Tag Archives: epstein-files

The Disdain the Ruling Class has for Humanity

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One major feature of the Epstein Files, apart from the heinous predatory and abusive behaviour of powerful men, is their overall disdain for the “lower classes.” In one email exchange between film producer Barry Josephson and Epstein, the two pivoted from discussing a 16 year old girl to a conversation they had had with Bill Gates. The topic apparently pertained to a question Epstein allegedly asked Gates, “how do we get rid of poor people as a whole?”

This isn’t the only reference to elitism at the heart of the files. Epstein associated with billionaires like Peter Theil who is well-known for an essay he wrote in 2009 for the Cato Institute where he said that “freedom and democracy are no longer compatible.”

Theil is a modern-day eugenicist who has invested in startups like Orchid, which allows parents to screen IVF embryos for “polygenic scores” to select for perceived health or intelligence. He is also a key figure in the racist pronatalist movement, which encourages “genetically superior” individuals to have many children to “save civilization.” And has funded “thinkers” from platforms like Quillette or the Stanford Review who have hosted discussions on IQ, genetics, and the widely debunked and discredited field of “race science.”

Epstein himself was disgusted by programs aimed at health and alleviating hunger and starvation in the global south. He was known for discussing these topics at dinner parties and salons with academics and intellectuals. Which calls into question why so many seemed so enthralled by him, from prominent figures like Richard Dawkins to Noam Chomsky.

The Epstein Files should serve as a reminder that most of the ruling class views humanity as a problem to be solved. As both a resource and a liability. And they, alone, intend to solve it without the encumbrance of democratic norms and institutions.

This class has no problem with genocide, with many of them viewing it as a real estate development opportunity. Most have no qualms with cutting funds or research for diseases that disproportionately impact the impoverished of the world. Many support criminalizing the unhoused and under-waged. And all of them benefit directly from the current economic scheme which extorts and exploits working people through exorbitant debt and slave-wages.

In short, we are nothing to them beyond our ability to increase their wealth and privilege.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

Navigating Trauma at the End of Illusions

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These past few years have been a reckoning on a global scale. From the genocide in Gaza to the rise of brutal fascist regimes to the revelations in the Epstein files, we are all bearing witness to the festering moral rot of the ruling class and the societal decomposition it has caused.

Our own governments supported and funded a genocide that they told us wasn’t happening, even though we saw it with our own eyes. We saw them lie and obfuscate and smear those who spoke out and contort themselves into the most grotesque spectacle to make excuses for blowing children to pieces, burying families under rubble, burning them alive in their makeshift tents, erasing entire bloodlines, shooting toddlers in the neck, torturing doctors and nurses, murdering journalists, teachers, poets and artists, leveling hospitals, schools, universities and shelters. We saw them run cover for the complete destruction of a society. And then draw up blueprints for a luxury, seaside resort over the mass graves.

We have seen the ascendency of a cruel, despotic narcissist in the most powerful and ruthless empire on the planet. A sadistic rapist, conman and gangster. One whose entire parlance is mendacity. One whose own body is a suppurating blob of Big Mac grease with bronzer slathered over its decay. One who has inspired grifters who turn a profit from sycophancy and a mob who delight in ignorance and humiliation and terror. Who have no problem with shooting women in the face or men beaten on the ground.

We have seen a billionaire class obsessed with living forever while condemning everyone else to a scorched earth. Who revel in demolishing the modest safety nets that keep people from absolute poverty. Who think democracy is quaint, but useless. And who use mass surveillance, usury and AI to suppress and distract us.

Now we are getting a glimpse into the nefarious machinations of the elite. A shadowy and sinister world of the most wealthy and powerful men, where human decency is a punchline. A world that uses sex as a bludgeon and treats the most vulnerable among us as objects to be used and discarded. And all the while we are seeing it, we are being gaslit again. Told that the world wants to “move on.”

Of course, none of this is new. Human history is littered with casual cruelties, unprovoked injuries, and banal evil. This world sits on top of a mountain of murdered corpses. The difference now is that the living biosphere, the one we all depend upon, is in the crosshairs. And the scope of brutality has expanded beyond the colonized or enslaved or racialized or otherized or dehumanized to include us all.

We have been integrated into the machinery of our own collective demise. Shoveling coal into a machine intent on our destruction for the profit of a few. And conditioned to see it all as necessary. As “progress.” If you are feeling overwhelmed or lost or shattered these days, you are not the abnormal one. You are grieving a world of illusion as it crashes to the ground.

Trauma can be a catalyst for change, but it can also be a drug. It creates bonds which can be regenerative, or ones which mire us in despair. Either way, it is unavoidable. Those who try to skirt its implications aren’t “the lucky ones.” They are like the ones who tell you to “stay put” in a building that is aflame. They aren’t saving you, they are choosing normalcy bias over urgency.

The trauma we are feeling is real. It is raw. It is unforgiving. But it is also a rejoinder to lived experience. It lives under our skin and its grammar is sorrow and confusion and rage. When we face it with integrity, we can eventually let the illusions go. It doesn’t mean the pain will be forgotten. But it can become the currency needed to unlock a door for our escape.

The rulers of this world have shown us who they are. Perhaps it is time we show them who we are.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is a Glimpse into the World of Jeffrey Epstein

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When I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s movie ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ over 20 years ago, I was mesmerized. The film has a kind of dream/nightmare quality to it. A sense that you are seeing everything and nothing at the same time. And that you may not be understanding what it all means but knowing, on some level, that you do. This would be Kubrick’s last film. He died only days after the first screening.

Over the years, it has been used to peddle some unhinged conspiracy theories which attempted to use its imagery as proof of adrenochrome-guzzling elites hiding their dungeons in the basements of DC pizza parlours.

It is sad that it was demeaned in this way, because now, with the Epstein revelations, Kubrick’s dark film offers a way of grappling with the machinations of the wealthy and powerful in a far more nuanced and realistic manner.

The movie isn’t without its problems. Some of the scenes appear a bit jejune. And Kubrick himself is a problematic man, with legitimate criticism for his own misogyny, abuses and sexism.

But aside from these very serious concerns, it is a masterpiece. The imagery that is used not only speaks to the masks we all wear in society at different times and in different places, but the impunity and privileged separation that the ruling class enjoy in this world.

Kubrick didn’t inject the supernatural into the film, although some of the rituals might seem that they lean that way. This wasn’t a movie about satanic possession. There were no demonic forces or evil ghosts lurking about.

The sinister came from a particular protected class in society. It came from human beings who possess an unprecedented amount of power over society, and who delight in exerting that power over the most vulnerable and impoverished. It came from a portion of society who are untouchable, both in law as in culture. It came from men. Powerful and wealthy men.

‘Eyes Wide Shut’ wasn’t a warning about Jeffrey Epstein, or Donald Trump, or Bill Clinton, or Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. It was a glimpse into the mirror of our society. It focuses on the rich, but it is really about all of us.

It is about men and women, boys and girls. It is about the messaging and conditioning boys get from an early age about how to see girls. And it is about how class insulates. How it divides principles and ethics along hereditary, racial, gender and monetary lines. How it operates within circles and networks most of us have no concept of.

‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is one of the most unflinching portrayals of our situation than any other work of art. And it is because of this, that it has been lampooned, mocked, abused for conspiracy theories and warped into some of the most convoluted mental pretzels of our age.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

The Danger of Viewing the Epstein Files through the Lens of Puritanism

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As scores of people pore over the newly released, and heavily redacted, Epstein files, it is worth examining one very American phenomenon. While the files contain truly monstrous allegations and photos, they also contain things which are not criminal or unethical, but which are all too often lumped in with all of the awful things. And this is the legacy of American puritanism.

None of this is to excuse the crimes of the ruling class, which are copious. And it is not to downplay any of the allegations from the victims. What I have seen so far is absolutely horrifying. But I have also seen an all too typical response among many Americans to its content which has more to do with personal moral standards than any legal wrongdoing. And this bias can create conditions which have been traditionally used as a bludgeon against women and minorities, such as racialized communities, transgender, queer and sex workers.

So, let’s separate the criminal from the salacious. The criminal should be obvious. Sexual abuse of minors, human trafficking, rape are all things that should be unequivocally condemned. But there are other things which are not. Kink, fetishes, masturbation, orgies, adult pornography. These things are not illegal in the US. At least, not yet. They are merely different features of human sexuality and preference. And are perfectly healthy, so long as they are between consenting adults. The reason this is so important is because historically, the latter has been used to oppress, persecute and discriminate against marginalized communities.

Puritanism in America has a persistent, pernicious and cruel legacy. And it stemmed from settler-colonial white men who used religion as a means of protecting their power and stealing land and property. While damning women and queer people for their supposed “sins,” these men were able to commit heinous atrocities which were often either overlooked by judicial bodies or made completely legal for them.

And it extended out toward racialized others. Indigenous societies, which had a long history of gender diversity, were cast as savages. Black men were stereotyped as being sexual predators, a legacy which continues to this day. Black women were often portrayed as sexually promiscuous, as a way of pitting them against supposedly “pure” white women.

And women, as a whole, have been among the most abused by puritanical mores. The infamous Witch Trials in New England did not merely pertain to some accusation of satanic possession. They had more to do with accusing women of “unnatural” sexual relations or for exerting control over their own bodies. And this was most often done to provide cover for stealing the land of unwed or widowed women. We can see contemporary shades of this dark chapter whenever there is a satanic or sex panic in society.

The crimes of the wealthy and powerful men, and some women, in the Epstein Files are indeed monstrous. But it is ironic that they are part of a political system that routinely demonizes transgender people, drag queens, non-binary and sex workers for their identity or choices, while they participate in the most atrocious and abusive behavior toward the most defenseless among us.

It is important to see this distinction as more and more files are revealed. And to understand the power dynamic at play. This is about nonconsensual dominance by people who have no concern for the welfare of their victims. It is about humiliation and exploitation of the most vulnerable human beings in society by the ruling class. But if they are not seen through this lens, there is a very real danger that the ghosts of puritanism will sully their meaning. And if that happens, they can be easily weaponized against people who had nothing to do with these crimes whatsoever.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Dark Power of American Empire

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Whatever you might think of Marjorie Taylor Greene, her untimely exit from the cesspit of Washington is instructive. She didn’t go willingly. Anyone who thinks this misunderstands the dynamics of power in American Empire.

For all her flaws, and there are many, Greene ended up doing things no one is permitted to do. She demanded the release of the Epstein files and she demanded an end to US support for Israel as it commits genocide against the Palestinians. These two things sealed her fate.

She defied the order of powerful white men who rule the empire. And she dared to question the undying devotion it has to its primary colonial asset, Israel.

Greene had some genuinely insane and loathsome political positions. She peddled far right conspiracy theories, antisemitism, racism and transphobia. But in that sense, she wasn’t a grifter. She was truly deluded. She believed these loathsome things. And she was embraced for them by the cult of MAGA.

Her devotion to what she believed was the truth inevitably led her to some dark conclusions. And after that first press conference about the Epstein files, her life in politics was doomed. Since then, she has had to hire private security. And I think it was at this point she might have begun to realize what she had put some of her colleagues through.

Greene will likely make the rounds in the miasma of far right talking heads and insufferable blowhards for some time. She will likely go silent for a while to regroup. And maybe she will resurface down the road with a new brand and look.

But her time in the belly of the beast should serve as the clearest example of the banal evil of American Empire. Although it is in steep decline, it protects its interests. Those interests lie in the capital investments made by the most powerful and wealthy men on the planet. And they will do anything to preserve that status even if it means sinking the whole ship to the bottom of the sea.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025