One of the reasons I know I’m not a nihilist is because I’m still outraged by injustice. I’m a pessimist, but I still seem to believe in something. Nothing has made this more apparent to me than the utter lack of accountability here in the U.S. (where I live) over the Epstein files. The feeling is like if you were at a cookout with your friends and one of them admitted to being a serial rapist and the host just kind of said “well that’s crazy. Anybody want some hot dogs?” In other words, there is just sort of a stunned sense of “is anyone actually going to do something about this?” It’s almost enough to make a person question their own sanity: maybe I’m the crazy one for thinking this stuff is heinous and disgusting, or for thinking that there would be something even approaching accountability. 

The title of this post is a reference to the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin. The story is about a (supposedly) utopian city where everyone’s happiness depends on the perpetual misery of a single child, forcing the citizens to confront a moral dilemma, namely, to accept the injustice in order to maintain their utopian city or to walk away, leaving the child behind. While it turns out not to be true that Pam Bondi said something along the lines of “if we charge them, the system collapses” I couldn’t help but think about whether there is truth to this sentiment regardless. I especially wondered this after listening to the latest podcast by Ezra Klein

In the podcast, Klein, with guest Anand Giridharadas, discuss how all the emails in the currently released files (as of 2/13/2026) give us a glimpse inside the world of the “elite” class that run the world. Epstein had a hand in all manner of important institutions: politics, economics, culture, science. He became an important node in elite networks. A high-ranking member of a gang of elites who know that “snitches get stitches” and so nobody, even those who did not engage in pedophilia, was willing to rat him out.

In the released files, his network effects, deal-making, and power brokering with important people all over the world are laid bare without the PR spin of public statements and carefully crafted media appearances. This elite class think they rule the world, and in many ways they are right. They at least rule the U.S., evidenced by the lack of accountability (they’ve investigated themselves and concluded they did nothing wrong). If the economy and the law and politics and culture really are run by the people within Epstein’s orbit, then is it really not the case that there would be significant consequences to investigating, prosecuting, and ostracizing these people?

There might be. But I think it needs to be done, regardless. If society requires that people like the Epstein class exist, then it’s not a society worth having, just like Omelas is no utopia if it requires the perpetual agony of even a single child. There of course will never be a society free of all suffering, but if that suffering is a necessary requirement for the society to exist, then that society ought to be demolished and made anew.

I really don’t have much else to add to the whole Epstein conversation. A couple of random thoughts I had though: the episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with Mike Benz has Benz try to justify the trafficking of women and girls by saying that “girls juice deals” which is an insane thing to say. Not just because of how disgusting it is, or that Rogan (a father of girls) doesn’t push back on it. It also, just in a purely cold economic sense, makes it sound like businesses and policymakers are brokering deals using their dicks instead of their brains. In other words, the trafficked girls are used as bribes. And so, in addition to the heinous crime of sex trafficking, we also have the corrosive effects of corruption within these elite circles, where deals are not made on the merits of any particular deal, but because certain people can get them access to sex slaves. 

Another thing that bothers me about all this is how psychologically damaging it is. I notice this because it’s been psychologically damaging to me. I’m practically allergic to conspiracy thinking. Most conspiracy theories are baseless and absurd. But with everything coming out about the Epstein class, even I find myself becoming open to all manner of crazy shit. Is Epstein even dead? How far does this network of wealthy narcissists go? Should I just assume anyone with more than a couple million dollars is a depraved sex fiend or psychopath? My rational self implores me to ignore this paranoia welling up in my subconscious, but the lack of accountability, the gaslighting and lying, the massive and ongoing coverup, is all enough to rattle a person’s psyche.

That conspiratorial part of me can’t help but wonder if the way the “release” is being conducted has this destabilizing effect as one of the objectives: release just enough to show there is a lot of smoke, but not enough to see the fire, and people will see whatever signals they want in all that smoke, preventing them from forming a united front. The rational part of me says not to attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity, but who even knows anymore. And in the meantime, they can use the chaotic Epstein file “release” as a distraction while they to attempt to rig the next election. 

In addition to the personal damage it can do to someone, there is also the corrosive effect on politics. The political right were the one’s championing the Epstein conspiracy first. Now that their own heroes (e.g., Donald Trump, Elon Musk) are shown to be implicated, they’ve become much more cautious, even silent, and in many cases complicit. The political left has taken up the mantle after mostly ignoring it. All this demonstrates that it’s never been about justice or accountability. The right thought this case could damage the left. As soon as it started appearing that Trump could be implicated (whether as a pedophile or just someone willing to protect pedophiles), the left smelled blood in the water and went all in on it, hoping this would be the thing to finally bring down Trump and discredit him in the eyes of his cult. Unfortunately for the left, the right cares more about loyalty to their cult than they ever did about justice for the victims. Even with the painfully obvious coverup by the most guilty looking man in the world, Trump’s approval rating remains steady around 35-40%. Their continued support is almost as disgusting as the crimes they once claimed to care about. But apparently, like the denizens of Omelas, they’ll gladly accept the suffering of the victims as long as they can live under a government that offers them the intoxicating pleasures of hating all the same people they do.