A report that the sexual predator was injured in jail dredged up a decades-old conspiracy theory about the Clintons — and thanks to a hashtag, the baseless rumor likely has a whole lot of new believers

By EJ DICKSON, July 25, 2019

After Jeffrey Epstein was found injured in his jail cell, many on social media were quick to blame the Clintons — and it began to trend.

On Wednesday night, NBC News reported that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy, was found injured and semi-conscious in his cell with two abrasions on his neck. While initial details were sketchy, sources at Metropolitan Correctional Center, the prison where Epstein was being held, suggested to NBC News that the injury was possibly the result of a failed suicide attempt, though investigators have not yet ruled out that another inmate may have assaulted him.

Yet on social media, one explanation alone dominated the conversation: the Clintons did it. On Thursday morning, #ClintonBodyCount was one of the top trending topics on Twitter, with many speculating that Epstein’s injuries were the result of an attempt on his life that was orchestrated by his former friends. A list circulating on social media of supposed Clinton “victims,” or people who had purportedly had some connection to Bill and/or Hillary Clinton who had died by suicide. A Daily Beast story published that morning reporting that Epstein had visited the White House a number of times in the early 1990s only added fuel to the fire.

snip

To be clear, there is absolutely zero evidence supporting any of these theories. Bill Clinton has not been accused of any sexual impropriety in relation to Epstein, and following Epstein’s arrest, he has distanced himself from the disgraced financier, releasing
a statement saying he knew nothing of the allegations against him, and had not seen Epstein in over a decade.
Yet as of Thursday afternoon, though by press time the #ClintonBodyCount hashtag no longer appeared to be trending, it had more than 87,000 tweets regurgitating the idea that the Clintons were responsible for not just the incident involving Epstein, but countless other “mysterious” deaths over the past few decades. And in the context of an ongoing conversation about how social media platforms are not doing enough to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news — and that Twitter specifically has been accused of playing a particularly egregious role in spreading misinformation— this is not a particularly good look for the platform.

The idea that the Clintons are covertly murdering their enemies has been circulating in far-right circles for decades, predating many of the more popular conspiracy theories centering on the left-wing establishment. As investigative journalist Brandy Zadrozy tweeted, it was started in the early 1990s by Linda Thompson, an Indianapolis-based GOP activist emboldened by the swirl of conspiracy theories surrounding the Waco, Texas, disaster. She began circulating a list of 26 names of those supposedly killed by the Clintons, all of whom died under “other than natural circumstances,” many with only the most tenuous connection to the family itself. The list caught the attention of uber-conservative California Representative William Dannemeyer, who called for a hearing investigating the matter. (For what it’s worth, Dannemeyer was notoriously nuts, and was known for railing against “militant homosexuality” and demanding that HIV-positive people be forcibly quarantined; he died earlier this month at the age of 89.)

Since then, many so-called “mysterious” deaths have been linked to the Clintons, from the 1987 murder of two teenage boys who were found stabbed to death in Little Rock, Arkansas, to former White House counsel Vince Foster, perhaps the most famous alleged victim of the Clintons, who was found dead in his car in 1993 of a gunshot wound to the head. (Investigations into Foster’s death concluded that his death was indeed a suicide.)

As perhaps the most recognizable and widely reviled face of the leftist establishment, the Clintons are an easy target for far-right conspiracy theories, says Gordon Pennycock, assistant professor of behavior science at the Hill/Levine Schools of Business at the University of Regina, who studies the psychology behind people promoting fake news on social media. By virtue of the Clintons’ longevity in the political machine, they’ve also forged enough political contacts (including Epstein, who flew Bill Clinton on his jet for a handful of speaking engagements in the early 2000s) that there’s “easy opportunity for people to make connections that aren’t there,” he tells Rolling Stone — and of course, making connections that aren’t there is the basis of any good conspiracy theory.

It’s also not surprising that Epstein in particular would make for particularly good grist for the conspiracy theory mill. As a well-connected billionaire accused of sexually abusing dozens of young girls, Epstein embodies a narrative that has long appealed to right-wing conspiracy theorists: A seemingly infallible figure, bolstered by money, fame, and power, is brought to their knees by allegations of child sexual abuse, arguably the most evil thing a person could ever be accused of doing. (This is the same narrative that has spurred the propagation of QAnon, a conspiracy theory based on the idea that Hillary Clinton and other Democratic operatives are heavily involved in a child sex trafficking ring.) The fact that Epstein is Jewish (and thus, according to many far-right conspiracy theorists, inherently embedded in global Zionist banking conspiracies) is arguably icing on the cake.

[snip the article ends up being an indictment of Twitter for allowing this topic to trend ???? TM]

But the spread of #ClintonBodyCount, as well as the viral #QBaby hashtag last week, clearly indicates that it’s [Twitter] falling radically short. Even if, as Pennycook notes, the vast majority of those who promote inaccurate or misleading hoaxes do not actually buy into the ideas they’re spreading, that doesn’t stop them from being shared, nor does it stop the platforms from boosting them. And when more people are exposed to inaccurate ideas, there’s a higher risk of them actually believing them — because why wouldn’t you believe something that’s repeated by a wide range of sources, over and over and over again?

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cul...twitter-863446/

And so, now the deed is done! Epstein is dead. The irony of that last paragraph is so plain to see, especially in the light the Trump/Russia/Fake Dossier 2 1/2 year investigation that Dems will not let die! It now continues, under the Nadler/Schiff Don Quixote Inquisition.

Where was this bleating liberal heart, as seen in that last paragraph, as Donald Trump was being mistreated by those "inaccurate or misleading hoaxes"? No need to answer. It's a sign of the wretched times we live in. TM

Btw, this wasn't addressed by the Rolling Stone article:
According to flight logs, former President Bill Clinton flew on the “Lolita Express” a total of 27 times. “Many of those times Clinton had his Secret Service with him and many" times he did not,” according to investigative journalist Conchita Sarnoff – who first revealed the former president’s extensive flights on Epstein’s “lolita express” in a 2010 Daily Beast exposé.

Rolling Stone's coverage:
"To be clear, there is absolutely zero evidence supporting any of these theories. Bill Clinton has not been accused of any sexual impropriety in relation to Epstein, and following Epstein’s arrest, he has distanced himself from the disgraced financier, releasing a statement saying he knew nothing of the allegations against him, and had not seen Epstein in over a decade."