I try not to share ideas or theories that I suspect, by the odds, are not likely true. But sometimes I’m curious enough about one that I want to share it with that proviso. Here’s one. Like almost everyone else, I’ve being trying to make sense of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s recent arc. Mostly I’ve come up totally dry. I can’t make sense of it. I’ve seen various theories, that she’s making a long play for the future leadership of the post-Trump MAGA movement or other cunning and ambition-driven theories. But none of them really explain what I’ve seen.
Here’s an idea.
On a recent appearance on “The View,” one of the hosts asked Greene what she has to say for herself or how she explains her long history of spouting conspiracy theories. Greene isn’t the most articulate person. But what I think she said was that she was yet another victim of online misinformation. That’s quite a statement — to put it mildly. Clever too, since it whisks the whole history aside with an appeal to a totem of the Trump opposition. But it made me think of the apparent role of the Epstein story in her slow-rolling Trump apostasy. Is it possible this is actually how she sees her story?
As far as I can tell, the first real sign of her defying Trump was when she, along with Reps. Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert, signed on to the Epstein discharge petition. That’s the technical term for the petition which can force the Speaker to hold a vote. As we’ve discussed many times, the Epstein story is a kind of ur-myth of the modern far right and the MAGA movement. Indeed, it was a very big deal even before most people had any real idea who Epstein was. The idea that the Democrats, liberals, Globalists, elite, etc. are not only controlling the world and selling out America but in fact running a pedophile ring lavish with the gruesome sexual exploitation of children goes all the way back to the PizzaGate conspiracy theory. From there it got swept into the elaborate con known as the QAnon movement. There’s this pre-Epstein version of what became the Epstein story that long predates most people ever having heard of Jeff Epstein. Once the Epstein story became a national obsession in 2019, it looked close enough to the far-right ur-myth of an elite pedophile cabal that the two stories melded together seamlessly and permanently. PizzaGate/QAnon snapped together with the Epstein story like a magnet rushing to a piece of iron.
So here’s my thought. If Greene was really a true believer in the whole QAnon world, which transmigrated pretty seamlessly into the Epstein story, maybe seeing Trump turn on his heels and insist that the world move on and never talk about it again simply shook her at a basic level that most of us can’t quite imagine. If you recall, when we first heard of Greene as a candidate, she was as the first actual QAnon supporter running for Congress.
Here’s where I want to remind you that this all seems a bit too novelistic, a bit too just-right. But why exactly? For most of us, Trump is a serial liar and abuser of women. He has a very public history of “dating” women who were 19 or 20 years old when he was well into middle age. Trump’s audacity in doing his epic record scratch moment, shifting from the man who would clean the stables of Epsteinian elite corruption to the guy who closed the stables, might take us aback a bit. But the idea that he might have something to hide is hardly shocking. But again, if you’re a true believer, it might be pretty shocking. In fact, it could be the kind of thing that upends your whole worldview in pretty dramatic and unpredictable ways.
In any case, I’m not making a strong argument for this theory, as I said. I share it because I really don’t know what’s going on with Greene. And the twelve-dimensional chess, crazy-like-a-Fox explanations I’ve seen actually don’t make a great deal of sense. So … maybe.
