The Epstein Files – The Truth Isn’t Out There, Nor Is The Trust

The Epstein Files issue(s) is perhaps the least important national political issue today while consuming far and away above its importance in news coverage, media consumption, and increasing the influence that lesser intellects have.  There are ways in which the Epstein issue could be beneficial to America, but the issue is unfortunately being as misused and wasted as virtually every other issue is in our divisive partisan environment. The nature and scope of this misuse shares the same underlying causal elements that impair any issue’s potential to deliver justice, restore American values, and protect our citizens; especially our children. Whether the Epstein Files should be among the highest topics or issues in American politics or not is a side issue which politicians and others should recognize and overtly state is not worthy of discussion or debate; because while that is a relevant question, the fact is that the Epstein Files issue is a de facto major national issue. The problem is that no one is reacting in ways that are useful to the nation.

Debating whether or not you should stay in a burning house isn’t the thing you should be focusing on in the moment. You have to react to what is happening first, and latter deal with questions about how you got there and should you have acted differently before the house caught fire. What you should not be doing is bringing more fuel into the house or trying to wish the fire would go out all by itself. It is true that it will by the way go out by itself; however that doesn’t mean it is a good strategy. Look at the ashes left in any fireplace. The ashes are what is left from the fire. Ashes are also the proof that the fire will put itself out.

It is not just that both the Democrats and the Republicans are misusing the Epstein Files issue(s) and doing so extremely poorly. The news media is just as culpable in wastefully dealing with the Epstein Files issues for the same reasons as the politicians; and the media has their own different reasons contributing to their mishandling it. And of course, social media companies and users are understandably actively engaged in incompetently adding fuel to the fire as they insist that the fire both be put out as they eagerly stoke it to produce more heat.

The Republicans’ misuses are clearly of their own making. Whether the self-inflicted damages are a consequence of inanity, over-confidence in their strategy & tactics, or lack of competent critical thinking and problem-solving or a mishmash of all these conditions is difficult to know. The major factor in their blundering was and continues to be not using, or perhaps possessing, the problem-solving skills for defining a strategy and plan for accomplishing their goal(s). This is a contributing factor to virtually every issue that political parties and their politicians engage in acting on, and it is not unique to Republicans.

Democrats are infected and impaired by their own choices of strategies that miss the more vulnerable openings that Republicans are giving them. How much this is due to reacting too quickly without much thought by just seizing on an attack theme that 90% plus of the population would think of without any knowledge or insight into the issue. Who did not have the “What’s he afraid of?” question cross their mind within a minute or two of the White House and Attorney General not releasing documents getting reported? Yes, it doesn’t take much thought or intellect to see that as a “strategy”, but it did not require or likely involve any analytic thinking about what options there are for using this issue to its greatest extent and value.

The media: news and social, and the public overall react as expected. They dive in, take positions, and focus addictively on what everyone is talking, posting, and speculating about the Epstein files. And collectively, all the different entities/categories haven’t even inadvertently stumbled across the most aspect of the Epstein files issue: Trust.

If you were expecting the most important aspect of the Epstein files to be the Truth, that would be a reasonable expectation but only if you trust the source(s) of that information.

I am not saying that people don’t trust the source(s) of the information that they believe is presenting the truth. It would be irrational for you to believe what you do but not trust the sources that provided or confirmed the information that you believe is factually the truth. If your source is the news media, social media, a political party, a politician, friends, or god forbid a lawyer; what would your basis be for trusting those sources?

When people are asked about who they trust, there is a fairly consistent summary answer that applies to every category: They do not trust any of their entities/categories. In many cases, the level of trust is at or near historic lows. So, the better description is that Americans distrust the major sources of their information. Trust in friends or community is the highest of these categories, but that isn’t a high bar to clear nor does it likely relate to factual information as much as it does to emotional trust of the person(s).

As the Truth depends heavily upon the trustworthiness of the source(s), the logical implications of how little people trust information sources would seem to make it difficult to claim that they ‘believe’ the truth they are being handed. This may be simply evidence that people choose the sources that that trust if those sources support and conform to the ‘truth’ that they want. While this is surely the case for some, the Epstein Files issue either violates that rule or the ‘truth’ that is wanted is more powerful than the source entity’s control over what the ‘truth’ is.

The Epstein Files represents an opportunity for politicians, political parties, the media (news & social), institutions, and government. Whether they can see and seize these opportunities to demonstrate the truth and their trustworthiness, that is their challenge. There is little evidence that any of them are doing so regarding the Epstein issue or almost any other issue that seizes the nation’s attention. This is a good test of competency on numerous areas: leadership, problem solving, critical thinking, and let’s face it, intelligence.