Managed Outrage Under Capitalism: The Epstein Files and Class Power

The fact that the files released highlight Trump and seemingly exclude Democrats who were affiliated with Epstein — is not a coincidence.

Ideally, the ruling class wanted the Epstein files to be a forgotten part of history.

However the innate contradictions of capitalism and its liberal institutions made that impossible, as people demanded the release of the Epstein files. Those contradictions became all the more sharpened via the liberal mechanism of electoralism, as Trump capitalised on the American people’s desire to expose the Epstein files so as to come to power.

Consequently, it became impossible to avoid the Epstein files, which is why the ruling class realised that the timing, context and content of the release would need to be strategized, so as to preserve the system at large. The partial release of the files was thus a necessary concession in order to uphold capitalism – so far as is possible – and it does so, in several different ways.

Firstly, by releasing some of the Epstein files that target Trump — this is part of the broader ongoing plan to portray Trump and his administration as the sole root of the current chaos in the US and the world.

This helps perpetuate the illusion of democracy in the US, by presenting the Democrats as a legitimate opposition, free from all forms of compromise. The “lesser evil” diegesis and the notion of “opposition” within liberal democracy is paramount to the preservation of the system, as it directs the masses back into the system of electoralism and dilutes revolutionary potential.

As a result, the American masses will flock to vote for the Democrats under the false belief that they shall absolve them of the criminality of the Trump administration – thus restoring faith in bourgeois politics and the system that defines them.

In the current crisis of capitalism, Trump—much like historical figures such as Hitler in moments of systemic rupture—functions as a vehicle for aggressive domestic and foreign policy on behalf of the bourgeoisie. Trump is not an aberration but an intensification of imperialism. His agenda will persist under a Democratic administration, albeit in a more polished and discreet form.

Thus, once his job is done, he shall be discarded — placing the criminality of capitalism on individual actors such as Trump, which in turn allows the capitalist system itself to evade accountability. This personalisation of blame is central to the political spectacle that postpones revolutionary rupture.

This is because Trump and his administration represent the raw face of capitalism, executing the agenda of the ruling class shamelessly. The Democrats on the other hand, represent the bourgeois diplomatic hand of capital, used to prettify capitalism whilst executing the same crimes — all the while they delude the masses and the façade of liberal democracy prevails.

In addition to the above, although the partial and selective release of the file criminalises Epstein, it does little to expose those he worked with. If anything, the files released protect his powerful friends by retracting names, and by solely exposing second-hand testimonies of crimes rather than hard evidence of said crimes. This again is indicative of a necessary concession by the ruling class in order to appease the masses, whilst controlling the narrative by withholding the incriminating evidence and powerful names involved.

Even the material released with regards to Trump involved second-hand testimonies with no hard evidence to corroborate said testimonies. Therefore the partially released files shape public perception and fuel discourse against Trump, yet provide little that could meet the legal threshold required for indictment, both against Trump and other powerful names involved.

This matters as in a criminal case, the threshold for the burden of proof, particularly for indictment– is very high. Second-hand testimonies alone without material evidence do not suffice, which means that hard evidence would need to be presented in order to support said testimonies. And here lies the crux of the problem.

It is not that the evidence does not exist, but rather that if it does, which I am certain is the case – it would incriminate other powerful actors and the system itself.

Therefore, to answer the question of why the Democrats did not indict Trump based on the files – it is because the evidence required for such a case would expose the broader elite network and threaten the legitimacy of the entire political and economic order. A partial release allows the spectacle to proceed without destabilizing the foundations of power.

Additionally, by releasing only fragments of the files, the ruling class appeases popular demand while concealing the most structurally dangerous material. Powerful collaborators are protected, while Trump is foregrounded in a way that conveniently prepares the ideological terrain for a Democratic electoral victory. This stabilizes liberal democracy and capitalism by diverting mass anger away from systemic critique and revolutionary praxis.

Similarly, the emphasis on Israel within the Epstein discourse serves a similar ideological function – distraction.

The Epstein files have emboldened the narrative that Israel is dictating US policy – that the American capitalist system isn’t flawed, it is merely compromised by a belligerent foreign actor, refusing to acknowledge the symbiotic relationship of US imperialism and Zionism.

As a result, the impending war on Iran is now being framed as a Zionist project, ignoring the decades long imperialist war against Iran — a war rooted in capitalism’s need to monopolise wealth and resources and to target China..

The war on Iraq is now phrased via the same ideological lens, ignoring the ample documents, evidence and leaked memos from years prior to even 9/11, where the CEO’s of oil conglomerates and leading political figures such as Dick Cheney, the former Vice President of the US — were orchestrating the mass appropriation of oil and wealth from Iraq via military means.

In a similar fashion, the US-backed NATO war in Libya is also portrayed as an Israeli initiative, minimising or outright rejecting the material reality that US imperialism thrives off resource appropriation and control. It ignores the decades-long sanctions on Libya for nationalising its oil industry and the threat that Gaddafi’s Golden Dinar was to the US dollar – as the petrodollar has been the main mechanism that has sustained American imperialism globally.

Israel is an imperialist outpost with its own violent agenda. This is undeniable. But portraying the U.S. as merely controlled or “held hostage” by Israel ignores the structural logic of capitalism and the function of the U.S. intelligence and military apparatus in defending it. This narrative becomes a form of ideological misdirection that ultimately preserves capitalism—the primary engine of the crimes being exposed.

Notably absent from public and mainstream discourse about the revelations, is the structural role of human trafficking within global capitalism. For context, human trafficking is the second largest and most profitable illicit industry in the world, generating around $236 billion annually according to the ILO, of which 38% of that is sex-trafficking. There is little public discourse with regards to how the Epstein files revealed how major institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operations via lax compliance practices and the deliberate underreporting of suspicious activities.

In fact, according to reports, JPMorgan executives “coached Epstein on how to circumvent reporting requirements and failed to flag his illicit financial activities for years.”

Why?

Because the billions made in human trafficking by people like Epstein and his elite friends, are then injected into the banking system, generating mass profits for bankers as they provide substantial capital flows and transaction fees. That money is then used to inject loans into the US economy, generating greater wealth via compound interest and investment into the real estate sector and stock market. This inflates asset values, which generates artificial growth in the financial US economy — that itself relies on fictitious capital and speculation.

As capitalism faces its crises — illicit funds become a countertendency to safeguard the profits and interests of the bourgeoisie. The profits from human suffering are laundered into the system, transmuted into “fictitious capital,” and used to inflate financial markets, creating a parasitic but stabilizing flow that papers over capitalism’s underlying crisis of productive investment.

Therefore, the crimes documented in the Epstein files are a structural lifeline that are integral to the US economy and capitalism. The very existence of people like Epstein and all those who surround him are the by-product of finance capital, because illicit capital extracted from this barbarism — provides crucial liquidity that fuels the speculative asset bubbles upon which contemporary U.S. financialized capitalism depends for the appearance of growth.

This is but the natural consequence of a system that prioritises profits over people and human life, which is why the same logic produces and capitalises off of genocide, human suffering and mass exploitation. From a macrolevel analysis, capitalism is crime-facilitative, and its criminal networks span multiple faiths and ethnicities.

Thus, focusing exclusively on Zionism or Jewish supremacy while ignoring the systemic incentives that produce Epstein, Trump, Clinton, and others ultimately shields the system that created them.

These crimes will persist so long as capitalism endures. Imperialism will continue to shape U.S. foreign policy as long as bourgeois interests require it—through regime change, war, genocide, and exploitation. As Epstein himself said in his own emails, chaos is profitable business, and the U.S. empire has long thrived on it.

Follow the money. Understand the symbiotic nature of these actors. Do not allow the files to disorient you, and do not fall for the political spectacle of America’s two-party dictatorship.

This is a quick analysis of the on-going events. I will be producing an in-depth analysis in the coming days, explaining how the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector profit off of human trafficking and other illicit funds — and how exactly the entire US economy requires it for its survival.

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