The Epstein Emails Show That Conspiracy Theorists Are Right: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Is Real

The shocking revelation in the trove of 20,000 emails from the sordid world of Jeffrey Epstein is not that crimes were being committed.

It’s more sinister. The emails are disturbing because what they reveal — and in fact prove — is that conspiracy theorists are right. That their theories of full-on corruption in the upper spheres where power lives are valid. That the “Eyes Wide Shut“ cabal of political and financial interests married to sinister sexual deviance depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film is not, in fact, fiction. It is reality. 

So often journalists like myself attempt to demonstrate to family members and voters in the far reaches of the country, away from centers of power and money, that their conspiracies are false. That politicians are flawed, but that corruption is not the norm. It isn’t how we all operate.