part of the American population became convinced that paedophiles associated with Satanism were running child care centers across the country for the express purpose of providing a steady supply of children for devil-worshipping rites.

As one might expect day-care workers and pre-schools took it in the neck … but so did fathers. The “experts” — untrained, inexperienced, unqualified — had a particular case of the ass towards fathers, with the result that several fathers spent years in prison for crimes never committed.

Yeah. Not a one of those reported 12,000 cases turned out to be substantiated. And when I say “Not substantiated” we’re talking about stuff like:

1. Children were coached to testify that they had been taken to a cemetery where the graves were dug up and the corpses used for violation. It is physically impossible to dig up an entire cemetery and leave abso-bloody-lutely no trace behind.

2. Children were coached to testify that a teenager with Noonan Syndrome had cut the throat of a giraffe, and used the dying corpse for ritual violations. Seriously.

3. Children were coached to testify that they had been given to aliens, flown up into space, and violated.

In addition to the coaching, case files were built from statements given by diagnosed schizophrenics; anonymous statements given by people who were later tracked down and found to be — let us be precise here — flat barking bugnuts; and was fueled by the political desire to make hay, or make the other guy look bad rather than — you know — justice.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Other than the fact that innocent people got dragged through the legal wringer, spent years in prison, and had their lives ruined for nothing; the mass-hysteria moral panic⁴ meant that actual, provable cases of child molestation got short shrift.

A vast underground network of Satanic peadophiles conducting ritualistic abuse, cannibalism, and unholy rituals was far more toothsome to prosecutors, the Media, and the public at large than Uncle Badtouch.

Given the choice of making his name by becoming the hero taking on a vast international cabal of highly-connected Satanists … or the day-to-day boring grind of prosecuting the creepy dude at the park — well, District Attorneys are politicians. And politicians gotta politick. Heroes poll better than the unsung.

Which brings us to the Epstein Files.

Let us get one thing straight right out of the gate: There are victims there. Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sexual predator and pimp. Undeniable. Him being a paedophile is entirely in the realm of probability.

However we must heed the lesson of the Satanic Panic and refuse to focus on the extraordinary claims at the expense of the ordinary crime. Actual paedophiles — the ordinary child molesters — got away with it during the Satanic Panic because the entire nation was focussed on the extraordinary claims. And I don’t want to see actual victims get ignored in favour of bushwa Hollywood lurid fever dreams.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Allegations that are sensationalist, over-the-top shocking, and suggestive are, unfortunately, extraordinary claims. That sort of thing leaves all kinds of physical evidence. Until such evidence is discovered, our focus should be on the sexually assaulted.

Procuring and providing prostitutes — even teenage ones — is, unfortunately, an ordinary crime. These crimes need to be, have to be, prosecuted.

Anonymous reports of torture/cannibalism orgies involving toddlers in a Washington DC basement is an extraordinary claim, and requires evidence before we start taking away resources from the victims and crimes listed in the previous paragraph.

Please don’t blow up my comments regarding QAon, Pizzagate, or other conspiracies. I’ve been involved in various levels of government — to include Federal — since I was 18. I worked CaPERS⁵ too long, I was a very good investigator, and I have never found any wisp of evidence to support any sort of global cabal of ritual paedophiles.

The uncomfortable truth is simply this: People don’t need conspiracies to be absolute utter rabid bastards.

TL;DR: There are victims revealed by the Epstein Files. Let’s make sure we get justice for them instead of chasing the red herring of a moral panic, ok?

Ian

1. I use the scare quotes because he should have been struck off for his wanton destruction of families and innocent people.

2. Really good at implanting false memories, not worth a bucket of warm rat spit at recovering memories.

3. And let’s face it: Some ill-intentioned folks.

4. This went on for years.

5. Crimes Against PERSons.