Chinese Finger Trap by Geoff Carter « The Pen in Hand Blog

Attribution: carol, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

By Geoff Carter

Let’s try a reality check:

Hillary Clinton is drinking the blood of children in the basement of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. ?
California wildfires are being started by Jewish space lasers?
A government cover-up about vaccines causing autism exists?
Tracking chips have been placed in vaccines by elements of the deep state?
There is a sinister deep state that exists behind the elected government?
The 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump?
Barack Obama is not an American citizen. Where is his birth certificate?

These are only a few—the greatest hits—of the latest conspiracy theories. Of course, we have the golden oldies like the earth is flat, contrails are poisoning people, Area 51 was an alien landing site being concealed by the government, and that JFK was killed by the Mafia or the CIA or Ted Cruz’s dad. Take your pick.

While these theories might (and should) sound preposterous to any rational or educated human being, they have demonstrated a remarkable sort of staying power with certain segments of the American public. There is a surprising—and frightening—number of citizens who subscribe to these beliefs. But why?

In a New Yorker article, John Allsop points to an article by Richard Hofstadter describing a tradition of “paranoid politics” in American culture, a phenomenon exemplified by McCarthyism, the Kennedy assassination, and the Bavarian Illuminati scares of the 19^th century. And Trumpism. In Hofstadter’s words, “a mix of ‘“heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” has long manifested in public life (Harper’s).” In other words, fear, hysteria, and anger seem to capture the American imagination. Inevitably, these paranoid tendencies lead to racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism which have long been part of the American psyche, and which have most probably led to today’s anti-liberal conspiracy theories.

Mr. Allsop also points out that politicians espousing these outlandish theories try to convince voters they are the only ones who can eradicate these evils—like Mr. Trump promising to drain the swamp. And there’s the rub. Once a major-league conspiracy theorist gets into power and acquires the means to eradicate the threat articulated in said conspiracy theory, they cannot do so because it never existed in the first place. It’s like getting your foot stuck in your own rabbit hole.

So, Donald Trump’s campaign promises to expose the deep state and “drain the swamp” in D.C. when he came to power have come back to haunt him. It’s hard to drain the swamp with one hand when you’re filling it with the other.

Donald Trump never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like. When he was running for president in 2016, he, along with his right-wing social media mouthpieces and conservative talk radio hosts latched onto Pizzagate, the QAnon conspiracy theory that a Washington, D.C. pizzeria was the center of a child pedophilia ring patronized by notable Hollywood celebrities and high-ranking democratic officials, including Hillary Clinton.

One version of the story included devil-worship and pedophiles drinking the children’s blood—like something straight out of a bad drive-in movie. According to the AP, in 2022 during his run-up to the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump republished dozens of QAnon posts, promising to stop those threats, and attained sort of a messianic status amongst his more zealous followers because of it. This might explain why there are so many images of Trump as Jesus or a superhero on these sites. You see, Donald Trump promised he was the one who was going to save those poor children from sex trafficking. He promised.

When Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage girls came to light, QAnon followers linked Pizzagate and that case, hoping the release of Epstein’s client list would expose the high-level democrats who were his clients. This would be it—the final unveiling of the dark state by Trump, Bannon, and Dan Bongino, who is now Deputy Chief of the FBI.

However, now that he is president and has the power to release Jeff Epstein’s client list, the president refuses to do so, which has enraged hiss MAGA base. They feel betrayed because the man who promised to clean up the deep state and bring the child-molesting blood-drinking Satan-worshiping democrats to justice has simply shrugged and said nothing to see here—which is in fact, the truth. At least in part. There is no Satanic Clinton-led cabal, but Jeffrey Epstein did engage in the sex trafficking of underage girls and dealt with high-ranking political figures and celebrities, allegedly including Donald Trump, who was photographed numerous times with Epstein.

Trump is in a bind. He cannot keep his promise to his MAGA partly because there is no conspiracy and very possibly because he might be in the files. Although he denies it, the fact he enjoyed a close affiliation and friendship with Epstein is undisputed. As outlined in this CNN article, The Washington Post published a story recently describing a “lewd” birthday card Trump sent to Epstein on his fiftieth. It contains a cryptic series of messages outlined by a woman’s naked body. Mr. Trump’s signature lies in the pubic area of the drawing.

The president has vehemently denied sending the card, saying “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women (Washington Post).” Yet the same WP article by Jonathan Edwards features a number of his drawings—doodles might be the more appropriate term—that were auctioned off during his first presidency. There is no question the works are his. The president’s memory seems to be a little faulty.

Notable and stalwart Trump supporters like Bongino and Marjory Taylor Green (who started the Jewish space laser fiction) have been harshly critical of the president. His less-notorious followers probably think he’s either lying (and has been lying all along) or that he has something to hide, or that he’s afraid to drain the swamp. They are deeply frustrated, disappointed, and angry. It’s likely that knowing that Mr. Trump knew Jeffrey Epstein well, the MAGA faithful might think Mr. Trump is on the Epstein client list, that he is one of bad guys.

It’s sort of like a Chinese finger trap. You know, the little bamboo tube. When you stick your fingers into each side of the tube and pull, it tightens down, trapping them. The harder you pull, the tighter the grip and the more difficult it is to get out.

Donald Trump the candidate stuck his finger into morass of QAnon theories like Pizzagate, the vax autism connection, the vaccine tracking chip theories, Jewish space lasers starting wildfires, and more. He stirred the pot. Unfortunately, some of these crackpot theories have manifested themselves in real policy. Anti-vax brain worm host and Department of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s vaccine policies have probably contributed to the rampant measles epidemic in Texas. He has directed the CDC to stop recommending Covid vaccines for healthy children and is currently revising vaccine schedules. He’ll never get his fingers out after flu season.

Donald Trump courted the MAGA faithful with unrealistic fantastic promises and dressed himself as a knight in shining armor ready to kill ferocious (albeit fictitious) dragons and got elected for it., but when the Epstein dragon actually appears at the front door, he merely shrugs and says, “Don’t worry. Nothing to see here”, sure that his followers will once again believe whatever comes out of his smarmy little mouth.

But for those who still believe in dragons, vampires, aliens, lethal contrails, and space lasers, this is the ultimate betrayal. Not only is their hero refusing to protect them, but he’s also telling them the threat was never real—that they were dumb to follow him down the rabbit hole in the first place. He’s said as much, calling them “stupid and foolish (ABC News)” to keep pursuing the Epstein files.

Good luck getting your fingers out.

Chinese Finger Trap

By Geoff Carter

Notes

Like this:

Related

Share this!

By Geoff Carter

Notes

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Share this!